Pensacola 10/6-15/24

 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

meeting Luke for church and supper

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

motoring out from the ramp

Tiffany at the helm. couldn't hardly pry her away

just getting started

entering Little Sabine Bay

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

location

Tuesday
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

walked to the boardwalk and waited for Luke

                                       

lunch with grandson

tide went out while at lunch, we were able to push it into deeper water

we boarded and were off leaving Luke to wade ashore

company along the way

that same dolphin kept getting closer until.... 

walk around Sand Is

anchorage

 

Location

Wednesday
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 sail

victory lunch

after retrieving vehicle

Location

Thursday
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

broken winch post

headed home with no boat or trailer

Return trip
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.

Takeaways
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.

Milton's track

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. 

Bear Trace Redo 4/23-24/24

Nine years ago, almost to the day, I did my trip up Chickamauga Lake, anchored in a cove bordering Bear Trace Golf Course and spent the night, in the process almost killing myself (literally) with a near capsize in the middle of the night. That was the last time I slept aboard Little Bit. I have just completed a redo under very similar conditions on Disciple Ship; this time with much less drama!

Some of you will remember that story as I reported it here and had the story published in Small Craft Advisor. Seems I also sent it to Duckworks Mag but I can't seem to find it. Well, that trip led me to begin dreaming of a solution to being able to sleep aboard safely. Several suggestions were made by the good mates here on the forum, but the logical solution seemed to be a bigger boat. For a while, John Welford's Walkabout was the leading contender; but, in the course of time, Clint Chase designed the Calendar Islands Yawl which ultimately became my choice. I've now safely camped aboard Disciple Ship three times and felt very comfortable.

We've had a lot of good sailing wind in the last several weeks with reasonably warm temps. The first part of this week offered those conditions, so I cleared my calendar and went for it for a Tuesday/Wednesday venture. I don't usually sail on Wednesday, since we have church in the evening; but I made an exception this time. I would have sailed Monday/Tuesday but we had a church softball game Monday night. Conditions were identical with the near full moon coming up an hour before sunset which is preferable for my enjoyment. But I took option two.

When you don't do this often, gear gets scattered and it takes a while to prep and load up. I was shooting for an early afternoon departure, and it was 1:30 when I pulled out of the driveway.

Getting to the ramp, setting up, transferring gear to the boat took another hour; but I was finally ready to launch.

The winds were fairly steady at about 12 mph, but there were gusts up to 25 mph. (note: the horizontal lines in the Weather Underground chart are hard to see, but they're in 5 mph increments)

I rearranged my mainsheet for this trip. It was sheeted to the end of the boom. That created issues with the sheet getting hung up on things, me having to dodge it etc. So I moved it to mid-boom. Worked great. Clint said he's going to change that on his plans. (My quick rig is a bit clumsy. I'll have to look for a fiddle block to simplify the new arrangement.)

I carried 100 lbs of ballast and reefed to be safe. I strapped everything into the boat just in case. I was on a broad reach or run the whole afternoon. 

The eleven mile sail went well, but I did have one near mishap. I was far from shore when I suddenly came upon a shallow bar and my daggerboard began to drag the bottom. I knew I could get hung up and capsize. As quickly as I could I let go of the mainsheet, lurched forward and took the daggerboard out. The boat was already turning beam to and dangerously heeling but I managed to straighten her out and stay upright. Water was sloshing up through the trunk which was more of a nuisance than anything but I stuck the plug in and was ok from there on out.

There was a turn in the river part way up which put me in the wind shadow. I had to row for just a very short time and got back into the wind. Once I got up near my destination, I dropped sail and rowed to the cove where I wanted to spend the night. It was around a corner which meant part of that short row was dead into a 12 mph wind. I wouldn't want to have to do that for a long time.

Like the trip of nine years earlier, I sailed up the lake to a spot opposite the nuclear power plant and next to Bear Trace Golf Course. I picked a cove that had an orientation that would give me cover from the wind as well as a view of the moonrise. Was perfect.

I settled in and had a nice supper of chili-mac warmed on my almost new Optimus backpacking stove. That thing puts out the heat!

I set up my tent and enjoyed the evening. It's a little tricky setting up the tent when you can't leave the confines of your vessel. One thing I did to facilitate setup was to drill a hole in the tip of the tent poles so that I could insert a pin to prevent them from coming loose of the strap which is the tendency if you don't keep them taut. Helped a lot. The evening was most enjoyable. I took along a small, collapsible beach chair which fit nicely forward of the trunk. I leaned back, propped my feet up on the thwart and read a nice book while enjoying the cool evening. Even saw a cute deer on the shore.

A little before 9:00 the moon came up.

That's when I retreated to my tent. I moved the chair into the tent and carefully tested the boat's stability with my sitting up on the chair. My platform is thwart high so I was tentative about the high center of gravity. It felt very stable so I sat for another two hours in peace. Finally blew up my Big Agnes mattress, laid out my sleeping bag and called it a night.

When morning came, I ate a bowl of oatmeal, drank a cup of hot chocolate, packed up and headed back.

The winds were forecased to be light and out of the SW gradually turning W. If it did, I was hoping I could sail some. Didn't happen. Wind was on the nose and 0-5 mph. I decided to row.

I rowed for 2 hours at about 2 mph. That left me 7-1/2 miles to the ramp. The CIY is a sail/oar boat but leans more towards sailing than rowing. It has a 5' beam which is a bit much for a row boat of this size. My boat weighs about 250 lbs. With 100 lbs of ballast, a 200 lb sailor and a little gear - I'm pushing a good bit through the water. On my 2015 trip on Little Bit I rowed almost the entire way back - 11+ miles. But Little Bit weighed less than 100 lbs and I carried no ballast. Big difference.

Knowing all this, I told my wife before I left that I might need her to pick up my tow vehicle and meet me. At 4 miles I was beside a state park with a boat ramp. With church in the evening I decided it prudent to bail out. I called her, she picked up the tow vehicle and met me.

It was the right decision. I was able to get home and chill a bit before church.

Aftermath: surprisingly I feel pretty good. One exception - my butt is really sore! Don't have quite as much padding back there as I used to. Might need to bring something next time to sit on while rowing. LOL

Looking forward to more adventures.

Addendum: I posted about the trip on FB. Several comments said it looked relaxing. I added the following comment to the post.

"Relaxing? Several comments mentioned relaxing. That’s an interesting word. Is sailing a small, open, unballasted boat relaxing? It depends on how you define relaxing. Robin, for one, can’t see it. Sailing involves work. Since this was an overnight trip, it took a while to load up - about 2+ hours getting everything together. There’s the drive to the ramp and setup, another hour+. Then sailing in gusty wind requires constant attention. One wrong move and you can be taking an unplanned swim. Then what? Once you reach your destination and anchor, then you can begin “relaxing”. But you still have to set up your tent without leaving your tiny boat. A little tricky. Now you can really kick back and relax. I took a small beach chair: worked perfectly. Feet up, cool breeze, moonrise, the whole nine yards. Then morning comes: got to stow all gear etc and get home. Unfortunately, little wind and what wind there was was right on the nose. Time to row. Two and a half hours steady rowing. Arms tired, butt sore. Finally get home and have to put everything away: a couple more hours. Relaxing? IDK. Will I do it again? You bet!"

 

The James River

I've never sailed or even been in the James River. But the river was somewhat of a motif in my youth from birth. (I was born in Lynchburg which is on the James River.) 

A TSBBer works around the James River and commented about it. I wrote a follow-up post to his and thought I'd preserve it here. 

It goes as follows:

Quote from: RichardS on Mar 05, 2024, 05:10 PM Our neighborhood does it annually on Jan 1 jumping in the James River.

The James River - I grew up in Richmond near McGuire Veterans Hospital, less than three miles from the river as the crow flies. (Although a few miles upstream from Richard). Obviously crossed it many times: Lee Bridge, Nickle (Boulevard) Bridge, Hull St (14th St) Bridge, I-95 bridge. Later the Powhite Bridge, the I-295 bridge, and the 288 bridge. As a child we crossed the river at Wingina on Rt 56 when we drove "to the country " to see our grandparents on their farms in Nelson County. The one lane Wingina bridge was damaged beyond repair* from the deadly flooding due to the torrential rains (several feet in a few hours) of hurricane Camille in 1969. That led to a new two lane bridge being built. We crossed the James River twice a day during my junior year of high school going to and from school. In the fall of 1972 one of my HS football buddies lost his father to drowning in the river when he attempted to cross to an island for work when the river was in flood from hurricane Agnes. I think the whole football team went to the funeral. When I was a college student at Liberty University (Lynchburg Baptist College at that time) I literally lived on an island called Treasure Island in the middle of the James River for 4 years. My first year there I served in a church in Buena Vista every weekend. We crossed the James 4 times every week on Rt 501 just up from Big Island where the James River cuts through the Blue Ridge Mountains and into the Shenandoah Valley. In February of 1976 during my junior year, two of the dearest young people you'd ever want to meet, McCauley Rivera and his girlfriend Sharon Moore, lost their lives on the James River, just up river but within sight of the island where I lived, when they carelessly ventured out onto a train trestle that crossed it and got caught by a train. So sad.

Yep, been around the James a bunch. I've jumped in some cold water, but I've never jumped in it in the winter time. Good on you.

(pic of Treasure Island as it was in the days I lived there. Thomas Road Baptist Church held youth camps there in the summer; hence, the name Treasure Island. I lived in the "dorm" that was next to the open field in the group of buildings in the foreground of the pic. They sometimes had trouble getting the old bridge insured. At such times, students had to off load the shuttle busses and walk across - rain or shine - those were the days!)

*Edit: Oh! What do ya know? I found the pics I took of the bridges at Wingina. I guess they must have repaired the old bridge and made it passable until they could build a new one. Maybe it was only closed until an inspection could be performed? Not sure. I was 13 and I know that I wasn't allowed to go on the first several trips up to Nelson Co. after the flood. After a search, I can't seem to find out when the new bridge was built. Now that I think about it, I believe I drove up to the country with my younger brother and stopped and took these pictures which means I would have been at least 16 (3 years after the flood).

BTW: It was pretty cool growing up by the river that was named after my daddy. (LOL - just "kidding")

Note: RichardS and his neighbors jump into the river on January 1 every year as a fundraiser for Special Olympics.

Ballast

Short outing this afternoon (Monday 2/26). Low 70’s, wind 8-12 but erratic. I did have some good puffs. I sailed with one reef in. The one notable thing to report: after my last outing when I almost capsized, I decided to carry some ballast. I stuffed 3 small duffle bags with 2 partial bags of play sand that I had along with a partial bag of small river rock. I estimate that total weight was 80-100 lbs. The boat seemed a good bit more stable with the ballast. I was able to sit more comfortably on the seats as well. I liked the effects. I’ve collected maybe a hundred lbs of lead that I planned to melt into bars for ballast. Might be a little more motivated to get to that task now.

Edit: Clint Chase commented on my CIY FB post that lead is not your friend in a capsize. He recommended water ballast bags. Probably a good tip. They're a little pricey, but if I'm going to do any serious cruising would probably be worth the investment.