It's going to be a long summer....

It's not even June yet, and I put the AC on the sailboat tonight.
mid 80s and humid on the sailboat at 9:30pm was just not going to be good sleeping conditions.
Rainy season has also come upon us early this year too with rains starting in mid-May. a few weeks earlier than I expected and I didn't get the leaks sealed up...
Had to go through the sailboat this past weekend and take a lot of clothes off the boat, Goodwill or other bound. With leaks setting in, there's no room for too many clothes. Some new leaks have started to get my cookbooks too :(
A big storm blew threw at midnight last night. healed the boat over at the dock, shook the mast for a minimum of 30 minutes non-stop, lots of lightening, torrential rain.
It's 11pm this next night, and I hear thunder again :(
Not sure I can take another summer of being freaked out by lightening storms.
Thinking of sleeping in the salon tonight. With the AC on and the curtains, perhaps I won't hear or see the storm so much as when I'm in the v-birth...
Nights like last night make me think moving into a land-yacht (my friend's Airstream) might be a nice idea... Camera got soaked, accidentally, in last night's storm. Hope it works so I can photo Airstream rehab ;)

Boca Grande Inlet...

Boca Grande Inlet can be quite a force to reckon with at times...
The first time I went through the inlet, back in last November, it was a dark dark no-moon night, the weather was calm, the water smooth like glass, and the current rushing us along into the harbor.
This time it was quite different and the boat didn't quite make it through in one piece...
Patty told her version of the "story" in a previous blog. It took a number of days for her to recover to "normal."
I'm still surprised she's still on the boat. In fact, quite cuddled up to me this evening as I write. There's some spotty rain this evening pitter pattering on the topsides and Patty has never liked the rain very much. I still can't help but think she has some fear locked inside from her experiences, whatever they were, during Hurricane Wilma. She was found walking down the street, less than a half a pound, the morning Hurricane Wilma went by.
Anyways, I digress talking about my little love born and raised in Florida.
We did have quite a scare going through the Boca Grande Inlet though. I take full responsibility for that scare as there were many things I could have done or changed to avoid the situation.
Many lessons learned.
My sailing mentor, Russell, has always told me that she (the sailboat) will take as good a care of me as I of her. I have actually had many constant reminders of this fact. Another being the day going through Boca Grande Inlet.
I didn't think it was going to be a fun entry. I knew the wind had been blowing, rather strongly than predicted, off shore for a number of days in a row now, which can only mean the "emptying" of Charlotte Harbour, which takes me back to December 2008 and the month living up the Harbour in Punta Gorda. I figured no matter what the tide was actually doing, the water would be blowing out. We'd be going directly against the wind, and who knows what the surface water would be like. I tried to plan it so we would have at least some current bringing us into the inlet. Not sure that was the best decision.
As we rounded the shoals on the northwest side of Cayo Costa, we entered the channel. The chop on the water was severe. We pressed on. We stayed on the southern side of the channel, but not too close to the shallows as it wouldn't take long to be blown onto them.
The waves now coming directly at us continued to grow, approaching six feet as SV Athena's bow raised into the air and dipped down into the water. It was getting rougher and rougher as we were almost through the island pass and into the harbour, when what I most feared happened. I heard the anchor chain quickly tumbling over the roller. The anchor had freed itself and was now plummeting to the bottom of the channel.
My immediate fear was that the anchor, once loosened, had swung down and smashed its pointy tip into the bow of SV Athena. The fear that SV Athena would be punctured and taking on water caused me to grab the top board to the companion way, and I would later learn, send it off the boat like a frisbee, right through the lifelines.
That was my immediate reaction. I never did make it to taking the second (of three) boards out of the companionway before I changed action and ran to the bow to gain access to the anchor locker. The anchor rode needed to be cleated off before I feared it would rip off the boat. This was not an easy task. I've always fretted over the crumy set-up of SV Athena's anchor locker. This day was the very reason why. Before being able to open the anchor chain locker, the 8 foot plastic dinghy needed to be lifted off the hatch. No easy feat when the wind was threatening to grab it from my very hands and fling it off the boat. Finally, between myself and my friend crew, Nate, we got the dinghy off the access hatch without loosing it off the boat, and were able to open the anchor chain locker. Nate was able to cleat off the anchor rode, but not until all 96 feet of chain had gone overboard. Luckily there is another 100+ feet of rope attached to the chain.
There was one moment of relief.
But now we had to assess our situation and figure out how the heck we were going to get the anchor and chain back. The channel was about 30 feet deep in our approximate location.
In our dilema, we realized the anchor had caught, and we were, in fact, anchored in the south of middle of the Boca Grande Inlet. Things were "slightly" calmer since we weren't fighting to make headway against the waves. But, before taking next actions, I needed to make sure Peppermint Patty was safe. As, she does have quite the nice sense of timing for jumping out on deck during the least opportune moments. I knew that if she came out on deck during these conditions, I would surely loose her overboard. I went to make sure the companionway was closed back up, because I knew I had initially started to go down below...
But, I found no third board (pic left taken after adventure). I asked Nate where the third board was. His reply, "it went overboard." I assumed at that moment that it had bounced or slid or fell overboard...
At any rate, I didn't ask questions, I just quickly went down below and checked on Peppermint Patty. She was huddled in the bow birth. I closed her in by shutting one of the interior doors. I felt so bad that it was the bow, of all places, that she should be riding out this weather. But, there was nothing else I could do at this point. I had to get back up above and remedy our situation.
We kept our heads on and somehow managed to get the anchor and chain back up onto SV Athena. It took a combination of boat maneuvering and muscle power (thanks Nate!). Keeping in mind we're in the middle of Boca Grande Inlet with 6 foot waves and shallows very nearby. I tried to keep the bow downwave, since that seemed to keep the bow bouncing to a minimum for Nate working on the bow at getting the anchor back. At the same time using the motor to position the boat to ease the resistance on the chain allowing Nate to pull the chain up. Then, we had it, phew. I headed us out of the channel to keep our ride as calm as possible while Nate better secured the anchor. Once secured we made several attempts at trying to turn SV Athena back up into the wind and back through the channel. But her underpowered motor, even with sail up, could not turn us up into the wind and waves. We turned back down defeated, heading back out of the channel into the Gulf.
It was difficult to imagine making another long trek back on the outside of the islands.
I was dreading it.
Thinking clearly in my mind, this is why it's difficult to sail on a calendar.
Nearly on the Gulf side of the islands, we decided to make one more shot. We went in a lot closer to the shallows to get out of the heavy waves. Still a bit fearful of the shoals, knowing we would be on them instantly in this weather if anything else should go wrong. Some rough waves, but we made it through and into the intercoastal waterway. We decided to anchor close behind an island out of the wind to take a break and recollect ourselves.
It was so amazing the difference behind the small island we purposefully anchored behind.
It was hard to believe the boiling Boca Grande Inlet was just minutes away.
Our anchor spot was calm, quite warm in fact. Nate took a swim and checked our prop and bow for damage.
We laughed heartily over and over after Nate had informed me that I had, in fact, thrown the third companionway board overboard in my adrenaline rush. It's been 2.5 weeks now, and my left arm/shoulder is still not quite right.
The anchor spot is one of my favorites, we ate a yummy lunch and relaxed, but unfortunately, we couldn't stay. We still had miles to make this day. We lifted anchor and set on our way.

P.S.
I owe my eternal gratitude to Nate for making our trip that day through Boca Grande, one that we all (myself, Nate, Peppermint Patty, and SV Athena) can look back on in this life as an adventure that we made it through.
Nate may look at it differently, but I think we made a pretty good team that day :)

It was for me however, a shakeup, and a hard earned learning experience.

Lessons learned. She (the boat) will take as good a care of you as you of her.
Things I should have done differently: 1) had an anchor lock put on the boat!; 2) turned us back around when the water started getting rough and rechecked the anchor ties; 3) gone through at slack tide (Russell's advice); 4) not had a calendar timeline; and, 5) been wearing our lifejackets when the water weather started to get rough.

As an additional side note: I had for a bit been thinking about buying a house. This weekend "adventure" caused me much pause. How was I going to be able to keep up with a house AND the sailboat, if I wasn't keeping up with SV Athena now. There's a lot of responsibility to boat ownership.

P.S.S. where's my boat woodworker? I know you're out there. I don't have your number on my phone and Nate is still out of the Country as far as I know... How are the new companionway boards coming? Peppermint Patty is getting frisky to escape.

P.S.S.S. My cell phone also got soaked with salt water during the "adventure" as saltwater was coming into the cockpit from the rough waters. I tried to "wash" my phone in fresh water... It never revived.

Weekend Out

Well, after many failed opportunities to move the sailboat back to Goodland... because of weather, lack of crew, or inability to take off from work at a moments notice... the weekend had finally arrived that SV Athena would once again be moved... or, would she? Now a month behind the original move date, after the universe had made many valiant attempts at getting me to stay in Ft. Myers for the summer...
It happened. on the way home from work, less than two days from setting off. I was walking down the dock and ran into one of the dock masters. I told him I was getting ready to leave in two days to move down to Goodland. He said, "oh, i thought you were going to reconsider staying here..." "No," I said, "but don't be surprised if you see me back here this time next year..." and I walked the long walk down the dock to the sailboat... Deep in contemplation. after all.. why, on the thought of coming back here this time next year, wouldn't I just stay here this time this year...? By the time I had walked the nearly 0.25 mile walk down the dock, I had decided to stay!
What with summer mosquito season soon to come, no sense rushing to get closer to mosquito zone...
Since we were all set to go and the weather looked liked wind, we decided to do a three day trip anyways, because I really felt the need to get off of the dock!
and make a loop around Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costa.
Pic on the top left is heading down river.
Pic top right is the Sanibel bridge in the distance.
We made it down the river to the sanibel bridge in about 3 ish hours. Not bad, the wind and the tides with us.
Of course, as soon as we got beneath the bridge and had to start heading out and around the Sanibel Shoals... we were beating pretty hard against the wind and making little progress under sail only. Other sailboats in the distance, under what appeared to be full sails, were heeled over near 45 degrees, while others simply dropped sail and motored. Under reefed sails, if we were ever going to get anywhere, we decided to motor sail. One of the problems with sailing on a calendar... Having to get somewhere by some time regardless of the weather...
Finally making it around the shoals and turning into a broad reach, the engine was once again put into rest mode and we enjoyed a whirlwind sail up the coast, even with two reefs in the main and reefed jib. The wind was blowing pretty good (I really would like to get a handheld wind meter - hint hint) and we were finally in stride with the waves.
past Sanibel... past lower and upper Captiva...
But we weren't going to make it through Boca Grande inlet before dark. The current charts were predicting strong outward current most of the late afternoon and into evening. I didn't want to beat against that and the wind in the dark, so we decided to hide out from the wind up behind (Gulf side) Cayo Costa (bottom left pic) and watched the sunset (bottom right pic). We still had quite a bit of wind and it was a bit of a rocky night.

ooohhhh... and, as I'm writing this, a dophin is swimming behind the sailboat, I'm sitting top deck, there's a cool breeze, the sun is setting, and peppermint patty is out and about chasing the wind :)

Do tell Miss Peppermint Patty...

Well, you see Tom-cat, how I ended up in the back alleys of this city...
It all began the day I jumped off the sailboat onto the dock, never to return.
It had been quite a weekend out on the sailboat, which is indeed a strange place for a cat, one might think.
The trip started well enough with the first morning off the dock the usual pleasant adventure. It was windy, so the sailboat was moving right along. My owner and friend sailed the SV Athena down the river, around the Sanibel shoals, and then right up the coast of Sanibel, Captiva, and Cayo Costa. The mainsail was double reefed and the only way I was allowed top decks was by leash. We didn't quite make it up to sail through the Boca Grande pass in time before dark, so we anchored Gulf side of Cayo Costa, which provided some shelter from the winds that had been blowing out of the east for some time. It was quite windy and the Gulf swell made it's way to our anchor spot and set the boat to rocking most of the night, albeit not as bad as I've seen it on previous occassion. The next morning we set off for the pass...
It was rough and getting rougher. SV Athena was heading with current but plowing directly against the wind and waves. I was tucked up in the v-birth when the bow started to oscillate up and down in larger and larger swings, 5 feet up, 5 feet down. The sound of waves splashing over the bow into submergence and water filling the anchor locker. Then it happened... The sound of chain plummeting over the anchor roller! The anchor had made its way loose and was now sinking towards the bottom of the tumultuous channel! Prior to continuing its decent it banged into the bow of the boat, which often results in the sinking of not so well made boats...
My owner also heard this sound and started shouting in a very concerned manner. I heard one of the companion way boards being removed and wondered if this might be my time to escape! I like to drive my owner crazy by darting onto the deck during the most unopportune moments. I decided to forego this time and stayed below. More action and concerned voices above on deck as my owner and friend frantically moved the heavy wind catching dinghy from the bow to access the anchor locker and cleat off the anchor rode, but not until all 96 feet of 5/8 inch chain had gone over. Luckily the chain was attached to 100+ more feet of rope. With the anchor rode cleated off, things seemed to settle down. Then my owner came down to check on me and close me into the bow birth so that I could not escape through the companionway, which it seems was now missing the top board...
Then my owner and friend somehow managed to raise the anchor back onto the boat and we were heading out the channel as things were better secured. Several attempts were made to turn the boat around and head back through the channel, but the engine just could not power through the wind and waves, even with the assistance of some sail. We headed back out to the Gulf, nearly defeated. After some time, now almost all the way back out the channel past the islands, one last attempt was made to get through the channel using an approach closer to shore. There was still some rough waters, but we made it through. It remained fairly windy the rest of the trip and I didn't dare venture out top deck. I vowed to leave the sailboat upon returning to dock. I was so scared and tears in my eyes. Even though I love my owner very much, I did not think I wanted to continue living the sailboat life...
Upon docking the next day, my owner's friend had set off, and my owner was about the marina doing errands. I jumped onto the dock, and only looked back once.
and that, Tom-cat, is how I ended up in the back alleys of this city...

of note, the above is a story. Peppermint Patty still resides on SV Athena, although the other facts in the story are true and many lessons were learned. more to come.

The Owl

The happiness I feel within bursts without and I see beauty everywhere.
Even in the city skyline built of manufactured environment in hopes of happiness.
They are all beautiful beings within searching for happiness without.

The wonderful windy breeze brings coolness through the sailboat.
I lay with a feeling of weightlessness and hear two owls conversing in the distance.
I wonder what they are saying.
One then draws very near.
I peer out through the darkness into the sky above.
Perched on the top of SV Athena's mast, the owl hoots some more.
Then swoops and soars into the night...


Is there a significance to the owl? or is it all just random......
Perhaps there is only significance if it helps us in our journey.
it is difficult for me not to want to see the connection between the sailboat, SV Athena, so named after the goddess that was said to often be seen as or with an owl...
not to mention the very tattoo artistically placed on my back of a sailboat with an owl (the Athenian owl) sitting on the spreaders from the mast.
At the very least, what seeing the owl really brings to mind is one of the reasons I was thinking of leaving Fort Myers... and, that is, because I thought I was missing out on seeing wildlife (the natural kind) by living in the "city."
The beautiful owl in the pic is from my friends lovely Lynne and rad Russell. Thank you!