The Sailor Who Sailed Into A World Record

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Al and Artie fish off their beachfront home just south of the Sebastian Inlet.

Out of a recent dinner party in Riomar came a discovery. We have in our midst a seasonal resident living on the island who is in The Guinness Book of World Records. While there are many known and unknown persons with fascinating backgrounds residing in Indian River County, Al and Artie Grover are distinctive. Al is the first, and perhaps the only man, to have crossed the Atlantic in an outboard skiff. And Artie is the woman who in the end assured that it would happen.

The Grovers don’t live in John’s Island, The Moorings, Grand Harbor or any other gated community. They have a house on a 50-foot-wide lot stretching a few hundred feet from the ocean to the river a couple of miles south of the Sebastian Inlet. Like all these lots it is bisected by A1A. And they almost didn’t make it into Indian River County. In 1998, when they were looking for a new place in Brevard County, they were told that south of the Sebastian Inlet would be too expensive. But they weren’t finding what they wanted.

Read the entire article in the March 2013 issue

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