AHH-CHOO!

[CapnK]

Sorry 'bout the sneeze, it's the result of 8 days of Pixie Dust...  ;D  ;)  ::)

Crawled back aboard my boat here in SC at 2AM this morn, after a 12 hour drive. Home from a week of cruising parts of the Florida Panhandle with Connie onboard her Com-Pac 27/2. I didn't get a chance to write before leaving (too busy!), and a longer write-up than this will be a couple days coming (too busy catching up after a week away!), but I'll relate full trip details then.

Besides being just some plain old sailing vacation time in a new venue for yours truly, a big part of this trip was that we were supposed to meet up with CJ and Laura (who I've known for like 5 years online but not yet met in-person), but that wasn't to happen. They got hammered by contrary weather when leaving Texas, making good only 34 miles in 22 hours of attempting to head offshore down there (ouch!). Deciding that their vacation was supposed to be "fun" (imagine that...), they headed back in and took to the Ditch, and will be arriving down there sometime this week.

Short version of the trip is that the weather was pretty much ***perfect*** the whole week, the Fl Panhandle area is absolutely gorgeous even tho' hurricane damage from Ivan is still very visible (I'd never been there before at all), Connie and Pixie Dust were great hostesses for my weeks vacation, we had a lot of fun while cruising a little over 300 miles. Here's the sunset, first night out:



The Com-Pac 27 is a *roomy* boat! Although only a couple of feet longer on deck than my Ariel, it has space belowdecks probably twice that of the Ariel, and at least equal to that of my slip-neighbors Dickerson 35 here at home. They're not the best boat for windward work, though - our 80 mile leg over to Pensacola from Panama City Beach, we were headed the whole way, and so were offshore for 39 hours tacking into mostly light winds. But we were comfortable the whole time, so it wasn't an issue. Also, since Connie has outfitted Pixie Dust with "Every Possible Known Gadget of Convienence To Sailing"*(see note at end of this post), the sailing and the overall trip were very easy.



There was one "gadget" that Connie was unaware of, but she said she plans to rectify that ASAP - I brought one of my hammocks to sling on the foredeck. After putting it up, I wound up having to run the whole boat by myself for the next 4 days, since Connie wouldn't get out of *my* hammock, except at night, when she crawled up into her v-berth cave to sleep (more). That's another thing I don't understand.

The weather was so gorgeous, nights so beautiful that I wore a me-sized spot into Pixie's starboard cockpit seat, sleeping there every night out under the starlit skies, excepting only the one night we stayed in a "marina" at Pirates Cove over in Alabama. I guess some people just don't know how to appreciate good, warm, bug-free weather when they have it, and have to sleep in the dark with their fans and blankies and extra-thick, super-foam matresses. Sheesh. Give me a thin pad on a lumpy hard surface under the stars, and I'm more than happy.... :D

The return leg to Panama City Beach wrapped up the trip well, even though it was about 1/2 motoring. We flew my spinnaker for a bit that morn, dropping it when winds veered south and picked up for several hours of flying reach into the afternoon. That evening, the spinnaker flew again 'til dark in light westerlies, up until the wind died to the point that it wouldn't even stay up. The "worst" weather of the whole trip was later that night, when the wind went east in front of storms, blowing up to 25 for a bit, creating a lumpy sea as we approached PCB. It didn't affect us much, since we were flying the iron genny by that point. Battening everything down, we pushed on, coming in through St Andrews pass at about 3AM, tying up about 1 1/2 hours later, shortly before dawn yesterday morn.



Well, time to wrap this up. I have to go pick up the CrewDogs from my sisters house, I'm sure they wonder where I've been.  :) I'll write the whole trip up in more detail soon, and will catch up on posts here in the next few days, too. Glad to see everyone has been having fun here, while at the same time kinda wishing I *wasn't* back!   ::) :P ;D But I'm sure y'all understand that!

*Henceforth, Connie shall be known as "Gadget Girl".   ;)

[Captain Smollett]

Hey Kurt, Glad ya'll had a good trip.  Looking forward to the more detailed stories.   :D

[xroyal]

Sounds mighty relaxin! Thanks for sharing!  :)

[Zen]

Welcome back Captn. Sound like you guys had a great time. I'm envious you guys on the East Coast get to hookup and have fun. But that all pass when the winter or/and the hurricanes come in  ;D ;D ;D

Then I go  ahhhh California, sweeet.   ;D ;D ;D ;D

yeah yeah yeah I know about the earthquakes. They are everywhere! there too.  :D

and Yeah we want to hear more about the trip, perhaps... in say, a blog...

[Oldrig]

Thanks for sharing that trip. Sounds great (I'm still waiting to get in the water--the penalty for being a small boat in a yard that gets fancier every year).

That hammock looks like a great idea! I'll have to get me one, too.

What's that about being "bug-free" at night in Florida? Is that unusual?

Looking forward to further adventures.

[Pixie Dust]

Hi everyone!  Gadget Girl returns from the sea.  Wow! What a great trip.  While Capt K was racing back to SC to beat me to the postings :D, I was capturing 2 more days on Pixie Dust.  Basically trying to convince myself that I had to go back to Tally and back to work.  I was not even close to being ready for return to the real world.   I think I am really mentally ready to drop the lines and "Sailfar".   ;)  I just love it out there.  Pixie did awesome and seemed to be having as much fun as her Capt.
Trip was great!  Really disappointed that we did not get to meet CJ and Laura, but hopefully there will be another opportunity.   We had awesome weather, great winds, fun sailing, lots to eat (ask K how much weight he gained) lots of beer and more than enough fun!!
Ok- I have to admit... I *loved* the hammock!!  K was gracious enough to keep me supplied in coffee refills and cold beer.  (actually it kept me from falling while trying to get in and out of the hammock while underway  :D)
Also- I do love my memory foam mattress in my v-berth.   :D  In my defense, I would stay in the cockpit until a couple of mosquitoes would find me (I think there were only 2 each night)  then I would go to my "cave" which has a hatch right over my head so I can see the stars and hear the water, I also have a caframo fan blowing on me, soft mattress, pillows and lots of room to roll over without landing in the cockpit floor.   ;D ;)  Life was Great! I was a semi gracious hostess and only took K's hammock, not his starboard cockpit seat *bed*   :D
Kurt was a lot of fun to have along.  I felt like I had my own personal sailing instructor/McGyver cross on board.   :D  Lots of new info for me to soak up.
I learned that grounding is nothing more than a form of strategy, a warm shower is better than chocolate after a long day on the water... (then chocolate)  ;)  I love my Engel and my solar panel worked great at keeping the battery charged.  Endless supply of music, cold beer and food that did not turn turn green!!  I am happy with that little project.  Flying the spinnaker was a treat... my first!  Beautiful!!
Also- if you ever get to Pensacola area... go to Pirates Cove and have the Worlds Best Hamburger and Bushwackers.   :D :P  That was the only night we stayed in a marina... (had to)... we did not plug in though, so not sure if that counts.   :D ::)  Neither Capt wanted to take charge that night.
Great trip, more to come later.  I am sure I will have to defend myself further.   ;) :D  All in good fun.  Wish I were still on the boat, wish I were still cove hopping and wish I could take all of you too.   I am already trying to figure out when I can take another adventure.
Until then, I plan on catching up on your postings while I was away. 

[AdriftAtSea]

which engel refrigerator do you have?  I have the Engel 27 in the Pretty Gee.  :D

[Pixie Dust]

PS- as for the Gadgets... Don't let Kurt pull your leg.  He had fun with all the gadgets!   ;) :D.  I think he is a gadget boy at heart who is just not willing to come clean.  A button here, a roller furling there an autopilot thingy, can make life very relaxing while underway.  He also has a plethora of flashlights... cool flashlights I must admit, good music and 2 hammocks.  ;)  He has a sweet little gadget collection going on too.  Trust me, he enjoyed ALL the gadgets on PD.  He just may not be willing to admit it.   :D  :-X ;D

[Pixie Dust]

I have the Engel 42.   I am very pleased with it.

[Pixie Dust]

Day 2-3  Sunday night watch, Monday night into Tues Morning of sailing trip from Panama City to Pensacola   May 22/23, 2006

I know my limitations on sleep, getting tired and thinking clearly.   I am a great daytime girl, I handle my watches well, but going over, we did not establish a good watch schedule.  Kurt had driven all night to get there and was just getting over a bug.  I was trying to allow him as much sleep as possible to get back in the groove.  He had told me to wake him at 4:30 am on the first night, but I was holding my own pretty well, the night was beautiful, it was easy sailing.  Wind was out of the West, on the nose and we were going about 15-20 miles offshore then back to w/i 3 of coast and we had a pretty good ride going on, so I let him sleep.  I watched the sliver of moon come over the horizon around 1:30 AM, which was a beautiful site.  It took all I had not to wake him to see this.  The stars were spectacular.  No ambient light to dim them making the sky a wonderful site to behold.  I was loving this special time that we day-timers rarely ever get to see and enjoy. I felt so at peace and so very, very content with life... so small and insignificant in the scheme of things that God has placed us in.  Kurt woke up at 6:15 am and fussed at me a little for not getting him up.  I was going to make sure he did not miss the sunrise.  :) I would not have let that happen.  I am not a real good daytime sleeper, so then I fell a little behind.  About 2 hours outside of Pensacola Pass, around midnight on the second night out, I could not hold my eyes open any longer, and I shut down.  I woke to hear him saying, there are dolphin on our bow.  I woke to being very disoriented.  We had already started into the Pass; all the lights of the beach were in view.  We even missed seeing a barge whose lights blended in with the beach lights.  He radioed us and recommended that if we did not make 7-9 knots we should fall in behind him.  We DID. :)  Now we had an escort into the pass.  YAHOO.  At one point my depth gauge went to 2 1/2 ft quickly. By now we should be grounded.  We were both a little stressed at that moment, looking around to verify we were in the channel.  It must have been turbulence from the barge.  Kurt had been studying the chart carefully while I was unconscious  ;), so he had his bearings, thank goodness.  I thought we had to go in through the pass much further to get to the anchorage; it was actually just around the corner.   There are no depths for the anchorage and no actual paths to get into it on the chart. We were going by things people had told us.  We bumped a few spots on the sand bar feeling our way in; strategic bumping as we came to call it.  ;) :D  All sand and we got off each time.  We were laughing which is good.  My thoughts were, if we can't get off, we will drop the hook get some sleep and deal with it at daybreak.  No worries Mon.   8)  We finally found the channel in, went in only so far until there were 2 no wake signs.  Kurt utilizing one of his many cool flashlights illuminated the signs. :  We were not sure what was behind them; it was black dark, no moon.  We dropped the hook, had a nightcap to celebrate 39 hrs, sailing all but about 1 hr and getting in safely.  It was now about 2:30 am.
We both slept in the cockpit that night, one on each side.  The stars and breeze were incredible.  Neither one of us wanted the berths below.   The next morning, boats going in and out of the anchorage woke us.   We sat up and turned around, there must have been 12 boats at least in a little cove behind the no wake signs a good distance in.  :)  We were in the channel going into the anchorage.  LOL.  We did not even see their anchor lights the night before.  It was a totally protected cove inside.  Of course, we were in a location to get all the breeze!  We could also see the Pass traffic including the barges.  We liked where we were, but it was not the actual Anchorage hole of Mosquito Cove.  We considered ourselves the anchorage greeters, waving and welcoming boaters with a smile as they entered and telling boaters to have a wonderful trip as they left.  Of course we did a little boat critiquing and comparing too.  All in good fun.  We ended up staying there until Thurs morning, Tues night was to catch up on sleep, Wed was to enjoy the location and we discussed all day about pulling anchor and moving, but the location was so beautiful.  We dinghied into the cove in Kurt's new WM dinghy and explored a huge sand spoil that locals told us used to be 60ft high prior to the hurricane.  We also explored the area where Ft. McRae used to be.  We harassed hermit crabs for about 2 hrs, just watching them and their activities.  They were probably very glad to see us go.  :) Finally Thurs, we hauled anchor and headed west to explore the ICW and in search of the Worlds best Burger at Pirates Cove.  ;D :D ;)

Disclaimer- I had no watch on as to being on Island time, so times may be a little misrepresented in my threads.  Kurt has permission to correct any misrepresentations. :) ;)

[Captain Smollett]

Do you carry a lead line for backup?  I carry one of 8 fathoms.  It doubles as a log line (tennis ball on end opposite the weighted end).   :)

[AdriftAtSea]

BTW, is that a Tilley hat I spy in the third photo?  I have one that I wear much of the time.  :D

Dan

[CapnK]

Lies, more lies, and damned lies. You just can't trust some people to get it right...

Answers to the 2 questions...

No lead line. Why? Because if it's gonna be on Connies boat, it has to attach to the battery/solar panel/and shorepower, and cost at least $100.

Yep, that's a Tilley hat - an Airflow. They really are good hats, I pretty much live under mine...

I've almost got the TRUE details of the trip written out, and will be posting it soon, in the next couple of hours...