mile 204-285
The beginning of the trip outside was nice and calm. There were light winds from the northwest. Once we got around the inlet and headed south, the seas were a little confused from the wind shift and the wind shifted more behind us than expected for this section. We raised our main with a double reef and our genoa but our genoa quickly had issues as the light wind came more from behind us. We pulled one reef out of our main, pulled in the genoa, and sailed on. The wind picked up and was more behind us. We were able to sail with just our main. We attached the preventer as the wind shifted straight behind us.
Winds continued to build with gusts to 25 or more. The waves were pushing us back and forth and our auto pilot experienced difficulty constantly over correcting for the wave action. We had to hand steer which was a little tricky with the waves. It was not very comfortable and it was cold with nothing to block wind coming from behind. Also we were going very fast and were concerned we would reach the inlet well before daylight.
We reefed our sail again to go slower. but we were still going 5-6 knots. The wind was supposed to drop so we continued. We got to the inlet around 6 am with a tiny bit of light expected around 615. I stared at the eastern horizon looking for a sign that the sun was coming back. I was trying to find something to watch, like minnows with the tide, but it happened very subtly and soon the eastern horizon was as light as the artificially lighted western.
David headed for the flashing buoys that marked the channel and while we got there before sunrise, we could easily see the breakwater to either side of the inlet. It was an easy entrance. We headed toward our anchorage which is not far from the inlet. We could see lots of anchor lights there but David felt he could find a spot. It is a nice protected anchorage with lots of space and depth. David got us perfectly positioned amongst the boats.
We celebrated our arrival with the pecan pie slice from Floyd’s 1921, ran the heater for a bit to warm up, then and took a nap.
We awakened around 2pm to a beautiful sunny day. We launched Fat Tuesday and headed to the dinghy dock. We walked the two blocks to the beach, down the beach to the fishing pier and then back through town. The water was beautiful and I regretted not bringing my swimming gear. We stopped at Robert’s grocery but did not buy anything.
We decided to have lunch/dinner around 430 at South Beach Grill, a small restaurant right across from the dinghy dock. I had the fresh catch of the day sandwich at 430 pm. It was grilled mahi. I did not have high expectations for freshness but it was unbelievable and tasted like it had never been frozen. David enjoyed shrimp tacos with a generous helping of pico that he had to eat with a fork. Five stars.
We took the dinghy back to the boat and passed Bruce’s boat in the anchorage. Sunset was beautiful. Early to sleep.
