The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!
In short:
THE GOOD - Tiffany and I had a good time. With hurricane Milton offering pretty consistent wind, fair skies, and warm weather we had 3 good days of sailing. We totaled about 43 miles. Monday we sailed from Navarre to P'cola Beach, 18 miles under reefed main with winds NE at 10-15 mph I'd say. We moved along at 4-6 mph consistently. A very comfortable sail on starboard tack the entire way. Spent the night in Little Sabine Bay. Tuesday we sailed about 11 miles to Sand Island. We began with full main, added the jib and finished with motor sailing the last hour. Winds NE around 10 mph and dropping through the afternoon to low single digits. We moved along at 4-1/2 to 2 mph until motor sailing at 5 to 5-1/2. Again starboard tack the whole way. Had a neat encounter with a dolphin. Anchored with two other sailboats in the middle of the "bay". Wednesday was the highest wind day. Sailflow indicated winds in the mid-teens gusting to mid-20's. We sailed the nearly 8 miles under jib the entire sail to Holiday Harbor Marina on Perdido Key. We averaged 4-5 mph. Sea state got a little lumpy as Big Lagoon narrowed at the western end. We sailed on a starboard tack most of the way but had to do two gybes as we neared the end of the Lagoon. That evening we took a Uber back to Navarre to retrieve our tow vehicle. We made our way back along Rt 399 and stopped at one of the free beach access parking lots and walked down to the Gulf to watch the sun set. In P'cola Beach we met up with some of Tiffany's friends who happened to be spending the week at a condo on Little Sabine Bay and enjoyed visiting over some ice cream. Spent the night at Holiday Harbor Marina.
We were able to visit with Luke twice. We went to church with him Sunday night and took him to Cheddars afterwards. Tuesday we went ashore at P'cola Beach and took him to Crabs. Besides those two great meals, we also enjoyed lunch Wednesday at the Sunset Grill at the Harbor Marina.
THE BAD - late afternoon Monday as we neared P'cola Beach, my rudder developed some play in it. At first I thought my lower pintle was getting ready to break. Upon closer inspection it appeared that the screws were just loose. I feared losing the rudder so we attempted to dock at Quietwater to tighten things up. Big mistake. Immediately upon tying up to the dock the boat got repeatedly slammed against it. It actually cracked the gunnel. Bad, bad, bad! As quickly as I could we motored away from the dock and dropped anchor. We tightened the screws/nuts and thought about the evening. We were bouncing a lot and decided we didn't want to spend the night like that. My original plan was to anchor in Little Sabine since it offered 360 degree protection. We figured we had enough time to get over there before dark. What ensued was the first of three anchor challenges. I was on my 21 lb bulwagga with 24 lbs. of 18' of chain. Along with a steady mid-teens wind and incoming waves it turned in an ordeal getting that anchor up. It took two tries and literally all the strength I had!!! But I finally got it aboard. Whew! We proceeded to Little Sabine and anchored (after removing the chain!) in the SE corner just out of the channel. Second anchoring challenge - we attempted to anchor stern-to at Sand Island. I missed my drop of my anchor and wasn't satisfied with burying anchor on shore. I just had the fear the wind would push us ashore. That was very frustrating since I had successfully done this on my previous trip to this location 11 years earlier. I pulled the anchors and went to the middle of the little bay. When it was time to weigh anchor the next day, it too turned into a test of my will and strength. The wind was stiff. I instructed Tiffany to motor towards the anchor. She is completely unfamiliar with any outboard let alone my motor (I'm still learning it). First attempt failed. Second attempt with great difficulty was successful. Amazing how much strength can be zapped pulling up an anchor!
THE UGLY - time to retrieve the boat from the water. Holiday Harbor Marina is right across the narrow ICW from Galvez ramp. Easy-peasy, right? All was going according to plan until my winch post gave way! Turns out it had rusted out at the bottom where it's welded to the plate that attaches to the trailer tongue. No pulling that boat out of the water without a winch.
DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT (with pics)
I've been thinking seriously about selling the Hunter. I've only sailed it once each of the last two years. None this year til now. Some years I haven't sailed it at all. My wife is not interested in overnighting on it anymore. I told her I wanted to take one more "big" trip on it before I sell her. She's ready for that so she arranged to keep my daughter's kids on fall break so that Tiffany could take that "big" trip. We decided on Pensacola since I have another grandson in college there hoping we could see him while there. My goal for this trip was not necessarily a lot of miles like the Georgia coast trip 5 years ago: just good sailing and some fun.
Here's a report on our trip. If I told the whole story, it would turn into a book. Here's the "cliff's notes" version.
Saturday, October 5
All day, morning to midnight prep. I mean - when you have to take even the kitchen sink, it takes a while. I was pooped! I had washed the boat a couple weeks earlier, but the days leading up to departure were busy so final prep had to wait.
Sunday
Travel. Listened to a.m. church service live on FB while traveling. Went to church and dinner with Luke (my grandson) at Cheddars in the evening. Overnight at the Pensacola Christian College Campus House.
Tiffany had already been to the store!
ready to leave Lehon Estates
Monday
Winds were forecasted to be NE 10-20 for most of the week due to Milton, so I decided on an east to west trip. We launched from Navarre. Sailed on a reefed main alone. Was a very comfortable sail of 18 miles to Pensacola Beach. On the way my rudder developed some play in it. Was a bit concerning. We attempted to dock at Quietwater Beach to check it out. Big mistake with that easterly wind and long fetch (I let my concern for the rudder cloud my judgment re the issues at Quietwater). Quietwater wasn't so quiet; the waves pounded us into the dock. As quickly as we could we motored away from the dock and dropped anchor. All we had to do was tighten some screws/nuts. Wind and waves made it very bumpy so we decided to pull anchor* and motor around to Little Sabine Bay which was my original intent. Very protected from the wind and waves. Beautiful night. (*note: pulling the anchor under those conditions was very difficult. I was using a 25 lb bulwagga with 18' of heavy chain. It literally took all the strength I had to pull that anchor up.)
A beautiful day crossing the bridge to the Navarre ramp.
boat rigged and we're ready
Tiffany at the helm. couldn't hardly pry her away
just getting started
pic taken from condo by Tiffany's friend (the same friend she did the marathon with) whose family just happened to be staying at a condo on Little Sabine Bay. Sunset - if you look closely, you can see Anago anchored in the bay.
night in the bay
We moved closer to shore and waded onto land. We walked to the boardwalk, met up with Luke and enjoyed a wonderful seafood lunch at Crabs. When we returned to the boat, the tide had gone out a bit and she was grounded. With some effort the three of us were able to push it to deeper water. We said good-bye to Luke and headed for Sand Island just south of the NAS, an 11 mile sail. The winds were light so we put up full sail and actually motor-sailed the last hour. On the way we were visited by a dolphin (we saw numerous ones throughout the trip) that breached several times including once right beside the boat!! We could have almost reached out and touched him! Once at Sand Island we anchored by the shore* and walked around the whole island. We then moved to deeper water and anchored for the night. (*I wasn't happy with my stern-to anchor job at the shore and got pretty frustrated).
waded ashore; Leanne and family were there
Winds were forecast to be the strongest of the trip. Forecast was right and we saw winds in the mid-teens gusting to the mid-20's. We pulled anchor (I had removed the 18' of chain, but with the wind blowing it was still quite the chore getting up that big anchor - like the previous day it took two tries to get it up). We set out on our 7 mile sail and hoisted our headsail. Was very comfortable sailing. As we neared the western end of Big Lagoon the waters piled up and it got a little lumpy but was great fun. We entered the narrows at Perdido Key and motored into the marina, enjoyed a lovely lunch of Po-boy sandwiches at the Sunset Grill. It was early so we decided to get an Uber back to Navarre to retrieve our vehicle and trailer. On the way back to Perdido Key we drove along Santa Rosa Island and even stopped to catch the sunset with the gulf waves crashing on shore. Then we got some ice cream where we enjoyed some time visiting with Tiffany's best friend and family who just happened to be vacationing in Pensacola Beach. I slept the most soundly of the trip that night. Tied up at a dock is a little more relaxing than being anchored out (at least in my mind).
Tiffany in the morning breeze
The plan was to take out at the Galvez ramp right across the water 1/4 mile from the marina. As we were winching the boat up onto the trailer, the winch post failed at the base! Ugh!! Not gonna get the boat on the trailer without that. What to do? The Lord provided! A guy at the ramp recommended a marine service which in turn recommended a trailer repair guy just a few miles from us (Hammerhead Trailer Repair if you ever need one). We took the boat back to the marina, dropped the trailer off and came home boatless.
Galvez ramp from Sunset Grill
Monday and Tuesday I returned alone and picked up the trailer, retrieved the boat, met Luke for lunch at Burger King across from campus and came home.
Had a great time! Tiffany loves the beach and water. Some hard work involved. The trip actually left me exhausted. Anchoring was difficult, tricky, and tiring. The rudder thing was a bit concerning but turned out to be quite simple. Really enjoyed time with our freshman college student, Luke. Sailing was really nice with mostly steady winds. Skies were clear and sunny, temps perfect. Trailer mishap was a shock but not too surprising really when you have old stuff.
I undertook the trip with mixed emotions. I felt strange enjoying a vacation knowing Milton was going to pound central Florida. But there wasn't much I could do about it. I have several friends in the Tampa area. Turns out they all faired pretty well all things considered.
What's next?
I'll likely put her up for sale and stick with the CIY. We'll see. I told folks it might depend on how much fun I had.
