More Florida Cold...

Another cold front, though not quite as windy as the last one.
Pirate Peppermint Patty and I are huddling in the boat this morning.
The temperature indicator displaying mid 50's in the boat at 10am... I'm sure it was much colder than that during the night...
My awareness awakened from sleep with the winds, and I thought, "it sure is a cold one."
The "nice" thing about the cold is that it doesn't matter much that i don't have refrigeration on the boat... orange juice stays good... soyogurt stays good... smart balance buttery spread stays good... baby spinach stays good...
AND, peppermint patty has all of a sudden become a lap cat ;)
meow.

More fronts...

Well, life in Florida isn't all sunshine and summer fun all year round...
I'm not sure what count we're up to for this winter season 08-09, but I was once again awoken at 2AM by a front passing through like a freight train and wondering if a tornado was lingering somewhere near... my eyes straining into the darkness but afraid to look at the same time. It's at these times I most do not wish to be alone...
The boat was rocking this way and that, I felt like I was at the arcade on the bucking bronco! the floating docks were oscillating up and down and sideways on the chop and I could see in the faint light emanating from shore that white caps were crashing over the dock, probably like the one I "caught on film" this afternoon during my lunch time break home to check on things (p.s. the splash I caught in this pic is not even as bad as many I otherwise saw and got soaked by...). I added yet another dock line to SV Athena. Now up to 9 dock lines and 5 tie points.
of course at night, everything is heightened. Peppermint Patty and I were huddled in the salon from 2am to 3am waiting for the winds and waves to subside, checking the internet weather and seeing the front line roll down the Florida peninsula. I watched as it headed south towards my "more southern" friends...
Today, after spending the morning in my office feeling like I was still on a boat and continually finding myself swaying in my chair and feeling the need to hang on to something... my walk down the dock for lunch was wet (meaning, i got wet) and I watched as the dock undulated beyond and saw the 3 inch up and down oscillation and 1 inch side to side slide on the pilings. sometimes I think because I live on a dock I kinda sorta live on land... today I do not feel like I live on land!
lunch time, day light, as I write this, Pirate Peppermint Patty is meowing to get out... and I say... "you do not know what you wish for...."
and, I think to myself, how many times have you found yourself longing to escape from where you are, but seemingly withheld by some other force beyond yourself. Perhaps not knowing the storm that is brewing or thrashing just beyond... Perhaps there is just no way for you to know what you wish for... Perhaps something larger than you knows what is best...

Peppermint Patty Spot

Another Peppermint Patty spot. I may have to change this blog to "Patty's Sailing Adventures!"
Enjoying a lovely evening on the dock. Jazz music in the air as Jazz on the Green plays into the evening in the park on the river a stone throw away.
Down below I'm washing dishes thinking Patty isn't roaming down the dock too far...
Well that sly cat, she was!
I decided to check on her and she was no where to be found! I started to panic a bit... tried not to... but she has fallen into the water before on the previous floating dock that we use to luxuriate on.
So, the scene is familiar... I'm wondering around the dock calling "Peppermint... Peppermint..."
and now the jazz music is seeming really too loud as I'm straining for any signs of splashing because she is no where to be found in the general vicinity!
Still trying to keep the panic at bay... I continue further down the dock. then, i spot her! on someone else's boat, of course!
Her nick-name isn't pirate peppermint patty for nothing!
She continues exploring the boat while I try to coax her my way so I can grab her by the scruff of her neck. She'll have none of that... she wanders further away to the far side of the boat, eventually jumping up onto a skinny portion of the deck. I walk over to another area of the dock for a better view and keep calling to her. There may be some gentle swearing in there at this point.... I have been known to swear occasionally...
then, in horror, i watch her try to jump up a very steep part of the deck to an upper area that's about her front paws stretch as she stands on her back paws. The jump is unsuccessful as she comes skidding back down to the skinny part of the deck with no toe rail. I don't know how she does it, but she manages to stay on the boat while I'm freaking out thinking she's going right over, three foot drop into the water! not being successful at getting to the top deck... she tries again! right in front of my fearful eyes!!! now i'm really swearing "nicely" at her to get the flock off the boat! it's then that i realize there are lights on and hatches open in the sailboat next door... well, that's about it, I can't have the neighbors listening to me swear at my cat that's sneaking onto other's boats. Finally I grab her and haul her back home and stick the leash on her! infuriated she stares into space with a scorned look. Eventually she decides to come back down below. We're sitting nicely in the warm glow of holiday white lights with the jazz in the background, writing this story... when suddenly, she makes a break for it and leaps out the companion way which only has two boards instead of three. I grab her through the v-birth hatch by the scruff, drag her down below, and ground her!

Enjoying the New Dock

Since docking from the 8 day trip a little over a week ago, I've been working every day straight. It's already difficult to imagine that I even had any time off. It feels years ago.
It seems surreal that I was on SV Athena for 192 hours straight except for a one hour jaunt to Panther Key.
Even more surreal that the first time I stepped on land in the year 2009, it was January 4th!
The really weird thing thinking back, is that the first time I got in my car after returning, and driving down the street... I felt claustrophobic. Hard to believe I felt claustrophobic in the car on the road when I'd just spent 8 days on a 30 foot sailboat.
That evening driving back to Punta Gorda to pick up the car left behind, it was difficult to believe we were missing the sunset... We'd only just watched them for 8 days straight. It's sad. It seems difficult now to make and take the time to enjoy. I just don't understand how this working life is "real" life.
Anyways, as usual, I digress ;)
Peppermint Patty and I did steal one evening over this past weekend to enjoy being at the new dock on a beautiful evening.
It was such a beautiful evening, I did feel that we were stealing time, or more like lost in time.
The floating dock has been nice since we've had at least a couple good cold fronts come through that would have kicked our butt again had we stayed at the shallow fixed dock in Punta Gorda.

Food on the Trip

There's nothing like good food on a trip! Here are some examples of what we ate.
For New Year's Eve dinner we had a feast! pic on top left is New Year's Eve dinner consisting of yummy organic butternut squash, rice pilaf, sauted fresh asparagus, sauted portabella mushrooms, and... Lynne did make a fantastic turkey that I admit, I had a piece of.
For New Year's Day dinner (pic on top right) we had mashed organic sweet potatoes, fresh steamed green beans, and couscous.
For our sunset dinner at Keywaydin (pic on bottom left) we had organic flax pasta with spagetti sauce enhanced with leftover barbequed garlic rosemary marinated zuccini, tofu, muchrooms, and peppers.
For some lunches (pic on bottom right) we had avocado, pepper, mushroom wraps with carrot sticks.
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.
Lucky for my crew, I did all the cooking and most of the cleaning. I do find it quite enjoyable to cook, and even clean, when out and about in SV Athena. It's such a different feeling when there's no real rush and one can partake in the preparation of and relish in fantastic food.

8 day trip, day 9

Wait, huh? Day 9 of an 8 day trip...?
Well, you see, our trip was a full 8 straight 24 hours, i.e. 192 hours. I think I did that math right.
But, that 192 hours was started halfway through a saturday and ended halfway through a sunday.
So, after a relatively calm night... we were awoken mid night by a quick front that passed through and stirred things up a bit... We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on day 9. After a relaxing morning and debating whether or not we really needed to go back to the dock... I reluctantly raised anchor and headed us up river, a five hour motor from our anchor spot. There wasn't much wind to speak of, but it was a pleasant motor. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful warm Florida winter day. And, we safely passed beneath bridges that are luckily not as close as they appear...

There were some inconsiderate boaters out and about however.
At one point I thought life could potentially end instantly... here I am, motoring along at a pace some can walk faster than, and this motor boat is speeding right towards us down the skinny channel of the miserable 4 miles, no where for me to really go. Their one miscalculation on a boat wake and they'd be on us in an instant, and I do mean on us, in the cockpit with me. Examples such as this also bring out sailors' swearing.
Dear inconsiderate speed boaters:
It's one thing to risk your own life.
It's quite another thing to risk the lives of others.
Don't be an idiot.
I know you may not think it will happen to you, but people do in fact die while having fun boating. and they die on nice sunny warm days too.
Really, where have you got to go?

so, for all you conscientious boaters out there, don't forget to use your power!
All Hail to Channel 16:
"Security Security Security (pronounced 'securitae'), warning to all boaters in the such and such location, there is a boat of such and such description traveling at high rates of speed in such and such direction."
Don't worry, it's unlikely that said inconsiderate boater will hear your call over their motor(s) warning others of the ars, i mean, idiot heading their way...

8 day trip, day 8

Well, after a rocking rolling night, we woke, I mean, that would imply we were sleeping... we finally rolled out of bed, raised the anchor and got the flock out of there.
Now, I'm not the type of person to subsist on very little sleep... So this last full day of our trip was already starting off on a little bit of an unsteady foot... As we raised sails and headed north, there was also the realization that this was indeed the last full day of the trip. I have this bad habit of finding myself in a really bad mood when I know the end is near...
Which reminds me of the torture I put my friends through on New Year's Eve night when I sang....
"And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain.
My friends, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.
I've lived a life that's full, I've traveled each and every highway.
But more, much more than this, I did it MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
- Frank Sinatra
and, I'm instantly brought back in memories to standing on a football field with marching band fans singing along and tears running down my eyes, huge smile on my face, for a show well done and a life lived fully and intensely.
I know we all think we know how everyone else should be living, but really, the only thing we know is how we ourselves should be living.
And sometimes I think were pretty lucky if we even know that much.
The best we can do is live life in our own way, fully and intensely.
Like a snowflake, or even like a sunrise or sunset,
no two lives are ever the same.
Anyways, I digress.
My mood this day did not improve as the winds once again died on us and I really did not want to motor, but there was no chance in "pure hell" that I was anchoring off shore again this night.
I made two attempts at getting the flasher sail up... By the second attempt I was fuming and my sailor's mouth was in full force. I could not get the darn thing untangled. Some kind of disaster had happened with the lines and I had no patience. I'm sure my crew was beginning to wonder if we'd make it through the day... I swore at the flasher I swore at the lack of wind I swore I swore I swore... and then.... I swore some more!
And then I went quiet. My mind flustered and traveling to other places. wondering how indeed I'm suppose to be living this life. Then the off shore wind which had died, suddenly switched and came screaming on shore. We raised sails and were off like bandits. Hauling past Bonita and Ft. Myers Beach. We passed under the Sanibel Bridge for the return, traveled down the sheer hell miserable 4 miles, and anchored behind Sanibel for a most incredible sunset.

8 day trip, day 7

Time to head back home...
We raised anchor and headed out in the quiet early morning.
Left before low tide, although this meant that we'd be crossing the Cape Romano Shoals at low low tide, so I planned to take the "safe" way across the shoals again.
It was a beautiful sunrise as we tip-toed by the sleeping campers on Panther Key...
The winds were still kicking pretty good out of the southeast as we headed upwind a bit towards the shoals and then reached across them. The waves which had been building through out the night since yesterday were hitting us broadside along with the wind making for quite a rolling ride across the shoals.
After crossing the shoals we had a nice downwind sail heading north past Cape Romano, Kice, and Marco Island.
Towards late afternoon the winds started to die, but the wave action had not. We were loosing our ability to sail and deal with the onslaught of wave action. The already sorry sails were getting beaten back and forth as forward motion was slowing to a crawl but the waves kept us rocking. I really didn't want to turn on the motor...
We were about mid-way up Keywaydin Island when I decided to call it quits for the night. we motored into shore a bit hoping for some protection... Keywaydin Island really is a beautiful island. Click on 2nd pic down on left to see the beautiful Florida native sabal plams.
The waves were still catching us... but I was hoping they would settle down during the night...
Had time to cook up some yummy food for dinner at sunset. and what a gorgeous sunset it was! I could hardly decide which picture I liked best to post. It was an incredible sunset. It might have almost made up for the sleepless night...
Nope. those waves never calmed down... we rocked quite a bit. the three sister waves coming in intervals of about, oh, i don't know... 3 seconds! no rest for the weary. with each swing of the pendulum the cubboards would knock and bottles would clang. It was quite a noisy night. It's a wonder I was even able to get a few hours sleep... crew didn't sleep. Nate was hoping I'd get up and move us in the middle of the night... but, when I'm crashed, I'm crashed. sometimes I just can't muster the energy, no matter how much I'd like to. Thank goodness for the 90 feet of chain and new anchor.

8 day trip, day 6

So, woke up in the morning debating about math or math-debating....
one of the two... or three...
trying to decide whether to set sail for a shelling adventure at Pavilion Key, or stay put at beautiful Panther Key for another day...
Hup two hup two, bring in the line and off we go. We sneak out at a very low tide. No doubt swishing the mud out of the way as we pass through the swash to the Gulf.
Then we turn to the southeast and start heading, heading that is, upwind. Now SV Athena does quite well upwind, but I'm not so sure how the captain feels about it...
It was a seemingly Florida cold morning to this captain with the apparent wind kicking and making it feel colder, especially as the sails seemed to be positioned to block the sun, and this now Florida girl says brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... And huddles behind the dodger.
You know, there is a reason the term "beating upwind" came to be. It is like a beating. Far from pleasant. We beat upwind for about an hour. we had a few or so more hours to go to make it to Pavilion. reefed the jib... reefed the main...
Sailing upwind with reefed jib and one reef in the main and we're still cooking along at 5 knots, which feels much faster when the wind is slaming the halyards on the mast. The chop on the water growing and the white caps marching towards us more and more. splash splash. If this captain has to go back up on deck into the Florida cold wind and put one more reef in the main... The thought of kayaking to Pavilion in these boiling waters was looking none too appetizing. Although the crew was enjoying the upwind sail immensely, this captain would have no more of it.
We turned down wind and my frown became a smile. All of a sudden it seemed warmer, the sun was shining, we were surfing down the waves instead of beating against them. It was a marvelous sail back to Panther Key!
And look who we passed on our way back in as they were sailing out... Lynne & Russell on SV Blue Highway :)
pic of them at top left.
They got a pic of us going by too (pic mid left). If you click on the pic of SV Athena to enlarge and you look really closely... you can see the multitude of patches on the jib. I also noticed on this trip a few more tears and some holes where the sun would peak through... the jib is on borrowed time as Russell says... another reason I decided to not spend so much time beating into the wind on this day.
After we anchored back up in the Panther Key sweet spot, we watched SV Blue Highway sail away in the distance beyond Hog Key (pic top right).
The rest of the day was spent once more relaxing and soaking in the scenery. It might be some time again before I'm able to visit.
Peppermint Patty enjoyed the time at anchor too.
And, another beautiful sunset.

8 day trip, day 5 - New Year's Eve

Day 5 of our 8 day trip happened to be New Year's Eve...
I can't say there are too many other places I'd rather be on New Year's Eve than Panther Key.
Great friends, great weather, great champaign, great food...
Catching the last sunset of the year...
I find watching the last sunset of the year more significant than the stroke of midnight.
Way I see it, in the Panther Key time zone, we're already way behind many others on the planet that have already started the new year!
On the eve of 2008 my resolution was to sail more.
I have sailed more, but not enough.
I begin again 2009 with the end in mind.
Besides sailing, my resolution is to continue to stay motivated and work towards making SV Athena an even more beautiful sailing home.

Continuing to work on the vision so I can make it happen...

8 day trip, day 5

A beautiful day anchored at Panther Key...
Morning brings low low tide as the red mangrove prop roots are exposed to the air and the fisheries loose some of their hiding places from the food web...
Speaking of food, with butternut squash in the solar oven, which also has a nickname... "sky lab"
Spent the day reading, resting, and relaxing. Enjoying.
There appears to be an unfortunate occurrence at Panther Key though... It always seems the days go by way too fast. I don't understand how it can be when we're not running around like rats in the maze of life trying to beat the clock. It would seem if one was taking things slow, that time would slow, but that does not seem to be the case, at least not for me at Panther Key. I guess it takes a certain type of personality perhaps, perhaps, perhaps... but I could spend days and days at Panther Key, reading, writing, relaxing, contemplating, sharing thoughts, even staring into the environment or simply space... and not miss one bit of anything that I don't have there. Except of course... family and friends!
Speaking of friends, we also had some other friends stop by for a visit!
They camped on the other side of Panther Key.
Ah yes, camping... Many times when I tell people I live aboard a sailboat, they think my life must be like full-time camping... I admit, I don't personally surround myself with a lot of conveniences, so, ya, it could kinda be considered like camping. although, I'm not sure I remember the last time a rock was sticking into my back, or sand was in my sleeping bag... and, I don't actually sleep in a bag, I have a most beautiful fleece blanket from my brother that is sinfully soft.
Camping or not, I'm not sure too many people can say they are "at home" when they are in the ten thousand islands...
I certainly don't consider a dock my home, it's SV Athena that is my home. With some encouragement from Lynne & Russell, it's even possible I'll put Panther Key, FL as my hailing port when I do finally get around to getting SV Athena's name on the transom, officially, other than the electrical tape that has managed to amazingly last two years...

8 day trip, day 4

Slept in after a long 3 day trip to Panther Key. Difficult to believe it use to only take me 3 hours to get to Panther Key from my, seemingly long ago, dockage in Goodland... it was only just 7 months ago, the end of last sailing season.

While slowly awaking to chai tea and cooking scrambled eggs and toast with fruit for breakfast, I heard the sound of something skimming the water's surface outside...

It was Lynne and Russell in their sailing dinghy to say Good Morning and welcome to Panther Key!!

After breakfast I jumped into the kayak and went over to Panther Key to catch up with Lynne and Russell, which just happened to be the one and only hour I spent on land during the entire 8 day trip!

Caught a pic of anchored SVs Athena (closer) and Blue Highway (further) on my way back from Panther. Although Blue Highway looks smaller than Athena in this pic... Blue Highway is a good 14 feet longer than Athena!

Spent the rest of the day lounging, reading, watching the surroundings, resting, relaxing...

Later in the afternoon we moved Athena and rafted up to Blue Highway to watch the sunset and enjoy dinner and conversation with Lynne and Russell.

As night falls... so do the eyelids...

8 day trip, day 3

We arose at sunrise and tip toed out of our anchorage at Lover's Key under sail... No motor on this beautiful quiet morning after sleeping to the sound of waves crashing on shore. A nice off shore breeze lifting us away...

Quite early in the day the winds died down and up went the flasher sail! She is a beautiful sail... Had a great time flying her all day from about 10am to about 4pm from north of Naples all the way down to south of Marco Island. I bet she looked pretty impressive out there on that beautiful day! After 6 hours of being at the helm with sail line in one hand and wheel in the other, it was time to take her down and get ready for sunset/darkness and crossing the Cape Romano Shoals...
Another gorgeous southwest Florida sunset with a sliver moon...
First time crossing the shoals and at night, we took the "safe" route with lots of water, eyes almost constantly on the depth sounder... Took about an hour to cross the shoals and as we did so the winds continued to build out of the north-northeast... By the time we were on the east side of the shoals we were sailing upwind into some decent winds as I decided we'd head into Panther Key (as opposed to further south and further away) for the night. Peppermint Patty was not liking the growing bay chop and the sound of the winds whiping through the sails and causing the halyards to bang on the mast, not to mention the motor had been running as we passed through the shoals just in case... Pirate Patty is never very happy when the motor is running. She kept meowing from down below - not a happy camper. At the helm I wasn't too happy either... It was a great upwind sail, but without something to block the wind, the wind burn can get brutal after a long day under the sun. It was also Florida cold to me. A couple hours later we were getting ready to enter the channel to the Panther Key anchorage. Ahead was this bright light, which I couldn't discern at first. It seemed a boat, then it seemed a huge bonfire gone awry and burning the island... But alas, as we got closer, it was just a large bonfire... the problem was that that fire hampened a sighting on the anchor light of a sailboat that suddenly appeared out of the darkness to our starboard as we slipped through the narrow swath into the protected bay... yikes! There is a little added stress coming into anchor in the darkness of night. The land masses seeming to loom over... constantly on the lookout for anchor lights and perhaps boats without anchor lights...
Speaking of anchor lights. All trip we were using a new anchor light that we named "Ahab." Ahab is a good low amp anchor light that we connected to a small 12V battery out in the cockpit. Anchor light "Ahab" was given to us by our friend, whose nickname just happens to be... Ahab ;) Thank you Ahab!!

We dropped anchor at about 10pm. a long day... Even though it was late, I forced us to eat some hot vegetable soup to keep our strength up and our nightly ritual of echinacea tea for the immune system. Then we fell out of the awake world into slumber... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Happy New Year!!

I know it's a little out of order from my 8 day trip story telling...
but, my sailing friends just sent me this picture from New Year's Eve sunset, and I just love it, so I had to get it up on the site!
From left to right, my friends Nate, Lynne, Russell, and me :)
Toasting the last sunset of 2008 at Panther Key!
Cheers!!

8 day trip, day 2

Sunday, Day 2. After dining on scrambled eggs, toast, mango, and chai tea, we lifted anchor and set sail down the ICW behind the barrier island areas of Cayo Costa, Captiva, Sanibel. A beautiful morning. Southeast of Pine Island, east of Sanibel is an area of the ICW my sailing friends lovingly term the miserable mile. I'm going to have to double check with them on this because I'm pretty sure it was a miserable FIVE miles... maybe only four... I termed the miserable four miles, sheer hell ;) you'll need to read day 1 to understand that internal joke ;)
Sheer hell is a narrow swath cut into the shallows, waves breaking to both sides in some locations, large floating condos motoring by and throwing large wake tossing us around like old shoes, other boats speeding by with some at dangerous speeds (who are these you know whats?).
Prior to getting to sheer hell I had dropped the sails as we were heading pretty much straight into the wind, and there wasn't much wind to be had at this point in the day, not to mention I didn't want to see the sails flogging brutally as we were tossed in the wakes.
Luckily it was a beautiful sunny warm Florida winter day to enjoy being out on the water.
Finally we make it through "sheer hell" and the new Sanibel Bridge is in our sights (see pic).
Once through the bridge the winds were back up and we raised the sails and sailed out into the Gulf.
We sailed past Ft. Myers Beach and again under a dark starry sky we set anchor, just off shore of Lovers Key.

8 day trip, day 1

Saturday, Dec. 27th. Day 1 of the 8 day trip was a busy one...
I'd been working many days/hours straight... but, not, unfortunately, working at getting SV Athena ready to go sailing for 8 days...
So, with time ticking, I tried to sneak one last 1/2 hour into the office in the morning, but called by crew for the trip, my friend Nate, I left the office, 8 AM...
With my car dropped off at the marina where we'd be docking at the end of the trip, we set off to go grocery shopping! I had done a little bit of grocery shopping the night before, but there was still much to accumulate. And, with crew, we had to shop and stash food for two people aboard SV Athena for 8 days...
Food, and water. We loaded 16 gallons of water aboard SV Athena for the trip; two per person per day. We also filled up the water tanks, which total about 50 gallons on SV Athena.
Groceries included apples, oranges, pineapple, cantaloupe, bananas (even though I've heard a rumor they're bad luck on a boat... how silly is that!), peanut butter, jelly, bread, wraps, mangos, oat meal, peppers, acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, mushrooms (white, baby bellas, and regular portabellas), asparagus, green beans, tofu, capt's cheese (fresh mozzarella - the expensive kind and Havarti with dill) and crew cheese (Colby), canned soup, canned peas, canned corn, 2 jars salsa, chips, wheat thins, triscuits, mix box rices, mix box couscouses, cereal, eggs, vegan butter, almond M&Ms, onions, soy milk, avocados, zucchini squash, box o' noodles, jar spaghetti sauce, Coca Cola (capt's treat and becoming ceremonious for sailing...), tea (chai and echinacea), and, agave nectar (natural sweetener), and towelettes (for capt's sponge baths)... I think that about covers it. I also had some stuff already on the boat (garlic, olive oil, spices, etc.)
We ate pretty good actually. I just wish I'd remembered the bagels ;)
Total for the groceries for two (plus food/litter for peppermint patty), about $300.
Then, one last stop at West Marine to pick up a new anchor... a new anchor...?!?!?
yup, a new anchor. Way back when in these blog entries one might find a story about loosing one's anchor to the "depths" of Panther Key anchorage... With angst at loosing an anchor I really liked, I bought a new anchor, the "Claw" to replace the old, but I never really felt great about the "Claw." I mean, I really enjoyed when Jim Carrey would do the "claw" in the movie "Liar Liar" (a great movie), but, the claw didn't do anything for me when it came to anchoring... and, since I was putting 90 feet of new chain onto SV Athena anyways... (a task I did manage to get done before the day of departure for the trip, see pic on right, 90 feet of chain is very heavy... gets onto boat one or two feet at a time, with tide in), I figured, why not get a new anchor too, and really feel better about anchoring!
so, back at the boat, groceries, new anchor, and crew at hand, we loaded up the boat with food and crew stuff, did a batch of laundry (yes, really behind I was), fueled up the tank and refilled the 5 gallon jug with diesel, got ice for coolers, finished installing 90 feet of new chain attached to new anchor, attempted to fix the roller furling system (note the word attempted...), washed the boat, and, oh ya, waited for the tide to come in so we could leave! okay, so, the tide might have come in a little before we were ready to go... I was running "slightly" behind schedule. With full tummies after a late lunch at a restaurant in Fishermen's Village and freshly showered (for the last time in 8 days...) we warmed up the engine and were heading out the yacht basin at around 4 pm... kinda a late start... and, did I happen to mention I only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before... another story ;)
I was hoping to get off the dock by 1pm. Regardless, we were OFF THE DOCK, yae!
Heading out the channel from the yacht basin, a breeze in the air, we turned down and let out the sails looking forward to a beautiful sail down Charlotte Harbor...
UNFORTUNATELY...
My "attempt" at fixing the roller furling that had become a little messed up during the previous trip... was now completely a disaster. I guess in the stress of trying to get everything done and off the dock, I didn't think clearly through the roller furler fix... Upon trying to open the jib, I realized I had wound the jib lines in the wrong direction thereby making it impossible to open up the jib, but for a little bit. The jib wouldn't open more unless I fully released the winding line... Anxious to sail, I foolishly decided to untie the lock knot and release the winding line, allowing the jib to open up more and the winding line to find its way wrapped fully around the roller furler drum. All seemed well and good until not much more than a few moments later the wind appeared to pick up out of no where! The winds they were a blowing and now there was a lot of pressure on the rolled out jib that I couldn't roll back in! the winding line I had allowed to let go now completely sucked into the roller furler drum with barely an inch to tug from the drum. stuck stuck stuck. Now we had too much sail up, no way to bring it in, winds whipping, shallows almost everywhere, and chop on the bay picking up and slopping SV Athena around! Well, in these cases I'd like to look around and see who, other than myself, can solve the problem...
Seeing as how my crew was more like company, still healing from a very bad shoulder injury and only able to help out with steering the boat, and pirate Peppermint Patty was not about to lend a paw, I guess it was going to have to be me to deal with the now stuck winding line in the whipping winds wracking the sails and the halyards noisily against the mast, a maddening sound when one is trying to stay calm...
We turned into the wind to ease the pressure on the jib. I made my way to the rocking bow (crowded with the dinghy) and was able (with difficulty) to pull out the stuck winding line from the roller furler drum. I pulled out just enough to bring a length back to the cockpit and re secure with locking knot sufficient to give some control to move on. I was able to completely fix the roller furler once the winds died down later in the evening. We lost about an hour with the roller furler fiasco.

I was more than mad at my self for not taking the time to really get the boat ready to go and avoid a situation that didn't need to happen. It's times like that when I wonder about my work/life balance... How could I have not taken the time to get SV Athena ready to go on a long sail? What was I thinking? I put us in jeopardy not taking care of things fully, yet work took the higher stance... hmmm.... Imagining with much sarcasm that I'm sinking below the depths of the Gulf thinking... jeez, why didn't I spend more time at work...?

It took me a little while to relax after the roller furler fiasco. In fact, I used the phrase "pure hell" to describe the scenario when I called my friend Russell to let him know we were off the dock and heading down to Panther Key. Later on my crew mentioned to me my use of the words "pure hell." From there on out, it became a trip joke; you have to go through "pure hell" in order to get to heaven. Later that evening the winds were beautiful, the sunset lovely, and the night sail with stars peacefully enjoyable. How can you know heaven without having gone through hell?
We reached anchorage east of Punta Blanca Island and the ICW under dark starry skies with no moon at 11pm.

Pirate Peppermint Patty

Pirate Peppermint Patty and I lounging on the last day of our 8 day sailing trip.
The last day included waking up anchored behind Sanibel Island to a beautiful relaxing morning before the long haul up the Caloosahatchee River...

Besides lounging, Peppermint Patty and I also took in the scenery... We heard lots of birds and splashing fish. We even saw a manatee swim by.

I'm not sure what pirate Peppermint Patty thought... but, I didn't want to go home...
for whatever that means.
I live on my boat, I am at home.
My backyard, front yard, and side yards just change ;)

needing to be back on land... now that's another story...

Begin with the End in Mind...

Have you ever heard the saying,
"begin with the end in mind"?
It's one of my favorites.
You have to be able to imagine it to make it happen.
Whatever it is that it is.
And the end doesn't necessarily have to be the end...
it can be,
just the beginning...

I just returned from 8 great days of sailing around southwest florida :)
Happy New Year!!!!