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.