Portfolio manager Cale Smith on investing, Spoke Funds®, and Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

A fishing guide on the flats at sunset. From Pat Ford.

Funny story. This is my firm’s old logo:

After first seeing it last year, a friend up north asked, “Why is that bank robber in your logo holding a broom? Looks like he’s standing at home in Fenway ready to jack one out.”

As I explained at the time, it was actually a backcountry cowboy – a fishing guide who specializes in the flats and backcountry in Florida Bay. Kind of an iconic image down here, and I liked the symbolism. He’s wearing a balaclava as protection from the sun and holding a pushpole to move his skiff around the flats, which are often too shallow to motor through.

Behind the scenes, we’d been in a start-up mode. Every minute counted. I couldn’t find a picture like Pat’s above at the time, so I rushed into the backyard, stood on the picnic table – with a real broom – and asked Mrs. Cale In The Keys to take this pic:

Then I sent it to Gail at Gecko Graphics to work her magic. Thing was, though, I didn’t want the guy in the logo to actually look like me. How egotistical would that be?

Gail’s solution was simple. She gave the guide beefy triceps. Cuz mine are so anemic, apparently.

Below is our new logo. No artificial testosterone was used in the making of this version.

And now if anyone asks about the bank robber, I’ll just send them Pat’s photo.

From the new Live Rock USA store at MM 85, by Pasta’s studio. And it’s for saltwater aquariums.

The owners recently started harvesting live rock from a 600,000 pound tract of limestone that was hand-set in an aquaculture zone off Islamorada ten years ago. Now that the rock has matured, they collect it, store it in a dozen big curing tanks out behind the store and ship it all over the country to reef tank owners. They actually pump the seawater up through the ground underneath the store to circulate in their curing tanks. I was impressed.

And if limestone aquaculture is anything like owning a gravel quarry, these guys are going have a real business on their hands. Even without selling to tourists.

Our friends Lance and Suzanne just moved their 105′ schooner to a new home at Schooner Wharf in Key West. We took a sunset cruise on the Halie & Matthew last Sunday. Amazing.

Gorgeous boat, great crew. Then there was the tropical breeze, perfect music and cold beer…plus dolphins, a black powder cannon, some truly impressive shiphandling and – most important – mounds of free jelly beans for the kids. I should do a commerical.

Their website is www.calypsosailing.com. The clip below doesn’t do it justice…I’m sort of the anti-Coppola behind a camera. But here’s another vid for the jet ski crowd, a future postcard, and a clip of her off Sunset Key the day before, too.