MARKER 21

On Saturday, the weather forecast was for 20-25 knot winds out of the North. We imagined that we would scream down the river, wing on wing, at unheard of speeds. Reality set in after we turned the corner at the 528 bridge. The wind was flukey to say the least. The wind varied from 6 knots to 20 knots, and changed directions from West to North East. We set our sails to run down the river and ended up back winding the main a few times. A preventer was definitely in order. At Eau Gallie we ducked in to pick up a passenger. After that we didn’t even raise our mainsail – just motorsailed with the headsail. Most of the way I caught myself humming Eileen Quinn's song "wing and wing, is a tricky point of sail. I try to balance my boat, but I always fail."

We arrived at the anchorage at about 2:00. The weather had kept the boats away – there were only 8 ECSA boats total that showed up. We anchored in the lee of the second island, and onshore, you wouldn’t even have known it was a windy day. We pulled our chairs over to the sunny side of the island and enjoyed the company of the ECSA members that braved the conditions.

Sunday the wind was coming directly out of the north (of course it was – that’s the direction we were all headed). Wind was blowing consistently at 20 knots with gusts at 25. Thank goodness for the dodger and screens. We were perfectly comfortable tucked under our canvas. We needed to put the hours on the iron genny anyway, as the mechanic owes us a 50 hour inspection/maintenance. We motored at 6.5 knots most of the way – despite the head wind. A big motor is a good thing when you are beating into the wind.

A well deserved break

We have been working on LaLeLu almost every weekend this year (2007) - getting things ready for our Bahamas trip in May/June. This past weekend it was time for a sanity break. We motored out to a nearby spoil island, just north of the power lines on the Banana River and anchored out for an overnight. The kids had fun playing on the beach, collecting shells - despite the surprise of finding many were home to crabs or snails. We had plenty of sun and the new solar panels were keeping the batteries at a full charge. Chris dove the prop on Sunday and was surprised to see that our zinc (a sacraficial piece of metal that protects the important metals) had somehow fallen off. Bummer - hope it hasn't been off too long. In the afternoon on Sunday we slowly motored back to harbortown. A boat full of coasties escorted us the entire way, and even went into the marina. We thought for sure they were going to board/inspect us, but surprisingly they didn't. Perhaps we were just lucky, but certainly slapping the correct/current registration sticker on while they weren't looking didn't hurt.

LaLeLu is sporting a new accutrament. We installed a Solarstick (www.solarstik.com) with 2 panels. The panels are 50 watt each, and they are self pitching in order to give max output. Manufacturer says they will give us 100 amp hours per day on a good sunny day.

Winter Sailing - Florida Style

We were sitting on the dock yesterday morning soaking up the sun and enjoying the nice breeze with our dock mates when someone says "man, what are we doing? - this is sailing whether!" The photos below were taken shortly thereafter. We headed out the Canaveral locks with another boat from our dock, boats loaded with everyone on the dock that was willing to skip their chores in exchange for a sail, and had a nice run south on the Atlantic. Winds were light - 10-13 knots from the east. Seas were 4-6, but with troughs spaced far enough apart to just give you that comfortable rolly-polly feel. We switched out our heading several times in search of speed but never got much more than 6.5 knots - felt good just the same. Took turns trying to pass eachother and flashing a ceremonious moon to the following boat. This day is why I love sailing.