With such a limited time being around the people in the 1500, one doesn't really get to know them, per se. But you get to know a lot about the people, and that is a cool thing.
Take for example Joe on the J/42 Keep It Simple. Joe showed up at the Annapolis Sailboat Show in October. He was already signed up for the 1500, but stopped by the WCC booth just to say hello. We met him again in Peg Leg's, here in Nanny Cay. He and his crew had just arrived the night before (they'd left their foulies out to dry on the lifelines, and woke up this morning to a downpour. Oops).
Joe, as it turns out, is an extraordinary dude. He's retired now, but he worked as a scientist on the Hubble telescope project. A rocket scientist (and no wonder that he has a J/42 - he likes to go fast).
Joel, another of Keep It Simple's crew, had brought this to light by talking, of all things, about marathon running. He'd mentioned running the Cocoa Beach Marathon, which had an obvious space theme to it (being adjacent to the old shuttle launch site), and Joe chimed in from the next table over that he worked on the Shuttle. Pretty cool stuff.

Take for example Merril, from the Shannon 43 ketch Serentiy. He has a hobby making re-created 18th century furniture. A true craftsman (incidentally, it was his passion for woodworking that inspired him to buy a 1980s vintage Shannon and restore it to like-new. He painstakingly went through the entire boat and redid everything, all by himself and in his free time. The non-woodworking items - and on that boat there aren't many - he had done by the Shannon yard themselves, and they gave him a brand-new warranty on the boat when the completed it).
Merril, aside from his woodworking passion and his immaculate boat, is a coffee fanatic as well.
"I roast my own beans!" he says. "I started roasting the beans in one of those air-popping popcorn machines," he said, displaying a ziploc full of his beans of varying color and flavor. "They tell you to listen for the 'crack'," he continued. "The first crack is subtle, when they're just a light-roasted color. The second is more definitive, like popcorn popping. That's when they get dark and nice," he added. "Taste them," he said.
By the time the coffee was ready - he makes it in an insulated, stainless French press, after grinding them himself (of course) in his small electric grinder he keeps onboard - his wife Mary and her brother Fred came by and joined the conversation.
We could write about dozens of other people as interesting as Joe and Merril. About Scott from Pendragon, who left a big-time position at a big-time company to go cruising on his Valiant 40. About Rob and Ginny from Helia who took their three young girls, Hannah, Mia, and Ellie on their Slocum 43 for a year of adventure outside the classroom (not to mention Rob's incredible series of mustaches, in support of Nanny Cay's Movember initiative this year).

About Rick and Julie Palm of Altair, who after having already been round the world once, continue to complete the 1500 year after year. About Calleva, the father-and-sons team on the Beneteau 423 that barely made the start in time and had one hell of an adventure getting here. They call their dad 'Chief', which tells you a lot right there. About Avanti, the Hanse 430 and the only double-handed crew this year, Jeremi and his wife having to hand-steer when the autopilot broke. We're expecting them to arrive tonight, and it ought to be to some considerable fanfare.
The fact of the matter is that everyone has a story. Everyone. And they make the event special.
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