Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/478498
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 5 6 T he Gulf Stream running four knots, the wind 15, so rough you'd need a lifeline to pee over the side. April ain't supposed to be like this but it was. Beat up and windblown, nine hours from Key Biscayne to the first Bahamian landfall, swept north to Gun Key, and then bucking the stream southward to Bimini. I was trying to catch up with the Pilar, but she was six knots faster and she had 50 years' head start. The Pilar was Ernest Hemingway's boat, a 38-foot Wheeler Playmate. Custom built, she held ice, water, and fuel for 350 miles. Two engines of different sizes, the smaller one for trolling. Both throttles against the stops, she could make 16 knots on a flat sea. Papa borrowed money from in-laws and editors to buy it. Can't tell you why I give a damn about Hemingway; can't tell you why you should either, except he was a hero in three wars and won the Nobel Prize and defined journalism as we know it. You read The Perfect Storm? PAPA Two writers travel to Bimini and Cuba to learn more about the celebrated author. By Roger Pinckney and Ben Moise IN PURSUIT OF The Pilar with all lines set, and opposite, Ernest Hemingway looking a little worse for wear after one of his dock-side fist- fights in Bimini.