From the dock to
the captain’s chair
in one week
By Susan Erwin, Marcy Shortuse and Dusty Hopkins
Photos by Christine Cunningham, Matthew Gutman,
Dusty Hopkins, Julianne Greenberg and submitted
There’s something about the wind in your face
and the salt on your lips as you glide across
the water – soundlessly – as the captain of
a vessel powered by the wind. It’s that feeling that
brought Gasparilla Island Magazine and Boca Beacon
Publisher Dusty Hopkins into the sailing fold, where
he has been since he was a teenager. He laughs,
though, when recounting his fi rst experience.
“It was at football camp, and my fi rst taste of sailing
was on a little sunfi sh,” he recalled. “I fl oundered in it
at fi rst, quite terribly, and continued to fl ounder for
several years. Then I took a course through Steve
Colgate at South Seas Plantation in Captiva, and it
really started to come together for me.”
It’s not as simple as it might look, to captain a
vessel with sails using wind power. As the wind
changes, so do your responses to each
element of the boat. Sometimes it’s a pleasant
cruise, other times it turns into a lot of work.
Dusty knew if he wanted to grab that control,
he needed to learn from the best.
“Taking that course at the Colgate school
really cemented the knowledge in me that I
could do anything in the water,” he said. “I felt
empowered. You can get involved in sailing in
many different layers, from a beginner kicking
around the harbor to circumnavigation and
celestial navigation around the world.
Dusty & Cheryl Hopkins aboard their Catalina 30.