Rich Davies, a Boca Grande homeowner, had the experience of a lifetime within the last few weeks. He is now the proud owner of a world record.

Davies caught a 1,289-pound blue marlin, otherwise known as “1289,” off the coast of Bermuda while on his boat Seafari.

BY LIZA STROUT - The gap between hospitality manager at a major hotel and project manager for a construction company may seem like a wide one, but it is one that Dave Borza has bridged for most of his working life.

“My dad was a contractor, and I’ve tinkered around with construction and handyman jobs for most of my life,” Dave said. “My parents also owned three restaurants at one time, and I worked in them. My dad had a lot of projects that he worked on. There was the contracting business, the restaurants and a computer learning center.”

Tropical Storm Debby has covered Boca Grande with wind, rain and storms for the last three days, but Sunday night and Monday morning has brought the worst weather so far.

Power outages were reported Sunday night. Some residents experienced only a momentary lapse of power, but others had no electricity for more than an hour. Monday morning at approximately 7 a.m. the power went out again in the Lee County portion of the island, with a two-hour lapse in electrical service.

So far the highest wind gust recorded on Monday, June 25 was 36 m.p.h. at 8:54 a.m. On Sunday night a recorded gust came in at 55 m.p.h.

Precipitation on the island since the storm first hit stands at just over 3 1/2 inches.

A few small trees came down and many branches and palm fronds, but no severe damage was reported.

We will now be posting photos of island events on our web site for sale or simple perusal. Please visit the "media" option at the top of the page where it says "photos and video." If you're looking for pictures of a particular event that you don't see listed, please contact our office via email (info@bocabeacon.com) or phone us at 964-2995.

Photo by Marcy