Wanderlust III

I'd like to take a brief segue from my usual crime rants to give a shout out to a charming family of five I met last September.

The incident with the bridge this morning reminded me of the nautical mishap that the Mintz family found themselves in last September when their Endeavour 40 sailboat, named Wanderlust III, ruptured a fuel injection line.

They ended up stranded in Cape for a few night while Bill Mintz made repairs to the boat, their home for the past year.

Our own Cape Girardeau fire department came to their rescue after 13-year-old Noah braved the muddy Mississippi to tie the sailboat off to a nearby tree.

Judy Mintz, Noah, and Alice, 15, and Benjamin, 9, rode a water rescue boat to shore while Bill stayed with the boat.

This fearless family of five is making their way from Chicago, Ill., to the Caribbean Sea and sailing back by way of the Atlantic and the Great Lakes.

Each member of the Mintz family keeps an online journal on the Reach the World Web site, a not-for-profit program dedicated to bringing travel and interculture experience to inner-city children.

Every once in a while, I'll check the Reach the World site, for updates of their progress.

When the Mintz family left Cape Girardeau, the two hermits crabs the kids bought at the West Park Mall, went with them, one of them named Girard after the town.

I wonder how he's doing, and if he was allowed to make the journey to the Bahamas. Alice Mintz had written a letter to Customs inquiring about it.

Here's a list of the countries and states the Mintz family have seen in just the last year, courtesy of Alice Mintz's blog:

Illinois

Kentucky

Missouri

Tennessee

Alabama

Florida

Bahamas

Turks and Caicos

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

U.S. Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

Saba

St. Eustatius

St. Kitts and Nevis

Guadeloupe

Dominica

The Mintz family left their life in Chicago behind to make this voyage, something Bill and Judy have dreamed about doing since before their children were born.

So far, their adventures have been straight out of a Jimmy Buffet song-in fact, Bill and Judy were making margaritas when I first climbed onto their boat to interview them.

If you're interested, you can keep track of the Mintz family's travels on their sail blog

Happy sailing!