Highs and lows, overnight on the gulf

The bottom paint was finished, "Happy" was back in the water, and the weather was warming up. (but not the water) It's time to go sailing!

One thing we have discovered is sailing is always an adventure.  It is pleasure boating for sure but with a considerable scoop of work and danger tossed in also.

We motored some and sailed some about 15 miles south of Hudson to a small island called Anclote Key.  It was getting late so we decided to go ashore, walk the dog, and watch a beautiful sunset that would have been perfect if not for the 50 other people that had been dropped off on the beach by ferry for the exact same reason,  It took us several times to get the delicate balance of anchoring scope, wind direction, and water depth right so we could get out and walk ashore in the cold water.  We ran aground once and had to gun the motor to get unstuck.  It was still a beautiful sunset.

After dark we loaded back on the boat, pulled anchor, and motored into the shallows.  It was very calm and when we tossed the anchor and line just sat there,  We went about our business of cooking and eating. It was later on in the night we started feeling an odd tugging every now and then. Not the normal jerk of the anchor line.  At first we thought we were anchored in too shallow of water.  We discovered that the anchor line was actually stuck underneath the boat somewhere.

So then I had two choices.  Dive down in the cold water and dark to try to free the line or cleat the line short, hope we stay hooked through the night with the short scope and fix it in the daylight.  So my fear of diving under the boat in the dark and cold won and we cleated the line and waited until morning.

During the night we were treated to Hercules using the bathroom on my legs, I don't know if he was scared or what but he had just went on the island hours before.  He has never acted scared on the boat. He is always calm and relaxed. Regardless I woke up in a panic thinking that it was raining and starting closing hatches in a half-asleep stupor.  Oddly enough it was sprinkling (even though the weather apps said that it wouldn't rain) but barely enough to merit closing hatches, It was then that I realized that my legs were tucked up in the v birth where they could not get rained on anyway.  Needless to say when I discovered the cause of the wetness on my legs I was not a happy guy.  Bad wiener!

In the morning we pulled the anchor up into the boat and with the rest of the line wrapped under the boat still we motored into deeper water. Following my hunch we released the centerboard line which did not free the centerboard. The line was wedged in between the trunk and the board. Finally after bouncing around in the waves for a minute the weight of the board overcame the wedge and the line was free.

Then after barely scraping over a few extremely shallow parts on the way away from the island everything was hunky dory.   It was enough adventure for one trip so we slowly tooled our way back north and back to the marina.  We would still choose the adventure over work any day.

Bad wiener!