12.2.10
This morning we woke up to freezing cold weather and 20 knot winds. It seemed our friendly wind from yesterday had swung down and brought the nasty Northern weather with it. So with the wind at our back and every stitch of clothing on that we could find, we set off.
We had decided to sail that day, rather than motor the ICW, but as we approached the mouth of Sarasota Pass out into the Gulf, the waters were raging and the depth sounder was saying we were in shallow water. So, rather than chance getting stuck in the middle, we decided to play it safe and motor.
The day was uneventful, and might I add much warmer on the inside than it would have been had we gone out in the Gulf! We were only 5 miles from our anchorage site when suddenly we ran right into a pile of mud. We were stuck tight. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHANNEL!! WHAT THE HECK?!
We tried and tried to get out of the mud, but to no avail. As we were trying to unstuck ourselves, the current actually pushed us out of the channel and over the side and into shallower mudbanks - the whole time without letting us out of the mud. Spectacular.
After 45 minutes of fighting a losing battle, we called TowBoat US - thank goodness we renewed our coverage! - and had someone come and tow us 20 feet off the mud bank. He told us that due to the strong North winds for the past few days, the water has been lower and that particular spot has been silting in for the last few months anyway. He said that he has had numerous calls for that exact same spot in the last month. Although that did make us feel a little better, we still felt dumb. Who gets stuck in the middle of the channel?!!
But, problem solved, we pressed on to be anchored by sundown. We picked a very quiet little area called Cape Haze and had the most peaceful nights sleep we have had in a few days!!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Blow Me Away
12.1.10
So we decided to spend yesterday in Sarasota to get some things done around town and on the boat since the wind was in a SE direction (directly where we wanted to go!) We had planned on leaving this morning and sailing down to Gasparilla since winds were predicted to be 15-20 in our favor.
Well, as always with sailing, something went wrong. We were woken up at 3:30am by howling winds and a very rocky boat. We both jumped up and looked outside right as the winds switched direction. We were shoved from a NE to a SW direction in a matter of seconds. Things were falling all over the place in the boat and the pets were both thrown off their feet. The winds, as it turned out, had piped up to 35knots and were coming in from the only direction where we were unprotected - fabulous.
We quickly grabbed everything off the deck that could possibly blow away and shoved it down below and closed up all the hatches just as the pounding rain started. The worse thing about this whole situation was that we weren't sure our anchor would hold in such strong winds. Although we have had great luck with our Bruce Anchor, we have been told in high winds it is unreliable. Well, we were about to test that theory! The worst part about the rain was that we couldn't see outside to tell whether we were dragging anchor or not.
So with visibility down to nil and not much else that we could do at this point, we crawled back into bed with the GPS in hand and tracked our movements on there, making sure we weren't moving from our anchor spot.
As morning broke, the winds had yet to die down but the rain had stopped. We were able to see that we had not drug anchor and everything was safely as we had left it. We looked out and saw that other boats were rocking and bumping around just as much as us and that everyone was holed up on their boats - no one was going anywhere in this mess.
So, we hunkered down for the day, reading, watching movies - always with the GPS nearby - and waited out the wind. 15 hours later, the wind finally lulled to a relaxing 25knots. (haha - still very rocky!)
We put everything back in its place and got everything ready to set sail bright and early the next morning, only a day behind our predicted schedule.
So we decided to spend yesterday in Sarasota to get some things done around town and on the boat since the wind was in a SE direction (directly where we wanted to go!) We had planned on leaving this morning and sailing down to Gasparilla since winds were predicted to be 15-20 in our favor.
Well, as always with sailing, something went wrong. We were woken up at 3:30am by howling winds and a very rocky boat. We both jumped up and looked outside right as the winds switched direction. We were shoved from a NE to a SW direction in a matter of seconds. Things were falling all over the place in the boat and the pets were both thrown off their feet. The winds, as it turned out, had piped up to 35knots and were coming in from the only direction where we were unprotected - fabulous.
We quickly grabbed everything off the deck that could possibly blow away and shoved it down below and closed up all the hatches just as the pounding rain started. The worse thing about this whole situation was that we weren't sure our anchor would hold in such strong winds. Although we have had great luck with our Bruce Anchor, we have been told in high winds it is unreliable. Well, we were about to test that theory! The worst part about the rain was that we couldn't see outside to tell whether we were dragging anchor or not.
So with visibility down to nil and not much else that we could do at this point, we crawled back into bed with the GPS in hand and tracked our movements on there, making sure we weren't moving from our anchor spot.
As morning broke, the winds had yet to die down but the rain had stopped. We were able to see that we had not drug anchor and everything was safely as we had left it. We looked out and saw that other boats were rocking and bumping around just as much as us and that everyone was holed up on their boats - no one was going anywhere in this mess.
So, we hunkered down for the day, reading, watching movies - always with the GPS nearby - and waited out the wind. 15 hours later, the wind finally lulled to a relaxing 25knots. (haha - still very rocky!)
We put everything back in its place and got everything ready to set sail bright and early the next morning, only a day behind our predicted schedule.
Friday, December 3, 2010
And we're off!
11.29.10
We left early this morning to make sure we had the tide on our side. We motored through the thin part of the channel and once it opened up into the Tampa Bay, up went out sails! It was beautiful day for a sail, too. The weather was a perfect "welcome back" after our long hiatus from the sea. We made excellent time getting down to the Skyway bridge and decided we could make it all the way to Sarasota by sundown.
We took the ICW from Tampa for the remaining short jaunt down and made it to our anchorage right before sunset. To celebrate, we had steaks and wine for dinner as we watched the lights twinkle on in our favorite city to anchor off thus far. The winds were supposed to be against us the following day, so we planning on staying in Sarasota to get a few things accomplished and then set out on Wednesday.
We left early this morning to make sure we had the tide on our side. We motored through the thin part of the channel and once it opened up into the Tampa Bay, up went out sails! It was beautiful day for a sail, too. The weather was a perfect "welcome back" after our long hiatus from the sea. We made excellent time getting down to the Skyway bridge and decided we could make it all the way to Sarasota by sundown.
We took the ICW from Tampa for the remaining short jaunt down and made it to our anchorage right before sunset. To celebrate, we had steaks and wine for dinner as we watched the lights twinkle on in our favorite city to anchor off thus far. The winds were supposed to be against us the following day, so we planning on staying in Sarasota to get a few things accomplished and then set out on Wednesday.
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