I left my home in Connecticut in October to do the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, where everyone was having a great time touring new models and talking with like-minded boaters who had come to town to shop for their next ride and a new dream. The energy on the docks was all upbeat and conversations were mostly about plans for future adventures on the water.
After the show I drove across the state to Sarasota to spend a few weeks in a high-rise overlooking Sarasota Bay. Outside my window was an entirely different scene from the one I’d just left. A 47-foot Stevens sailboat was laying on its side on top of the seawall that separated the water from traffic-heavy Bayfront Drive. It was just one of the boats that had been dragged off its mooring and driven onto land by Hurricane Milton. The boat—a Rod Stephens design from the 1980s—was drawing a lot of attention from passersby who were stopping to take photos and wonder out loud when or if it would sail again.
Two weeks later, a barge, a crane and a work crew showed up to attempt a rescue. I was one of a few dozen people who came down to the waterfront to watch and hope for the best. There, we met the boat’s owner, Keith Elcock, who took the time to make polite conversation with the curious onlookers, even though he admitted this was a tough thing to watch.
Keith had bought the boat after he was forced into early retirement when the company he worked for downsized. He and his wife, Angel, decided it was time to stop using other people’s boats and get behind the helm of their own. They bought the Stevens in 2020. They sold their house in the Midwest and started cruising south, spending time in different ports until they landed in Sarasota and decided to call it home.
They lived aboard a few years, during which the boat survived multiple storms, including Hurricane Helene in September. Angel’s Wings was not so lucky in Milton. “The 8- to 10-foot storm surge and 120-mph winds snapped the three rodes that secured her to the mooring ball like rubber bands,” Keith said. “The main thing to remember, though, is that no one was hurt.”
The boat sustained damage, he said, but fortunately his insurance company declared it a total loss and paid him the actual cash value. His biggest concern on this day was getting it moved carefully from its present location, in accordance with a deadline set by the local marine police.
As it turns out, Keith and Angel had planned to sell the boat a few months before Milton, when Angel expressed a desire to spend more time on land. So, even if the vessel survived the transfer from the seawall, they wouldn’t live aboard again. But it was their hope that Angel’s Wings would be sailing again, to float the dreams of a new owner.
Keith told me about a sailor he had met at Soldier Cay in the Bahamas a couple of years ago, when he and Angel spent four months cruising there. “He was chartering aboard another boat in the anchorage and came over to check out our 47. He really liked the boat. We kept in touch and he asked me to contact him if I was ever ready to sell.”
Keith kept his promise. He called the guy after Milton had done its damage and offered him the boat for a buck. When he finished telling that story, Keith pointed to a couple who were just a few feet away from where we were standing. “They’re the buyer’s parents. He is in Europe on business, so they’re here to see how this all goes. Angel’s Wings is a great boat. She belongs back on the water. I hope she gets there.”
Jeanne Craig
[email protected]
