Sailing to the Florida Keys II ~ New Horizons

DeSoto Beach

Thursday, December 1, 2011

We left DeSoto at noon on Thursday. Since it was going to be a 5-6 hour sail from DeSoto to Longboat Pass we wanted to get an early start on our day but with the dinghy not working we got started a bit late! Sailing from DeSoto to Longboat Pass was not too bad. Again it was chilly but the sun was out and the winds were at our favor…which was nice.

Once we got out into the Gulf the sea was rolling pretty good. The winds were coming in from the NE as we were going south. This meant that we pretty much had the wind at our backs which is nice because we have speed without too much heeling. Although, we did have to deal with the sea rolling us from left to right. This was a little nerve wracking when it began but after a while of rolling and seeing that the sailboat was not going to capsize, just roll, it was okay. We just rolled right with the sea and the sailboat!!

Because the winds were great and our speed was anywhere from 4 knots to 6.5 knots, we made great time getting into Longboat Pass. We left DeSoto at noon and made it to Longboat Pass at 4 pm.

It was our first time having to go through a bridge, calling “Bridge Tender” (person who tends the bridge) to stop all traffic and open the bridge for us to pass. It was really exciting! This is what Keith said, “Bridge Tender, Bridge Tender of Longboat Pass Bridge, this is New Horizons a 30 foot S2 vessel requesting next bridge opening, Over.” The Bridge tender came on and said, “I’ve got you in sight, Captain. Starting one for you now.” WE could hear the sirens and see the flashing red lights on top the bridge as the barricade arms came down stopping all traffic.

After coming through the bridge we had to motor for about half an hour to get to a nice cove where we would be anchoring for the night called Jew Fish Key. As we made the final turn into the cove Keith was pointing out the area he wanted to anchor at. I was at the helm just driving the boat and listening to Keith, NOT watching the depth meter! All of a sudden we came to a complete stop! We had gone aground!! Quickly Keith jumped in and tried reversing the boat, to no avail. We had hit a sandbar!! Yikes!! I felt so bad! Keith tried reversing, going forward and nothing. The boat wouldn’t budge. L L Keith then told me that he was going to go forward to the bow and throw out the anchor and see if he could pull us out. He went forward, threw the anchor and began to pull. He was able to turn the bow right, I had the boat in gear and gave it some throttle and OFF we got!! Oh man!! What a great feeling! We were stuck all of 5 minutes!! I am sooooooo happy that I have such an amazing man with me!! He is so intelligent and I just know that no matter what problem arises he will come up with a solution. He is two for two, first the dinghy then pulling us off the sandbar. Awesome guy!! J

We were able to anchor in 13 feet of water! Once we got anchored we got into the dinghy and went ashore. Took Maxi for a long walk and stopped by a restaurant to pick up some fish and chips. As we were waiting for them to bring out our to go food, we noticed a sailboat with about 8 people that had anchored at DeSoto with us and had followed us here begin to motor into the same cove on Jew Fish. We were watching to see if they were going to hit the same sandbar and lo and behold, THUNK!! They did!! We felt pretty bad for them. L

We got into our dinghy to get back to our boat and all the while watching the other boat as all 8 people were standing around looking over the side. They’d been stuck for about half an hour and still weren’t able to pull themselves out. We got into our boat, feed Maxi had our dinner, went out to sit in the cockpit for a bit and saw that they were still stuck!! The sun went down, it got dark and they were still on that sandbar. They were trying to get off but they were trying to use their dinghy to pull it out. That was never going to happen. As we were about to go to bed we saw BOAT US…which tows boats come into the cove. Help had arrived for them. We were glad to finally see them get off the sandbar!!

Anywayyyyy we turned in early since we need to get an early start tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving Longboat Pass and making our way to Venice! No, no, no, not Venice, Italy!!! Venice, Florida!