Papillon has a fine crew to steer her from port to port. The Cap'n Jon Bickel has 23 years sailing experience sailing the Mississippi Gulf Coastal Waters and over 13,000 miles cruising the East Coast and Bahamas.
Ruby came aboard in 1997 and after learning the ropes and completing water survival training  has proven to be a fine boat kat. 
I retired (for good this time) and plan on spending the best of my years cruising aboard Papillon.

Adventures of SV Papillon & her crew
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I was born the second oldest of 6 boys and at the age of 18 enlisted in the Air Force to avoid being drafted into the Army. I served two tours in Vietnam and after a 26 year career, most spent flying C-130's, I retired from the Air Force in 1989. I  took the next 2 years off to cruise aboard Papillon and returned to the Gulf  Coast in 1991 to work in the Marine Repair industry.
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Ralph Zuleg -  live aboard sailor, avid salsa dancer ,  fellow parrothead and all around good guy. He also looks a lot like the "G" man. Ralph made the trip with me from Gautier to Clearwater. Despite what Alice said he was a big help and good company. After he jumped ship he went to spend a few days with his brother in Orlando. He now has a Gulf Crossing under his belt. He fell in love with the navigation computer we had in the cockpit. Oh yea! He was at the helm when we run aground departing Appalatchacola, "but we were in ten feet of water".
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Ann Backhurst "Annie" - my first mate. It said so on her "T" shirt. Annie a working lass, unlike us guys, met us in Panama City and stayed aboard until Fort Myers. On the trip to Appalatchacola she got her indoctrination on the autopilot, computer navigation, GPS and Radar. Once offshore she pulled her watches and performed very well. After Ralph departed  "Don't pull a Ralph" became our  cautionary comment to each other. In Lemon Bay Annie missed a right turn in the channel and ran us aground in 3 feet of water.  Since I ran aground comming out of Gautier it brought us full circle. 3 crew, 3 groundings.
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