Heading back north

Since I was a little beat up from the trip down to New Turkey Key, I decided to head back north, passing Pavilion Key again.

The later part of the day brought beautiful sun making the waters a wonderful blue/green color.

Dolphins visited us too.

New Turkey Key Landing

Although the wind and wave chop action were not as I would desire for kayaking...
I figured, I'll probably not anchor here again, at least not with Athena, and most definitely not without depth sounder installed! a must before next trip for sure.

So, off kayaking to New Turkey Key I went!

The teeny tiny island was really pretty. camping is allowed here.

Got some pictures of Athena from land.

New Turkey Key

My goal was not Pavilion Key though, the waters are difficult to anchor in because they are shallow and there was no spot i thought i would be somewhat protected from the winds.

I headed further south to New Turkey Key, thinking based on the chart that there was a protected "hole" of deeper water in between the islands...

The weather was a bit windy this day... and, once I passed Pavilion Key, did those winds ever pick up... there was no chance for pictures or much comment. I got a little beat up putting the second reef in the mainsail.

The log of the trip is on the Captains Log though ;)

Skip the boring stuff and go to the dates of March 24th to 29th

http://athenacaptainslog.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

Finally arrived at New Turkey Key. too afraid though to sneak into the "hole" I had spotted on the charts. It all looked like too little room for error, and the wind was still blowing like no tomorrow, even in the area I thought would be protected from the winds from the east. the last thing I wanted was to be blown ashore New Turkey Key, out in the Everglades, no cell phone service.... and, I kept thinking, who knows what Hurricane Wilma did to this subsurface of this area...

So, I anchored in a place I knew too shallow, but, too tired to go elsewhere, and not sure where else I'd go.

I sat back and enjoyed the sunset.

After a relatively sleepless night, I enjoyed sunrise. The pic on the left is New Turkey Key, the pic on the right is Buzzard Key and North Plover Key.

Patty, as always, wants to be out on deck whenever she can (except when sailing or motoring), particularly when she knows i'm out on deck.

One of her favorite places is on top of the dodger.

Why go back??

After a fun sail to Panther Key, I wondered, why go back to the dock? My "sabbatical" time is running out now, and I should really get out there and go sailing. It is Spring after all, and time for me to fledge from the nest!

So, I headed south...

On the way south I passed one of my favorite shelling spots, Pavilion Key. The pictures are the lovely Pavilion Key.

Athena back out again, finally!

It's been a little over two months since i've had Athena out sailing. Nerves were starting to work their little way back in to my system. Nervous about successfully getting on and off the dock, etc. etc...

But, with Lynne & Russell's plans to spend a night at Panther Key, I couldn't pass up the nudge to get back out there!!!

So, here I am sailing along to Panther Key. Sunny out there, the camera doesn't take it too well. Yes, that's me in a goofy ol' life jacket. See mom, I'm being careful ;) sure would be nice to have one of the nicer life jackets though... perhaps that would be a good mom gift for Christmas ;)

Dolphins Fishing

I saw dolphins fishing this morning...


It reminded me that I hadn't posted my previous dolphin fishing adventures...


it appears dolphins like to throw the fish up into the air....

click on pictures to see the closeup :)

A Morning Kayak...

This morning I went kayaking...
I didn't get as many bird pictures as I was hoping, but I was totally entertained by a very cute raccoon.

Finally... some work done on the sailboat...

After about 2.5 weeks of unemployed leisureliness....

I awoke early (early for an unemployed girl), and started to task on the sailboat :)

well, mainly, the sailboat's dinghy....

The dinghy, Wren, was lifted out of the water by the diver that cleans the boat bottoms in the marina. he let me borrow some handy-dandy tools to clean the bottom, which had growth of close to two (2) inches!!! it turned out to be all soft growth, very lucky for me! perhaps the hard growth doesn't like the "cold" winter waters.... I definitely expected to see lots of barnacles since it'd been since January I had the little bugger out of the drink!!!

After long hours of scraping/scrubbing, she was almost as good as new! even some of the neighbors were inpressed with how well i cleaned up... the dinghy ;P

Then, the next task... getting the dinghy on board the sailboat to get her out of water!

I rigged up a pulley system with some extra pulleys i had stored that had come along with the boat when i bought her.

Using the spinnaker sheave and halyard, and my new fangled pulley system, i somehow hoisted that dinghy out of the water and onto the sailboat... Not sure it really fits though, because it completely covers the anchor locker. or, otherwise gets in the way of hoisting the mainsail... but, perhaps this can all be worked out... i'll definitely be working on the muscles though every time i hoist that dinghy on/off the boat! each time praying the spinnaker sheave can take the weight...

well, Russell, what do you think??? will this work??

Sun Tea Anyone?

Been relaxing, relaxing, relaxing...

that long list of todos has been waiting to be done...

I've only successfully accomplished the relaxing part!!! That, and much soul searching...

During my relaxing I've been enjoying making sun tea, playing with the cats, and cooking in the solar oven...

One day Patty decided to play hide-and-seek... this game is a little nerving since Patty has previously taken a dive into the cove around the sailboat....

I couldn't find here anywhere... then, i saw it, a little black tail hanging out of the mainsail cover... As I lay in the shade beneath the boom and covered mainsail, Patty crawled out of her hiding space and came to cuddle with me in the shade. Instantly I was overwhelmed by a feeling of such peace. it was wonderful. Pura Vida was whirling around in my head as the sun tea seeped, the butternut squash cooked in the solar oven, and i cuddled with my Peppermint Patty in the shade on the deck of the sailboat, a fantastically perfect temperature breeze... It really, honestly, doesn't get much better than this :)

Here is a pic of Patty trying to get back into her new hiding place!

Sailing on Katapoul

Still unemployed and loving every minute of it :)
Although i must admit, except for the occassional small child... I'm the youngest at this here Starbucks by about 30 years on average.... perhaps 40 years....
Now unemployed I've taken up Chai Tea with soy milk drinking to get my internet fix in ;)
Any ways... haven't been doing much work (okay, no work) on Athena...

BUT, i have gotten some sailing in!!!!
Tampa Bay to Naples on Captain John's S/V Katapoul. A great trip!
The log is presented on my Captain's Log blog ;)
here are some of the pics...
The first pic is Capt. John dinghy-ing out against the wind and waves to the sailboat with all of our stuff... The sailboats are in Davis Island Bay in the northeastern tip of Tamp Bay.
Lots of pics of the Sunshine Skyway crossing Tampa Bay... How often does one get to pass BENEATH the Sunshine Skyway, aye ;) This bridge frightens me to no end to drive over!


Captain John looking up at the skyway...








Be sure to note "well placed" dirty dish towels ;)
I think these are part of "the look" of a sailboat that has been "taken over by poor hippies" and not well taken care of... this "look" is to thwart otherwise thieves that might be more interested in a nicer looking boat ;)




On the other side of the skyway... exiting Tampa Bay. Take a look at the "tiny" bus on the bridge...

Tankers exiting too. We had to watch out for tankers as we were traveling through Tampa Bay and crossing the shipping channels.



Egmont Key just outside of Tampa Bay. A very pretty island.
With the weather of the day, I felt like I was back "home" in New England... cold and damp and cloudy ;) sorry New Englanders ;p



North Captiva Islands.
The sun sorta came out for a bit and brought the tropical greenblue color out in the waters.


Shrimper off of Ft. Myers Beach. This is a pic of a smaller shrimper, most of the shrimp boats we saw were much larger than this one.







Jen on deck before sunset beyond Naples.
I love spending time on deck. John liked to spend time down below.
In the background, George, the wind vane (evidenced from chain on tiller and small metal vertical sail at stern) is steering Katapoul ;)


Sunset at Naples just before reaching Gordon's Pass...
The Gulf has the most beautiful sunsets! even when you can't see the sun ;)
The wind and waves starting to pick up again...

As John noted, many people on shore probably enjoying the sunset with sailboat ;) we're probably in a lot of visitor's pictures ;p