baytripperblog

Bruce prepared the dinghy putting gas in the tank and I talked him into leaving the cover off  in case we needed to abandon ship.  Ropes secured, fenders in their holders, snacks and sandwiches made. Everything on my counters had to be cleared.  Northeasterly winds expected at 15 knots. Waves predicted 2-4 feet. Eddy from the weather wag says he would go but his wife wouldn’t. At 4 PM   we passed our red buoy and out into the Gulf of Mexico.   It wasn’t bad for about the first 4 hours.  Then the waves started getting rougher.  I took a dramamine thinking I would get ahead of things.  We saw a sea turtle and dolphins.  Life was good.  Beautiful  sunset,  then it got dark and larger waves pushing our little boat side to side up and down.  I got sick.  Bruce handled it well.  We were like drunken sailors trying to move around in the boat.  Bruce took a header going down to look at the dinghy.  Thankfully he was in the mid deck and not the back Lazaret.   Just his ego was hurt.  The dinghy was flipping wildly in the back and Bruce was able to secure it better.  Many hours of terrible seas.  Not enjoying this.  Things were sliding across the floor and jumping out of my cupboards.  We heard the dinghy coming loose again but it was too rough to do anything about it.  When morning light came we could see that the back seat had come out of the dinghy. The motor miraculously was still attatched.  No gas can in sight.  We slowed down a bit but had radar to track our buddy boats.

Passing closer to Clearwater  Bruce was able to tie the dinghy more securely as the waves got better.  Then it was watching for crab pots so the ropes on them did not  wrap around our props. We were looking right into the sun even at 1000 in the morning.  Noon and we made it to Clearwater! What a night.   It is beautiful  here. Time to settle and go take some pictures.