Remember when we went to the San Juan Islands to sail with our friends Bill and Kris in July? We loved the scenery and the weather. Long sleeves during the day and snuggling under four blankets at night to stay warm. I didn’t even have any hot flashes!
As summer turned to fall, Bill and Kris got tired of freezing and sailing into fog. So they flew south from Seattle, and jumped on board Wind Therapy, headed for the Dry Tortugas. We were all looking forward to this new experience.
We left the marina Thursday and motor/sailed to Longboat Key. The last time we were there, the anchorage was full, it rained constantly, and the winds were blowing a consistent 13 – 18 knots. This time, however, we dropped the hook near the entrance to the anchorage, which was good and bad. Good because we were far away from the other anchored boats. Bad because we were right next to all the boat traffic going to and from the restaurants and the sand bar. Live and learn.
We hung out Friday enjoying the scenery, dinking around the bay, and frolicking on our own private section of the beach. All of the downed trees on the north west end of Longboat Key created little private pockets of beach. So romantic and beautiful.
The wind was howling, though, and the waves were big. Well, bigger than I wanted to sail in. I was nervous about leaving tomorrow heading for Venice Beach. And I was right. We took off in the morning, driving the boat under the 35′ wide Longboat Pass Bridge. Our boat is 24′ 2″ wide, so not much room on either side. The pass was like a washing machine with 3-4′ waves coming at us from all directions and a very ominous looking sky. After about 10 minutes of banging into these waves, we finally passed the last set of markers, hoping the deeper water would help reduce the size of the waves. We were wrong.
After about 45 minutes, the sky grew even darker, the wind began to blow and the temperature dropped. For the first time in our sailing lives, we turned around and went back. We’ve seen so many videos and read many articles instructing sailors to not be afraid to turn back. Don’t wait. Don’t succumb to “gotta get there”-itis. If you think for a minute that you should turn back, do it without question. Well, we thought about it for 2 minutes, and made the decision. The truth is that we were never in any danger. There was just a squall coming through. But Hurricane Delta had left some major sea confusion in her wake, and we wanted none of it. About face and try to get back to the anchorage before the rain set in.
Unfortunately, we didn’t beat the rain. But at least we were able to anchor in a better spot, and we got a free deck wash out of it. Bill and Kris grabbed the brushes, jumped up on the coach roof and started scrubbing. Jeff and I joined them as soon as we buttoned up the anchor and turned off the engines. It poured for a good hour. And Wind Therapy was spotless when we were finished.
The rain subsided and left a beautiful double rainbow behind. Time to jump in the dinghy and head to the sandbar to join about 25 other boatloads full of people hanging out, playing games, drinking beer and enjoying and afternoon wading in the water. We’ll try to leave again tomorrow.