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Where 'all aboard' really means it

Folks in wheelchairs or other mobility challenges can fish, swim and enjoy the Keys from Capt. Mick Nealey's specially outfitted boat.

KEY LARGO - What could be better than having a friendly storytelling uncle who operates a fishing boat in the Keys?

How about an uncle who has a ramp and lift-equipped pontoon boat that is perfect for wheelchair users?

It gets even better. This uncle doesn't just have accessibility equipment, he has insights into the needs of disabled sightseeing and fishing cruisers, because he has post-polio syndrome and sometimes uses a wheelchair for his own mobility.

Michael "Capt. Mick" Nealey seems to know the waters around Key Largo from Florida Bay to the Atlantic to the mansion-lined canals. He also has figured out ways to rig fishing poles and equipment to accommodate quadriplegics.

Nealey carries a portable ramp that provides access to the docks at the little out-of-the-way fish joint, so you can get fresh seafood even if you didn't catch enough to grill on board the boat.

He operates a 40-passenger catamaran and six-passenger pontoon boats, which have hydraulic lifts that can lower disabled swimmers into the shallow waters off Key Largo. Add an on-board massage table - Nealey is a licensed massage therapist - and the outings become special experiences for people with mobility challenges.

Nealey combined his love of the sea and his half-century of insights into being a person with a disability and created Tranquil Adventures.

For instance, to reduce the distance for wheelchair users, he tells customers making reservations how to park closest to the gate that leads to the dock behind his home.

Nealey is an improviser. Because the smaller pontoon boats typically do not have a restroom on board, he has placed onboard a portable toilet enclosed by a shower curtain (and with a CD player, to provide an additional layer of privacy).

Passengers can book just sightseeing or fishing cruises, and the captain enjoys tailoring basic trips into custom cruises. He is aware that too many tours aimed at the disabled traveler deliver boring, one-size-fits-all trips.

So if a passenger wants to fish in the morning, sightsee midday and swim in the late afternoon, Nealey arranges it. If you want to clean the fish you caught and fire up the portable grill aboard the 28-foot Malesh, that's alright, too.

The boat-mounted lift that can lower people into the water has enabled several mobility-impaired passengers to snorkel.

For those with better range-of-motion, Nealey carries a pair of sit-on-top ocean kayaks on the boat's roof. He has used the lift to ease a kayaker from the pontoon boat to the kayak.

As welcome as the lift, ramp and other improvisations is the down-to-earth conversation with someone who loves the Keys, where he has lived for nearly two decades. And Nealey loves to tell a fish tale and wait to see if the gullible passenger really believes a tarpon can be caught with a detergent bottle.

Although Tranquil Adventures prides itself on providing outstanding accessibility and activity, the trips are also about sightseeing: gawking at yachts and the mansions that are displacing the little canal-side trailers.

One of these mini cruises may include a stop for Cuban coffee at a small marina or docking at a fish joint for grilled grouper wraps and blackened tuna tacos.

- Freelance writer Steve Wright and Heidi Johnson Wright, who is also a coordinator for the Americans with Disabilities Act, live in Miami. Contact them at stevewright64@yahoo.com

Tranquil Adventures is at 225 Upper Matecumbe Road in Key Largo, a couple of blocks from the Overseas Highway and less than an hour's drive from Miami International Airport.

Call toll-free 1-888-451-2102; www.tranquiladventures.com Prices start at $35 per person for a four-hour sightseeing cruise and $50 for an eight-hour cruise. Two-hour sunset cruises are $20 per person.

Fishing charters cost $250 for a four-hour trip for up to four, or $350 for an eight-hour trip for up to four.