Back to the Bayou

Sunday night my lovely wife and anchored out on one of Punta Gorda's mooring balls. I think the Dockmaster had the map of the mooring field upside down when he showed me where my ball was. Sunlight was fading fast as we headed out to the mooring field. My lovely wife was in the bow, boat hook in hand, ready to snag the ball.

We could not find it. The numbering system confused the heck out out of me. (I think there were two #28s, but that's unlikely, right?) My lovely wife got tired and came into the cabin while I motored around in circles.

Eventually I found the elusive #3 mooring ball. By that time one of the other boaters motored over in his dinghy to see if I was okay. Once we got hooked up we were fine. One nice thing about the Lashley Park Municipal Marina is that they have a very long day dock and you can spend all day on it. Many people on mooring balls bring their big boat in rather than dinghy to the marina.

We had a great sail all the way down Charlotte Harbor. The motor only ran when we exited the marina and again at the end of the day when we entered the bayou channel. It was a really excellent sailing day, in spite of being a lot cooler.

Unfortunately I ran the boat aground while coming into the bayou. That's my own fault. I used the backtrack function on the GPS and followed the path I took when I left the bayou. When I left it was close to high tide and there was an extra foot and a half of water than when I came in. The sun was in my eyes so I missed seeing the shoals. It only took a few minutes to rock the boat off using the outboard, so things could have been worse.

We dropped anchor and tied up to the mangroves with enough sunlight left to have dinner and to take the dog to shore for her walk.

I hope to take advantage of the calm conditions here to get a few little projects out of the way. One of the portholes by my bunk leaks a bit in heavy rain so that's a priority.

The weather has turned cooler than normal. After the hotter than normal temps it's been a shock to the system. I know, I know, it's still Florida. How cold can it get? We are giving serious thought to sailing south to warmer waters than heading to the Tampa area.


-Sixbears