Welcome to On the Trails with Dolphin Riggs, stories of nature, laughter, and healing. Welcome Victoria. Victoria is joining us by phone, originally from Key West, Florida, one of the hardest places in the world that I have ever tried to leave. I've never been able to leave there, Victoria, in daylight because I can't see it and walk away from it. So I'm so glad that you're here with us today. We've been friends forever it seems like. I think we met back maybe in 1988,
Vicki (00:37):
I believe that was it, 88 or 89,
Dolphin (00:40):
Right, right. Do you remember where we met? I'll put you on the spot to start with.
Vicki (00:45):
Yeah, we were at the radio station, and that was before Earth Day 1990, so we had to build up to it.
Dolphin (00:55):
And let's see, you were talking about recycling and all the marinas there in Key West. You had started the recycling program there, and I was so proud of you. I was giving a speech at one of the churches, and they had set up an interview right after your interview at the radio station. So as you were leaving, I was coming in, and my goodness, I think we became friends from that moment on. We've just always been friends and we've been through a few things together. But I would like you to start by introducing yourself. This is Captain Victoria. I'd like for you to share a little bit of where you grew up and your schooling and things like that, if you don't mind.
Vicki (01:39):
Sure. I go by Captain Vicki again. I started out my first 20 years, by the way, I've been chartering as a wilderness guide and teaching environmental marine science for 50 years on the water. But in my first 20 years, I was also a fishing captain and I was known as Captain Vicki. And when I decided to quit with the fishing and killing anything, I chose to go to Victoria and that kind of was a good because I had to start over with my advertising and everything because everybody thought Captain Vicky had left, and there's this new girl on the block, so I had to put my old picture in a new picture. I had to make a segue. And so that was kind of a silly thing. So now I'm Captain Vicky again because my birth certificate and passport say Vicki. And having been in the hospital so much lately, everything's Vicky, so I don't care if anybody ever calls me Victoria again. And my website went down too, so I'm not starting anything over. Well,
Dolphin (02:45):
That's great. I'm glad you went back to Vicki because you've always been Vicki to me and that softer you, so I'm glad you went back to that.
Vicki (02:57):
It's not a bad thing. One of the things that I had realized early on was that people introduced me as Captain Vicki and that if I was a single woman and I did want to date, and it would've been nice to have a guy from the water, well, captains don't date women that are doing better than they are. And so I was like, okay. I went to my church to my board meetings, everything, and I said, you can help me. And I used the word help to just use my name as Victoria, and my middle name's Rose, so I said, just introduce me as Victoria Rose and the Impala, Manny doesn't even have to be there. The reputation from that, and it worked because I started getting dates because I said, there's this woman inside of me that feels like a Victorian woman lost in the Caribbean, and I am kind of an old fashioned Victorian type of person. And it worked for me. It allowed my femininity out. The other one was my masculinity. I guess being in a man's world and making damn good at it, it just put 'em off. So I said, don't even say the word captain. But anyway, I was born here because my dad got stationed here in Key West in 1945 when the war ended World War II. And I was born in 48. I'm 77 now, and in the Navy Hospital, and I always say three of us happened here between cruises.
Vicki (04:37):
I got to be raised here until I was 13, and dad built boats so that his whole world was being in the Navy, he was way up high on a ship and he wasn't down there in the water where he wanted to be. So when he was in port, we were in a boat and something mama could do too. So we were in the boat in mama's arms as infants because she'd never see daddy if she didn't go along. She was always out. And the fun part was that dad didn't just go fishing. And when I figured it out from my brother that he was always going on adventures and dad would go and investigate every inside of every island any place there was a way to peek through and go down a little channel that gives, it was a small boat and he built three boats while we lived here, but he had to keep making a bigger boat.
Vicki (05:28):
You ended up being four kids. And so we got the littlest boat. Ron and I did. So then we were cut loose when I was 10. So from 10 to 13 was the best ever, and I never realized I was learning my profession till I came back home after dad got stationed in California. And then I went into the Air Force, and I was gone for a good while, but I got back home when my baby, my son, was born in New York, and he was 11 months old when I got on the train and said, I know a good place to raise a kid. And I got home. And so that was 1973, I got home. So for 11 years I was gone and every single night of my life, every single night I wished on a star. I wish I were in Key West, beware of what you wish for and make, what do you call that, a dream board. I did that too. Anyway, I made it back home, and it's been wonderful 53 years now back home and 50 years chartering. So it's really been wonderful. And I didn't want to quit, but the creator decided it was time for me to have my walking papers. And I had a bout with radiation with her cancer. And then I had brain surgery, which was, thank God, not cancer. So I do know that it was time to quit, so I'm selling the boat.
Dolphin (06:50):
I can't imagine you were that the EMP two,
Vicki (06:53):
Either my last, and so the boat's name is the character of the Captain Impish behavior.
Dolphin 1 (07:03):
I understand that we had a lot of fun out with that boat, but I tell you what, you are one skilled captain.
Vicki (07:10):
I've been trying to pass the talking stick, so to speak, the wand, and find lady captains who wanted to learn and have been trying to train them. And nobody can believe it that I don't have any electronics in my boat. I read the colors, I know where I'm going. I'm a site captain. And teaching folks how to navigate without technology is unheard of and nobody can even believe it's happening.
Dolphin (07:39):
Well, you're very good at it. Very good. I was trying to think back to some of my favorite times with you. One of them, I believe, was over at Woman's Island when we went over and swung from a palm frond. Am I in the right place?
Vicki (07:55):
Nope. We're at Boca Grande.
Dolphin (07:57):
Boca Grande, okay.
Vicki (07:58):
And it was a mangrove, and it had, are you talking about with the swing or swing out and drop off? We
Dolphin (08:07):
May have dropped off.
Vicki (08:09):
Well, that would be in the back country probably in the bakey where I swimming hole trees. I call 'em foot of water. When you swung around, you go up a few little pieces of wood, we'd put chalks of wood so you could climb up easy and you swung out and dropped off and everybody tried to hit you with mud.
Dolphin (08:32):
Talk to me just a little bit about the Marielle boat lift experience that you had.
Vicki (08:39):
That was the gift of me getting divorced. I made enough money by going to Marielle to be able to afford that. But what it was was the Statue of Liberty feeling for me. And this was in 1980, and President Carter said, we welcome all refugees with open arms. And that was the headlines in the paper. I left the day I left and Key West was inundated with all the Cubans from Miami coming down to get a boat and get over there to get their relatives. At that point, that's what we thought was happening. And my girlfriend had come to the house, the Cuban girl, and asked if I would help, because Castro was letting people go. Well, that was a Rus. It wasn't true. He was just trying to empty his jails. Once we all got over there and I was number 30 out of 3000 boats that got there, he'd shut.
Vicki (09:36):
Everybody was under machine guns and you weren't allowed to go on land and you weren't allowed to leave. You were a prisoner. And I was there 11 days and we'd gone for a man from Miami, wanted his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, and my husband called and said, you better get down here. There's a lot of money floating around. And I did, and I was really sick and I shouldn't have been at sea. And I had my life saved multiple times by a guy that was over there that rescued me by having a big boat and harbor my small, I'm 25 foot boat. And we learned that you didn't want to spend money because Castro just wanted our American dollars. So we were all on our radios back and forth, and pretty much everybody I knew in the harbor was from Key West was over there.
Vicki (10:32):
And I was a small boat and could run around between these bigger boats that were, they call 'em roller rigs for, that was in the days when we could still do king fishing. They were big boats or shrimp boats even. And so people that had big boats had freezer halls and they had a lot of food. And so they're ready to be at sea for a while. And so I was going as a runner boat between one boat to the other to bring pieces, different parts of food, who's got what, who's got, who can share that, who can share that. And we would share our food and create so that we wouldn't spend money at all. And they wouldn't call your number and let you go if you were spending money. And we figured that out real quick. They wanted you to stay there until you were out of money.
Vicki (11:18):
Well, we just never spent it. And so I was the runner boat, which meant I was using my fuel and they had dumped really heavy oil into all the boats that weren't aware of it when they went to get fuel. It wasn't kind of boats fuel or oil that we would have here in the us. And so it messed up everybody's boats. So I just got out of line. I didn't get fuel and I helped somebody else to pump out his, because I had a lot of things to do that with in my boat. And when the boat that he went to rescued me and him let us tie up to him, and otherwise I would've been in my little boat with this one guy for that time and thank God I wasn't, and he had ampicillin. So I was able to get out of my fever that I had.
Vicki (12:06):
Anyway, it was it a big drama, but I was helping out as best I could. And then when they did finally release people into the boat, it was prisoners. They got rid of their people that were conscientious objectors or whatever it was. He just got rid of all of the people he didn't want. So wouldn't, he said, if you don't take these people now, your people won't go later if there's still a boat left. Well, my guy never got his mother-in-law, but it was the Statue of Liberty feeling that I had of let's help on my way back. They let me once, there's a big drama that happened. We had winds 90 mile an hour winds came from the north, which hurricanes come from the south, but not the north. And all of our boats, they were tied up side by side. And so whoever was supposed to land was mashed into the land and all the other ones were mashed into them.
Vicki (13:07):
And anybody whose boat went down, they were in the water, and the machine guns were shooting. They weren't allowed to go on land. Somebody had to go rescue. And so Castro finally had to figure out that he had to let people go. And so he began unloading his destitute and put 'em into our boats. And so here it was 25 knot winds at night across the Straits of Florida from Cuba to Key West. It took me eight hours, eight or nine. It was only three hours going over. It was flat. And I was following the pinnacle light from the guy that had rescued me, and I already had a hazer in my boat tied into my towing eye so I could toss in the line when I knew I was going to run out of fuel and then I'd get towed the rest of the way.
Vicki (13:59):
So I was inside the Sand Key lighthouse, which is five miles offshore, when I ran out of fuel. And so then I was being towed the rest of the way, but it was very wet and there's 10 people in my 25 foot boat. I had eight prisoners and Guido and myself. And so I was standing behind the console and on this box that I stand on so I can see because I'm only five foot three, I started on a soapbox. I was telling these young men, listen, I'm a woman. I've got a kid and I have a job being a captain, and I was able to do it. And if I can do that where there's no equality for women in the United States, I said, you've got a chance. And I went on and on and on and on, and Guido was translating for me. So that's what I did on the way across. And I didn't know that I had PTSD at that point. I made some really bad decisions after I came home. But the best one was getting divorced. He was a violent alcoholic.
Dolphin (15:05):
Oh my. Did you want to proceed with it?
Vicki (15:09):
I think that's enough said. Okay. I have written a book, and it's called Dancing Dolphin Spirit Woman. What I do is I dance with dolphins, but I had another byline, no anchor tied to your ass. And so I'm talking to God as I'm coming back across the streets of Florida. I said, if I can get away from a communist country in 25 knot winds at night in 10 foot seeds with 10 people in my boat, then I damn sure can get away. Excuse me. I'm not, probably not supposed to use the word damn, but I get away from my mafia husband and the violent alcoholic that he is. So I did it. I got across and I got out of it. It was wonderful.
Dolphin (16:00):
It is it wonderful. And I think that shows so much about what you went into your cancer diagnosis and your brain surgery and all of this with look back and tell me what you took from all these experiences you've had in your past. What was the biggest thing you drew from those experiences to help you through your heart situation and your fears of cancer or threats of cancer?
Vicki (16:30):
Believing in yourself and believing in the creators to me is that having faith that I will be taken care of. And that has never changed. My mom put that in us really well. She's all things come to good for those that love the Lord. And it's been the axiom I've lived my life with, and so I just do it. And so when it came down to having the radiation, well, having cancer diagnosed, I decided not to go for chemo. I did do the red light therapy and the cancer doctors were furious with not even asking about or being patient with me being a patient, making my own decisions. I said, I will not do anything until I've had a full month on the full red light therapy for a month to make sure my circulation's good and my lymph nodes are working and all that stuff.
Vicki (17:22):
So when I did begin, I said, I'm only doing radiation. And I had six weeks of it, but I believed that I would be just fine because it wasn't something terrible and I was a medic after I graduated high school, I went into the Air Force during the Vietnam era and I was a medic and I've been in hospital work for that long. And then six years after that, after I got out of the service, I was a chemistry lab tech. And so I was in the hospital arena enough to know that I wasn't ever going to do chemo. And it just was a very positive thing for me that I knew that I was going to be
Dolphin (18:11):
Okay and you are,
Vicki (18:13):
And thank the Lord. Also, the brain tumor was not a cancerous one. It was a meningioma that was benign. Yeah, the difficulty is that getting your body back, my left leg and my left arm didn't want to work after the surgery and I had to get those back with rehab. And luckily I've got this wonderful man, my husband, art, when I went to rehab, all the machines that they had, all the little things that I use, he just made 'em. He said, you don't have to go. If you want us to do it at home, I'll make those. And so having the discipline is the big deal, being self-motivated my whole life. I just did it at home and I've got myself back and I got back in the boat. I've done seven charters since I've finished all of everything. So I got my agility, my stamina, I got energy and stamina back and balance by doing the rehab diligently. So just believing in yourself, that's when going for me. You're hiking on hills and taking these lovely ladies, hiking in the mountains, and I'm doing a mile and a half on a beach walking in sand. So that's been my rehab, but I love having my feet in nature and barefoot. That's everything in healing for me.
Dolphin (19:41):
It is, you're right. I'm a very strong believer in belief in perseverance, never giving up in attitude, playfulness, laughter, everything that you're talking about. I'm totally in agreement with you that not only helps with healing, but with longevity. And we'll be young, much less than our chronological age for a long time.
Vicki (20:08):
I believe the dolphin really did a whole lot for me because I have amazing stories of when the last, let's see, I finished my last radiation treatment on July 17th, and I had a charter and I broke down. I was surrounded by dolphin and they didn't leave. And I went down the ladder and I've been with the same dolphin now 13 generations. And razor went by the back of the boat and I went, I had to pee, so I went down the ladder and I just put my face in the water. I knew I couldn't let go in a current, and we'd already called for backup. Somebody come take us home. Razor's probably my longest standing friend out there. I was with her first baby and all of them since then. And she had one that's two years old when I was in the water there that time.
Vicki (21:04):
And I let out a whale. I'm talking like WAIL, I just really put my face in the water and let out this amazing whale. And it wasn't about having broken down and they knew it. It was me and my body and I needed help. So razor center baby over or the baby just decided it was going to come over, but it put its belly to my belly. And the two ladies that were my charter were in the boat and they saw this. And then the phone rang and I had to get out because it was the girl that's coming to rescue us. And I asked them later, what did they see? And they said, the baby flapped it, slippers on this water and rolled and rolled and rolled and did everything it could to get my attention to get back in the water, but I couldn't.
Vicki (21:50):
I had to be on the phone. And then they all stayed and more came and more came. And then the young lady came that was towing me in and watching her, hooking up our boats, we hip tied to each other and they all observed the whole thing. They didn't leave. They were really close. And then they escorted us home, or at least off the flats and off the playground and into the flats where they didn't follow us, but it was a true escort. And then when I finally got better and I was back out again, and they're all leaping and leaping and leaping, it's all on videos. It was a great reception.
Dolphin (22:31):
I can remember times that we've been out together and you had music running through the hull of your boat. So when you turn up that on and the vibration, and we were just immediately almost surrounded by 50 or a hundred dolphins just quickly. They all knew who you were. And they all came. I was playing softball years and years ago, and some of my teammates and I were out in a boat, and this was offshore in Homo Osaa Springs. And you were, I guess laughing every time I said I'd be your first mate out there or something, trying to stay down there. But we were out and decided to go out around the area to a restaurant that was out around the cove around the end of going out of the cove into the actual ocean there, I guess. And when we came back from this restaurant, there was a storm coming up a little bit, so it gotten a little bit rough for a little John boat with just a little motor on it. And so we were having trouble breaking through the waves, and out of nowhere, a dolphin kind of showed up in front of us and just started breaking the waves for us and came all the way back into the safety of the co area. But she just came out of nowhere. And with her breaking the waves, we had no problem getting through the wake there. So that's my big rescue. But anyway, it would've been a long swim, I'm sure. But
Vicki (24:06):
Nothing like yours. It's been astounding how they've created a relationship with me to head me off of the past. I was going to say, when I sell this boat, now look out because they're going to head you off in the past.
Dolphin (24:23):
Right, right.
Vicki (24:25):
The music is everything. They love tunes in the water.
Dolphin (24:31):
Yes, they do. And we got cut off at the past a few times too when we were with you because they would come and try to get information to you or tell 'em what was going on
Vicki (24:43):
Downloading. Now we're not allowed to swim at Dolphin anymore, unfortunately. But when I did go, they would put things in my brain. I think that I was like a telegram and I went somewhere else and went in the water. The others would come and be over my brain and
Dolphin (25:03):
They, they're special being very special. And from getting to know the Dolphins and from getting to know you, we together created dolphins in the wild and some symposiums that we called Day of the Dolphin. What are some of your favorite memories out of that time that we spent?
Vicki (25:25):
Well, I felt like I had a symposium on my shoulder because it was 9 1 1 for dolphin. And if somebody wanted to answer the door when this injured dolphin is at the door, they would put on a symposium. And I really liked the one going to Dolphins in the desert.
Dolphin (25:45):
Sedona,
Vicki (25:45):
Yes, Arizona. That was amazing because I had a total life recall there of having died in the desert.
Dolphin (25:55):
Yeah, I remember the clouds that formed a picture of a dolphin up in the sky there. Do you remember? Yeah, it was amazing. It really was amazing. You're right.
Vicki (26:07):
I guess when you asked me the question, best memory I think was the military. We had different topics that we had speakers for and the one was the retired Navy Colonel, was it?
Dolphin (26:21):
Yeah, he was Colonel
Vicki (26:22):
Eugene. He really wanted to be tried for treason or whatever for exposing it, but they didn't pay any attention. But he wanted everyone to know the boondoggle of what the military's doing with making dolphins as weapons and that it doesn't work.
Dolphin (26:41):
That's right. What was his last name? Carol? Eugene Carroll.
Vicki (26:48):
Yes. I think it was. Okay. General Eugene. And he was retired and he was willing to speak out to try and stop what they're doing. Especially what's happening in San Diego is really bad. Nobody, the city's too big to put light on it, where in Key West we were able to get 'em to stop here because we were a small enough community, too much light on what they were doing, trying to strap a 45 caliber bullet on the rostrum of a dolphin and make him impact a diver to kill him. Anyway,
Dolphin (27:24):
Yeah, that was one of my first times to learn what it was like to really fight for a belief and get that courage to stand up and be strong women for it.
Vicki (27:36):
The topics that we had were first ethics, I think. Is it ethical to make a sentient being a conscious sentient being that makes a decision about everything it does all day long and then take it and hold it captive. And then the conditions of the captivity and putting our folks that are elders in senior citizens, places that are using food deprivation and affection deprivation to get them to do what the people want 'em to do. And that's what they do. We're doing to dolphin. And it's the same thing as what they do in some nursing homes to get people to do. So. It's terrible ethic. People speaking out on all those topics was really quite important for us. And the military intervention. Well, using military and using them for weapons was a big topic. And then the big light at the end of the tunnel was the release and reprogram them to be able to feed themselves again and let them go. And then that all fell apart when the humans decided they all wanted the rights for the release pictures or videos and they fought with each other. And then the dolphins were the losers. They had to be recaptured. It again, taken away from the people that were trying to rehab anyway. It did mean a lot to take all that time and energy and go and try and do something that really made a difference.
Dolphin (29:19):
And you remember the date that we chose for our symposiums annually? It was our signature program that we did once a year. And I put it on your birthday. Yes. So I'll never forget when it was
Vicki (29:35):
The day of the Dolphin in Key West is Forever was Captain Tony Terino said, it's the day of Dolphin forever on September 15th.
Dolphin (29:46):
That's right.
Vicki (29:46):
Proclamation.
Dolphin (29:49):
Absolutely. Well, Victoria, I hate to see you leave down there, but if you get closer up here, I'll get to see you a whole heck of a lot more often. I appreciate you so much being my guest today. Thank
Vicki (30:05):
You, my angel. You have been an angel in my life. Oh, thank you.
Dolphin (30:09):
Thank you. And everybody go look for the Dancing Dolphin Spirit woman. And is it published yet?
Vicki (30:16):
No, unfortunately.
Dolphin (30:17):
We'll have to get the word out soon as it is.
Vicki (30:20):
Thank you, love.
Dolphin (30:21):
Okay, I love you. Thank you.
