October 3, 2009 Day Sail
We headed out around 9am with the plan of sailing to Ft. Pickens, then McRee, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Wind was supposed to be at 8 knots with bays and coastal waters smooth, which was noted as being the max for the day, but we had 1-2 foot seas and registered 14 knots with 17 knot gusts with the appearance that it was building. Typically we would have sailed it, which we did for a couple of hours, but considering the reality was so far from prediction, we decided to head back to the marina to have lunch and reevaluate the day.
Here’s a video, but of course video never seems to depict what was truly experienced when it comes to filming water. Paying close enough attention you can see the swells.
After lunch it appeared that the weather had settled down, so we headed back out to find around 5 knot wind. Amazing how quickly the wind and sea can change. The bay had smoothed and made for a slow sail over to Ft. Pickens.
It calmed so much in the bay that Ken was out sailing his dink.
Ralph and Mary were headed out for the weekend on Nightwatch.
Blake wanted to run the diesel. He has sailed Monomoy many times before, but never driven the boat under power, so when we fired up the diesel to drop sails and the hook, Blake took the helm. BTW, check out my shirt.
Blake watching the GPS.
Blake proud of his skills at the wheel.
Pogo was clearly excited for Blake.
We arrived at Pickens and dropped the hook.
A Gemini sailed in as well.
Blake thought Ft. Pickens was cool. We sailed there before when he was younger, but he never wanted to stop playing in the sand. This time he wanted to explore.
Carol hanging out at the Fort.
Monomoy from the shore of Ft. Pickens.
View of Monomoy from atop of the Fort.
We pulled the hook about 4pm to sail toward McRee, but once we were about to the Pensacola Pass, we decided to loop back around and head back to the marina. Sunday’s weather wasn’t predicted to be very good, we didn’t have morning provisions and were about 2 hours from the marina under the current wind.
It was a calm sail back with more sightseeing.
Sailboat cruising behind us.
Hunter 34 heading back to port.
The day ended quite well and much better than it had started. Carol and I discussed that we are so tired of the faulty weather predictions and even incorrect data on current weather stats, that we are going to start keeping a weather log depicting the prediction, data at time, and real data as recorded by us. Attempting to rely on the predictions provided by people who have supposedly attended school in order to learn about weather could prove dangerous at some point. This statement doesn’t stem from one occurrence, but from a pattern of occurrences over the course of the entire year.
Anyway, enjoy the moon.
Our track for the day.
