Minnow, Buffet's Fault, Red Tag, Whisper, and Lilly P on the north end of Elliot Key on New Year's Eve

Ed and Ted at Alabama Jack's - someone may have been over-served again!

Both photos by Dave from Red Tag

1. Sept 20th - Lake Tarpon 10th year Anniversary Daysail - This is where the WCTSS started 10 years ago! Launch at Anderson Park 9:30 AM. $5 to launch.(beware the ramp Nazi) - Lunch at the Tarpon Turtle! (A Jack Willie's Restaurant) access on the water just north of the boat ramp area.

2. October 17 - 19th - Cayo Costa Cruise ! - A favorite destination on the west coast of Florida! Launch from the Bokeelia ramp on the north end of Pine Island (County Park Ramp), or the private ramps at Eldred's Marina on the mainland by Placida Florida.

Eldred's Marina - Placida Area - Driving Directions (from Tampa)

Go South on I-75 - Take Exit 191 - River Road - Manatee Community College

Go East toward Englewood go 5 miles to Hyw 41 - Cross Hwy 41 - go straight across - go 5.5 more miles Cross Winchester Road

Turn left on Pine at light - Cross SR 776 /McCall (Publix on Right) Go 10 more miles to the Boca Grande CausewayCounty Park and a Ramp

Look for Eldred's Marina and Ramp - before the bridge on Right

 

   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.