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 :)