Sailing on the Labor Day weekend in Florida
pretty much guarantees steamy heat with no wind and bath water temperature in Boca Ciega
Bay
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| SV HideAway Goes To The Sea |
The Legend Has It Wrong: The Moon Is Not Made Of Swiss Cheese.
Hope was building East by South. The summer storms promised cool sailing-quality
air soon. Mood on board picked up with
the freshening wind. After a delightful
reach to the eastern bay we dropped the jib when we neared the anchored fleet
of holiday optimists. The capt sailed
around the boats, found a choice spot and tacked up wind to let the crew drop
anchor just off Clam Bayou. Then, back-winding
the main sail, set the anchor. The depth
finder read 5 feet at mid tide and we were off the Gulfport channel far enough for only the most
persistent wakes to find us.
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Only two things matter when you’re sailing –
The Here and The Now – Especially the Now Part
We enjoyed an early supper as the sky darkened and began to
swirl. The first water spout formed a
few hundred yards away bearing down on us.
The ugly, evil thing was large and strong; a true “Oh s---” moment. The crew ducked below. The capt grabbed his camera. The water spout vanished. The VHF blared another warning.
The bay turned angry throwing waves and white
caps with abandon. HideAway heeled over
30 degrees and spun on her anchor in the wind.
A wall cloud slid by dangling two large funnel clouds from which several
small tornadoes hopped out and back like hairy roots on a carrot. Chaos reigned. The
capt noticed a bird flying, against all odds, directly into the storm. We watched as it gained then lost ground
flying backwards. Still, the bird pushed
on.
The storm passed.
Cool air, by Florida
summer standards, prevailed accompanied by one of the most dramatic sunsets in
memory.
The HideAways sunk into soft air mattresses in the cockpit
and pondered the night sky. The wind
slept. The no see ums flew over from
Clam Bayou to snack on exposed skin. The HideAways retreated to the protection
of the fan below. The night seemed much
longer than normal.
Up Early
After breaking fast the crew, unable to raise the anchor, wrapped
the shortened rode around the big forward cleat as the capt sailed over the
buried anchor under main sail alone. The
anchor broke free. Falling off the wind we
sailed through the fleet on the cool-morning land breeze raising the genoa
underway. Soon HideAway reached the
breath taking speed of 5kn touring the bay until the solar-powered furnace
fired up for another attempt at baking the foolish. The HideAways beat a hasty retreat to air
conditioning.
On the way home the crew observed that we had been on our
200 yard cruise exactly 24 hours.
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| Fire In The Sky Gulfport FL Aboard SV HideAway |
