Learning To Sail Part 4

Palmetto, Florida

Regatta Pointe Marina

New Horizons

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Twenty Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover!  ~~Mark Twain

Continued…..

Learning to Sail Part 4

5^th Time Out

Last Friday, August 12^th, was the day that our young neighbor Danny was going to be moving his boat to Long Boat Key.  Tony and Christina were going to help him sail his sailboat Adventure to its new marina and they asked us if we wanted to go along for the sailing experience.  They also told us that it was going to be a pretty long day of sailing.  We accepted, of course!  Tony and Christina were going to be taking their four legged baby girl, Madeline.  We decided to leave Maximus on our sailboat in the nice and cool air conditioner, although Maxi didn’t think so, we left him home for his own good. *sigh* poor baby!  But at the end of the day when we got home…and all we went through during the day…we were really glad he wasn’t with us!!

Anywho, we left about 11:30 am, aboard Adventure, Tony, Christina, Madeline, Danny, Keith and I.  As we began to motor out onto the Manatee River Keith and Danny were working on putting the sailboat’s pedestal back on that Tony had broken earlier! LOL  They were drilling and putting in screws and also working on connecting his electronic instruments, depth finder and GPS.  Keith and Danny were working on that while Tony was at the helm motoring the sailboat.  Tony was so busy he had his wife come out and put his water shoes on…cute!  She does baby him a little! LOL

Then it was time to work getting the sails up and doing the tacking.  Danny was the one that raised the sails and Christina and I were sitting on each side of the sailboat ready to do the tacking.  Which is doing a series of zigzags on the river working with the wind and putting the sails just right so that the wind would help us move along. 

All was going well, it was a beautiful day! Nice and humid, not a cloud in the sky!  We were all drinking like fish…and sweating like, ummm…someone in a sauna! 

We decided that we were going to make a pit stop, at, can you guess?? LOL…at Passage Key!!  We were sailing right along laughing and joking; I was taking pictures and shooting video of Danny raising the sails and all the commotion on the boat. 

We were getting close to Passage Key, we were motor sailing (which is having the sails up and the engine on).  Danny was at the helm and the engine began to sputter and slow down until it stopped!!  Since we were pretty close to Passage Key we just kept on sailing without the engine while Keith went below to check on the engine.  Keith then informed us all that it was one of two things, it was either over heating or that there was a problem with the fuel filter.  Keith couldn’t work on the engine since it was pretty hot so we decided to drop anchor and do a little swimming on Passage Key.  Tony and Christina had brought along their dinghy but since Danny didn’t have an engine mount they decided to leave the engine on their boat and we only had the oars on the dinghy.  Tony, Christina, Madeline and I got in the dinghy with Tony.  Danny and Keith both jumped out of the boat and swam. 

We made it to Passage Key!! Yayyyyyy!  LOL!  And it is as beautiful as Tony and Christina had described to us.  Passage Key is actually a sandbar that becomes a small island on low tide, when the tide is high well, it disappears.  We had a really nice time just playing around in the water and picking up dozens of live sand dollars and huge clams!  After a while we decided that it was getting late and we should start back to the boat.  This time Tony, Christina and Madeline got in the dinghy and Keith, Danny and I hung on to the sides of the dinghy while Tony rowed us to the boat.  Keith Danny and I thought we were going to help Tony with our kicking while hanging onto the dinghy get back to the boat faster, BUT, we didn’t.  We noticed that we really weren’t moving forward so we went back to Passage Key, this time Tony, Christina, Madeline and I got back onto the dinghy and Tony began to row us to the boat.  Gosh! Poor Tony, he was rowing and rowing and we were getting nowhere!!  While Tony was rowing, Keith and Danny were slowly walking along a sand bar back to the boat.  We noticed that our dinghy was making no progress towards the boat…but the current was taking us sideways and away from the boat!  By this time Tony decided to take us back to Passage Key again and see if Keith and Danny would make it to the boat.  Keith began swimming towards the boat and well, Keith being such a strong and amazing swimmer, he made it to the boat, out of breath and tired but he made it! Meanwhile Danny was still trying to swim to the boat! Did I mention that Danny looks like he weighs all of 100 lbs dripping wet? Well, he is pretty slim.

Tony, Christina, Madeline and I were back on Passage Key watching Keith and Danny.  We saw that Keith made it and we saw that Danny was having a hard time swimming in the strong current.  All of a sudden Tony jumps in the dinghy and begins to row towards Danny!!  Danny was no longer swimming he was barely on the surface of the water on his back and the current was moving him pretty fast!  Thank God that Tony was able to get to him before he totally gave up!  Danny later told us that he had given up; that he had gotten so exhausted he just couldn’t continue swimming! He had even kicked off his swim shoes! That was pretty frightening!

So, Danny is safe in the dinghy and we are all back on Passage Key except for Keith.  He is the only one on the sailboat!  There were other motor boats around Passage Key and we kept yelling for help and waving our arms…the other boaters, well, they thought we were waving “hello” and they went on their way!! 

One motor boat was leaving Passage Key and we kept calling for help and he just kept on going.  When he got close to the anchored sailboat Keith was able to flag him down and ask him if he could throw us a line and drag us back to the boat in the dinghy.  The guy in the boat asked Keith if he thought we would mind that he was NAKED!! Oh my goodness!!  Our rescuer was butt naked!  I had to bite my lip because I really wanted to ask him if the water was really THAT cold?!! LOL!  But at that moment we didn’t care…if he was naked or if he was really cold!!  We just wanted someone to help us get back to the boat.  So with Danny and Madeline in the dinghy, Tony, Christina and I hanging on to the sides of the dinghy we were dragged back safe and sound to the boat!! Phew!  What an adventure!!  But wait, the day isn’t over!!

Stay with us…as we continue with our learning to sail adventure!! 

  

El



Tony at the Helm and Danny working on the Pedastal



Tony, Keith and Madeline

Christina and Madeline

Danny and Keith (Keith explaining something or other to Danny)

Danny and Keith kicking back while Christina and I maned the tacking lines!

Tony The Captain

Passage Key

Passage Key