It all sort of started late Friday afternoon. I had just wrapped up work for the week and settled down in the cockpit for a much deserved nap when a fellow in a kayak showed up. He was a friend of DJ's (who was off in PC saying goodbyes). Rick was on an Offshore 33 - which I later discovered is one of the coolest boats I've been on so far. Anyway, I invited him on board and we chatted for a long time while waiting for DJ. Just about the time we'd decided to start dinner he showed up. Rick made us an amazing dinner- steak, red beans & rice, corn on the cob, and I added a pitcher of pina coladas. We sat in the cockpit of his boat and watched a beautiful sunset and the lights twinkling in Panama City. Lots of good sailing stories, and before you knew it Rick decided to join us on Saturday as we had decided to stop at Crooked Island on the way to Port St Joe. The entrance and bay at Crooked Island is not well charted (no depths), but Rick had been there before and offered to lead the way in. Our little party broke up early as we each had lots to do to get our vessels ready for an early morning departure.
As promised everyone got up early. I was up at 4:30 as I was too excited to sleep. We departed at 6 a.m. as planned. There wasn't much wind so we motored sailed. It took about about an hour to get from our anchorage and out the pass in to the Gulf. The pass was a little sloppy, but not as much as the Pensacola Pass. It was however, filled with boats fishing, and a huge frieghter came through too. I'd say the only really scary part was having a go fast boat on each side of me throwing up large wakes at the same time. I wasn't really sure what to do about that - so I just held on tight and got pounded :-) I was so excited it didn't really matter.
Once out the pass we took a left and headed down the coast. Of course there was really no wind, and the seas were very sloppy and rolly. I'd been munching on gingersnaps for breakfast and never really felt queasy. We went out about 3 miles searching for a little wind. After awhile I decided to break out the fishing rod and try my hand at trolling. I rigged it up with my cool trolling lure which had six hooks and was supposed to get me a Spanish mackeral or two. A few minutes later I needed to make a visit inside. I figured I'd better bring the pole inside with me, just in case, I got a hit, I didn't want it flying off the back. I wedged in as best I could between the companionway stairs. Of course, you guessed it, no sooner did I get my pants down than the pole started jerking around. I grabbed it while at the same time trying to pull up my pants :-) I struggled up the compaionway stairs with it as the line was just flying off the reel. (Here's a tip - never try to grab the line with your finger). Anyway I was trying to reel it in, but the line just kept going out. It all happened so very fast, and before you knew it - silence..... all the line was gone along with my fancy new lure :-( I laughed so hard I could barely stand it- and then wished I had bought an extra reel of line - and listened more closely when the guy at the store was explaining how the use the reel.
So fishing was over- and lucky for me the wind arrived. It was so cool as you could atually see it coming in the distance by looking at the surface of the water. My friend Rick (on a boat aptly name Side-Tracked) hailed me on the VHF and said to get on a compass heading of 120 degrees. I quickly looked at all my instruments and wondered WHICH 120 degrees. The chartplotter, autopilot and compass all had different readings :-) I decided the compass trumped everything else :-)
We had a nice sail on a beam reach all the way down the coast to the entrance of Crooked Island. I had a wonderful time just looking around, listening to music, writing a little poetry and even made some coleslaw to put aside for lunch. Mostly though I hand steered because this was a moment I had dreamed about for years and I didn't want the autopilot to have all the fun. I'd say it was just about as perfect as could be -everything I had imagined and more. Once we had wind it was pretty steady. The boat actually handled it well and didn't require much attention. It was though still rolly and I had to be careful of my footing as I nearly fell down a couple of times in some big swells.
After a while it was time to head downwind into the pass for Crooked Island. I even managed to get her going wing and wing. Rick was far in the lead and pretty much sailing circles around DJ and I. I was ahead of DJ and hollered for him to go in first - not to be polite, I just wanted him to get stuck not me :-) He hollered back that I was too fast, he couldn't pass me so I offered to make a circle. Then it got really fun as for the first time I was sailing upwind! I thought about just sailing for a while as I was having so much fun - but not only had I promised to make lunch and didn't want to find my own way in to the pass.
It turned out to be pretty easy getting through and there was plenty of water. Crooked Island is more beautiful than you can imagine. White sand beaches, with a little old Cyprus forest on one side. No roads, no houses, just beach - and only a few other boats - none at all close by. We let DJ drop anchor and then rafted up alongside.
I made a quick lunch - grilled sausages & coleslaw and more pina coladas and then tried to take nap. These guys were not tired, the music was loud :-) but I managed to get a little rest. Rick was pretty restless and re-rigged my fishing pole with new line, installed a new block in my mainsheet system (the old one had a bad twist) and even found a place to mount my fishing rod holder.
After my non-nap I had a great idea that we should kayak to the beach for a walk. That was actually the scariest part of the day - riding two people in a one person kayak in a place known for sharks! Thankfully we arrived upright and dry and walked for what seemed miles down the deserted beach. We saw lots of funny looking white crabs scurrying around and some enormous osprey nests in the tall cypress trees.
Later we grilled pork chops, leftover red/bean rice with leftover sausages, and corn on the cob for a late dinner. I'm not sure life gets much better than this. This is such a wonderful place we decided to stay for one more day - a.
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