Were Lonnie Dee and Jinna Robertson. Welcome to our world. Now that the cumbersome introduction is out of the way, even though you don’t care, let us give you a little biographical background.

 

I (Lonnie) was born in Harbel, Liberia West Africa. My Father worked for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. He was Managing Director of the plantation in Harbel,

 

Due to my youth and inexperience at the time of my birth I was rudely excluded from the decision making process as to where I would be raised. Apparently since my parents were already in Liberia they thought;

 

“What the Hell, we’ll raise the little blighter here.” So it came to pass.

 

Upon completion of the seventh grade I had almost exhausted the education programme at the Firestone Staff School in Harbel. The school curriculum comprised only the first through eighth grades… as based upon the Ohio school system in the USA. Further education could only be secured offshore.

 

So… for reasons still incomprehensible to me… during the eighth grade I tragically agreed to incarceration in a military school in the great American Midwest. Transferring from Harbel Liberia to a military academy is tantamount to being dragged screaming and naked out of a warm bed and then hurled bodily into a vat of ice water surrounded by demons flailing you with cudgels, chains and whips.

 

The following year my sentence was mercifully commuted and I gratefully matriculated at a school in the Swiss Alps. I was much more comfortable there. Having already established a pattern of wandering I pirouetted from school to school all the way from there through college. I went to too many schools to enumerate. Actually there are probably some of them I don’t even remember.

 

Nothing good came of all this education (except that I didn’t end up in Viet Nam… I was invited but previous commitments made it impossible for me to accept… sorry Lyndon).

 

I ended up as an artist… so what good would an education have been anyway? Art for me takes three forms; writing, music and last and most bizarre, woodworking and sculpture.

 

Since I lacked the appropriate education and motivation necessary to secure a productive job, I have made my living… if you can ennoble it by calling it that… as a musician and entertainer. I wrote articles for magazines etc. so I could afford icing on the cake. The involvement with wood I pretty much kept to myself. I used it to keep my boats afloat and to make their interiors absurdly fancy.

 

To add further to my credentials as a misfit I live on a boat. Through deviousness and manipulation I have even managed to convince my wife Jinna to live on a boat. No one is, after all, free of sin. To be truthful I have lived on three boats. I think I finally have it right this time.

 

My current endeavour is a book wherein I impart the true chronicle of my 30 years living aboard and restoring a decrepit wooden sailboat… all the while becoming decrepit myself.

 

I will post excerpts from the book on a more or less regular basis on this blog… at least if you see it you will be forewarned…

 

 

I {Jinna} was born in Rochester NY. My father is a retired lawyer who also bought into a hotel restaurant called “The Duffys” in San Juan Puerto Rico.

 

At first my mother and my 4 siblings spent our summers in San Juan. When I was 10 years of age we moved to San Juan where I attended school up until the 7th grade.

 

We then moved to South Florida. I attended high school in Boca Raton. After graduation I got my first job there working for the Boca Raton Humane Society.  I have written a book called living aboard with 8 Chihuahuas. I also attended Palm Beach Junior College during this time. As much as I liked my job I was Barely making a living at the humane society. So my sister and I decided to opene a Yacht Maintenance business. We called it Feminine Touch Yacht Maintenance in Deerfield Beach Florida.

 

Lonnie was one of our customers. As time went on he realized that it would be a lot cheaper to marry me than have me work on the old wood tub! A preview and excerpts from the true story of our escapades on the Borealis is in the Journey!

 

Lonnie worked in the music business and traveled extensively... so we decided that I would learn to play bass guitar so we could travel together. A detailed and amusing preview of Lonnie and Jinna's book

 

I also have a fascination with gourds and what I can create out of them. You can see some of my gourd creations on this site. I am also a dog lover (I did work at the Humane Society and for several veterinarians) and at present we have eight Chihuahuas living with us on our 42 foot trawler the Margaret Ashton. I hope to someday learn how to blog!

Jinna

 

 

Jinna and Lonnie Dee founded Island Thyme, now known as the Tropicelts, in 1985. They lived and traveled on the Borealis and played throughout the Keys and Florida. Jinna played guitar at the time but they decided that she would learn the bass.

 

Her first job playing the bass was at the Quay on Duval Street in Key West. A few of their favourite venues in Florida were The Quays, Holiday Isle, Martha’s, and many Holiday Inns. See the Calendar to find out where we'll be in the near future. Jinna and Lonnie played Caribbean rock and folk based music in the formative years but soon expanded their instrument base and repertory so they could work in the cruise industry. They learned Broadway show tunes, standards, reggae, calypso, country and jazz. As a result of this expansion of their repertory they worked on fifteen different ships for over ten years. A list of ships is available on our web site.

Ships, although wonderful and profitable, are a bit like going to jail (albeit with a chance of drowning) so Lonnie and Jinna decide to go back to their schooner.

 

Lonnie and Jinna's success in “industrial music” finally allowed them to return to their real love, folk and Celtic music. That became the focus of their next expansion. Lonnie’s ancestry is Scots - Irish and Jinna's is Welsh. Since Island Thyme did not seem an appropriate moniker for a Celtic based ensemble the name of the company was changed to Tropicelts. At this time Lonnie honed his ability on the classical guitar and learned the Renaissance lute. Jinna became a virtuoso on the bowed psaltery. Tropicelts now performs over 300 Celtic pieces.

 

Currently based in Key Largo fl, Tropicelts offers one of the broadest repertories available in the music industry. Covering almost any form of musical entertainment Lonnie and Jinna provide a sound ranging from the intimacy of solo instruments to the sound of a full orchestra. Hiring Tropicelts is the single most effective decision you can make for satisfying your musical needs. Visit our music page to learn more.