Elliot Key on New Year's Eve 08 and Alabama Jack's

1. Oct 14th - 16th - Indian River Lagoon Cruise - Launch at Jonathan’s Honest John’s Fish Camp - 750 Old Florida Trail - Melbourne Beach, FL $5/day for launch and storage. Camp on an island in the lagoon, or aboard your boat! Bring firewood and hone your skills for Cayo Costa! Not that far to drive and lots of fun!

2. Oct 29th - Saturday - Tampa Bay Daysail and picnic at Luke and Joy’s house in Venetian Isles.

Joy and I thought it would be fun to host a daysail outing on Tampa Bay and have a lunch at our house. We live in Venetian Isles, which is on the NE side of St. Pete. We're about a quarter mile from open water on the northernmost canal on a wide basin just off the main channel that runs south of the Weedon Island area. We think we can accomodate about 8-10 small boats rafted up on our dock and small floating dock or anchored in the basin. We're about 5 miles south of the big boat ramp on Gandy and 3.5 miles north of the Demens Landing ramp in downtown St. Pete. A rendevous out in the bay in front of downtown St. Pete and sail for a few hours and then head in to our place. Joy and I would provide the basics for a cookout (burgers, hot dogs and desert). Maybe others could fill in with something else. We have a covered outdoor area and pool for cooling off. Then folks could go sailing again and stay on the hook in the area or head back to the ramp. Kayaks would be appropriate as well as we just a few minutes paddle to the Weedon Island canoe and kayak trail. We enjoy sailing on the bay and thought others might as well.

3. Nov 18th - 20th - Fall Cayo Costa Cruise - Launch at Eldred’s Marina at Placida or on Bokeelia Island at the County Ramp or over at Pineland Marina. Gather Friday night on the beach of the cove at the north end
of Pelican Bay. Saturday a daysail and come back to Pelican Bay for another great night aboard. Camping is by stealth over on Punta Blanca Island opposite the cove. The dates on the graphic below are not correct.

4. Dec 3rd - Canoe Trip with Mark and Katie Stewart - Camp at the Stewart’s camp/home. Lots of room for vehicles/tents and they even have a few rooms to share for those who are adverse to sleeping on the ground in tents. More details later on which rivers/springs will be included.
Squadron Events! or What’s Coming Up?

5. New Years Cruise!  28 December to 1 January.  Back to the Keys.  We took last year off to spend with family but not this year.  Launch at South Dade Marina, Homestead, or wherever and rendezvous just south of Alabama Jacks if the wind is right otherwise just through the channel by Alabama Jacks.  Day 2 sail south through Jewfish Creek to an anchor ball/anchorage with dinner at one of the dockside bar and grills.  Day 3 depends upon the wind forecast, but the tentative plan is to head north and try to get in some snorkeling in the Atlantic ending up at Elliot Key, New Years Eve either stay at Elliot Key or return to Alabama Jacks and that anchorage for the New Year. Of course if the wind doesn't cooperate we may just head south toward some random Keys below Key Largo.

Since we were the committee boat we decided to sail straight to Picnic Island and monitor the radio for all the arrivals we were expecting.  We had a reefed main up and rather than shake out the reef, which we didn’t need, we left it alone and did a stately 3 – 4mph over to the shallows leading to Picnic.  We dropped the sail, pulled up the centerboard and rudder, and motored on the southwestern edge of the shoal that protects Picnic from the Power Boat wakes in the Miserable Mile.  We anchored and explored the eastern edge of the island. 

As always there was a bunch of trash, but at least it was bagged and put under the sign announcing Picnic Island – please remove your trash.

This was just about the time I realized I had forgotten my phone in the truck, so I got my trusty Humminbird VHF-5 out, loaded it up with batteries, and heard nothing from the other boats.  Paul pulled in after sailing down and around the end of the island, so we set up beach chairs and had lunch.  About 1pm or so I saw a Mac 26X flying the main downwind in the distance coming up the Miserable Mile – so named, according to Dave after he had a few, because on a weekend there are usually 150 boats in a very narrow one mile long stretch of water with extremely shallow shoals on both sides, we saw three different boats run aground in less than 15 hours while we were on the island, and that was a weekday – I called them on the radio a number of times but never got a reply.  It turns out his radio had quit, so we were limited on communications for the remainder of the trip. 

When they got even with the beach I could tell it was Dave and Teresa on Hot Tub.  They went to the far end of the Miserable Mile, turned 180 degrees around the shoals 200 yards or so from the end of the island, and motored in to the anchorage.  Just as they were getting settled I saw a Potter 19 sailing out from the SE corner of Pine Island and knew it had to be Stin on Lily P.  It turns out he had launched at Matlacha (pronounced Matt-La-Shay) and motorsailed down a narrow, twisty, poorly marked channel with oyster beds and shoals all over the place.

Stin got anchored and we all sat around talking about where to go and what to do, but mainly, “Where the heck was everyone else?”  Even with cancellations I had thought we would have 7 – 10 boats, but here we were, a flotilla of 4.

The winds were predicted to swing around to the west overnight and Dave recommended we get out of the cove or we would find ourselves hard aground until near high tide so about 3:30 everyone motored out and around to anchor on the SE side of the island.  I like being able to step off my open transom onto the beach.  The wind was on our nose after we anchored but it was SUPPOSED to swing around and leave us with a nice night at anchor. 

We grilled on our Force 10 on the stern while everyone else used Dave’s grill on the beach, ate too much including some Mac-N-Cheese that Teresa made, and sat around talking around the fire until after 10.  We went to bed with some banging going on since the wind and waves had not moved anywhere.  I woke up around 1am and knew the stern was aground but that I could still pull us off the beach, but when I poked my head out the wind was a good 15kts, still on the nose, and the waves would have beat on us some more.  Instead I closed the hatch and slept like a king, although by morning things were a little skewed.

Dave and Stin had the sense to pull themselves out further so they were floating fine, while Paul and I had obviously slept too well to care.  The tide came in enough around 9 to push Paul off and by 9:45 or so we shoved off too.  We were off to Matanzas Pass and an anchor ball since the wind was supposed to shift, although it still hadn’t.  We motored into the wind in the Miserable Mile and although it was only Wednesday and not New Years Eve, there was a lot of traffic, although Dave said it was nothing compared to a weekend, and some of the mega-powerboats just don’t care about their wakes.

We made the turn off the Miserable toward the Sanibel/Captiva Bridge and hoisted sail.  Too bad for us we still had the reef in when the wind was dying steadily.  We were about 20 yards from the Miserable and I went forward to undo the reefline when a 4 foot wake hit us from astern.  The cockpit got all the sand from Picnic washed out of it, so I guess there was some good to it.  I shook out the reef and started a stern chase after the other three boats.  There are three bridges but only one tall enough for a sailboat (Bridge A).  Again Dave gets credit for local knowledge because my Clairborne Young had it as a Bascule Bridge.  The bridge turned out to be humongous.  We motorsailed under the bridge in traffic that was steadily increasing.  PB’s were zooming by us too regularly for me to like it.  As we cleared the bridge I saw Stin, who had left first, near Point Ybel, the southernmost end of Sanibel Island.  His radio worked so we talked to him for a while as we steadily converged. 

Paul was up in front with Dave, but they blended into the beachfront.  Paul was kind enough to give me line of sight bearings from him so I figured out which channel to take in to the pass.  Again too many power boats, but we motored in despite their wakes.  We tied up at the City Docks, Stin got yelled at for trying to take his dog ashore to urinate, and we found out there was no overnighting allowed.  I got the phone number for the Matanzas Inn (they control the anchorage) from my GPS and used Dave’s phone to call and confirm there was room for us.  There was but since we were little boats we had to use anchor balls above number 55 which put us about a mile from the dinghy docks a the hotel.  The wind picked up again, and yes it was on our nose, which made for some fun getting out of the slip at the City Dock.  We helped everyone off the dock and followed along.  By the time we got to the bridge, again a tall one, the wind had lessened enough to not be a problem.  Everyone got a ball, we launched our Dinghy while Dave did the same, Dave picked the others up, and we took off for the Dinghy Docks.  The WM Mini Dinghy was a tight fit for us since we had our shower stuff with us as well as inflatable life jackets, the electric motor, and battery onboard.  I figure our 350 pound weight limit was exceeded by at least 100 pounds.  We made slow but steady progress but fell quickly behind Dave’s dinghy.  Becky was growing concerned because we were going progressively slower as we neared the bridge and our turn into the dinghy dock at Matanzas Inn.  We were bucking a pretty good current but still making limited headway.  When we turned abeam of the current we were able to make the last 100 yards to the dinghy dock where Stin was waiting to help us debark.  We checked in at the hotel, got the key to the shower, cleaned up in record time, and met the rest of the group for the walk to the Whale’s Tail or something like that for a pretty good, albeit pricey, meal.  The fish tacos were not of the quality of Roberto’s #6 in San Diego, but they were good and the beer was cold.  We returned decidedly happier to the dinghy, launched, and started motoring back.  We got back into the channel, where the current had switched on us, and got progressively slower as the battery drained from the strain.  I had failed to recharge it figuring that the little lights were an accurate portrayal of the state of charge, I was wrong.  Just as I was figuring we would have to start paddling Dave came charging around the end of the docks and Teresa took this picture – not much wake, eh. 

We gratefully threw him a line and got a tow back to Saint Somewhere.  We had decided at dinner to sail outside up to Redfish Pass the next morning and get a slip at Tween Waters.  Stin was a little reticent about spending that kind of money on a room by himself, so we volunteered to let him use our dinghy the next day.  We sat around and read until 9 or so and slept infinitely better than the night before.  SS definitely likes swinging better than bottoming out. 

We woke up to a beautiful day with winds predicted out of the South at 10 – 15 kts.  We waved at Paul as he motored out for his solo return to St James so he could be home for New Years Eve and family commitments.  About 8:30 we motored out with Stin following.  Dave and Teresa had poked their heads out but had made no sign of getting underway any time soon.  Being the slower boats Stin and I took off knowing Dave would catch up with us soon.  We cleared the channel and hoisted sail in 5 – 7 kts of wind doing a solid 3+kts.  We decided that with 28 miles to go we would invoke the 2kt rule if necessary.  Within 10 minutes of setting sail we saw Dave in Hot Tub bring up his sails and join in.  About a half an hour later it was obvious the predicted winds were going the wrong way – down.  We cranked up the iron genoa, set the throttle to let us do 5kts, and got ready for a long motor.  I tried several times to set my autopilot but it kept turning us in a circle whenever I would engage it in auto.  I will calibrate it at Lake Harris and see if that fixes it.  I even double checked to make sure I had it set for a starboard side mount to be sure, but I ended up with tiller arm.  About the time we came even with the Gulf side of Tween Waters the wind picked up, we killed the motor, and started sailing with main only at 5kts for Redfish Pass.  Dave called us on Becky’s cellphone to remind us that there was a big shoal on the south side of the pass and to get near the marker before turning in.  We went north to just short of the green marker 1 at the entrance before cutting in and never saw less than 6 feet on the depth sounder, which means 8 feet of water. The shoal to the south as you get closer in is easy to see - breakers even at high tide. Too many powerboats anchored and fishing, but we sailed through them anyway. We went through just after high tide. The channel goes SE toward Captiva away from Cayo Costa and is pretty well marked. We followed it out to the green 9 marker before turning or we would probably have touched bottom. 1.3 miles at 175 brought us to the channel for Tween Waters. It is very narrow and very shallow on both sides with some current. There are shoals that are high and dry at half tides on both sides of the entrance so we got lined up coming in and kept looking aft to keep lined up so we wouldn’t stray outside the channel  There are a number of big boats with deep draft that go in and out pretty regularly, but overall they don't throw a lot of wake. Jensen’s Marina had a nice, accessible fuel dock and let me jump off and run to the grocery a block away to resupply (beer) since we bought some gas and tipped. You can't get a slip unless you get a room, some type of law. Dave called and let us know that Tween Waters, another half mile down the channel, had no slips so they were going to the anchorage SE of Tween Waters which is parallel to the green marker 21 and south. We had 4 feet of water at low tide at anchor, and we were on the northern edge of the anchorage where it is shallow. Here is a derelict across from Tween Waters that shows how shallow it is just outside the channel near the anchorage.

I wonder if Ted Jean will be reclaiming this boat anytime soon?  We anchored, got stowed, and noticed Dave and Teresa getting their dinghy out.  Shortly afterwards Dave, Teresa, and Stin joined us in Saint Somewhere cockpit for a planning/cocktail hour. 

With the forecast calling for 25kts of wind and rain around noon Stin and I decided to get up and hit it to beat the weather and pull out.  Stin’s truck and trailer were at Matlacha (pronounced Matt-La-Shay), but since we were going right by there I volunteered to drop him off.  We had a pleasant hour before darkness set in.  Dave dropped everyone off and then zoomed around with his electric motor (he has a 2.5 gas motor for the dinghy too) to show me how well it would work on my dinghy since my little SBM-18 motor was not cutting it).  Who needs lights?

Yours truly at 9pm on New Years Eve and looking at Tween Waters Marina.

Here is a screenshot from my Garmin GPSMAP76C of the trip.

A beautiful New Years Eve moon and Indiana “Combs” playing on the puter in the cabin.

We woke up at 6 on January the 1^st of 2010, agreed that I was going to lose 40 pounds this year – I have the same resolution every year – had coffee and oatmeal, yelled at Stin, fired up the motor, pulled the anchor, waved goodbye to Dave and Teresa – who were still sleeping, and motored out with Stin.  It was a long, uneventful 2 hour motor to marker 18 in the ICW where we cut in to make the channel for Monroe Canal Marina.

We motored up to the fuel dock and Stin pulled in at Woody’s since he was going to leave his boat for a while and they didn’t open until 11 or so.  We pulled out easily and dropped the mast and stowed for the road.  While getting ready I spoke to a guy with a Precision 18 from NJ who had been out for 5 days.  He said he did it every year.  I invited him to check the WCTSS website and join us in Homestead in December.  Another trailer sailor pulled in, a guy from Oklahoma with a Mac 26M.  They had a spot at the local KOA and were going to put the boat in the water and pull it to the KOA.  His wife wasn’t helping him much and they weren’t too talkative so we yelled for Stin, loaded up, and hit it.  There were storm clouds coming in from the NW but we were safe enough in the truck.  Stin missed the turn off for Matlacha, so I pulled over and he jumped out, just as the sky broke and the rain poured.  His poor dog was in his boat’s cockpit, I hope everything came out alright.  I will hopefully get the full story at Lake Harris in a week or so.

   Woke up early, but still grounded, on Saturday morning.  Made a pot of French Press Coffee with Starbucks beans.  While sitting there enjoying the morning and our coffee we were entertained by Jose’s youngest singing away while he played on the beach.  Juan is one happy kid.  He had gotten all of his clothes (3 days worth plus an extra set) soaking wet on Friday so he was in a big coat with little else on.  It was just too cute.  People started to stir and we discussed destinations at one of our impromptu Skipper’s Meetings.  People with kids, lazy types, and others decided to stay at anchor while a few others decided to sail just past Shell Cut – the channel to the Bokelia Ramp – to check out some place that used to be a commune but was now some land conservations thing.  We let Ted get a half hour head start in his Potter 15 before we took off.  We caught up with him, still with a reef in the main, at Jug Creek Shoals.  The wind started to die off within a mile of the commune, but we were able to anchor just a little too far out from the beach before it died completely.  The rest of the boats arrived and anchored and we looked around for a while.  We inflated our new WM Little Dinghy and rowed ashore.  The wind started to build again around 12 so we said our goodbyes and started rowing back out in 10+kts of wind.  Remember when I said we anchored out a little too far?  I rowed upwind of the boat and tried to drift down to it but Becky missed her lunge for the aft rail and I began rowing furiously back to the boat.  It suddenly felt like the oars wouldn’t work anymore, and they wouldn’t – our new little dinghy had a leak!  The cover which holds the oarlocks/oars had about a foot of play in it and there was no way I could row against the wind to the boat.  Sound the trumpets – Becky leaps off with dinghy line in hand and swims herself/dinghy/me to Saint Somewhere.  Simon took a picture of Becky doing her tarzan thing, I’ll post it later.  We tied the dinghy off without a thought – Ted had told me they didn’t tow very well – stowed everything as we watched Ron sail off over the horizon, raised sails, and started after him.  Simon passed us shortly after in his Seaward Fox, and I started wondering what was going on.  I had a reef in the main and two turns on the RF, so we should have been doing 4kts+ on the close reach we were on, instead we were doing 2.5 kts and the dinghy line was stretched tight.  I asked my darling wife to pull the dinghy back onboard and stow it on top of the main hatch, where we had pumped it up earlier.  Becky managed to get the dinghy up to the stern but could not lift it more than a foot up the side.  Becky is not a sissy girl, so I gave her the tiller and I turned to show her how a man retrieves a little dinghy.  I almost died getting that damn thing onboard!  Becky volunteered to turn and run downwind to give me some extra help, but I was having none of that.  It took me nearly five minutes of grunt/groan/pant to get the dinghy onboard.  There must have been 30 gallons of water inside the waterproof liner where the dinghy had deflated.  It was all on the lower end of the dinghy so I was lifting 120 pounds up 4 feet with the current/wind/boat working against me.  I switched places with Becky and let her deflate the stupid thing.  Our speed jumped up to 3.5kts+ and we were pointing a lot higher than Ron – I am guessing because he was sooooo far ahead of us – and 5 degrees or so higher than Simon.  The wind was a good 15kts and we were heeling about 15 degrees going to 20+ when a wave or gust would hit us.  We were not comfortable but we were sailing.  We gained very slowly on Simon who was running full sail on his boat and when he tacked we bore off to give way since he was on a starboard tack and had the right of way.  We went screaming up behind his stern at 6.5kts+, heeled over at a good 30 degrees, and Becky’s “shreak-o-meter” lit off as a wave kicked us over to about 35 degrees.  I felt pretty comfortable since I could feel the water ballast do its thing and pull us gently back up, but she was having none of that crap.  First time her meter ever lit off before mine!  We put a couple more turns on the RF and came back up to a close reach which slowed us down and reduced our heel.  We continued on for another 10 minutes or so hoping we would have to make one tack, miss Jug Creek Shoals, and end up in Pelican Bay without running aground anywhere.  We were now alone with Ron a speck on the horizon, and Proton – Simon’s boat – well on its way to running away from us too.  We finally tacked just before 2pm and started some hobby horsing on the incoming wave and tide, but we picked up to 4kts+ and were pointed at the south end of Boca Grande Pass.  We got to the sign in front of Pelican Bay around 4pm, dropped sails, and decided to motor down to the Hurricane Hole so we wouldn’t have any anchoring complications in the even more crowded anchorage from Friday night.  We waved at everyone as we motored by, dodged Proton coming in under sail – we pretty much finished in a dead heat – and made our way to the hole.  There were no other boats in the hole, the wind was blocked from every direction, and we rested well.  I grilled a flat iron steak on the Force 10 BBQ, Becky made instant garlic mashed potatoes and cheese broccoli, and we listened to Jimmy Buffet as we ate in the cockpit.  Just before dark I lit the Thermacell in the cabin, put “The Seventh Sign” in the DVD slot of the laptop, and we watched a movie while snacking on brownies, beer, and merlot.  Nearly every time I popped my head out during the night to check on everything a big cow manatee was lolling about 10 feet off the beam watching me.

            Woke up around 5:30 local time, made coffee – fresh ground Starbucks in a French Press is heavenly on a sailboat, even on the trailer – then took our showers before most people got up.  I cooked bacon and pancakes while we planned our day.  We got antsy again – time changes are horrible things – so we launched around 8am local time.  The ramp was pretty busy so we went ahead and motored out into Pensacola Bay planning on sailing to the Spanish 4 master that was visiting Pensacola.  There were one or two other sailboats out ahead of us – probably victims of the time change too, and we saw the Spanish ship we were looking for to the NE a couple of miles away.  We sailed toward it at 4kts or so and finished another cup of morning coffee.  We sailed to the oil booms around the ship and saw no one on deck nor any preparations for getting underway so we turned around and sailed back looking for BEER Cruisers.  A few diehards were coming out so we sailed by them and got a few pictures.  More started coming out and about 10 local time Becky decided we should start sailing to Perdido Key and the anchorage.  When Becky decides something there isn’t any sense arguing – we had a whopping 5 miles or so to the anchorage – so we used the wind we had and sailed ESE at a steadily slowing pace.  When our speed dropped below 2kts we discussed the 2kt rule for this cruise – do something besides bob when the boat goes slower than 2kts – while listening to several other boats fire up their motors and take off.  We were sailing near/by 2 Potter 15s and a Sea Pearl monohull so instead of motoring we hoisted our new Mizzen Staysail.  We luffed a few times and started a steady rock/luff motion that had us doing 1.8 – 2.4kts thus circumventing the 2kt rule.  The staysail is really cool and we used it several more times on the cruise in light airs (less than 8kts).  We sailed slowly around the Naval Air Station on the point, dropped the staysail since the wind was wrong for it, and picked up the current going out the cut into the Gulf.  I still remember getting in the middle of the stream – you can actually see it in the middle of the bay when it gets ripping – and passing Ted Jean’s Hunter 19 with my Potter 19 a few BEER Cruises ago when the current had us near 8kts under sail.  I love passing Ted no matter what he is sailing!  As we neared the cut N of Sailboat Cove we fired up the motor to get through since the dunes block the wind and the powerboats rip through at full throttle.  Cleared the cut and killed the motor.  The wind was now off the Gulf from the SW and we sailed west to clear the anchorage and then turned to sail through all the anchored yachts on the cruise.  2 or 3 boats over 30 feet this year, more Macs (D,S,X,M) than I can ever remember seeing, 5 or 6 Potters, and everyone else.  There were 20 boats or so anchored and we enjoyed sailing easily through them saying hello.  We chose a shallows to the east of everyone so we would ground out with the tide that night, and be out of the wind thanks to the dunes separating the ICW from the Gulf.  Two or three other boats tried to motor over near us and turned away because the water was only a foot deep.  The other Sea Pearl sailed in an hour or so later and we met Dave and Helen from Tennessee.  They beached/anchored 20 yards or so away.  We took stock of our situation and decided to put the tent up, set up our chairs on land, and start partying (Becky seldom drinks so she doesn’t count when I say party).  Our 9x9x7 tent went up easily, everything in the forward cockpit went up on the side decks, and Becky got our bed ready for the night (air mattresses, 3 inch memory foam, 2 quilts, and sheets – I always feel like a princess).  I was already ashore doing the meet and greet with everyone.  I was impressed by the red hull catamaran – nice bunch of people onboard and a good-looking boat - albeit a little rough on deck.  Too bad its 10-foot beam was too wide to trailer legally.  I helped a few people anchor and couldn’t get over how many people were just motoring – of course that was probably me with the other boat, but BB just sails so well we only use the motor in restricted waters (narrow channels and bridges).  Allen, Potter 19 Joy, came in and we compared notes and talked about the Sunday sail.  He sails his boat well and knows how to make his Potter move.  We pulled out a fake log for the evening bonfire, lucky we did since there wasn’t a lot of wood available on the beach – and spent a few hours circled around the fire listening to 4 or 5 musicians play and sing.  Mike, Potter 15 ½ Pint, has a beautiful voice.  They didn’t know any of the music I know for sing-alongs – Jon Prine’s Illegal Smile is one of my anthems, as is nearly anything by the Beatles - but I did manage to hum along with most of the songs.  One thing about Allen sharing a couple of shots of Espresso Vodka is you don’t care how you sound.  Some kind soul finally pointed out that I still had my sunglasses on about 9:30 – I thought it was really dark out – so Becky drug me off to the boat.  We slept well!

   Sunday morning I made big cups of good coffee, made eggs and sausage, had more cups of coffee, took showers using our bug sprayer shower, found out that one of the fiberglass tent poles had cracked/broken but the tent still stood up, and still left the anchorage before 90% of the other boats – the time change is horrible.  We tried to sail out but the wind was really light and pushed us toward some mangroves to the east so we fired up the motor, ran through the cut, kept motoring past the cut to the Gulf since it was ripping, and pulled in to Santa Rosa Island for a morning swim.  While sitting in the tepid water along the beach we watched a dozen or so boats motor by and heard that two boats were dropping out with engine problems.  That reminded us of the Sea Pearl couple that did the BEER Cruise without a motor a few years ago – his name was Bud or Art Tristler and they sailed a Sea Pearl monohull for the entire cruise without a motor, and they were in their late 70’s or early 80’s.  Anyway, we motored off the beach looking for wind.  There was none and rather than drift we employed the 2 kt rule and motored for30 or 40 minutes toward Quietwater Bridge.  I hate the sound of a motor in my ear.  I had bought a pair of AM/FM sunglasses for this eventuality but they hadn’t arrived when we left.  We kept stopping and testing for wind and finally got some 2 or 3 miles from Deer Point.  We popped the staysail out and moved along at 2kts or so while watching a lot of sailboats power by us out in the channel.  The Drascombe Lugger came motorsailing by and we got to admire her lines.  With the light winds and no spinnaker or genoa he pretty much had to motor, like most of the boats.  We sailed to 100 yards from the Quietwater Bridge, dropped the staysail, fired up the motor, and powered under the bridge rather than get beat up by all the big powerboats wakes as they screamed under the bridge.  There was a guy with a camera on the pilings under the bridge (is that a rampart) that took our picture as we motored under, ran like a madman to the other end, and took our picture again.  I got an email from him with a nice picture of BB under power sail mode a couple of days later – his name was Murray White, experienced sailor who heard about the BEER Cruise and thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures.  We cleared the bridge enough to turn SE away from the channel, killed the motor, and popped the staysail back up.  We were passed by a few more sailboats under power but the wind was starting to slowly build.  Our speed started climbing over the next couple of hours until we were doing 4.5 kts with the staysail up.  We decided it was time for a swim, so we tried to strike the staysail and that is when we had a problem.  I untied the halyard from the starboard aka and felt the tension on it but ignored it.  I handed it to Becky, who was also manning the tiller very capably, turned to grab the sail and lower it while releasing tension off the tack.  Becky gave a yelp and released the halyard after a gust hit causing the staysail to fly behind us into the water and the halyard to run up into the mizzenmast block.  I made sure Becky was ok, hauled the head and clew in together, released the tack and stuffed everything into the sailbag.  Becky put a little salve on her palm and berated me for handing her the halyard with that much load on it.  I guess I need to mount a block and jam cleat on both akas for the halyard on the staysail.  We beached and swam/sat in the water for 20 minutes or so waiting on other boats to show up.  We finally saw several boats coming our way, and they were sailing.  We pushed off the beach, sheeted in a little, and went ripping toward them at 5kts or so.  It turned out to be Allen on Joy, Dan on Ol Geezer, and Catara – a beautiful Drascombe Coaster we had admired the day before.  We zipped by, turned and sailed between Dan and Catara to take pictures and began slogging after Allen on Joy.  Allen did not want to get passed, so he set his autopilot and went forward on the bow to get some extra speed out of his Potter 19.  He kept ahead of us for a half hour or so before we went by him (actually Becky took the tiller and caught up with him, I was staying even with him).  We continued on toward Navarre and listened to some of the boats already there discuss channels and anchorage issues.  One guy confused everyone by talking about restricted areas when he meant shallow water.  We sailed blissfully onto the sandbar the WCTSS always uses, set a fore and aft anchor, hopped out into 8 inches of water – an hour or so before low tide – and went in for dinner along the row of bigger boats backed onto the narrow strip of beach.  Several people told us the water was really shallow where we were, so we thanked them each time and told them we sleep better aground than bobbing from the wakes the boat ramp causes.  Had another poor meal at Juana’s, I think we are going to cross them off our list of dining venues, but the Bushwackers were great.  We sat out on the porch and watched some of the dock wankers, walked to the far end of the anchorage with Allen Russell, and yelled at the Grits bunch hanging out on 2 Beers boat.  We wandered back to BB at dark and crashed.  I woke up around 3am with some wave slap so I pulled a few feet of aft anchor line in and that put us stern into the tidal wake.

            We woke up about 6:30 local time (5:30 ours), and had coffee and healthy oatmeal for breakfast.  Becky had decided that we were going to pull out today and make a few hours on the road before getting a room.  I agreed, albeit grudgingly, since 9+ hours behind the wheel is killer.  After only having a couple of Bushwackers on Sunday I was primed for Quietwater.  We struck the tent, dropped the mizzenmast to retrieve the staysail halyard, and motor sailed off the aft anchor out past the docks to the west.  We turned to the west and got a light breeze off the starboard side, hoisted the staysail and took off at 2kts.  A few motorboats with masts passed us and the wind became even lighter but showed signs of shifting to the WSW as NOAA predicted.  We were becalmed for a short time and then the wind kicked up to 3kts or so out of the west, on the nose.  We dropped the staysail, sheeted in, and started trying to reach as high as we could.  Whoever said that gentlemen don’t sail to weather was right.  If you look at the track on the main page you can see why.  The wind kept picking up slowly and would swing a good 20 degrees at times.  When we were on a port tack and it would get more S to it we were happy, but when it got more W we were not happy.  We were moving along at 3kts+ when we saw Ted’s Potter 19 sailing off the south beach.  We sailed by and yelled at each other as we took pictures.  Ted kept up with us on a couple of tacks (the wind was still settling down – on one of our tacks we were going back toward Navarre by 10 degrees or so) before the wind settled in and picked up a little allowing us to go a little faster and sail higher and longer on a port tack.  One funny thing happened involving some type of Mac, probably an M, who came powering up to about a half mile behind us just before the wind shifted, popped his sails and started talking smack on the radio about sailing past all the little boats ahead of him.  He blew a couple of tacks from our perspective, but it wouldn’t have mattered – we smoked his butt.  Within an hour they were lost in the haze astern of us.  I don’t want to slam Macs, since I think it depends more on the sailor than the boat, but most of them motored nearly the entire time we saw them.  Our speed kept increasing as we neared the Quietwater Bridge, but I still opted for motoring under it.  We cleared the other side and the wind and waves increased a lot.  We were probably in 10kt winds and 1-foot waves before the bridge and after it kicked to 15kts of wind and 2-3 foot waves.  We popped into a starboard tack to try and clear the shallows at Deer Point after the turn, but that didn’t happen.  We had to give it a half tack again to clear the marker.  Once that was done we kicked up to 6kts on a port beam run with only a little stress from the confused waves in the relatively shallow Pensacola Bay.  We sailed into the cut for PMSC and wanted to keep sailing as far as we could but some dumbutt in a speedboat got 10 feet off my starboard quarter and kept us from tacking, so Becky furled the main and mizzen while I fired up the motor for the short run to the ramp.  One of my latest “improvements” fizzled out at the ramp.  I was getting tired of cranking BB out of the water (we don’t even dip the trailer) with the single speed winch I had so I bought a 2,000 pound electric winch from Wally World, mounted it on my winch bed, put a flat pack connector on the battery wires, and figured I was good to go.  Becky still looks at me a few times a day and goes, “rrr, rrr, zzzzzz”.  Anyway I hooked up the winch to BB’s bow, kept tension on the cable as I tilted the trailer and mashed the “in” button on the remote for the winch.  The motor started making mighty noises, but BB wasn’t moving very much.  Becky started making comments from the dock where she was holding the stern line to keep the boat lined up for the trailer.  There might have been 50 pounds on the stinking winch and it was groaning like it was pulling the Queen Mary.  After 5 minutes of rrrrrr noise and still 3 or 4 feet left to move the boat the winch just shut off and made that solenoid sound – zzzz – and BB was not moving.  I grabbed the handy crank that came with the winch, put it on, and started cranking the boat in while sweating profusely and keeping my mouth shut, something Becky wasn’t doing.  She asked me a half dozen times if the motor was supposed to do that and if I had done something wrong to make it do that.  With just over 2 feet remaining to recover the Chinese – I don’t really know for sure where it was made but it’s my story – frigging stripped off the winch.  Now we had 2 feet to go and no way of getting there.  Fortunately I had kept the old single speed winch in the Jeep and figured I could change everything back around once I got off the ramp.  I put a couple of ratchet tie downs on the bow and carefully pulled BB up the ramp.  We parked and noticed a rather quiet couple next to us unrigging their full keel boat, that was on a big trailer, who didn’t look too happy, so I just nodded and started working on my problem.  Becky, I’m not sure if she was trying to be helpful or was just trying to piss me off, kept offering her input, completely disregarding my growled responses of, “Thank you, dear” after each of her insightful and knowledgeable opinions.  I finally decided to put a vice grip on the shaft and do what I could.  I had Becky push the button on the winch as I turned the crank/vice grips.  We managed to get BB all the way up and Becky informed me that the winch didn’t seem up to pulling the boat onto the trailer.  You know, I believe those people that say that more divorces happen at the boat ramp than anywhere else.  We unrigged, took a shower, and hit the road.  We stopped an hour or so later on I-10 at DQ for a foot long chili dog and Blizzard to celebrate another successful BEER Cruise.  An hour after that we stopped at a basic, no frills hotel for the night, got up the next morning and made it home by 1pm.

Lessons Learned:

Mount a block and jam cleat on each of the aft akas for the Staysail

Fix the tent pole that broke and take a spare in the future

Take that cheap A** winch back to Wally World and spend the money on a real one

The Mizzen Staysail paid for itself on the cruise – I hate to motor, and with the 2kt rule

we would have had at least another 3 hours of it

Play with the winch post position to get rid of the tail wag when semi's pass me

When Becky gives input just shut up, I really like having her sail with me!

                  Tuesday we got up around 6 made some great coffee and healthy oatmeal – somehow when it says healthy it always tastes like sawdust – and sailed down to the entrance to Elliot Key Marina at 6mph in the lowering northwinds (less than 10kts) from the night before.  We motored in and tied up beside these club boats:  Mac 26X – Dave and Teresa in Hot Tub; Gus and his future son-in-law Derrick on Pura Vida another X; Stin and Dustin on his Potter 19, Lily P; and Ted Jean on his Sunbird 16, Phoenix.  We greeted everyone, made our plans for a leisurely sail down to Alabama Jacks – the winds were predicted to keep dropping to 6 or 8 kts – and then took a shower in the cold, sulphur-smelling water at the marina, but we got clean.  Phoenix took off while we were showering and we were the next ones out.  We tacked around the entrance waiting on the other boats to come out instead of running down Phoenix, but we did turn south when Hot Tub and Harmony came out of the marina.  We sailed down behind Harmony and got some great shots as we passed them, too bad only 8 or so of our 111 pictures came out.  I think my crew is making the mistake but they claim the camera got wet.  The only problem with that reasoning is that I took 4 movies in between the pictures, and they came out fine.  We sailed downwind to the south at 5 - 6 mph or so and steadily pulled away from the other boats.  We sailed down to just east of Adams Key and circled back to take pictures of the two X’s that we could still see, Hot Tub and Pura Vida.  We circled in front of Hot Tub, and I shot a video that came out pretty well.  None of the pictures of either boat or Harmony, who was keeping a lead on the X boats, came out.  They were pretty good.  We turned back to the south and steadily left everyone in our proverbial dust.  We caught up with Phoenix at the Card Sound Bridge, arranged for me to get a ride into Alabama Jacks with Ted – I do not like the docks at Alabama Jacks with the current and I’m not that good at motoring Blue Bayou – while Becky stayed onboard and read.  The docks at AJ’s were under construction and it was a pain to get in to the docks.  We helped most of the other boats get tied up and then went inside.  Once seated we were treated to a tirade by the owner that they were short staffed and we needed to be ready to order when he came back with our drinks – no questions – just order.  I think we’ll go somewhere else next year and leave Alabama Jacks to the bikers.  Dave and Mary showed up in their Mac 26X, Buffet’s Fault and ordered after us.  It took nearly an hour to get our food, we never got refills at our table, and we had to wait forever to get a check.  The food, all fried, is just not good enough to go through that crap again.  Next year I’ll look into a marina that is either close to town or that has taxi service so we can walk around some.  We left around 4pm and sailed slowly 2.5mph to Short Key for the evening anchorage and bonfire.  The beach was deserted but people had left their mark.  There was trash everywhere.  I don’t know why people are like that.  We had a nice fire and sat around with our bug lanterns glowing.  Ken and Barbara showed up in their Mac 26X, Last Flight around 6:30.  We sat around and talked until 8:30 or so and went to bed.  The Macs pulled a little further out into the inlet, but they still ended up aground the next morning.  Probably cooked too many waffles or crepes. 

    We slept well but awoke to fog around 6.  We took our time, knowing that we weren’t going anywhere until the fog lifted, and made eggs and pancakes inside the tent.  We cleaned up, had another cup of coffee, and watched Ted get antsy to get out into the water.  About 9 Ted took off, we struck the tent and got out about 20 minutes later behind Harmony.  The rest of the slug-a-beds were just having their morning coffee.  We hoisted sails and sailed out toward the Card Sound Bridge at 6mph in 10mph or so of wind.  We sailed under the bridge with the motor idling just in case, and we need it as we got under the bridge and the current caught us.  We motored to about 50 yards past the bridge and took off sailing again. Ted was sailing his butt off and keeping ahead of us with his Sunbird, but we caught him at the choke point on the north end of Little Card Sound where he waved goodbye since he was going to pull out at Homestead that day.  We altered our course to the NE and aimed for Anglefish Cut into the Atlantic.  One thing about being the lead dog is you have to figure out where you are going instead of just following everyone.  We knew we were going the right way when a 40+foot sailboat motored in front of us and turned into the cut.  I wonder why the big boats never seem to have their sails up?  We ended up motoring about 200 yards in the middle of the cut when the trees cut the wind off from us but between the wind and current we sailed through 90% of the cut.  We got into the Atlantic and the wind was a little weaker but picked up the further out we got.  We sailed out to some Coral Heads almost due east of Old Rhodes Key and found a spot of sand to drop the anchor in and drift back over the coral.  Stin called to let us know they were coming out and we could see Harmony approaching, but the other boats were nowhere to be seen or heard.  We put on our wetsuits and had a nice snorkel.  Seeing the standard browns and occasional blues of the coral.  It still amazes me that 2 miles off the coast of Florida we have all kinds of coral.  Plenty of fish – I don’t know their names but there were yellow and black, blue, and grey ones out there.  We pulled anchor and sailed off the hook about 1:30.  We sailed north going 6 and 7 mph – I was thinking we never topped 6.4 kts but the GPS track is in mph and it shows a lot more speed.  We got to the cut for Caesar’s Creek Bank and we were sailing so good I decided to keep going instead of enduring the wakes of all the power boats screaming through the cut.  I tried calling Harmony and Lily P - who had been snorkeling with us - but got no answer, so I couldn’t tell them of our decision to keep going.  I don’t like my new handheld radio.  I want another Huminbird VHF5.  We sailed the 7.5 miles from Caesar’s Cut to Sands Cut in less than an hour and a half, hitting 7mph a lot and never falling below 6mph according to the track.  Wow, I just jumped online and found a conversion chart that says 5.4kts is 6.2mph, how cool.  We fired up the motor for Sands Cut since I could see that the wind was blocked inside the pass.  Big mistake, since we started churning mud before we got into the cut.  It was about 2 hours before low tide but that is a shallow pass.  We stopped and pulled the motor up, the wind caught us and spun us back toward the SE and clear of the shallows but toward an oyster bank that was out of the water, so I popped the motor back in and backed us into deeper water.  We hoisted the sails, pulled everything up – rudder, leeboard, and motor -  and tried the cut again.  We scraped just a touch a couple of times but cleared the real shallows and made it into deeper water where I dropped the rudder and leeboard a little more.  We stalled as I had predicted since the wind was blocked but I popped the motor down and pushed us through the 50 yards or so of windless condition and we started sailing again.  We came out into 15mph of wind and a bunch of anchored power boaters.  It was fun sailing around and through them as we made our way toward the tide station.  When we got there we found powerboats had already taken the good anchorages so we called for anyone in the group to see where they were.  I heard from Dave on Hot Tub immediately and we decided to rendezvous with them at the marina.  We pulled in just ahead of Lily P who had motored north from Caesar’s Cut and Harmony pulled in an hour or so behind them.  The Macs had all helped push each other out of the mud and made it to the marina by 3 or so.  One casualty, Ken on Last Flight had stepped on a trash bag inside his boat and cut his foot.  His boat was docked at Homestead while he was at the Emergency Room getting stitches.  We saw him the next morning just before they headed back out to join the crowd, he was fine.  We BBQ’d and talked with everyone until about 9 and went to bed.  Another rowdy New Years Eve!  There wasn’t too much noise but the wind kicked up to 20 or so and rattled the poop out of the tent, which wasn’t set that well since we had to have an ama in to fit into the slip.  All in all this was our worst night’s sleep of the trip. 

    We awoke at 5:15 and we went over to take a shower before all the campers – several groups had run shuttles to put 20+ of their friends and relatives in 4 distinct tent cities on the marina proper since the backside was closed for construction storage.  We said goodbye to Harmony as they pulled out around 6.  They had family commitments and needed to make tracks.  We ate breakfast and had our morning coffee and left around 8 for the sail back.  We were close reaching with about 10 or 12mph of wind, which makes for a wet ride so Becky put her foulies on.  I toughed it out and didn’t get too wet.  We topped 7mph a few times but stayed above 6mph for the 9 mile 1.5 hour trip back to the marina.  We pulled out and got on the road by 10:15.  We got home, after stopping and washing the boat at exit 193, and unloaded everything by 5.  Another great trip onboard Blue Bayou.  Lessons learned: It is tough to do more than a few days onboard BB for the two of us: when Momma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy.  I loved being the fastest boat, by a good margin, in attendance!

Saturday morning we all motored over to the CC marina to use their facilities and plan our day.  We decided to head out into the Gulf through Boca Grande Pass and sail down to either Captiva or Redfish Pass and find a marina for the night.  We ran over to the group at Pelican Bay to tell them of our plans and found out that nearly everyone was heading back to avoid the 20 kt winds predicted for Sunday.  We sailed out the pass to the big red bouy at 2 – 3 kts, made our turn to run downwind, and sat there.  There was no wind.  Over the radio, after an hour of bobbing, we decided to run back in to Boca Grande Marina for fuel and lunch.  We turned back, fired up the motors, and slogged back against the nearly 3 kt current that had pushed us out the pass.  We made it to the marina by 1:30, still without wind, got a temporary slip, refueled, and had a very nice – but pricey – meal in the marina restaurant.  We decided to head back to CC for the night since it was nearly 3 and both the other boats decided to pay the $2.25 a foot to rough it at the marina.  We got back into Charlotte Harbor and sailed to Pelican Bay at 4+ kts.  There were still 5 or 6 club boats in the hidey hole so we beached BB and joined the party.  We crawled onto BB at dark and awoke a few times to heavy weather sounds and problems.  The wind had picked up to about 20 and was howling through the area.    A few people had to reposition anchors but we never did.

The wind was blowing out of the north and there were 2 – 3 foot waves in the harbor with spray off the whitecaps.  Becky and I were in no hurry to leave so we watched Whisper, Siren 17, show her keel a few times on her way out toward Eldriges to the north.  I felt so sorry for poor Ruth, Terry’s wife, on Whisper.  She gets seasick pretty easily and soldiers through it but this was pretty serious for a trailer sailor.  We contacted the other parts of our fleet and they decided to sit at the marina until the afternoon to see how things were going.  Around 1 Sundancer motored in and we moved over to the Punta Blanca side of the boat anchorage to get out of the wind.  Last Flight, a Mac 26X sailed solo by KY Ken, joined us.  Ken had chairs and a blue tarp sunshade that we made use of while eating copious snacks, having a few drinks, and talking boats.  Sundancer informed us that Solice had a problem trying to leave Boca Grande Marina at the turn marker.  The waves were too fierce and they had damaged their rudder and their short shaft motor would not stay in the water with the wave height they had.  They were staying another night at BGM. We borrowed Sundancer’s tandem kayak and ran over to the Ranger Station for a couple of bags of ice.  There was a 35 foot sailboat aground in the anchorage and rather than wait for the tide – it was near dead low – they were kedging off something fierce.  They had their sails up and had the boat heeled to 20 degrees or so.  After nearly an hour, and probably despite their efforts – the boat floated off.  We watched them motorsail out toward Charlotte Harbor and they only ran aground one more time.  Around 4pm Last Flight took off for Eldred’s, Sundancer motored around to the anchorage behind Punta Blanca, and we motored out into Charlotte Harbor to go sailing.  The waves weren’t too bad and we only went out far enough to clear the marker on Punta Blanca before setting sail to the east with two turns in on the main.  We scooted along and made a slow turn inside the abandoned fish house on the SE side of PB running between 5 and 6 kts in 12 – 15kts of wind.  I pulled the leeboard most of the way up and sailed behind PB and the wind but only slowed to 3kts or so in 2 or 3 feet of water.  We only sailed about 4 miles but it was fun.  We dropped anchor, grilled burgers and sliced potatoes on our Magma Grill and topped it off with Doritos and cheese dip.  We slept well, compared to the night before, and had to get under the sleeping bag around 3am. 

Monday and the plan was to wait for Solice to arrive before heading out to the south along the ICW to Tween Waters Marina.  Paul Wagoner had recommended it, and Becky and I were ready to sleep somewhere besides the boat.  Both of our Eddie Bauer self-inflating air mattresses were dead and we were looking decidedly haggard.  We motored over to the docks at Cayo Costa and washed off in the bathrooms there, made some of our excellent fresh ground French press coffee with a touch of hazelnut coffee, ate some dry – but healthy – oatmeal (there isn’t enough milk in the world to make some types of oatmeal edible, I even put peanut butter in mine) and talked to Sundancer, also at the docks, about the day.  Around 9 we heard from Solice that with the weather forecast they were going to stay another night at BGM and would try to catch up with us on Tuesday.  We decided to wait and see if things calmed down since the wind was blowing around 12 in the harbor and we could see the whitecaps from the docks – which means it is pretty mean in the harbor.  Here is the wind plot from Sailflow for Monday:

We decided, after walking the beach on Cayo Costa to take off while the winds were fairly light so around 10:30 am or so we motored out into Charlotte Harbor with 2 – 3 foot seas, made the turn to the east to put the waves off the port ama, and rolled out the main 3 turns and the mizzen 4 turns out.  We were pretty close to the wind and sailed along at 4 kts until we got into the ICW and made our turn toward the south.  We hopped up to 5 kts and the ride smoothed out a lot once we got past the fishhouse on PB.  Just before the split in the channel to go to Useppa Island we jibed around and sailed back to Sundancer.  We jibed around them and set our sails to stay off their starboard beam so we could talk and sail together.  Coming up to the Cabbage Key sign we fell in behind them and loafed along 30 yards or so off their starboard quarter until we cleared the turn below Cabbage Key.  We were abeam of the waves below Useppa but they weren’t bad enough to bother us.  We reached Captiva Pass around 12 or so.  Solice called about then and told us a squall had just come through BGM and had caused a lot of trouble with some major gusts of wind and that it was headed our way.  We could see storm clouds running south off our port beam so we decided that it was time to haul a## before we got caught in a storm.  We unfurled both sails and quickly got up to 6.5 kts and ran across the shallows in a direct line toward Tween Waters and clearing Redfish Pass by ¾ of a mile or so.  Sundancer stayed in the ICW with her 2+ foot of draft but we could see each other.  The closer we got to Redfish Pass the higher the winds and waves off the beam got – look at the chart just before 2pm – so we reefed the main down a few turns but continued moving along just under 6 kts.  We found Marker 2 – the channel at Captiva - and sailed in, dropping the main about a half mile from our destination at Marker 18 and then luffing up toward Buck Key just off the marina while waiting on the marina to return our hail.  We took the opportunity to drop the mizzen and fire up the motor.  We idled in gear into the wind for a while to hold our position without dropping the anchor before they returned our call. There was only one guest boat at the docks but the wind was blowing nearly dead onto them from the NE so when they finally called us we opted for the hotel side of the docks so our bow would be into the wind.  It took me two tries to get the boat in but that isn’t bad against 15 kts of wind and a small turning area to point into the dock.  Sundancer arrived just as we were getting our last line on so the marina guy – Ken, a very polite and capable dock attendant – ran over and got them settled at the slip two down from us.  The deal at the docks was $2.25 a foot unless you were staying at the resort, then it was $1.75 a foot.  Becky told me we were not staying on the boat so we trudged over and got a very nice room for $129 a night.  I was ready for it too.  We got a shower and headed for the pool bar!  The drinks were TDM (too damn much) but I was doing the buy one drink three of mine from my cooler bag and Becky had a Rum Runner for $8 and sat there smiling.  The four of us went to dinner at the resort restaurant.  It was TDM too, but I did enjoy my dinner.  We dragged ourselves back to our room after agreeing to meet in the other dining room for breakfast at 8.  I slept like the dead!

Tuesday dawned beautifully.  Where had this weather been?  A light 8 – 10 kt breeze out of the NE with no waves at all.  We met Sundancer’s crew for our free Continental breakfast – tons of fruits, cereals, pastries, juices, and did I mention pastries?  After breakfast I was ready for an early nap but we were checking out of our room before noon.  We packed up and returned to the boat around 10 and readied ourselves for another night onboard by getting ice from the marina - $4 for a 5 gallon bucket – and watching Sundancer top off their gas tank.  We all walked into the shopping district instead of taking the $2 shuttle – big mistake – since I was beat on the way back toting a case of Bud Light.  We laid around the pool and did the buy one drink three from the cooler – it is really a dry bag that I fill with ice – but we did have some excellent nachos by the pool for lunch.  You could tell the Floridians from the Yankees – we were hiding under the umbrellas while they were lying out in the sun.  About 1 we got a call from Solice saying they had managed to get out of BGM and would arrive around 3 or so.  We mosied on down to the docks and met them around 3:15.  They were a little frazzled after the problems with the boat but were still in good spirits.  They got a room for the night, we all went out to dinner – prime rib was the special – and sat around the pool planning our marathon return to Punta Gorda 35 or so miles away.  We decided to leave around 9 the next morning – after a hearty Continental breakfast of course – and if we couldn’t make it pull in at Burnt Store Marina for the night.  The weather forecast for Thursday was even stinkier than Wednesday so we really wanted to avoid all the rain in the forecast.

   My first problem was turning the boat around since it is a pretty narrow area around the ramp and I don’t motor very well.  I pulled and pushed Blue Bayou manually around the tip of the dock to the other side and faced problem number two, “how do you push off the dock, steer, and power when they are on opposite sides”?  I tried several ways that didn’t work until I tied the bow line off with a loop around a pole near the bow on the dock, held onto the bitter end, hopped into the boat, put the motor in gear, and flipped the line off the pole and onto the side deck as I went by.  Singlehanding is hard work so as soon as I cleared the rocks around the entrance I set my new tiller tamer – a sandal on each side of the tiller jammed between the seat and stainless steel bar for the motor mount – and popped into the forward cockpit for a cold beverage.  That done I sucked that dude down, checked my course, idled back to barely make headway, and went forward and unfurled the main – all the while motoring slowly along the marked channel.  Returned, checked my course, which was fine, and put out the mizzen.  Set both sails as I turned toward Beer Can Island, shut off the motor and tilted it up and moved out at a whopping 1.8 kts on the GPS.  I could feel puffs of wind but there wasn’t 5 kts of it.  I tried a couple of slow course changes hoping to find some wind without any luck so decided that another cold beverage was the key to my day.  I set my new tiller tamer and hopped up forward and returned.  I sat back down and looked at the GPS and found myself doing 3.2kts.  What the heck?  I took my sandals out and noticed that one had slipped allowing the boat to go an extra 20 degrees or so off the wind.  Blue Bayou sails herself better than I do I guess.  I set my recline-o-seat in the bottom of the aft cockpit floor, felt the tiller massage my cheek as I stroked its glossy finish, and sipped my cool beverage.  It was a fine feeling.  Despite my best efforts I couldn’t improve on the speed BB had found for herself so I figured I would see if Steve on Shadow, his Sea Pearl 21 monohull, had his radio on.  Steve answered promptly from between the spoil islands north of Beer Can Island, which was NE of my position.  He had just shut his motor off and found some wind, as had I, and we arranged to meet at Beer Can.  I sailed slowly but happily toward our rendezvous and went forward a few times for more libation.  Steve made the turn at Beer Can and sailed by on a starboard-to-starboard passing.  I got a few good pictures of his boat both as he sailed by and after he turned and came by again.  I was busy talking to my daughter about which classes she needed at her new college and “let” Steve pass me, yea right – Blue Bayou is not the fastest boat out there in light winds but she picks up her skirts and hauls when it starts to blow.  I followed Steve onto the beach and we talked boats for an hour or so while noticing that the wind was slowly building out of the SW.  We launched around 2, Steve returning to the north and me going west.  I practiced one of the great things about a Sea Pearl repeatedly this trip – heaving to – and took the opportunity a hundred yards off Beer Can to heave to and put the sides on the tent cabin of Blue Bayou.  The wind/waves were kicking up such that I was getting a little spray and wanted to keep the cabin dry.  4 minutes later I was tacking back and forth to reach the entrance to MacDill.  Around 3 I made the entrance and kept on going since I didn’t have to pick up Becky until 5 or so.  I had a good run after I could turn a little further north and ran just outside the buoys marking both shallow water and government property off MacDill.  I hit 6.2 kts a few times and when I tacked to the south my GPS recorded a 7.1 kt speed as my fastest.  I was enjoying myself too much to play with looking at the GPS.  I hove to a couple of times to get another beverage, since I wasn’t in a hurry anymore, ate lunch while hove to (Subway), and walked around the boat checking stuff out while hove to.  All in all, a good time was had by all - that would be me.  Around 4:30 I sailed near the entrance to MacDill, went forward to drop the main, and dropped my hat in the water too.  I figured I would finish the main, furl the mizzen, and if I could still see it I would get the hat.  Luckily for me the Marine Security guys from MacDill zoomed out to see what I was doing.  I waved and told them I was getting ready to pick my wife up at the docks on MacDill.  They figured out I wasn’t a terrorist and as they floated away spotted my hat.  Just as they were picking it up I yelled and told them that was my Coast Guard hat, if that was what they were picking up.  They pulled it aboard and gave me an odd look but motored over and threw me my hat.  I guess a hat with scrambled eggs and a Chief’s Anchor would be confusing to military types.  I put my wet hat on and motored in.  About 300 yards out I pulled the starboard ama in, found the bow line I had never touched since launching, and rigged the fenders on deck.  Becky was on the other dock from the one I had launched from, but it had a large section of dock parallel to the launch ramp.  I pointed in, put the tiller hard over, goosed the throttle twice, and slid up against the dock like I knew what I was doing.  Becky stepped aboard, I shifted into reverse with the motor and rudder pointed into the dock to swing the bow out, let it swing out, and powered out.  I noticed that the marine security guys were standing at the ramp watching me and knew that they figured – after rescuing my hat – that it was going to be ugly.  Sometimes you look good and sometimes you look really stupid, today I looked good.  I threw them a quick over the shoulder salute as we exited the area.

   Becky sat down in the aft cockpit with me as we motored slowly out and immediately chastised me for having too many beverages.  How does she always know?  Anyway, I told her to take care of the main and I would do the mizzen, mainly to get her off my back, and within minutes we were sailing toward Beer Can Island with 10 kts or so of wind off the starboard quarter at about 4.5 kts.  I gave Becky the tiller, opened another beverage, and sat back to enjoy some sailing – all the while ignoring her withering stare about my current “state”.  It took about 20 minutes for her to get over it and that was about the time we made the decision to go on the other side of the spoil islands and sail up to Fantasy Island.  I spent some time trying to explain the GPS to Becky, but she doesn’t really get it.  I even changed the orientation from always having North at the top of the display – the only way I really understand it – and that didn’t do anything except confuse me too.  Anyway, I was out of the doghouse and still had a couple of beverages left to enjoy so I took my recline-o-seat up on the starboard side deck and kicked back so the world could sail gently by.  Becky likes sailing Blue Bayou a lot better than she did Minnow.  She says she doesn’t mind heeling but the few times Minnow hit the 15 degree mark when she had the helm she panicked and started yelling for me to take the tiller.  Now she complains because I want my fair share of the stick.

   We got up to Fantasy Island, after a 20 minute dogleg where the shoreline got confusing and Becky was looking at the GPS and we ended up going between the two spoil islands and back into the shipping lanes – and tried to beach the boat on the NE side of the island.  A zillion bugs immediately attacked us so we shoved off and sailed out 40 yards or so and dropped the anchor there.  BB only has about 75 feet of anchor line with 15 feet of chain and I need to put 150 feet of anchor line on pretty soon.  I’m planning a swap meet run soon to get that and a few other things so the first Saturday it doesn’t rain I will be at the Odessa Swap Meet with a plate of biscuits and gravy and a cold beverage at 8 in the morning.  We stowed the sails, set the anchor drag alarm on the GPS – it works well as evidenced both times Minnow dragged during storms at Cayo Costa a few years back – and got to grilling.  I was a little disappointed to figure out our new Magma Grill doesn’t have an autolight feature.  You would think that for $100 (the mount was anther $45 but the grill was on sale for Father’s Day) it would have that.  We have a few long butane lighters so I fixed that problem quickly.  I threw a large chunk of marinated Delmonico steak on the grill, set the grill on low after searing both sides, cranked up our Sony Shower Radio/CD with a homemade CD on it, and cracked open my last adult beverage for the cruise (12 in 9 hours isn’t bad).  Becky went swimming – I am not going to say how, but she did not fall overboard – while I grilled and prepared a creamy sauce with cheese over fresh broccoli and heated some seasoned, sliced potatoes in tin foil next to the steak.  I put the grill on the aft part of the starboard wing deck because that is where the PO had his mounted and I used his holes.  I was supposed to get a Magma Grill with the boat but it wasn’t included and they had other things going on that precluded my complaining.  I was thinking about putting it on the port wing deck but that would block my vision when motoring so this side is better.  Mounting it aft, like most people seem to do on other boats would be a pain to reach with the bimini, seat, and motor mount in the way.  In addition it would be too close to the motor and gas back aft.  I will say I won’t sail with it up anymore, especially after we were hit with 40+ mph gusts of wind on Saturday, but I digress.  Becky came back aboard and dried off while I set the table – put stuff on plates and poured drinks – and we fell to eating with gusto.  I only get red meat when we sail, and then only once per cruise, so I relish each opportunity.  We had a great nights sleep while swinging on the hook in a 6 kt or so breeze. 

   Woke up on Saturday, sailed off the hook to the little beach we were on in Stump's Pass, cooked breakfast on the beach, and hooked up with Ron and Paul for a sail down south in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is about 20 miles total and with the wind from the east on our beam it was a great sail.  The waves were gently rolling swells about 2 feet deep.  Once we got our sails set and adjusted course to get the swells just off the port bow we rode like a champ.  We didn't know where Bill was, I figured he was sleeping in, but knew he would be along directly.  We had gone a couple of miles or so south in the Gulf before hearing Bill calling for us with word that he had bought everyone ice - out of the kindness of his heart.  We all turned around to meet Bill and "The Iceman" delivered a bag to each of us.  We continued down the coast with the boys pulling away from Blue Bayou - slowly.  We talked to Ron later and found out that sitting on the bow slows you down - we took turns sitting up on the bow figuring we would go faster that way.  I don't mind being last when everyone else has a Sea Pearl.  We were also a good 400 pounds heavier than the other boats with the two of us aboard, tons of provisions, what I thought was too much beer, and our sailing positions working against us.  We heard from Rick and Dave (Mac 26S – Mental Floss and Mac 26X – Hot Tub) near Gasparilla Pass and coordinated a rendezvous at Pelican Bay.  We sailed into Boca Grande Pass about 30 minutes behind everyone else and right into a Tarpon Tournament.  We had to fire up the iron genny to get through the line of drifting/powering fishing idiots strung across the pass bobbing in the 2 -3 foot seas.  Powerboat types tend to look at you with mouths agape as they block your tack, since most seem to be completely clueless about rules of the road and vessels under sail.  We made it through the confused seas/boaters and sailed happily onto the beach on Punta Blanca Island.  It was hot, so we quickly joined everyone in the water.  Rick and Linda, followed by Dave and Teresa, arrived an hour or so later.  Becky was restowing the boat when she discovered our 2 gallon water tank – it is no longer allowed in the boat – had fallen over and spilled out completely.  I figured we were fine with 8 bottles of Zhills water and a 5 day cooler full of icewater.  Teresa was nice enough to give us a gallon of good water so we could use it for coffee.  I never realized how nasty cooler water tastes until Sunday afternoon – it is rank!  Anyway, back to Saturday - we swam, admired each other’s boats, and snacked until a couple of guys arrived – I have to do something about drinking and not remembering names, I think I’ll quit trying to remember names – brothers I think, in their homebuilt Bufflehead sailing canoe.  Ron and Becky took off for a ride while the rest of us guarded the beach.  After they got back I took Rick and Dave out for a ride on Blue Bayou.  Dave steered while Rick and I drank.  The winds were light but we had a good sail.  About an hour before dark we motored over to a swinging anchorage for the night.  Becky stayed awake and got to watch the fireworks show put on by the Tarpon Tournament while I slept the sleep of the innocent drunkard.  We had a great long sail in the Gulf, plenty of food and beverages, and hung out with our friends on the beach so I count it a Great Day.

   Sunday morning we sailed off the hook to the beach to cook breakfast and find out what everyone else was going to do.  Got the bow anchor out and got bit a few thousand times, so we sailed back off the beach and anchored 100 feet off the island in a bug-free zone.  Paul sailed over to check on what we were considering and decided he was going home.  Bill and Ron sailed by and said their goodbyes as they headed back to Placida to pull out.  I called Rick and Dave and found out they were going to pull out too, but at Bokelia.  We finished our breakfast of egg/boca sausage sandwiches with French press coffee (a great improvement over our old percolator), hoisted sail and started a slow sail to the south to Fosters Bay.  We talked to the Macs on the radio as we opened up distance and we could hear Ron and Bill as well until they were about 5 miles away.  We sailed outside the ICW in the shallows all the way down so we would miss playing chicken with the myriad of powerboats.  We averaged 3.5 – 4kts in fairly light winds, maybe 7 or 8 kts, but we were working against the current so I was happy.  I got set up in my cruising position – slouched against the seat back and my WM blue foldy-chair with the tiller on my cheek as I looked through the forward cabin to see what was ahead.  We kicked up to five a couple of times but ghosted most of the rest of the time.  I started playing with leeboard position and decided that all the way up was quieter and since I couldn’t tell if we were slipping to the side, it made for an even quieter sail.  It took just over 3 hours to get to Fosters Bay – we returned in 90 minutes on Monday with stronger winds and the current helping us – but I couldn’t see the “S” path to enter the anchorage that Paul had showed us before, so we pulled everything up and sailed in, dodging a few logs sticking out as well as two oyster bars.  We barely rubbed the main hull once, and we were near low tide.  We anchored and swung around about 30 feet off the beach in 2 feet of water as we surveyed the deserted cove.  It looked like no one had been there since we had – 3 years before.  We got our beach stuff together and waded ashore.  The nude beach signs were gone and the sand looked untouched.  We walked the 50 yards across the island to the Gulf where we could just see a couple of boats anchored off the shore a half mile away.  We had our own private beach with warm, light blue water rolling in.  We swam, snacked, napped – Becky didn’t bring our beach umbrella so we spent a lot more time in the water than usual – until we retired to the shade of a tree in relatively bug free comfort around 2:30.  The "cooler" water was getting nastier by the minute but we needed to stay hydrated so we took turns complaining about it.  We could see the thunderstorms starting to build but there was no imminent danger for us so we lazed around and read until 4:30 or so.  We waded out to the boat and started hearing about tornado warnings in our area so I set our second Bruce – both big honking anchors – about 5 degrees off our first and 10 feet further out with slack in the line.  I figured if we started drifting or dragging the second anchor would kick in while it allowed us to keep into the wind.  I figured I would rather stay anchored and have to unwrap the anchors in the morning than the other alternative.  I wrapped the mizzen up on the mast since the cabin seemed to be providing enough windage for us to stay pointed into the wind pretty well, made sure everything was strapped down on deck – the 5 day cooler and equally large camp box.  I could see storm clouds nearly all the way around us and they were rotating in a counterclockwise direction.  It looked ominous as all get out.  Rain was falling from 80% of the clouds and lightning was moving from the NE to the NW in that line of the storms but we had only had a couple of sprinkles.  We snuggled in the cabin with our heads against the forward edge of the cockpit and watched the weather do its thing out the aft end of the cabin.  The wind had been out of the NW at about 8 but started picking up and wavering around causing us to start to hunt on the anchors.  At one time the wind picked up to probably 20 and spun us 270 degrees.  A little scary and watching the trees on the shoreline rushing by didn’t do Becky’s upcoming slumber much good.  We read and worried until 8pm or so when the NWS finally stopped adding/extending the severe weather warnings for our area.  Both of us popped up pretty regularly during the night to make sure we weren’t dragging into the trees, but other than some slow, repetitive wind shifts NE to E to SE and back we had a good night.

   Monday morning started out terribly.  Our 20+ year old Coleman two burner stove bit the dust.  We had just gotten the teapot water warming up when it crapped out.  The second burner from the inlet had broken off on Saturday, but the main burner just quit spitting out propane.  I fooled with it for nearly 10 minutes and quit before I polluted the environment with the stove out of frustration.  We quickly rigged for sea and sailed out of Foster’s Bay without incident.  We peeked out the pass at Captiva but decided, since we were scooting along at 5.2kts, to stay in the ICW.  We had a nice run back with very little other traffic on the water, averaging near 5 kts, since it was both early and a Monday.  We stalled for a while near Punta Blanca with the million dollar houses blocking the wind but picked back up once into Charlotte Harbor for some spirited sailing the rest of the way back, hitting 5.5 kts a number of times.  We got to the swinging bridge at Boca Grande Causeway around 11:30 after sailing 22 miles or so.  We left Foster’s Bay around 7:15 which looks like a moving average of 5kts or so, which you can’t sneeze at even overpacked like we were and without caffeine!  I called the bridge tender, found out they would open in 8 minutes, dropped the anchor, waited until the horn blew, and motored through.  We pulled the boat out, sweated our butts off while rigging for the road, and pulled into the Fisheries parking lot at 12:30 to find out they were closed on Mondays.  We zoomed back out and headed for home.  Because the trailer has 12 inch tires - rated for 1150 pounds each - we only do 60mph instead of the 70+ we used to do with Minnow and her 14 inch tires - we got 14.2 mpg for the roundtrip.  Not too bad for a Quad Cab Dodge Ram 1500 with a Hemi and 20" wheels towing a 1500 pound boat, 300 pound trailer, and another 200 pounds of crap.

    We did not sleep too well because of the noise of the boat ramp and toll booth but morning finally came.  I made 2 pots of coffee – the first one fell over when Becky moved inside the boat.  I was working on that first cup of coffee when I realized the car/boat next to us was Stin with his Potter.  He got up shortly after I had my breakfast and we decided to leave the masts down (I took down the masts in less than 10 minutes) and motor out to a little island, rig there, and sail down the outside edge of the ICW.  Shortly after this momentous decision Ron showed up with his Sea Pearl 21 Mono, Whisper.  We pulled Blue Bayou to the ramp and started our first launch evolution.  I had been told that the trailer did not have a tilt feature, which was odd, and when Ron came down to help me launch he pointed out that there was indeed a tilt on the trailer.  I had oiled up the tilt spring and lever several times and Ron showed me how it worked – unhook the boat, pull the pin, shove as you lift.  Unfortunately the antifouling on the bottom of the boat had gotten stuck to the bunks in the 18 months or so the boat had sat on the trailer so I ended up backing the trailer tires in another 6 inches or so to get enough flotation on the stern to pull the hull loose from the bunks.  The rest of the launch was easy.

   There was both wind and current at the docks and we were bow in.  Just like my Potter, Blue Bayou has a couple of quirks that I need to learn.  I had Becky slack off and then hold the bow line to use as a spring line as I reversed with both rudder and motor pointed to swing the stern around.  I had Becky check the bow and then jump aboard with the line.  The current promptly caught the boat and began pushing us into the ramp where Ron was launching.  I gave it full reverse and narrowly avoided a dock behind us.  I checked our motion, shifted into fwd as I cranked the rudder and motor full over and began goosing the throttle –a strategy that would have spun my Potter in a very tight circle – but without a leeboard down to act against the current we ended up shooting toward the docks again.  I jockeyed the shifter back and forth a few times and finally spun Blue Bayou around enough to start motoring out.  I will definitely have to do some “rubber docking drills” to figure out the nuances of motoring a Tri in restricted waters.  I think I shamed every Coxswain the Coast Guard ever made with my antics.  It was easier turning a 378’ Cutter around than Blue Bayou – but I had twin screws and a bow prop.

   We motored out to a little anchorage outside of Eldred’s Marina and promptly threw out the anchor so I could play with stuff.  The motor was still spitting on occasion, from not having been run in a while as well as being left with fuel in the carburetor so I revved it a few times and left it running.  When we started motoring I made sure to give it full throttle a few times for short durations and think I cleaned out the jets enough that I won’t have any future problems.  We waited about 10 minutes for Ron and followed him out and under the swinging bridge that we didn’t bother to get opened.  The wind was blowing about 18kts as we cleared the broken railroad bridge on the south side of the swinging bridge with whitecaps further out but Blue Bayou motored very well without either leeboard down.  I found that at full throttle I could get 5.7kts before we went under the bridge and the wind hit us.  We followed Ron onboard Whisper over to a Spoil Island where we beached to rig the boats.  Stin, on his Potter, and both Steves on their Bay Hens anchored out and began rigging.  Ron took a few breaks and came over to point out things I was doing wrong or to make a suggestion about future modifications while Becky and I were rigging.  I have since put non-skid pads on both masts so I can grip them easier to furl and unfurl the sails, changed the vang hooks to stainless S hooks instead of the stainless carbiners that were on their, and lubricated the poop out of the boom outhauls/mast pin in hopes of loosening them up more – all per Ron’s suggestions.  Ron is just a great guy all around and in over 5 years of sailing with him he has never told me that I am the Village Idiot that I am – kudos Ron, you are a nice guy.

   We were beached in the lee of the island and weren’t feeling any wind so we rolled the main in 2 turns and the mizzen in 3 turns and backed out to motor sail into the wind around the shoals in front of the island.  Just as we cleared the edge of the island the 25kt winds hit us!  With full throttle we spun around in a circle, steadied up momentarily aimed straight at Steve’s Bayhen – not the Metlife Blimp Steve but Turtle Grass Steve – when Becky began yelling for me to do something.  We had too much sail up, no leeboard down, and the motor could not overcome anything!  I cranked the motor hard over to spin the boat away from Turtle Grass, dropped a leeboard – I’m not sure what side the leeboard was on but it was either windward or it wasn’t J - let the boat jibe around and brought the motor and rudder to centerline.  We were now screaming along, faster than my old boat ever went in its life, directly toward the island at over 6kts.  My darling wife of over 20 years  once again began yelling for me to do something – so I killed the motor and ran into the island!  Once we had calmed down we sat staring at each other and wondering why we had bought a boat that was so frigging squirrelly.  Our Potter gave us problems once under power – when I forgot to put the centerboard down a couple of feet in a fast current at our first BEER Cruise, the guys on the $100,000 Catamaran helped fend us off that time – but our new Trimaran was a handful.  I reassessed what had happened, instructed Gilligan aka Becky to trim the main as far in as she could while leaving the sail hooked up.  I did the same to the mizzen.  I lowered the rudder – yes, it is hard to steer when the rudder only has an inch or so stuck in the water – reversed off the beach, dropped both leeboards halfway down, and very sedately motored out into the wind with no problems.  Hey, I’m frigging learning here!  Blue Bayou was a pleasure to maneuver, with everything set right.  We motored across the ICW to the west side of the channel and decided to try and sail like everyone else was doing but with the smallest sail area we could put up on the main and mizzen to power us.  We were in a stern chase with the Bayhens and were slightly ahead of Ron – having crew is always a good thing – and began a very nice downwind sail towards Charlotte Harbor.  For a first sail on our boat we were finally under control and under sail.  I played with the sails and found, as Ron had told me, most of the time you let out the sails to go faster on a Sea Pearl.  I confirmed this with my GPS and could change our speed by nearly .5kts just by trimming in or letting out.

   Ron called on the radio before Charlotte Harbor to let us know he was going to beach and rest a while in hopes the winds would die down.  Turtle Grass went off the track to do something and we had caught up with the Met Life Blimp Steve just as we entered Charlotte Harbor.  There were whitecaps everywhere amidst the 3 – 4 foot seas with a weird interval to the waves.  It was a 6:1 ratio by my figuring meaning that every seventh wave was like 30 degrees off from the other six – this is usually caused by either the shore or some shallow area.  It made for some interesting surfing conditions at times.  In other circumstances I would have had my PFD and Jackline rigged but we felt so comfortable that neither of us even mentioned feeling unsafe.  We sailed at 5+kts across the harbor with gusts around 30kts without any problems.  Steve with his Bayhen fully reefed paced us for the most part and we both sailed onto the beach at Punta Blanco Island, across from Cayo Costa, together.  I have to say that once I figured out what the heck I was doing Blue Bayou did nothing but impress me.  The problems we had were all operator error, but I can handle the blame, so I don’t care.  I will not, hopefully, repeat my mistakes. 

   We had a great time at the Friday night party.  I got to ogle Dave’s Mac 26X that is just one good looking boat.  Becky was singing the blues the next morning after all the rain got some things wet inside BB and we had problems cooking breakfast but we will get things wired out.  I will say that when we get good and retired and can spend a week or more on the boat – we are getting and X or M for ourselves, they are way cool and if Dave says they sail as well as any other monohull, I will take his experienced word for it.

   I woke up with a back ache that got worse as I sat in the cockpit making coffee and then breakfast.  I am going to have to get a decent air mattress or become crippled for life.  The weather forecast was for more rain, my back hurt, we weren’t too wet but we were damp - so we decided to head back a day early.  Ron had broken the fitting for his boom vang on the main and decided he would go back too.  It ended up that Stin, on his Potter, and Dale with his Core Sound headed back too.  We launched before Ron and did a few circles while waiting for Ron to take off.  He took off like a shot and we couldn’t catch him crossing Charlotte Harbor.  We had full sails and hit 6.2kts a few times and stayed around 6kts for the crossing but he just cannot be caught.  The winds were starting to slack off as we entered the ICW and a few miles up Ron stopped – I am still amazed that all you need to do to heave to is sheet in the mizzen and let go the main as you turn into the wind, voila, you have heaved to – and got a couple of good pictures of us in Blue Bayou – wet (it drizzled most of the way back), me with a tremendous hangover, and a big grin on my face.

   We hauled out without too much of a problem – I do need to put Bunk Slick on the bunks real soon – and had a nice lunch at a local fish restaurant with everyone.  We hit the road, got lost trying to find the Interstate, but finally got on I-75 North.  About an hour down the road one of the old, dry-rotted tires on the trailer blew in the middle of a rainstorm.  I changed the tire in record time and we didn’t have any problems the rest of the way.

We were in the forward spot of the designated Sailboat Rigging Area with Buffet’s Fault behind us. I mentioned to Dave that the trees needed to be trimmed and that a Sea Pearl had knocked a mast down at Ft Desoto the year before in a similar situation. We were rigged and ready in about 20 minutes and ate lunch while waiting for Buffet’s Fault. Dave told us to go ahead and they would catch up with us. I told him to sail 095 over to Elliot Key and they would see us. We launched, motored out the channel, and found we could only make good 060 in 8 kts of wind. We tacked a couple of times and were about 2 miles off Elliot Key when Stin, Lilly P a Potter 19, called to tell us the marina was full of no-see-ums. We decided to anchor a mile north of the marina 400 yards or so off shore to avoid the bugs. We called Dave and Mary, as well as any other club boats repeatedly on VHF 71 without reply. We were making our approach to the anchorage, over two hours since we had launched when Buffet’s Fault called us on the radio to coordinate our locations. They came up behind us and looked odd. They didn’t have a mast. They had finished rigging, pulled out to go to the ramp, and run straight into the forward overhanging tree. I felt terrible. They had driven all the way from Canada and broken their mast before getting into the water. We talked briefly, but I could tell they were bummed out, so we left them alone. A steady 8 kt breeze blew all night on the hook, which made for great sleeping and no bugs.

Saturday dawned over Elliot Key, and I got some good pictures of the other boats at anchor. The Mac still looks pretty good without a mast, but I knew that we had to do something. We waited until after breakfast, pulled the hook, and motored over to Buffet’s Fault, dropped a short anchor near them, and talked about what they could do. They wanted to contact a local Mac dealer and order an M mast so they could make the 10,000 Islands Cruise with the WCTSS on the 7^th (they were on vacation for a month). I tried information for the area on my cellphone (their Canada cell link was for text messages only). There wasn’t one listed so I got Gulf Island Sails in Punta Gorda and left them a message that some people were looking for an X or M mast and passed the number on to Dave. They decided to go back to the marina to check on their truck and use the phone book and pay phone to find a mast. We wished them well while I continued to feel like crap for their breaking their mast. Stin and I went over to Elliot Key Marina for a quick shower and to plot our strategy for the day. While there I had time to talk to Bart, Marsh Hen, whom I had met briefly at Homestead Bayfront Park while he was rigging. It turns out he is a retired Alaskan Salmon fisherman, who still ran the family business back home, but now from Florida. He was having some motor problems and passed on sailing with us but plans to make some WCTSS events in the future. Clean and relatively sober I motored a short distance out of the marina and raised sails for the trip south.

Stin and I took off on a southerly course to make the 1^st ICW choke point 4 miles away. We were both using 110 lappers and new mains. I have the full batten main while he has the standard main. My understanding is the full batten takes some of the idiot out of sailing, that’s why I bought it. I chose to angle out away from the charted shallows while Stin went across them and outran me. We stayed pretty close the rest of the day, but I was always behind. We were regularly hitting 5kts on the sail down on a beam reach with 10 to 14 kts of wind. The water was pretty calm unless a power boat went by and his wake made us slam back and forth a few times. We had a great sail for the first 3+ hours but as we neared the Card Sound Bridge a bunch of power boats started blasting out.  Stin and I sailed under the bridge without too much heart pounding. On the other side two 40 footers cut 20 feet in front of me with 5 foot wakes. I gave them a one finger salute and wondered why they had to purposely do stupid crap like that. We dropped sails and motored up the channel to Alabama Jack’s restaurant. It was more crowded than I had seen it before. Stin went toward the docks but with the 3 kt current running I decided to swing around and dock along the tables on the back deck of the restaurant. I kicked the tiller over, gave the motor two quick blasts in fwd to get the stern swinging, waited until we were lined up to power forward of a 25 foot flats boat tied up behind where we were going, shifted into reverse as we neared our spot, Becky handed a guy at a table the forward line just as I stopped the boat dead in the current. I passed our aft line around the porch railing, and we were docked. I think people thought I knew what I was doing. While we were locking up, Ted, Hunter 19 Milk-n-Honey, came over to tell us he had a table over near the restrooms and band.

We did not have the best waitress in the world but she managed to keep us relatively well supplied with beverages for the first hour or so. We started wondering where the other boats were so we paid the check and moved the party out to the docks at Alabama Jack’s where we met Dockmaster Charlie. He is quite the character. It seems, or so we were told, he owns his own island that he is restoring to its former magnificence and harboring exotic animals on. We are all invited to go there, one day. You can email him at DockmasterCharlie@yahoo.com. Becky and I hopped on Minnow and tried to slip into the first open dock space near Ted. With the current we luckily made it into the third open one, near the very end. The tourists would have noted a look of panic on my face when I turned into the first space and just took off sideways with the current. We tied up and cracked open some of the ship’s rum. About 3 we finally heard from Dave as he motored in. His 9.8 hp motor didn’t help him with the current anymore than my 5hp motor, but we caught him and got him tied up pretty quickly. Ted and Dave went inside to eat while Stin and I stayed out and talked to Dockmaster Charlie. About 4:30 I went inside and pulled our fellow sailors away from the bar so we could get to the anchorage Ted knew about before dark. There was a little cut right behind the docks that led south into Barnes Sound and Short Key, our destination for the evening. The wind was fine, about 12kts, as we motored through the cut and all of us popped open a head sail, followed shortly by the mains, except Dave who decided to just lope along on his genoa since it was only a little over two miles to the anchorage. With full bellies and smiles on our faces we sailed zig-zag courses to the south.

We arrived after Ted and Stin, and Ted was nice enough to set our anchor for us, even if he did it in his BVD’s. Dave came in shortly after and we all moved to the beach where I practiced my campfire making skills by lighting one of my fake fire logs. We quickly made room for our chairs, snacks, and beverages of choice and the party was on. The anchorage was all sand with a few mangroves here and there and the beach was pretty much the same. It was very nice and we will visit this spot again. Ted says there is enough water in a little cut near the beach to sail through into Manatee Bay so we may try that sometime too. We went back to our boats shortly after Ted "fixed" the fire and put it out. There was a nice 10kt breeze from offshore that kept Minnow well ventilated throughout the night as well as kept the bugs off us. We had a little bit of pounding with the resulting half gallon of water pumping up into the boat but other than that it was a fine night. We woke up around 6:15 and enjoyed a Bailey’s and coffee in the cockpit while watching the some come up. Morning brought 15kt winds and whitecaps in Card Sound. We had a quick Skipper’s Meeting and decided that sailing around in Card/Barnes Sound was off for the day as well as anchoring at Pumpkin Key with the predominantly south winds we were having. We decided to sail back up to Elliot Key and see what/who had shown up as well as check on Buffet’s Fault. We pulled anchor behind the other three and raised a single reefed main for the beat across Barnes Sound to the ICW and a turn more to the north for some downwind sailing. Dave and Ted took off for the races with Ted running main only and Dave using his genoa.  They stayed pretty even all the way back hitting 4.8 - 5.6kts according to Dave. We decided to just mosey along in the 2-3 foot trough and get there a little more comfortably. Stin was running a storm jib and started putting some distance between us but in a more easterly fashion. We cut across sooner and we both ended up at Card Sound Bridge within a few minutes of each other. We sailed under the bridge and when we cleared the other side shook out the reef and started sailing up the ICW at 4kts with bursts to nearly 5kts. All the while we felt quite comfortable and I enjoyed several more Bailey’s and coffees and another ham, egg, and cheese biscuit left over from breakfast.  Stin was playing with sail combinations so I got a little ahead of him for a few miles. About noon I heard Dave calling "MoonDancer" on the radio. My first thought was that Bill and Ron had decided to join us, shortly after I saw Sundancer coming down the ICW toward us with a full main. I realized that Dave and I were both on our 4^th or 5^th beverage of the morning so his faux pax was understandable. Sundancer jibed around and paced us for a while so we could take pictures of each other before pulling away. Nearly 3 feet of waterline and a bigger main will do that every time. We all agreed to meet at Elliot Key Marina for showers and a late lunch before heading out to anchor again.

We got to Elliot Key behind everyone, including Stin,  who had put up more canvas and picked a better tack for the last 3 miles or so to the marina.  We showered and let Dave fire up his bigger grill. Hamburgers, beans, potatos, homemade guacamole, spinach dip, and a veritable plethora of beverages had us all smiling and swapping sea stories pretty quickly.  Despite copious amounts of bug spray the no-see-ums were gathering their numbers for a full scale assault on our tiny group. We talked to the Potter couple who are camp hosts at Elliot. They are really nice and spend 4 months at a stretch on their Potter each year there at the marina. They have a dink and they can get free rides on the park boats so they don’t have it too bad. While there we got to see the Marine Patrol write up a power boater for coming into the marina too hot. They should do that more often. Around 4 the bugs just got to be too much so we all motored out to just north of the swim area where Ted swore we would be fine.  The bugs were just as bad there. I had a problem with my 5hp Honda motor when we tried to start it to leave the marina. The pull cord had pulled without engaging a few inches a couple of times and suddenly would not engage at all. I pulled the cover off and rewound the cord but it was plain to see that the cord gear was hung up above the flywheel and was chewing the plastic cogs up. While I was looking in the manual Terry from Whisper, came up and punched the gear back down – fixed. Every time I pulled it the next two days I worried but did not have any further problems. It is due for its 100 hour service so I will have them check that too.

When we got to the beach anchorage Frank showed up with Gustavo on his Mac 26X and gave us a bag of ice. It was too late for my lukewarm beer (it was all gone by then), but it did keep our milk from spoiling until I finished it Monday morning. A Sea Pearl father-son combo we met at the marina came out for a few minutes and tried to anchor near us but both the bugs and the rocky bottom ran all of us off shortly after. It was an older Pearl but looked like it was in pretty good shape. We got settled into our new anchorage just before dark and got a text message from Buffet’s Fault asking us where we were and to turn on our radio. We fired up the radio and located their running lights to the north of our location. They were hugging the shore and ended up anchoring a good ways away for the evening. It was nice to know a little misfortune had not ruined their vacation. We played Yahtzee in the cockpit until 7:30 and went to bed.

We woke up Monday morning to a pleasant surprise. Buffet’s Fault was no longer a motor boat, they had a mast on. They had tried buying one from a couple of dealers and by a stroke of good fortune had contacted KY Ken (retired Coast Guard rotor-head) who had an extra X mast that he had with him. He was on his way to Homestead and then the 10,000 Islands Cruise with his wife and two daughters and showed up Sunday with the mast for Dave and Mary. Dave spent most of Sunday drilling holes and rigging the mast and made it out before dark on Sunday. We communicated our pleasure they were back and started coordinating plans via the radio. Everyone agreed to sail north with Boca Chita as a destination. If it was too crowded we planned to anchor nearby or just turn around and come back, sailing is sailing. Ted said goodbye and went to Elliot Key for a shower before heading back to his marina below Alabama Jack’s, Stin went in to let his dog relieve himself and take a shower, and Frank and Gus went in too. Red Tag and Minnow hoisted sails shortly after Whisper – Siren 17 with Terry and Ruth onboard – took off like a shot. There was very little wind so we swapped out for the genoa on Minnow and ghosted along with a steadily building wind. Frank called to offer everyone Cuban pastries but we politely declined since we were in what some would call a race with Dave on Red Tag. I wish they had announced they had good food before we got our sails up. Dave and Mary were still putting their main on and told us they would be along shortly. Sundancer got underway a half hour or so after us and started closing immediately. We were doing 4 kts or so within an hour of raising sails so life was good again. Whisper called to let Sundancer – who had passed us shortly before – know that it was very shallow on the bar. Dave called to report he thought there was only 18" or so of water – too little for Sundancer – so we turned around with them and went through the ICW cut to the west and turned into the eastern channel of Boca Chita basin. Terry and Dave went around to a sandy beach in the cut going into the Atlantic that Terry had seen and reported great water all the way around within 20 feet of shore. Sundancer and Minnow sailed up the channel and Becky got some great pictures of Sundancer with the lighthouse in the background. As we made the turn to round the point in front of the beach where Terry and Dave were we heard from Buffet’s Fault, who was going through the ICW cut a mile or so behind us. The beach was a pleasant surprise with only a little bit of power boat wake when they would blast by near us on their way out. Buffet’s Fault dropped their anchor and slid back to raft up with Minnow for Happy Hour on New Year’s Eve. I fired up my new gas grill and made a pack of hot dogs for the crowd while Stin made a filet mignon. We swam a little, had a few beverages, and discussed what we were doing next. The group decided to return to the beach on the north end of Elliot Key beside the Tide Station. We sailed back the way we came following Sundancer, Buffet’s Fault, and Red Tag. Whisper ran across the bank again for the return. I could tell Dave needed to do some tuning on Buffet’s Fault when I sailed past him on the way out to the ICW. He must have figured it out after we made the turn because he passed me and just kept on going away. But hey, I passed him once! The wind was starting to ease pretty quickly. We started out with 8 – 10 kts leaving Boca Chita, had 6kts going through the ICW cut, and faded to 3 or 4 about a half mile away from the beach where Sundancer, Red Tag, Lilly P, and Whisper were. We dropped sails and motored in to a beautiful beach that only had a couple of power boats anchored off of it. Dave and I found out that if one of us has rum and the other has ice then all is right with the world. We drank a quart of Coconut Rum while talking to the other members of the group. Kentucky Ken showed up and we got to meet him. Nice guy and just a life saver for Buffet’s Fault. We all pulled up stakes around 4:30 and anchored out a ways to get ready for New Years.

We played Yahtzee until nearly 8 and slept through another New Years. About 1am I woke up with mosquitoes and no-see-ums eating me up. The wind had died completely and they had mounted an attack. This was the first bug incident we had the entire trip on the boat.  We hadn't bothered to put the mosquito netting out on this cruise and I wasn't going to look for it this early in the morning. We got up and just covered ourselves with OFF and put a sheet over us because it was so hot without the wind.

We got up around 6, had coffee, watched the jellyfish float by so a morning swim didn’t happen, and then decided to head back. We raised the sails to let them dry but there was no wind so we motored at 3.2kts at barely a quarter throttle. Sundancer followed by Whisper took off shortly after with Dave soon after them. We found some wind and killed the motor to sail a while. We hit 4kts a couple of times but the wind tapered off again so we started motoring again. Buffet’s Fault passed us about half way back to Homestead and I am guessing Stin is still out there sailing since we never heard from him despite calling him a few times on the radio.

We were last to the marina and first on the road with Whisper alongside us. Whisper pulled into the campgrounds as we left Homestead behind for another year. We took the Fl Turnpike this time instead of SR 41. We stopped for an early lunch and gas about 10 miles before the toll booth at Alligator Alley and when we approached the toll booth there was Sundancer going through the money booth. We passed them handily in the SunPass lane! We followed each other until the Rest Area in Ft Meyers where we stopped for machine coffee and a pottie break.  We stopped at Exit 193 like we always do to wash Minnow in the carwash and fuel up on MacDonald's coffee.  We made it home just as the cold front really hit Tampa.  Another successful cruise for Minnow and her fearless crew.  No major casualties for us except the motor acting weird.  60 miles of mostly sailing was worth the drive.

   Day 1: We woke up at 5:30 on Friday and started readying Minnow for the drive around 6:30.  I tried to tie our 2 SOT kayaks in Minnow’s cockpit, but that didn’t work, and they wouldn’t fit in the bed of Big Red (my red Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with Hemi) with the boat on the hitch (any turn of more than 15 degrees would have crushed a kayak) so we left them at home.  For the few times I want to take both Minnow and the kayaks an expensive roof rack isn't worth it so I think I am going to make a bed rack or get Ted to swap me one he has.  We spent 20 minutes of precious time before giving up on the kayaks, which put us at Starbuck’s with lattes in hand and getting on I-75 South at 7:30.  I set the cruise on 70mph and cringed as I saw the mpg digital readout on my truck sink to 11.9 mpg.  I was going a little faster than usual trying to beat the backup at I-4 but didn’t.  When we got out of the traffic jam we were behind my self-imposed timeline so I kept Big Red at 70 for the majority of the trip without any problems.  We pulled into Pennekamp at 1pm, 5.5 hours after we left Wesley Chapel 320 miles.  Not too bad but I decided to try 65 on the way home to compare fuel efficiency, which jumped up to an amazing 12.8 mpg!  5 mph made that much difference and it was easier driving since I seldom had to change lanes.  I guess Ron was right when he suggested that speed.

   We wanted to see the Christ Statue so we went to Little Grecian Rocks.  Dave led the way – did I mention Dave is pretty salty – and was already on a ball when Ted got there and took another ball.  We came up astern of Ted and threw him a line instead of taking a ball.  There was a good 2 – 3 foot swell that made it uncomfortable on the boat but was alright when you were in the water.  There were waves breaking 50 yards in front of us due to the 100ft shelf just off the reef, which created a pretty good current as well as the swells.  Becky jumped in and snorkeled/swam all over the place while I got in for a big circle lap and got out.  My frigging waterproof movie camera let me down again.  Every now and then it takes a decent video but most of the time lets me down.  The current and my condition were not conducive to a lot of snorkeling.  The only coral was near the breakwater so I didn’t go out too close. Around 1 Ted and I decided it was time to leave since the swells were getting worse and the afternoon storms usually start around 2 or 3.  Dave and Teresa decided to stay and snorkel some more so we took off.  Ted made for the mainland for a downwind run along the coast while we decided to stay outside the Cannon Patch and Mosquito Bank and sail downwind from the get-go.  The waves were a pain and we couldn’t find the right combination of canvas to minimize the rolling so we finally started motor sailing with the main up.  Ted found good winds of 5 kts or so on his course and beat us to the Pennekamp channel handily.  Ray, Potter 15, was coming out of the channel as we were going in and we motor sailed by each other and exchanged greetings.  I would not have been out there in his boat with the swells we were having, but he was happy.  I am not sure if Denise, his girlfriend, was or not.  They went out and snorkeled on a reef and didn’t return until nearly 7.  We got beat up by the power boaters again but there were no monstrous snorkel boats trying to swamp us this time.  Dave didn’t get back to the marina until nearly 5 but reported great winds from around 3 o’clock on and that he had a great time sailing.  We were sitting around talking on the docks about dinner just after Dave and Teresa got in when Ted offered rides on his new Hobie Kayak with mirage drive.  Becky jumped in, got a 3-minute orientation from Ted, and took off!  She was gone a good 20 minutes and came back beaming!  Thanks Ted, now she really wants one.  We grilled steaks on the dock; Dave and Teresa graciously let everyone use their gas grill, and ate sitting on the docks with our thermacell lanterns blazing.  Ray got back and ate some of Teresa’s extra food and everyone was in bed by 8.  Everyone but Ray had their A/Cs on high but he is young and a fan is good enough for young people – Note: Ray and Denise went home Sunday night instead of staying another night with their fan, I wonder why?

   Day 3:  Sunday we got up early, except Ray who was still asleep and Ted who decided to use his Hobie with sail kit that day, and were motoring out the channel by 8.  There was no wind and the no-see-ums had been bad at the docks until we fired up the lanterns.  Then I sat in the cockpit and enjoyed a Baileys and coffee with my breakfast of cold cereal.  I guess Ray heard us leave because we saw him behind us when we were a mile or so out into the Atlantic.  We slowed some and let him catch up.  We motored all the way out since the wind was nill but the ocean was nearly flat.  We had finally read the chart and determined we had been a mile south of the statue on Saturday so on Sunday we went to the right place.  Dave got a ball and I tied up on him but there was no wind or current and I didn’t want to ram him so I motored off to get a ball of my own.  While we were deciding whether it was safe behind Dave, Ray showed up and got the last open anchor ball.  We ended up drifting around for 40 minutes waiting for a commercial snorkel boat to leave.  We got on the ball finally and it was worth the wait.  Plenty of coral, plenty of fish, and the statue.  I burned up a roll on one of those disposable underwater cameras and got a couple of minutes on that stupid video camera of mine.  Unlike Saturday, most of us used a flotation device so we wouldn’t get as tired.  Becky still swam all over the place like a 25 year old.  We rotated snorkeling for 20 minutes and resting on the boat for 10 or 15 minutes.  This is not Hawaii but there is a lot of coral with some color and variety and there is a lot of it. Becky and I were snorkeling along and I saw a 4-foot Barracuda hovering menacingly on the bottom.  Dave reported seeing and trying to photograph a Mako Shark.  There were plenty of coral type fish to see.  All in all a great day.  We took off around 2pm and tried to sail back.  I was nervous about my fuel situation so Dave and Ray motored away over the horizon, or so it seemed.  We ghosted along at 2kts or so with the genoa luffing occasionally but without the big swells of the previous day we were alright.  Around 4, just as we got near the channel entrance the wind started picking up and by the time we were even with it we were doing 5 kts and sailing!  I dropped off some speed by spilling air from the main, just as Dave sailed by in the opposite direction for some photo opportunities.  Of course he yelled over to tell me my main was luffing.  He, like most of the people we sail with, is a better sailor than I am, but I’m getting better!  We knew that Frank was planning on meeting us around 5 for dinner so we reluctantly dropped our sails and motored into the channel.  Dave and Teresa stayed out longer and were contacted by Gustavo, who had brought his Mac 26X and family for some sailing with the club.  Unfortunately none of us put our cell phones on since we were in radio contact all day and missed Frank's call about Gustavo.  We timed it just right for our arrival and saw Frank's ready grin as we pulled into our slip.  We ran around getting docked, helping others, and got a nice cold shower by 6:30 or so.  We decided to go to a local watering hole recommended by the Marina guy called Buzzard's Roost for dinner.  With a party of 16 we ended up sitting outside but there were fans blowing air on us and the beer was cold so it wasn't too bad.  The food was good but pricey, as everything in the Keys is, except the Moose Club.  We laughed a lot at dinner and left just before dark.  Gustavo headed home with his family while the rest of us returned to the marina.  Frank broke out his Cuban Coconut Flan and we turned on our lanterns as we wolfed down desert.  Ray hooked up his boat and left shortly before Frank and Elsa took their leave also.  The rest of us crawled through our hatches into air conditioned comfort and slept contentedly.

Day 4: We awoke around 6:30, had a little coffee and pulled Minnow out right behind Ted.  For a Monday we weren't expecting a lot of boats to launch but we were wrong.  It was just as bad as a weekend with boats launching, scuba divers dropping gear off, and snorkelers wandering around waiting on their mega-yacht to leave.  While we rigged Minnow for the road a nice lady stopped by with her Lab and talked boats for a while.  She was living in a camper in the campground and working at a local canvas shop.  She didn't have a card and I forgot where she said she worked but she is looking at a sailboat and may join us on a daysail sometime.  We showered the worst of the sweat off and hit the road by 8:30 or so.  Dave and Teresa were idling near the boat ramp waiting on an opening to pull out so we waved at them as we left.  We got gas at the local station and rolled out with a purpose at 9.  6 hours later we were home.  65mph isn't bad, I don't seem to stop as often so we made just as good of time, I may change my usual habits and slow down a little in the future.

Fantasy Island in Tampa Bay, 10 and 11 Feb 2007:  We made the short drive from Wesley Chapel to Davis Island in 30 minutes, even with a stop at Starbucks to upload a couple of lattes.  Steve, Bayhen with a new sail, and Bill, who lives nearby and was going to go home and get his Beachcomber named Beach Bum were waiting for people to arrive.  There are two sets of ramps, one on the yacht club side and one on the shipping channel side.  Bill told us there was deeper water on the channel side, which doesn't matter to us, but I liked the docks better so we started rigging.  Ron, Sea Pearl - Whisper and Bob, Dovekey - Oceda pulled in followed shortly by Ted and Sher with their Precision 21.  We rigged and launched around 9:15 with Ron following us.  We sailed over by the yacht club to gawk at all the sailboats on the hard while waiting for the others to get rigged and wet.  20 minutes or so later we had 5 boats in a formation of sorts.  We went out into the channel looking for better wind while the rest of the group followed Ron along the Spoil Islands enroute Beer Can Island - about 6 miles away.  We ran a full main and genoa and hit 6.3 mph (I have to figure out how to switch my GPS76C back to knots) as a max speed but ran 4.5 pretty consistently with the fluky winds.  Ron began pulling away from the crowd and I heard Bill calling from his boat on the VHF.  His Beachcomber and a Sea Pearl Tri were coming from opposite sides of Davis Island and closing.  Not only was there better wind where we had been the Tri is nearly as fast as Ron's boat so the Tri quickly passed the rest of us and chased Ron.  This was to be repeated several times on Saturday.  Ron can really get Whisper moving.  We ran in company with Bill taking turns in the lead while the other boat looked for a little faster tack to catch up.  We did that most of the day too, until I tried to short tack 4 of the other boats and got caught in a dead spot of current and wind and everybody ran off and left me.  But until then I was keeping up!

   We beached at Beer Can around 11 and walked around to look at the other boats for a few minutes then piled back in and set sail back to the north and on the other side of the spoil islands enroute to Fantasy Island.  The Bayhen, Beachcomber, and Potter stayed in one group while both Sea Pearls ran off into the wild blue again.  Ted and Sher's Precision, Sundancer, was in a group by itself keeping ahead of us but well behind the Pearls.  Fantasy Island is nice but nothing to write home about.  Local fauna was replanted there as a settlement for the phosphorous spill that killed all kinds of marine life in the Alafia River and Tampa Bay back in the 80's.  It was too cold and windy to do much so the group hauled butt back to the ramp while Sundancer and Minnow stayed to tough it out for the night.

   We BBQ'd a couple of chicken kiev thingies in the cockpit after we anchored out for the night near a spoil island across from Fantasy Island and talked to Ted and Sher until the cold ran them inside.  We were alright in the cockpit with the warmth of the BBQ so we stayed out and ate dinner and finished a bottle of wine while listening to Jimmy Buffet.  We went to bed around 9:30 and slept great - until Becky woke me up to tell me we were awfully close to the beach and the keel was dug in.  We had anchored about 15 feet off the beach and the tide had run out leaving the anchor 5 feet up the beach out of the water.  I started the motor, pulled the boat up near the anchor, jumped out and got the anchor, handed it to Becky on the bow, swung into the boat, and motored further out behind Sundancer.  Becky dropped the anchor when I told her to, I shut the motor off, and we drifted 50 feet downwind where Becky took a good set on the anchor and we quickly climbed back into bed - chilled but able.  We ended up spooning on my side of the V-berth to get warm for the rest of the night.  I could have closed the cockpit hatch and ran the stove a little but I have this fear of dying from stuff like that so we just snuggled. 

   We woke up around 7, had breakfast, stowed everything, and motored over to Fantasy Island to explore while we had our morning coffee.  We called Sundancer on the VHF around 8:40 and they were just about ready so we pushed off our anchorage/beach, hoisted the main, and sailed past them to the south.  Sundancer quickly raised their main and caught up with us.  Waterline and sail area tell the tale every time.  We made the turn to the west below the spoil island and Ted and Sher started pulling away in the 10 mph breeze we had from the NNE so we hoisted the lapper and slowly caught up with them.  With both sails up we took turns with Sundancer for the lead as we sailed north toward Davis Island.  A couple of hours later we tacked to the east and dropped the lapper because of the gusts coming off Davis Island.  The Outback blimp was doing touch and goes while we slogged across.  We dropped the main and fired up the motor around 1 to negotiate the channel since a couple of tugs were hooking up to a big freighter and we didn't want to have any problems.  We pulled in to the dock where Bill was waiting for us.  We took the shallower side of the ramp so Sundancer could pull out easier but had to move over to the middle because of the hole the power boaters had blasted along the pier.  My trailer tire was a foot underwater on one side and not even to the Bearing Buddies on the other so we had to reposition to recover.  Pulled and rigged for the road in 15 minutes.  Bid goodbye to Ted, Sher, and Bill and headed for home.  Washed Minnow in front of the house and backed her into the garage until Cayo Costa next month.  Lessons learned: I sail better standing up - don't be such a chicken - pack more snacks (the celery and carrots were no substitute for junk food).

New Years Sail from Homestead Fl to Elliot Key, Pumpkin Key, and Key Largo 29 Dec 06 to 1 Jan 07: 

            We got on the road officially at 5:10 with Starbucks in hand.  Ran 70 mph down I-75 stopping once for breakfast burritos and coffee and again to gas up just in Naples before hitting SR 41 for the run across to Homestead.  Mapquest gave us some really weird route when we got into Homestead, we won’t use Krome Ave again.  Arrived around 11 thanks to the slow traffic on Krome Ave.  Red Tag and Gostosa III were rigging when we arrived.  Stin of Lilly P fame strolled over a few minutes later.  He had launched on Thursday and spent the night at the guest docks.  While we were rigging Frank, Potter 15 Zun Zun, drove up with his buddy to see us off.  Frank had family commitments and had to cancel but took the time to stop by and say hello.  Ted and Sher, Sundancer Precision 21 – I always thought it was a 23 because the interior is so big, arrived shortly after that.  We got in the water and hoisted sails after a short motor out the channel.  Winds were around 10 with a few whitecaps in Biscayne Bay.  We sailed with a reefed main and 110 lapper to the NE making a lot of little tacks to the SE in our attempt to come as close to a straight line to the Elliot Key Marina.  The wind was coming straight out of the marina so we finally just took a SE tack and pinched in as much as we could for an hour or so.  We hit 5+ kts most of the way across but Stin still passed us.  Red Tag went to the NE and kept in radio contact but they decided to go out Sand Cut to the Atlantic – which was pretty rough compared to the bay – and return to the sandy beach anchorage on the northern end of Elliot Key.  We got within a quarter mile or so of the marina to the S and dropped sails and motored in. 

            Met a nice Potter couple at the marina from Montana.  They spend a couple of months a year in the area on their Potter.  They have an RHI that they use to pop around and they can ride the marina shuttle back and forth to resupply.  An interesting idea, but we would probably get cabin fever if we tried it.  Now if I had a Mac we might be able to do it.  They are massive and seemed to sail pretty well on the few times we were near them.  The group, except for one of the Macs, made it to the marina but Stin and I decided we didn’t want to take the chance on noise at the marina so we motored out of the marina entrance, hoisted sails, and scooted 4 miles or so down to Billy’s Point for our nights anchorage.  We anchored in 5 feet of water and set 50 feet of rode out on the anchor.  We enjoyed a salad for dinner, watched a beautiful sunset, read until 8pm or so, and slept pretty well.  We seemed to hunt a lot, but the wind picked up to around 20 most of the night, but some type of staysail may be on our shopping list in the future.  Ted and Sher, on Sundancer, used one on Saturday night and they did not seem to hunt nearly as much as we did.   The keel didn’t bang after I lifted it up 2 inches and stuffed a coolie cup in the forward opening.  As always we bungied the halyards to the side stay and did not have any slapping disturbing us.  The report the next day from the marina was that it quieted down around 10 pm and everyone slept well, but I like an anchorage a lot better than the dock.

            Woke up around 6:15 – I could have slept but Becky wanted her morning coffee –  and had a nice cold breakfast.  Stin took off for Elliot Key around 7 to let his dog, Nakita, have a potty break.  There is not an accessible shoreline on the southern end of Elliot Key and the poor thing had been holding it for over 12 hours without complaint.  We got underway at 7:30 and sailed north behind Stin making 4+ kts back to Elliot Key Marina on a reefed main.  Contacted both the marina crowd and Red Tag via radio and reviewed our intentions for the day.  We turned just past the marina and started a downwind run to Alabama Jack’s 16+ miles away.  We sailed along without a care in the world at 4 to 5.5 kts.  We were helped by both the current and a following sea that often had me sawing the tiller like a lumber jack as we wallowed in the trough or crested a wave – occasionally getting a good ride down the front of one.  Two o-poop events.  Both caused by power boats in the two narrow points we had to share space with them in.  Once off Totten Key in a nearly 2 mile long channel through some shallows we were blasted by a mega yacht and again going under the bridge at the southern end of Card Sound.  We sailed the entire way and dropped on the other side of the bridge to motor up the canal to Alabama Jacks.  Stin, of course, sailed almost to Jacks – frigging purist!  We were passed on the way down by Sundancer – sailing reefed main only – and Joy – flying too much canvas for my taste – I’m chicken – screamed by us a couple of times.  Alan sails the snot out of his boat and told us he dipped the rail a few times while sliding through turns.  He enjoyed himself as did we with our more sedate sailing manner. 

            Alabama Jacks was nice, similar to the Hide-a-away place at Lake Harris, only a little busier and noisier.  Nice docks, cold beer, and very good conch fritters made it well worth the trip.  They did not have any ice for sale, too busy a weekend I guess and had no supplies.  I though I read that they had a ship’s store, but I guess something happened.  Everyone else ate cheeseburgers while I opted for the Combo Platter – massive Conch Fritter, crab cakes, and Grouper Fingers with onion rings and macaroni salad.  When you add 3 Heinekens to that you can understand why we sailed slower than everyone on the way back to Pumpkin Key for the evening anchorage.  We left AJ’s just as Red Tag arrived.  Dave and Theresa had spent another hour getting ready before they left their anchorage north of Elliot Key.  Dave reported hitting 6.8 with his Potter, aided by current and waves of course.  We motored out the channel, but ended up idling for a few minutes while we determined what had happened to Stin, who had left behind us but moments later pulled into the bank of the canal.  Turned out his internal fuel tank had run dry and he had to add some gas.  It looked like it made for a few interesting minutes but he was motoring again shortly.  We motored under the bridge to avoid the worst of the powerboat wakes and raised sail on the other side.  Unlike Sundancer we decided to try pinching up for a more direct route to Pumpkin Key.  That idea sucked as we noticed shortly afterward when Stin passed us on his tack up the channel and again when Alan passed us.  We passed Gostaso III going the other way and exchanged pleasantries about Alabama Jack’s as he sailed by.  Paul had a full main and most of his genoa out on his Mac 26X as he sailed by.  It looked good.  I am still interested in them but they are big boats.  We watched Joy and Lilly P tack across our bow toward Pumpkin Key and finally figured we needed to come off the wind some to make time.  Red Tag was quickly coming up behind us and I figured I could beat someone in to the anchorage.  Even if they left AJ’s an hour behind me.  We had been going 2.5 – 3.5 most of the way and I was figuring we would beat them on a straight line approach as opposed to the long backward tack they had to make – wrong again – a theme I repeated the next day.  I don’t learn very quickly it seems.  We finally fell off and picked up to nearly 5kts and watched Sundancer cross our bow.  The wind was starting to die a little so when we tacked north of Pumpkin Key we hoisted the lapper and made a nice run down to the SW tip of Pumpkin Key at 5kts.  Stin announced on the VHF that he had found a nice protected little cove with 5 feet of water for us.  We went inside Sundancer and dropped anchor 50 feet or so off the shore in the shadow of some beautiful homes on the water.  Minimum price of these behemoths was probably 1.5 million but we didn’t mind.  Got everything set up for the evening, had a nice salad with some chips and dip for dinner, and watched a pretty sunset.  We rigged the electric lantern and played some Yahtzee in the cockpit, read for a while – since we were bug free – and went below around 8pm.  We seemed to hunt a lot more than Sundancer – with their new anchor sail – so Sher was nice enough to send me the plans and we will make one soon.  I did set an alarm to check our position every two hours since my anchor alarm on the GPS kept lighting off while we were playing Yahtzee.  I think with 50 feet of rode we were swinging more than the 40 feet I had set into the alarm so it got confused.

            Woke up around 6:15, when the crew started making noises about hot coffee.  We had a nice ham and cheese omelet, cleaned up the boat, and pulled anchor around 7:30.  We announced our intention to return to Elliot Key via the VHF and raised sail as soon as we cleared the anchorage.  The wind was pretty steady at 16kts and my omelet must have had too much grease on it so we pinched in again to keep from rolling so much from the waves.  Sundancer and Lilly P left shortly after and passed us quickly since they were out in the channel on a much better point of sail than we were.  I figure it was only 10 degrees or so but they were hauling.  Sundancer was running a reefed main like us and Lilly P was running their 110 Lapper.  At the choke point channel from Card Sound to Biscayne Bay we caught up with Stin and fell in behind him.  He promptly ran off and left us with his lapper flying.  I saw Joy just screaming up the western edge of the bay and figured Alan was either going home or was planning on outrunning everyone up the bay before cutting across to Elliot Key.  He had an 80% jib up with a full main and was repeating his speed trials of Saturday.  I just can’t sail that hard – I’m chicken – I will admit it, just like at AA.  “Hello, I’m Ed and I am a chicken sailor.”  Anyway we kept plodding along and had bouncy ride back up the bay.  Saw winds to 22kts when we passed each of the channels leading to the Atlantic on the way up.  Although the wind was supposed to clock around to the SE it stayed pretty much the same all 4 days out of the East.  We saw both the Macs sailing further out after the channel choke point.  They looked to have a lot of heel but were going pretty fast.  That is another thing I don’t do well – heel.  I like my Potter even better after this trip after watching the other boats.  We got in behind a few of the other boats and had a nice COLD shower after hiking to the Atlantic side to check things out.  Partied like a dog on New Years Eve and paid for it the next morning.  We were up by 6:30, had breakfast and a shower, stowed everything and pulled away around 8 bound for Homestead Marina.  Nice easy winds of 8kts or so from the East so we polled out the lapper and ran near 5kts most of the way back.  Stin started catching us so we shook out the reef and he still passed us.  I guess singlehanding and not having a bunch of crap onboard like we do really does make a difference.  Stin pulled slowly but steadily away from us.  We dropped the pole and tacked around behind Stin but it was too late to catch up with him before the 6 mile trip was over.  We pulled Minnow out and let a 30 second stream of water out of the bilge thanks to the wave action we had on Sunday while beating back to the marina.  We didn’t get enough for the bilge pump to get anything but there was plenty of water under the liner.  We rigged for towing and hit the road by 11:15.

            Stin had mentioned how much he disliked Mapquest while we were discussing routes and after two turns out of the marina we were in the ghetto and lost.  We finally found the Florida Turnpike and gratefully got on it.  We took 41 back across, which we may not do again, and got caught behind a travel trailer running 40mph.  We stopped at exit 193 and washed Minnow.  Shortly after we pulled back onto I-75 the skies opened and we drove in rain the rest of the way home.  We pulled in, put Minnow in the boat house (garage), pulled the trash/clothes/pottie out and fell exhausted into the hot tub.  Lessons learned:

I could put up more sail – if I wanted to, which I don’t

When everyone else sails on a certain tack we probably should too

Don’t drink too much on New Years Eve ever again

Lake Harris 11 & 12 November 2006:  Had a pleasant drive up I-75 to SR 50 and then a couple of local roads to the lake.  Harris is about 6 miles long and 2 - 3 miles wide.  A nice place to sail but a bugger when the wind kicks above 15 or so.  Saturday was a light wind day and Minnow was fantastic.  I borrowed a little from Allen at CC and pulled the board up 1/3 of the way and we kept ahead of and in some cases pulled away from most of the other boats.  Becky played Skipper while I stood in the cabin drinking beer and tending sails.  We had a nice 3+ hours of sailing before heading to an anchorage near the Biker Bar for a late afternoon dinner.  There must have been 15 sailors among all the Harley types but we sat at our tables and they sat at theirs and had a great time.  The food was a little poor compared to a weekday but the place was packed so I can understand it.  We got ferried back out to our boats by Ron around 5:30 and 4 boats decided on a night sail.  Mike and Gilda with their Compaq 23, Steve with his Bay Hen, and a Siren 17 Whisper sailed out into Lake Harris in the growing darkness in 5kts of wind.  Sailing at night is so cool.  This was Becky's first experience with it and she kept asking me how I knew where we were going and how we were going to find our way back, etc. We played around looking at the stars until 8 or so when the wind suddenly died and the mosquitoes attacked!  I was the first to chicken out - did I mention I was also in the lead - and dropped sails and motored hard back to the cove to anchor.  We had a great night on the hook - no problems this time.  Many of the other boats went to Horseshoe Island and anchored inside the aptly named cove but we opted to take the weeds on the SE corner.  Early Sunday we awoke to 8kts of wind, hoisted sails, and pulled off the hook like we were old hands at it.  Then reality hit when we couldn't tack through the pass to the big part of the lake with the wind on the bow so we had to motor through.  Once through the wind was off the beam to Horshoe Island and we went lickety-split at 12 degrees or so of heel across to it.  We turned past Horshoe and had a nice downwind run to the docks/restrooms at the park (first one to use it is the first one to clean it) so neither of us had port-a-pottie duty when we got home.  Talked to four or five other boats at the docks while we had another pot of coffee, swapped out the genoa for the 110 since people were reporting 15kts of wind with gusts to 20 on the lake.  Sailed up to Horshoe on a tacking drill into the wind (plenty of wind too).  Heeled like a dog a couple of times and if I had been skippering I would have popped the main on a couple of occasions but Becky seems a lot more daring than me at the helm.  We made Horshoe as Art and Brenda came out in Brenda's new, to her, Sea Pearl Tri.  We really like them but my back wouldn't let me sit that long.  No one else was looking like they were going to sail so we turned around and had an exciting run back to the ramp.  Mike and Gilda came off the lake with their Compaq 23 and followed us to the ramp.

   Lake Harris is a good 5 feet low since we didn't have all the hurricanes they predicted so some boats are kind of hard to get out.  Becky backed Minnow up with the dock lines so I could get the bunks wet on the trailer and pulled her out.  I parked in the staging area and left Becky to do her thing while I went down to help Mike and Gilda pull their Compaq 23.  Every now and then I get a case of 2-foot-itis and need a reality check.  Mike had to back his trailer all the way back to where the back tire was in danger of being off the ramp before he could get his stub keel on the trailer.  It took 15 minutes or so to get it right.  They pulled up behind us and in the time it took him to get his 8 horse motor off the boat with the help of a step ladder we were rigged and ready to leave.  Mike pointed out that if I scratched my "itch" I would be looking at another 2 hours or so before hitting the road home.  I guess there are a lot of good points to having a smaller trailer sailer.  Next up NEW YEARS and Elliot Key - 4 Potters so far and two others may show.  We expect 12 boats at Elliot Key, 5 at Flamingo, and 4 or 5 at 10,000 Islands for the WCTSS' Assault on South Florida!  Woooo-woo!

Cayo Costa Cruise 20 - 22 October 2006:   We hooked up Minnow, stopped at the local $tarbuck'$, and hit it.  We cruised along at 65 - 70, stopping occasionally to load up on coffee, and arrived around 11 at Bokelia.  Billy and Joyce were rigging "Joy-Sea" their Sea Pearl 28 and Dave and Theresa were rigging his newly purchased 01 Potter 19, "Red Tag".  We popped into a spot and started rigging.  Ron, the commodore of the WCTSS, pulled in while we were rigging with his Sea Pearl 21 "Whisper".  We were the first to the ramp, launched, parked the truck and trailer, and motored out the canal to Charlotte Harbor.  Winds were light and flukey so we hoisted a full main and genoa and occasionally moved a few feet ahead. Both Red Tag and Joy-Sea passed us close to shore and motoring but we continued to try and sail.  We saw Ron in Whisper cutting across our bow with his iron genoa on too so Becky decided it was time for us too.  We ended up motoring 3 or 4 miles across the harbor to Boca Grande when the wind started to pick up enough to sail.  We started picking up speed as we sailed through Boca Grande Pass and saw Ted in his Hunter 19 "Milk-n-Honey" and Frank in his Potter 15 "Zun-Zun" coming from Bokelia too.  Within 15 minutes the assault on Pelican Bay was in full swing.  Boats were beached, chairs were set up, boats were admired, and stories were told.  BBQ's were lit around 5 and everyone had a nice meal before turning in.  No problems on the hook and a very pleasant night.

   Saturday we ate a light breakfast and attended the Skipper's Meeting on the beach.  We opted to go with the crowd going into the Gulf, until we got underway and found the wind kicking up 2 foot whitecaps in the pass so we sailed downwind along the ICW and made the turn to pass by Cabbage Key and on to the south end of Cayo Costa where those that braved the Gulf, after waiting 2 hours or so, were to meet us.  We stayed in the lead with our genoa pulling us along on a weakening beam reach.  When our destination was in sight the wind died and Terry, in his new Telstar 28 Trimaran, who left 30+ minutes behind us caught up.  The rest of the fleet quickly caught up to us and then drifted in the doldrums with us for a few minutes before everyone fired up their motors for the run in.  We anchored and swam in the 80 heat on Cayo Costa with the pass and Captiva Island to the south of us.  When we came in I told Becky when she dropped the anchor to tell me when 3 marks had gone through the chock.  Through a miscommunication she told me 3 when a band of 3 on the anchor line went through.  That is about 45 feet including the anchor chain.  What I wanted was 60 feet because our anchorage looked exposed if we got any wind from any direction except the west.  That said the weather got nasty around midnight, we drug the anchor a good 30 feet while pitching up and down on 3 - 4 foot waves breaking under us.  I sat in the cockpit and napped while making sure we weren't endangering anyone else's boat and waited for the storm to blow itself out.  Around 1:30 I, and several other boats, began the anchor drill.  I pulled our picnic anchor, which probably saved us from beaching and pulled Minnow way over and reset it, then swam the bow anchor out, after letting out that extra 15 feet of line and set it.  Then I took the picnic anchor and set it off the bow in a modified Bahama Rig.  I got back in the cockpit with a rum and coke and mumbled sea chanties for another hour while making sure we didn't drag again when the wind kicked up a little.  No damage to anyone but I'll make sure of our communications when setting the bow anchor next time. 

   Sunday we got up and had a cold breakfast and took off in 12 kts of wind.  Within minutes of turning into a downwind run with the wind off our starboard quarter the wind started lessening.  For most of the sail back we had 3 - 5 kts of wind.  Allen with his Potter 19, Joy, passed me a couple of times.  I found out over the radio he was pulling his centerboard 3/4 of the way up and was making much better time than I was.  I caught up with him a couple of times when he would run aground - GPSMAP 76C vs waypoints - but when he quit going aground for long periods he pulled away from us.  I'm just not comfortable sailing Minnow without the board all the way down.  We made the turn into Jug Creek Shoals, and nearly caught Allen again when he went aground but he got out quickly and pulled away to get to the marina first.  We pulled out, rigged, and hit the road ahead of everyone else from the club - who had gotten to the ramp ahead of us - you've got to love a boat that takes 15 minutes to make road worthy.

Clemens Cup on Lake Harris 1 & 2 April 2006:  Went solo on Minnow since Becky was busy with our 17 year olds birthday party - all girls means I need to be somewhere else.  Got to the ramp around 11, Jack (Precision Monster Sailor) caught the mast and held it for me so I wouldn't have to rig the gin pole, was in the water by noon.  I will have to work on line management the next time I solo, but a helpful guy held the lines while I launched.  Sailed out with the genoa and took off for a good hour of sailing.  Thirty minutes after the Clemens Cup started the wind died.  It was predicted to come back up so I took the opportunity to drift around and Scotch Guard the bimini on Minnow.  Had a few beers and the wind started to build.  It kept getting up until it hit around 12kts steady around 4.  I was heeling about 12 degrees and laughed as a new Hunter passed me with their rail nearly in the water.  It looked like fun, if I was racing, which I was not.  Beached Minnow at the park in Leesburg and walked over to the Leesburg Yacht Club for the party.  The CFYC was nice enough to just let me eat and party with them since they probably all realized I was not a racer at last year's Cup.  I had a great time: Sonny's BBQ, cold Corona, and Dead River Voodoo (made up of CFYC members for the most part).  We gawked at the member's boats for a while and then went in to party. I won a great door prize and stumbled back to Minnow around 10.  One note:  I was talking to another sailor and he asked me what kind of boat I had and when I told him he said I should look at "Pottering About Florida" on the web and told me "that guy sails all over the place".  I graciously thanked him and told him that was me.  We had a good laugh. 

Sunday I got up with a rather serious hangover, made coffee, ate granola bars (I like Becky making breakfast a lot better), and went looking for wind.  Light breeze when I first hoisted sails but it built to 8kts or so by the time the race started again.  I went to the far side of the lake and tried to run downwind but without Becky I didn't want to put the whisker pole up and without it running wing on wing was just too much trouble with my head throbbing.  Tacked back and forth until near the inlet for Hickory Point where I saw a green hull Potter 19.  I had just dropped my sails to motor in (the wind was dying again) so couldn't tell who it was.  If you are reading this we will be back this weekend, come on out.  Pullout was marred by a bassboat pulling up behind me at the ramp while I was gone and letting his bass boat bump into my rudder and motor.  I moved him to the slip next to me, although I was tempted to set his boat adrift.  The ramp was open and no one had used it, the guy just felt like flexing his horsepower or some "dumbbass" thing.  Pulled Minnow, took the mast down by myself and hit the road.  Made it home by 3 and was soaking my tired/hungover but in the hot tub by 4 WITHOUT a cold one.  Lessons learned - appreciate your crew, it took nearly an hour to rig and launch, with Becky it takes 25 minutes - Sail more/drink less - have fun every time I sail and I do!

Cayo Costa 17 March thru 19 March 06:  We hooked Minnow up and pulled away from the house around 7, stopped at Starbucks for my triple-nonfat grande latte, got on I-75 south, set the cruise at 70mph, and went for it!  Arrived at Bokellia Boat Ramp at 9:35 due to slow people on the two lane road.  Met Rich and another fellow whose name I forget (a recurrent theme for me) and talked Potters while Becky and I rigged.  Rich is a former owner of big boats and wants to move down.  We had a good conversation going amid the glowers from my wife (she likes to be the first boat in the water), but still made it in by 10:10 or so.  We continued our conversation with Rich while helping Frank (Potter 15, Zun Zun) and Ted (Hunter 19, Ted Jean) both from Miami and friends of ours, with their boats.  A Siren 17 named Nemo was launching with us, owned by a really nice guy who sailed her well, but I can’t remember his name.  He was from Melbourne or thereabouts and a Met Life Blimp pilot or mechanic.  He had some great stories at the second night’s campfire.  Anyway, to make it easier, I took off leading Frank out the cut.  We motored out into Charlotte Harbor where Paul was waiting for us in his O’Day 19, Wag’s Folly.  Paul lives on the harbor to the east of the boat ramp and just untied his boat and sailed around.  It seemed like moments after we started sailing west that Paul disappeared, but it was probably 45 minutes or so.  Paul can really sail!  Frank was following me through Jug Creek Shoals when the wind shifted a good 15 degrees and I started hitting bottom.  We screwed up a couple of tacks and had to jibe to get off the shoals so Frank, who didn’t have a chart, sailed past me.  As always happens at “unfortunate” moments Ted and the Siren, who were on the outside of the shoals on a long northwesterly reach across the harbor, started calling on the radio asking Frank where I was.  Ted claims he couldn’t see me, but I know better, it was all in fun.  I screwed up and will admit it.  As soon as we finally cleared the frigging shoals (my gps 76C was having learning problems – I had put a waypoint in and passed it so the gps got stuck in a loop recalculating the proper course) Becky switched our 110 lapper out and put on the 155 genoa, and away we went!  We caught up with Frank pretty quickly and began a series of tacks to reach Boca Grande Pass without being too far north or west to make Cayo Costa on the south side easily.  We spotted three Peep Hens sailed very well by  three brothers a mile or so before Cayo Costa and ended up arriving with them.  We put out anchor to the south of the beach in the little inlet in an attempt to avoid the tidal flow that was sure to happen later on.  18 or 19 boats ended up beached.  A great turnout for the Squadron, too bad that Ron, the Commodore, was unable to make the trip, he would have been thrilled.  We waded ashore and met the new members and said hello to old friends who only make a couple of trips with the squadron a year.  Shortly before firing up the BBQs the Park Ranger came by to warn us about the Game Warden who would arrest us for open containers, unleashed dogs, and open fires.  He was a really nice guy, but I took my chances the rest of the evening with the open container.  We ended up BBQ'ing some superbly marinated chicken breasts, with whole potatoes, and green beans for dinner; without any law enforcement problems, but everyone returned to their boats at dusk since we didn't have a fire.  One bit of excitement happened right as we were bedding down for the night.  A power boat cut across Stephen's Atlantic 24 Catboat’s bow and caught his anchor line.  He pulled him and the smaller catboat he was rafted up with a good 15 feet before they notice it.  They got things sorted out pretty quickly and without any bloodshed so it was alright.

   Saturday morning Becky whipped up some Spam and eggs.  I had my two cups of freshly perked strong coffee and went for a walk on the beach while we were waiting for everyone to get moving.  At the Skipper’s meeting the bunch decided we had too many boats to go to Foster’s Cove and the decision was made to sail out into Charlotte Harbor and then loop around in the ICW to the back side of Punta Blanca.  We motored out into a nice breeze that bumped up to 15 kts or so as we entered the channel of Boca Grande Pass.  We reefed the main and switched to the Lapper on Minnow.  We turned east and sailed back in the direction we came from.  The rest of the fleet caught up within an hour so we shook out the reef and cursed our headsail change.  The wind dropped to a steady 10 kts and made for some good sailing, although we were not as fast as we could have been.  I figured out all my problems with my 76C and loved the heads up presentation it gave me, even in full sunlight.  I like to stand and sail and all I had to do was reach down and pick up my handheld to see exactly what was going on.  Hit 4.5 mph a couple of times (I need to change the readout to kts, but I'm working on it) but kept a steady 3+.  We sailed in company with quite a few boats as they went on different tacks throughout the day.  We ended up with 6 boats in a row tacking across a very busy stretch of ICW to Punta Blanca.  When we pulled up on the southeast corner of the island the wind was out of the northwest and when we got behind the trees it was really calm.  A wild pig was waiting for us to land but when only one person fed it, and was properly chastised for it, it wondered off.  A few manatees swam by and checked us out but other than the traffic in the ICW we were relatively alone.  The weather forecast called for the winds to clock around to the east around midnight so a lot of people pulled out just before dark and motored around the corner in hopes of a quieter anchorage.  We had a great bonfire with some great stories by the Siren Guy (I am so sorry I can’t remember your name but I know you live in Melbourne and can sail the spit out of your boat) and his life with the MetLife Blimp.  Grilled spicy sausages and peas on the grill and felt like a king.  Around midnight the wind clocked around and we got beat up a little.  I got up around 2, when Frank and another boat drug their anchors, and reset both of my anchors to ease the pounding.  I went back to bed and slept like a champ.

   Got up Sunday morning, had a cold breakfast with hot coffee, and had a great sail for the first 5 miles or so.  Long tack after long tack upwind to Jug Creek Shoals, then my 76C allowed us to sail through the shoals without running aground (technology is a wonderful thing when the idiot working it gets it right) even once.  Frank was following me through the shoals and met up with Ted in his Hunter just after I cleared the shoals.  Frank and Ted took off motoring so we gave it the old college try for twenty minutes more and then did the same.  We motored back, pulled out, rigged for the road (we beat boats that had pulled 20 minutes before us – Becky just scurries around taking care of things, God love her).  Stopped at a car wash about 10 miles up the road from Bokelia and scrubbed Minnow down, and had hot Wendy’s burgers just before the onramp for I-75.  Made it home by 4, put Minnow away, and was sitting in the hot tub with a beer by 5.  Lessons learned – read the directions on new toys before sailing, stop being so frigging chicken about leaving the genoa up,  tell my wife how much I appreciate her crewing/skippering more often, forget moving up to a bigger boat that heels like crazy just so I can crawl in and out of bed easier.  Some of the best sailing on Minnow EVER!

10,000 Islands 28 December 05 thru 1 January 06 - Hooked Minnow up to my Dodge Ram and got on the road by 7:15.  Mapquest showed a 3 hour and 15 minute drive at 70mph but we figured to do a leisurely 68mph and get there by 11am.  High tide was around 1pm in case there were any problems at the boat ramp so we motored down I-75 stopping at every other Rest Area and eating junk food with coffee chasers.  Around Punta Gorda we met Jim and Elsie towing their homemade Skiff America.  Beautiful boat, even if it didn't have a mast or sails.  They were meeting Terry, Compaq 21 and a salt who has spent the last 25 New Year's Eves at Camp Lulu,  and launching on Thursday.

Got lost once after getting off I-75 thanks to my darling wife's terrible sense of direction as well as my wanting a cup of fresh coffee.  Made it to Port of the Islands Marina (POI) around 11:30.  We were putting the boom on in the parking lot getting ready to launch when Sten rolled in with his 2000 Potter 19 - Lily P.  Sten is a real purist and hates to use his motor anytime, more on that later.  We launched and tied off to one of the docks so I could help Sten rig and form a Potter Flotilla.  We all got in the water and were motoring around 12:30 out the Faka Union Canal escorted by 3 manatees.  Plenty of current and lots of shallows in the canal, even at high tide, but we Pottered through it all.  They really need to do something to the canal for sailboats but all we saw were power boats so I guess all the residents don't sail so they don't care.  We both ran aground on the same point going out south of Panther Key.  There were a few channel markers missing and what we both assumed was the Red 4 was actually the Green 3.  After sorting that out we hoisted sail and began a leisurely (light wind) sail down to the cut between Picnic and Tiger Keys, the rendezous point for the WCTSS.  I played with the belly of my main and steadily pulled away from Sten, which had never happened before.  I later told him how I did it.  We made Picnic/Tiger around 4pm and decided to anchor off the NE corner of a little spit of land on Picnic where we could see the Gulf but avoid the worst of the winds.  I mentioned that the tide would rip through the area but Sten and my wife decided to ignore me.  The tide did rip through the area that night forcing ME, who was nearest the channel to reset my anchors every 2 hours or so.  Sten had the luxury of only needing to do it every 3 hours or so.  My wife Becky called encouragement to me through the forward hatch every time I was dragging the boat around.

Got up Thursday morning and the weather forecast called for 20+ kts of wind and 3 - 5 foot seas in the Gulf.  We decided to just hang out until the tide shift around 1:30 or so and see what everyone else was doing.  My handheld could not raise anyone by 11 so I walked around to the western side of Picnic Key and reached Ron, Bill, and Ted who were avoiding the Gulf like us, hiding on Kingston Key (2 miles or so to the SW of us).  Ron advised us of some tremendous wind shift that was supposed to happen around midnight and, knowing where we were, advised us to get some protection from a strong NE blow (the only direction we weren't protected from the wind where we were).  We got underway around 3pm with 8 kts or so of wind and had a fun but too quick sail out into the Gulf and south to the next cut so we could get behind Picnic Key on the other side.  We could hear but not reply to Terry and the others who had launched on Thursday (Compaq 21, Skiff America, Mac 26 from Canada - great people whose cordless drill saved my bacon when my rudder broke - and a Compaq 23) but copied that they too were concerned about the weather and were turning back to spend the night behind Panther Key.  We found a beautiful little cove and anchored 20 yards or so off the Mangroves, which surrounded the entire inlet.  We stayed up until 9 or so listening to Jimmy Buffet, grilling/eating a superbly marinated Del Monico steak with potatoes, and fell asleep under our mosquito netting with no wind blowing.  Got up and looked around at 6:30 the next morning and found ourselves sitting in several feet of mud.  We couldn't get out until nearly 11, but we did have a great breakfast and worked on restowing the boat and filling the cooler back up with beer.

Sailed out around 11am with light winds.  Heard from Ron (2 Sea Pearl 21s and Ted's Hunter 19) who were just leaving Kingston Key.  We sailed out into the Gulf to meet them, but the winds kept getting lighter and lighter until everyone said the heck with it and motored in to Picnic Key - to our first night's anchorage.  Terry's group arrived around 12:30 and after visiting with everyone a few of us went out sailing in a freshening (we hoped) breeze.  We hoisted our genoa to take advantage of what wind there was and left Sten behind again (I love to outrun anyone I can since it happens so seldomly).  The wind weakened to the point of being a pain around 2 and we were considering our options when I noticed that we were basically spinning to starboard while everyone else was ghosting along under sail.  I looked around trying to figure out the problem and saw the lower half of the rudder floating behind me, attached only by the uphaul and downhaul lines.  We dropped sail, pulled the rudder out and up, and fired up the motor to return to the beach.  I guess the mud the night before wasn't 2 feet deep since the rudder had broken on the pivot point hole and cracked 6 inches or so down into the wood.  We beached and pulled the rudder off Minnow to assess the damage.  It came down to a choice of putting it back on using the old hole and tie-tieing the rudder together or drilling a new hole farther back on the blade.  Dave, the Mac 26 from Canada, had a cordless drill with just enough juice in it to make a hole in the rudder.  Thank you Canada!  During the evolution the Park Ranger came ashore and informed us that the site we were on was a reserved campground and that no dogs were allowed on land anywhere in the park.  We explained that we all slept on our boats and that we would take care of the dog problem (there were 3 in the group).  He stated that we were not allowed to anchor within 1/4 mile of the campground either.  With that said he was making his exit and I (sometimes I wonder why it is always me) told him, "Thanks for all the great information and especially for not being an ass about everything."  I was actually sincere about what I said.  Everyone agreed that the Ranger looked at me like I had crapped in his Cheerios.  Anyway my rudder was fixed and it was time to motor away from the unoccupied but supposedly reserved campground.  With the rudder mod I was drawing over a foot and a half but somehow in my semi-drunken  state we (Becky was driving - all I did was pull the starter on the motor) motored up into an anchorage we used last year.  The only difference was I told her to go even further in to the cove.  Well, we anchored, grilled another steak with green beans (the ice was about gone in both coolers so we had to eat up all the stuff requiring refrigeration, and I had to steel myself to the thought of drinking lukewarm beer for the rest of the cruise.  We had another full day to go!  Around 10:30pm we heard a very fast power boat roar through our anchorage.  Becky looked out the hatch and reported the Ranger had returned to catch us in violation and write us up!  Too bad, we were all semi-legal.

Woke up in 6 inches of water around 6:30.   We had to wait until 9am to float.  Two other boats in the same predicament, Sten and Ron's Sea Pearl.  Sailed out the cut between Picnic and Tiger around 9:30.  The wind wasn't cooperating too much but we made a leisurely downwind sail to Camp Lulu where we beached outside of Park Boundaries around 12:30 or so.  Sten and several others stayed out in the light winds and were rewarded with 6kts of wind for a half an hour or so around 2.  Sten sailed his Potter to the beach, "purist" and joined the party.  2 boats had returned that morning (both Sea Pearls who had been out since Monday), 6 boats were at Lulu, and we were missing the Mac 26 and Compaq 23 (they called via mast mounted antenna to Terry - also mast mounted antenna - to report they were anchored off Panther Key in a nice harbor for the night.  We sat around a fire and talked until dusk.  We motored out and anchored for the evening.  They had a fireworks show on Camp Lulu Key at midnight, I heard it but just rolled over and went back to sleep.  Becky says she watched it from the forward hatch while I snored. 

Sailed on Lake Manatee, near Bradenton, Fl on Saturday and Sunday the 20th and 21st of August.  The lake holds the drinking water for both Sarasota and Manatee counties and although it is brown from tannin, it was very clean compared to many other lakes we have sailed in Florida.  I guess the 20hp limit on motors keeps all the "dirty people" out.  John Genzler and wife Margaret spent the night at the docks with us on their Potter 19, as well as Stu and his Sea Pearl 21.  We got some sailing/drifting in and shortly before supper the wind picked up to 8 kts or so for some decent sailing.  Too bad our brains and backs were cooked from the 100+ heat index that day.  We grilled steaks on the dock, John got his registration checked by Fish and Game, and we all turned in as soon as night fell.  The bugs fell too!  Our misquito net worked like a champ and with our oscillating fan drying the sweat as soon as it oozed out we slept fairly well.  Got up early and got a little sailing in before the rest of the squadron showed up.  Ted, in his Hunter 17 found just enough wind to pass us before the wind left for the rest of the day.  By 11 everyone quit trying to sail and beached in the swim area to float around neck deep in the water and drink beverages.  Still a great day, despite the doldrums.

 We had a great, if hot, time sailing on Lake Tarpon on Saturday.  Not too many power boats, yea right, but we had some wind, cold beverages, and sailing friends with us so it was all good!  It was only a 3 hour tour, but I found that my new genoa does not point as well as my lapper (no surprise there), but when we were more than 50-55 degrees off the wind it rocked in the light air!  I am not going to add any genoa tracks, winches, etc since this beast is really a light wind sail.  We will probably use it 5 or 6 months of the year here in Florida and the lapper the rest of the time.  In hindsight (always 20/20) I should have sprung for the roller furling/150 genoa/tracks/winches from IM when I bought the boat (like Daniel Snapp but with the genoa too).  My wife is still young enough to go up through the hatch and change headsails in less than 3 minutes and remember to bring me a cold one on her way back, so I'm ok with what I have, but my next boat, ahhhhh, my next boat.  :-)

Lake Manatee 5 & 6 July 2005

  My first, and probably last, solo sail on Minnow.  Too much heat, too few crewmembers, and a great time sailing. I used the factory mast raising system for the first time (two tries to get it right) and it took me nearly 2 hours to get rigged and in the water. It really makes me appreciate my wife!  My wife usually packs the boat and I assumed (assumed should only have four letters) everything was in the boat.  There were a few things missing: my fishing pole (I bought nightcrawlers for a reason), a sheet/blanket/foam cushion, snacks (there are usually granola bars/chex mix/packs of mixed nuts/etc, The heat index was 106 degrees, according to the weather service, no wonder I was exhausted by the time I got the boat in the water. Of course, a few Coronas rehydrated me very well. The lake is 5 or 6 miles long and tapers from 1 mile wide (most of the lake) to a few hundred yards in the eastern end where the SR 64 bridge crosses over. Saw 8 or 10 gators, the biggest one was 6 feet or so long. Winds were 6 - 10mph from the east except for a 2 hour shift at sunset. Plenty of water along the shore, but the water is just like Lake Harris - dark from the tannin. I sailed up to 10 - 15 feet from the shore in a bunch of locations and the depth gauge never went below 5 feet, saw 35 feet in the middle of the lake. Occasional gusts but nothing too heart stopping. Got to the bridge and tried some downwind sailing wing on wing but the wind was shifting around too much so ended up tacking downwind to the boat ramp. It was around 7pm by then so I motored back up to an inlet on the northern side of the lake (there are only two inlets in the lake, the other is the boat ramp) and dropped the anchor in 8 feet of water along the bank. The wind shifted back to the east around 10pm and I had to reset the anchor because I was swinging into the plant growth along the bank = gators/frogs/snakes. Not a lot of fun by yourself. Woke up around 6, made some Spam and eggs, and sailed in light (5 mph) winds till 9:30 when I decided I needed to pull the boat before the heat of the day.

The boat ramp is a double with "L" shapes that could easily accommodate 12 boats. All aluminum construction and built in 2X12 rub rails. It is paved way down into the lake and has a good slant to it. I didn't get my back tires wet launching Minnow. The parking lot has space for 20 tow vehicles and trailers. The only overhead obstruction is 30 feet forward of the ramp on the right side (the one I used but it is way up the ramp and only sticks out 5 feet or so). The Ranger said sailboats come out pretty often. John Genzler, Potter 19, sails there exclusively. It costs $4 for admission, there is a swim area, toilets, and showers. The toilets are along a path about 100 yards from the boat ramp. We drove down to check the place out on Monday (4th of July) and there were 3 trailers in the parking lot. Wednesday I was the only one there while Thursday there were 3 trailers again that pulled their boats around 10:30 to beat the heat. Plenty of fishing according to the people I talked to. There are no houses on the lake. I saw a few cows. You can hear the traffic on SR 64 but on the northern side of the lake you only hear big trucks. All in all a very nice place to sail. I rate it above Lake Seminole and below Lake Harris (just because there is no restaurant), but with the 20hp limit on motors it was easy sailing.

Key Largo Sail 23 – 25 June 2005

Background: This sail was originally supposed to go out from Neptune’s Hideaway in Blackwater Sound.  Luckily the hotel was sold and closed up less than a week before we were supposed to be there.  Ted, a WCTSS member who lives north of Miami, found another place.  The Bay Cove Motel is a piece of “Old Florida”.  I guess that means everything was new back in the 50’s and still works so why change it.  Yes, this place was dated, but it was on Buttonwood Sound, which had much easier access to Florida Bay and fewer power boats.   We were around an hour or so southwest of Miami.

Thursday 23 June: 

We hooked up Minnow to my Dodge Ram and left the house at 4:20am.  We cruised at 70mph for the next 6 hours, stopping 3 times for gas, food, and restroom visits.  The hotel is on US 1 but with all the trees and buildings blocking the sounds of cars it was nice.  The hotel rooms were arranged in shotgun fashion down to the water with old trees and plants everywhere.  It was a little tight for a truck and trailer but doable with an assistant to watch for the corral rocks lining the gravel lane that disappeared from my mirrors as I approached them.  The single ramp was rock with trees and wires to within 20 feet of the ramp.  There was a palm tree that my mast brushed as we launched and I had cheated all the way over to the side of the ramp from it.  If this place ever got crowded it would get ugly trying to rig and launch or pull out.  While rigging I had about 4 feet behind Minnow before stepping into the water of the ramp.  My back tires ended up 6 inches into the water to get Minnow to float off the trailer, even then I had to give her a shove.  We tied up at the dock and went to the little restaurant for lunch then returned to the dock.

The dock was fairly new with a lot of coral and sponges growing around and under it.  You could dock 7 boats there in a pinch.  Ted and I were the only two sailboats (Art and Brenda came by twice in Art’s Nimble but did not overnight at the docks, they anchored out).  The “T” shape of the dock was nicely done with chairs and a fish cleaning station with room for 3 boats to pull “nose in” with a boat on each side of the T and single boats on both sides of the long part of the T.  Anyway, there was a power boat and a skiff there besides us so there was plenty of room.  The sound had lots of anchored boats with a few obviously abandoned sailboats in it.  They were of the 30 foot variety and seemed to be floating well.  I always wonder why people abandon boats rather than just sell them on Ebay or something.  Frank and his wife Elsa (Potter 15) drove down from Miami and arrived around 11.  Frank left his boat home because he tore his Achilles tendon and can’t rig the boat right now.  Ted had kindly agreed to give them a ride on his boat a few days before.

We motored through the anchorage and hoisted sail with Ted, Frank, and Elsa on Ted's Hunter 19 and my wife, daughter, and myself on Minnow around 12.  We turned into the northeasterly wind and hoisted the main with my “newly installed” sail slugs.  Why in the world didn’t I put these bad boys on years ago?  No more having my wife feed the bolt rope into the slot and then yell at me for pulling on the halyard too fast or too slow or let out or pull in etc.  The main went up slick!  Later we found out it flaked down even easier!  After catching some wind and getting on a beam reach we hoisted our “new to us” 155% genoa!  What a hoot!  The wind was only 8mph or so and Minnow just took off.  The genoa is a deck dragger that came off a Flying Dutchman: luff is 17’ 6”, leech is 18’ 6” and the foot is 11’ 6”.  There is a window on it, and you really need one since this dude comes nearly all the way back to the end of the cabin!  We were flying in the relatively weak wind, but Ted’s Hunter was still faster.  Minnow has too much windage and a lot less waterline than his boat.  We sailed till 2 or so in Florida Bay then anchored in between the Swash Keys and went swimming.  Around 3 we pulled anchor and started sailing back toward the docks.  There was a gigantic radio tower in line with the dock so navigation wasn’t a big deal, until I ran aground.  No real problem it was just that when we sailed over the sandbar it was still a few hours before low tide.  I had forgotten to pull the swim ladder up again so when I cranked the keel up a few inches we jibed to starboard and got hung up on the ladder, then on the rudder.  I finally ended up dropping the sails and pulling everything up except the keel, which stayed down a foot or so for steerage purposes.  About that time Ted called on the radio and mentioned the thunderstorm that had been going north, just before we ran aground, was now headed east, toward us.  We spent the next 20 minutes in following seas with 2’ waves and 20 knots of wind pushing us toward shore.  Ted went nose in to the pier and dinged his bow a touch.  I went almost to the boat ramp, cut hard to starboard, came up alongside the inner part of the dock’s T, kicked the motor out of gear just as I completed the turn, and gave her full reverse as we neared the inner part of the T.  With the wind and motor we came to a very nice stop, my wife stepped onto the dock with a bow line, and we nuzzled up against the pilings, where I had left my fenders attached when we left.  It really looked like I knew what I was doing, I didn’t, but every now and then you get lucky!  The wind was still howling as the storm came through, but it never rained, and by 5 or so it was completely calm with no wind.  We grilled sausages at the BBQ area at the foot of the dock and drank beer. 

Art and Brenda came by and used the dock to moor while they dumped trash, went across the street to get ice, and went to the Mom and Pop restaurant next door for dinner.  We had eaten an early lunch there before sailing and ended up doing dessert with them at the restaurant around 6:30.  Art and Brenda motored over to the southern end of Buttonwood Sound and anchored for the night.  Art had launched up in Miami three days before and they were overnighting on his Nimble 20, “Panacea” until Sunday afternoon when they planned to pull out.  We all agreed to try sailing the next morning around 8:30 out to the Next Keys, where there is camping, to check it out for a possible WCTSS sailout.  They are just a smidge over 5 miles away as the crow flies.  Ted, Frank, Elsa, my wife Becky, daughter Jessica, and I sat around on the end of the docks and talked while waiting for the chance to see a Green Flash as the sun set.  A half hour or so before sunset 6 Manatees came swimming through.  I took a few pictures of them.  Of course, the next morning I had to run to the drugstore and buy a waterproof camera in case we saw them again, because my wife and daughter were going to jump into the water and take their picture.  The wind kicked back up with a vengeance shortly after sundown so I put a couple of spring lines out in addition to the bow and stern lines as well as throwing the aft anchor out as far as I could.  I got up and checked around 3 am and Minnow was fine.

Friday morning 24 June:

          Ted and I were wiping our boats down the next morning when Frank came out to tell us his leg was hurting too badly to sail.  We said our goodbyes, Art and Brenda came over in Panacea, we motored out, and set sail.  A little more wind than yesterday and out of the northwest.  We hoisted sail again and again Ted ran off and left us although he feels he was even faster with 3 people in the boat.  Art and Brenda pulled away from us at a slower pace but they pulled away too.  Beautiful water, brain corral, barrel sponges, but no manatees today.  We were tacking back and forth into a headwind that built to 10mph but having fun with the genoa.  We got to the eastern side of the Nest Keys around 11, dropped sail and motored around them to the anchorage on the other side (the wind died around then anyway) where Ted was already sitting and waiting for us.  The tide was stirring the water a little but within 20 minutes of anchoring the water cleared up very nicely.  My wife and daughter went snorkeling for an hour or so in 5' of water while the rest of us swam around a little, drank a few beers, and talked boat to boat. 

Art and Brenda decided to go through the Boggies and into Blackwater Sound on their way back to try and cut a few miles of ICW/Power Boat heaven off their trip.  Shortly after noon two powerboaters showed up and Ted announced that it was “officially” the weekend now.  We pulled anchor around 1 and started motoring back.  Art and Brenda peeled off and went their way while I followed Ted, again, under power.  He has a Tohatsu 5hp with an 8” prop which is just like my Honda so I guess hull shape and water length really do make that big a difference.  The storms avoided us so we had an easy motor back to the docks.  Of course as I was making my sweeping turn under power, the rudder, which I forgot to kick up, hit hard (I need to adjust my jam cleat quick release point) and the bottom of the rudder popped out but the top pintle twisted and bent the snot out of the gudgeon.  I held onto the rudder with one hand and finished my approach with the other hand on the motor tiller.  We didn’t hit anything and my wife spoke to me when we got tied up so I guess everything was alright. 

The wind never came back up so we sat around sweating and drinking beer the rest of the day.  I cooked steaks and potatoes on the grill and instead of going to the restaurant for dessert I went to the store (really went for more beer) and bought a Key Lime Pie.  It was great.  Ted and I checked out the end of the ramp at low tide and decided it would probably be easier to recover before high tide since the water dropped off more at low tide than high with respect to the ramp.  The power boaters started launching on both sides of us at the other hotels and running their motors wide open in the “No Wake – Swim Zone” so neither the Manatees or the sailboaters were too happy.  They never went anywhere, they just zoomed back and forth, got out onto the pier, drank, and yelled at their wives and kiddies.

Saturday 25 June:

          No wind, no waves, no storms.  Around 8am I decided to pull Minnow out and get ready to drive home.  Pull out went well, except the rudder, which I had put back in hoping we could sail for a few hours this morning, would not come out.  I bent and twisted it until it finally came out then had to deal with getting the mast crutch in.  Sweat was pouring off me by the time we got everything stowed and pulled the boat out of the way for Ted.  He pulled out, unrigged, and we both went to take showers before checking out.  We got on the road by 9:30 and arrived home before 4pm (we stopped to wash the boat off in a car wash) where I flushed the motor and put everything away.  Another great few days of sailing and nothing got broken, just bent a little!

   Day 1: Got up around 7, cooked breakfast on the boat, pulled around near the clubhouse and rigged, took a shower, and talked to the other attendees.  Splashed about 8:15 or so.  Got tired of sitting at the launch ramp waiting by 8:45 so we took off.  There were no other boats in sight but the channel was well marked, and we had gone out the same way at BEER 04, so no problems.  We motored out to Pensacola Bay, hoisted sails, and the wind just died.  Got some good shots of the fleet coming out the channel, catching wind above us (we need a Genoa for light air days), and/or using their iron genoas, but needless to say we were quickly relegated to the 6 or 8 boats with similar hulls and sailplans.  One young couple was buzzing the fleet in their trimaran with classical music blasting (William Tell Overture, etc).  I met them later at Juan's Pagoda, they are a really nice couple, I had been over-served by then so I don't remember their names.  We had a great sail the 28 miles of ICW we covered on the first day.  Ron, commodore of the WCTSS; of which I am a proud member, was first to Navarre Beach even though he stopped and took a break along the way in his Sea Pearl, "Whisper".  We sailed near Daniel and Melissa Snapp in their unnamed 04 Potter.  Saw but never got to speak to Lake Rat and another Potter.  The first night's anchorage would have been better had the music from shore been lower and sung by someone with a voice.  Way off key and way too loud.  We motored a mile or so away just before dark (the WCTSS contingent, Daniel, and 3 other boats) and anchored for the night.  The wind picked up to 20kts or so around 1 am so my wife roused me from my stupor and I reset the bow anchor so we wouldn't get beat up as much. 

   Day 2: Got up around 6:30, had fried Spam and eggs for breakfast, and after the 3rd pot of coffee felt human enough to pull the anchor and head for the next anchorage, 14 miles away along the same route we had covered the day before.  On Day 1 the wind was out of the S and SW at 10kts or so while Day 2 it was from the East at 8 early and built to 14 by the time we got to the anchorage.  Great DOWNWIND Sailing!  I rigged my boat hook/paddle as a whisker pole and sailed wing on wing for 9 or 10 miles when the wind shifted back more from the south and built up some.  We approached the anchorage area doing 5+mph and being passed by Tom Potter in Knotty Kat doing 7+mph.  You would know he would take a great picture of Minnow - just after I doused the Jib.  We helped the rest of the fleet, who had slept in (the time change and the fact that everyone in the WCTSS is an early riser), to anchor and the Day 2 party started.  I rented a jet ski and took Kevin out.  He was overjoyed!  I let him run the ski out in the bay while I kept my finger inside the gas lever and helped him steer.  We had a hoot.  My wife filmed some of it but was laughing so hard it didn't come out well.  When I get the time I'll burn it do DVD and try to post it on the site somehow.  Day 2 came to an end with the bands along the beach quitting around 9pm and the wind staying from the SE all night.

Day 3:  The wind shifted around as the sun came up to come from the W/SW and built to 15 by 9 or so, which made the idea of sailing to Mosquito Cove impossible for us since we had agreed that we were going to pull out today rather than wait for the crush on Tuesday.  We motored away from the anchorage and prepared to raise sails when the downhaul line on my rudder broke.  I pulled the rudder into the boat and put a new line on in less than 5 minutes (I am getting better at this stuff), but it was too late.  The other 3 boats from the WCTSS were maneuvering to go under the bridge and we were still 2+ miles away, although we were screaming along on a beam reach.  Bud and his wife, sorry dear I forgot your name, were sailing their Sea Pearl, "Nutshell", without a motor and with the winds coming directly into the bridge they had to get a tow from another WCTSS member.  Once under the bridge they did what Sea Pearls always do: disappear!  Both the Sea Pearls and Paul's O'Day, "Wag's Folly",  left us far behind.  I have to attribute getting waxed by all 3 boats to their superior sailing skills as well as our propensity toward just sitting there and watching the world go by as Minnow glides along.   We had another problem when I fired up the motor just before entering the channel and split the fuel hose.  Rather than do surgery on the hose I just duct taped it enough to get us in and fixed it at home.  We motored to the ramp, pulled out, unrigged, stowed for the road, took showers, and still beat the other 3 boats from the WCTSS to the highway!  My wife and I may sail slower than all of them but we can get in and out of the water faster than anyone (in all fairness both Ron and Paul were single handing and Bud has a few (20?) years on me).  We hit the road and decided to see what the difference in mileage would be at 70mph versus 75mph.  The ride was a lot more pleasant and we went from 9.9mpg to 12.4mpg.  You have got to love a HEMI!

Lessons learned:

We sailed downwind to Foster Bay, about halfway down Captiva Island.  We anchored in a beautiful bay and had a couple of manatees checking us out as we stowed our gear and got the bed ready for the night.  The island was only 50yards from the Gulf and there was a lot of hurricane damage (including the hull of a power boat on top of a bunch of trees).  My wife came on deck and asked me to look at the power boat coming into the bay, toward several other large power boats already moored there.  I looked and to my surprise, the guy was naked!  We were a little freaked out and remarked to the boats from the club anchored beside us about the naked guy.  They remembered that they had forgotten to tell us that we were at a nude beach, was it a problem?  Fortunately, it was a clothing optional beach so we were ok.  We had a nice BBQ (while making comments about the chill toward the naked side of the beach), sat around a bonfire, and watched for the green flash on the Gulf.

   The "Everglades Cruise" from 29 December 04 to 2 January 05 is history.  We spent 3 nights and 4 days sailing/motoring/anchored in the 10,000 Islands area.  We ended up launching at Port of the Islands Marina, at the eastern end of the Faka Union Canal.  It was a 2 hour motor out of the canal at idle speed, since it is a manatee safety zone, but it was enjoyable.  We grounded twice but just cranked the keel up both times and came off.  We had 10 - 12 kts of wind off the port quarter so I tried to keep the keel a foot or more down to increase our steerageway.  The Mac 26 from Canada (Dave and Mary) and a Precision 23 (Terry and Dawn) both hit bottom a few times, the Mac got stuck one time for a few minutes before they could get off, but they both were drawing 2' at least.  Due to a late start to have a high tide (imagine what they would have gone through at low tide) and the larger boats rigging time, we ended up anchoring in a little bay a mile or so from the Gulf for the evening.  The Precision anchored in about 5 feet of water with the Mac next to him.  We motored up close to the shoreline in 2 feet or so of water to get out of the wind (15+kts by this time).  We had a leisurely supper, read until 8 or so and zonked out.  The Mac, shortly before dark, pulled anchor and came around in front of us to escape the wind too.  Early the next morning we woke up and made breakfast and drank coffee  in the cockpit while we waited for our group to wake up.  By 8 we were tired of waiting, and I had caught 4 fish while killing time, so we fired up the motor and slowly made our way toward the Gulf.  Terry, on the Precision (he and his wife are just great people), agreed to follow us since his boxer (Molly - friendly and large bladder) wanted to use the bathroom and the bay we were in had no shoreline, only mangroves.  The Mac was hard aground, low tide, and had to wait until 11 to get off the mud they were in.  We motored out of our anchorage in the less than a foot of water we had (fishfinder cuts off at less than a foot under the hull) without a problem, and we were "fully" loaded down for the cruise.  Once in the Gulf we maintained contact with Terry via his little family radio things he had loaned to us, while he went to a key with a little beach for the dog.  I spotted Kiva, a Peep Hen from the WCTSS (14' of great sailboat), swinging at anchor and called Art and Brenda on the VHF.  They were finishing breakfast and had spent the night within a mile of our anchorage.  They agreed that we would all sail south to meet the rest of the WCTSS, who had launched at Chokoloskee, 8 miles to the south, around Jack Daniels Key, a little more than halfway between the two passes both groups used to enter the Gulf.

   We hoisted a reefed main and put our 110 Lapper out and off we went.  We couldn't point as close to the wind as Kiva, and Terry decided he wanted to take his dog to another island where she could play for a while, so we were on our own.  I saw 5.4mph on the GPS and we stayed around 5mph for the next 45 minutes in winds gusting to 20mph according to my digital wind gauge.  I know that this wasn't true windspeed since the boat's position relative to the wind effects the reading but I ignore stuff like that, let the engineers out there worry.  One problem with not being able to point as close as Kiva was we were steadily going further into the Gulf while they were staying pretty close to the many keys were passing.  We ended up 3 miles offshore and the water started getting nasty with whitecaps everywhere.  The waves were running around 3 feet but the duration was such that we were getting a lot of spray over the bow and pitching like crazy.  Kiva got tired of getting beat up too and pulled into the lee of Kingston Key to eat lunch.  We fired up the motor, since we were a mile or so further south and nearly 3 miles further out than they were, and motored into a cove on the other side of Kingston Key.  I was happy to get there.  I raised Ron, the commodore of the WCTSS who had launched at Chokoloskee with the other group, on the VHF about that time and found out they had been hard aground until nearly 11, high tide, but were on their way.  If you go to the WCTSS website and look at the pictures you can see 2 Sea Pearls and an O'Day sitting in mud only, that was taken by Steve, in his Potter, I think, but there were only a couple of puddles for them.  We agreed to meet near Jack Daniels Key.  The southernmost bunch had 2 Sea Pearl 21's, the O'Day 19, and a Potter 19 sailed by Steve from Atlanta.  We met and up and sailed back north, to a sandy beach out of the wind and waves, in the channel between Picnic Key and Tiger Key.  We visited, looked at boats, and BBQ'd on the beach while planning the night's anchorage and sail for the next day.  Steve, the other Potter dude, is a sailing instructor on a lake near Atlanta and his son, Elijah, is a hoot!  I noticed he has since signed up for BEER 2005, that makes 3 Potter 19's making the cruise!!!  The Mac and Precision showed up so the Cruise Group was set.  8 boats is a pretty good turnout for a 5 day sail.  A half hour before dark we all motored a mile or so further into the channel and found a beautiful anchorage for the evening.  I caught 2 fish, drank a few beers, finished a great mystery book, and listened to all the critters till 8 or so.  Isn't sailing great?

   Up early and decided to motor up to the beach we had supper on to get out and stretch our legs while waiting for the rest of the group to get moving.  2 other boats joined us and we stood/sat around drinking coffee and talking until 9 or so when the rest of the group showed up.  The 2 Sea Pearls, the O'Day, and Minnow decided to sail north to White Horse Key, 6 miles or so away, eat lunch on the key, and return to Camp Lulu Key for the New Year's Eve celebration held there every year.  The Mac was going to motor into Everglades City (3 hours away) and get ice, Steve with his Potter was going to let his son Elijah fish and play on a few keys and meet us later, and the others were going to explore Indian Key Pass, probably by motor.  We had a great sail north with the wind off our starboard quarter at 12 to 15 mph.  The Sea Pearls were wing on wing and flying and the O'Day, sailed by Paul (an old salt who has owned more boats than I have ever seen), just left me behind in his proverbial dust.  Yes, we were last to Panther Key but only by 20 minutes or so.  We met some very colorful locals who were camping/squatting on White Horse Key.  One very friendly guy kept making foghorn noises and was a little scary (I kept hearing distant strains of "Deliverance" playing).  They had been there "a few weeks" and there are no services of any type on any of these keys, but many people spend weeks and sometimes even months living on them in tents.  We had a small storm blow through during lunch and the wind and waves were building pretty quickly so we put back in and motored around Panther Key hoping that the southern channel would allow us a means to get into the Gulf and avoid the worst of the wind and waves.  No luck there, we had 2 - 3 foot waves dead into us and the wind was on the bow too.  We ended up motoring/surfing to Camp Lulu Key, about 3 miles.  Ron was having a little engine hiccup occasionally so we hung back and followed him to lend assistance if needed.  Camp Lulu Key was a slice of the real Florida.  We had to swing a circle of nearly 300 degrees around a big sandbar to get into the bay which had a 20' wide strip of sand protecting the Gulf side.  This key's claim to fame is a guy who used to live there for nearly 20 years in a tent.  A lot of people knew him before he died and come back to remember him and his life on New Year's Eve.  The many kayakers who were staying on the key were friendly (there are tons of kayakers camping on the keys while vacationing, we plan on trying that next year too).  Most of us ended up anchored out at dusk for the night.  The sky was beautiful and they set off fireworks from the shore.  Happy New Year!

   We got up early, again, and watched the fleet break up.  The Sea Pearls and O'Day were returning to Chokoloskee to beat the low tide, since the ramp was in some very skinny water, Steve with his Potter was going to let his son finish watching a movie on their DVD player and motor back too, so we decided to sail north and decide if we wanted to make the run in or anchor out and return on Sunday.  We had a great sail, so great I missed the channel markers for Faka Union and ended up 2 miles or so past it.  We sailed back and decided to go ahead and pull out.  We got back to the marina around 2 pm and the low tide gave us problems pulling the boat out.  There was a drop off at the end of the ramp and the trailer wheels dropped off it.  It wouldn't have been a problem except when I walked Minnow forward and hooked the winch up my wife decided (she had never done this before) to throw the aft line into the boat and watch me.  The current grabbed the boat and swung the stern over the fender, preventing me from pulling the boat out.  The dock next to the ramp was 8 feet above the water.  I finally had my wife jump into the boat, toss me the line, and I pulled Minnow off the fender and took a turn around the piling to prevent the current from pushing the boat over the fender again.  I ran back and forth cranking the boat up and then running around and easing the stern line then cranking it up etc.  I was not a happy camper but hey, shit happens, and you just have to make things work.  We pulled Minnow, rigged for towing, did a quick wash off at the station, and hit the road.  My new Dodge Ram with a Hemi is heaven compared to my old 4.6 Ford.  On the flat, like most of Florida, I don't even put it in Tow/haul.  I just set the cruise on 70 and steer!

   This was the most fun we have had actually sailing Minnow for an extended period.  The BEER Cruise was more fun in the party sense but there wasn't a lot of sailing going on.  We had a good 10 hours of sailing over 4 mph and wanted more.  Great times were had by all.  I have posted  a few pictures so take a look if you like, but when you are hauling A@$ you don't take a lot of pictures (my wife is digital camera challenged too, but we won't go there, oh no, we won't).  C'mon down and go sailing with us, it is all good in Florida!