Day 1
So day 1 is officially in the books. I’m writing this on the morning of day 2 only because I was so tired from the first day that I had to sleep immediately once we stopped for the night. A combination of lack of sleep from packing and getting ready for a long trip and a full day of prepping the boat and sailing.
I’ll go ahead and break down the day. First, I didn’t arrive to the boat until 6am. So I had very little sleep plus the anticipation made it hard to sleep even when I tried to make myself. By 9am we’re both awake and preparing the boat for departure. There is a million things to do! Securing everything on deck, stowing tools and items, double checking the rigging and electrical equipment, and waiting on the perfect window to leave.
We finally pull out of Madeira Beach marina and zip through John’s Pass and a couple drawbridges. The sea is really really rough at first and pretty much Chad, Abby, and myself all felt the effects of sea sickness immediately. We power our way past the breakers and things start to smooth out. The wind was generously blowing out of the north, but it was causing some pretty big swells. I wasn’t quite ready for that much wind. Plus, wind makes some scary noises out on the ocean! That can be creepy when the sky is completely overcast and all you see is water, waves, and grey.
We motored for a little while and finally deployed the sails. For the most part that wasn’t a problem even though we spotted a few lines out of place which required walking the deck in choppy weather. At this point Chad had already gotten sick overboard and a quick trip down below to change into warmer clothes reveals Abby wasn’t thrilled about the waves either cause she got sick too. I had to consciously think about not throwing up for a few hours.
Eventually we are under sail. Cruising around 5-7 knots. It seemed like forever to pass the Skyway Bridge I guess cause it’s such a long bridge and it’s located inland to some islands we past. So you pass and island and look left and there it is again! The day quickly slipped away and we realized we needed to get the sails down and look for a safe place to stay before night fall.
Of course at this point the sails don’t want to retract easily like they normally do. Through many exhausting attempts to fix the problem combined with driving a boat that’s the equivalent of driving an old school Cadillac, we got the sails under control. But at this point, our only option for a place to seek shelter is Sarasota. We were still a few miles away and the sun rapidly set. No problem, we’ll just motor at night! Yikes, that was a bad idea! We ended up dodging crab pots with limited visibility as we tried to find the channel to go into the bay. As good as technology can help, it’s useless when you can’t spot the buoys. It took us an hour, maybe two, to locate the proper way to enter the bay and find the first set of markers. Of course all that is past “the breakers”.
Once in the bay we motored around trying to find an area where the wind would play nice while we anchored down. Turns out the only place according to the computer where open sailboats anchor is right near downtown Sarasota. But that was completely opened up to the gusty winds coming from offshore. We opted for another location. That requires another hour of motoring until we find the spot. A small cove with rich houses in every direction with plenty of depth at any tide. A really intimidating place to anchor when you’re getting some pretty strong gusts and you’re not 100% your anchors will hold. We hadn’t had an opportunity all day to eat. A mistake we’ll never make again. So while Chad got the boat headed in the direction of the cove I cooked up some food. It never tasted so good having skipped breakfast and lunch!
Finally we got the boat setup for the night and headed off to bed. At this point we’re over the motion sickness and so tired we just want to pass out. I slept from 10pm until 2am. Then, I couldn’t get it out of my mind how the boat is anchored around a bunch of expensive boats and houses. I kept checking Google Maps on my phone to determine our location every 20 minutes after that. That went on for an hour or so then I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 7am and we’re still securely in place. Awesome news! Sleeping aboard the boat was fine. Though sometimes it’s calm and sometimes you feel like you’re on a train jumbling around from side to side, it wasn’t a big deal.
So day 1 was a bit more work than I thought. Probably not as much fun as I anticipated. Certainly not the clear water, cocktails, sunny skies, and relaxing atmosphere I pictured. But I know those days are coming.
Today we need to fix the gas gauge (kinda important) and redo some of the rigging for optimal use. So we may stick around in Sarasota unless we can spot another inner coastal just south of here. I am still happy to be on the trip. The views have been amazing, we even saw dolphins, and of course a sweet sunset off in the distance.
Don’t you let regret take place, of the dreams you have to chase.
– Zak Brown Band, As She’s Walking Away
