New Horizons
Wednesday, August 17, 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
Well, we won’t be in the category of those disappointed twenty years from now, that’s for sure!! LOL
We’ve thrown off the bowlines and have sailed away from our safe harbors, Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Benson, Arizona! Okay! Okay…technically we DROVE away from our safe harbors! LOL Now that we are in Florida we are truly throwing off the bowlines and day by day we are learning to really sail away from our safe harbor and dock at the Regatta Pointe Marina!
We have been on our sailboat now for a month and 17 days and we’ve taken the boat out several times. Below I will recount each one of our experiences…..and let me tell you, each time that we’ve gone sailing something UNEXPECTED has happened! LOL At the moment that the things happened, well, they weren’t funny…some were downright scary, but with each one of those times that we took the boat out we gained more knowledge and experience!! So enjoy what I am about to write and don’t worry, we are safe and doing great!!
1st Time Sailing
I guess I can’t really say that this was the first time sailing because we really didn’t sail. We motored out on the Manatee River not too far from our Marina. It was really just a test run to check out the engine. We motored out…did nothing, and motored back to our slip. If you’ve ever been to a marina and seen the slips where the boats are you will see that it is a bit difficult to motor into the slip without hitting neighbors or smashing the sailboat against the dock. Nothing exciting happened this first time soooo, we thought, “nice, what a piece of cake!”
2nd Time Sailing
The second time we took the sailboat out, we decided to hoist the sails. Let me tell you, this is not easy!! Keith was at the helm and I was pulling the rope to hoist the sails! It was HARD! All of a sudden a wind gust came out of nowhere and since we were caught off guard and not sure which direction it was coming from we got tossed around pretty good!! The TV was slamming back and forth on its stand and the cushions were tossed to the ground! I thought for sure that we were going to capsize! We got caught unawares by the wind because we did not have wind tell tails. Something that we took care of when we got back to our slip! After getting the POOP scared out of us we anchored off Emerson Pointe and did a little fishing. This time that Keith caught a couple catfish and also the Remora fish, that we didn’t know whether we could eat it or not. In the end we didn’t eat it! LOL When we came back to our slip, we just motored in…NO hoisting sails!
By the time we returned to our slip we were pretty calm. The day did turn out into quite a pleasant one. As we motored in we had the most beautiful sunset seeing us home!
This is what we learned from our second outing:
Elvia should learn to be at the helm
Keith should be the one hoisting sails
DO NOT go sailing without wind tell tails
To be continued….
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| Sunset on the Manatee River |
3:13 PM
Keith Gilman
2 comments:
Good thing you didn't eat the remora. Check this out:Remoras are thin, elongated, rather dark fishes from 30 to 90 cm (1 to 3 feet) long; they live in warmer waters and are found around the world. Remoras feed on the leavings of their hosts’ meals or, in some instances, act as cleaners by eating the external parasites of their transporters. THEY EAT PARASITES! THEY ARE BOTTOM SUCKERS! GROSSSSSS!
LOL..yeah, that's what we read and decided not to eat it...but since, the guys caught a couple of baby hammer head sharks and we did eat those!! Good eating!! ;)
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