First Sail

We took out Jus' Now for its first sail yesterday, a shakedown cruise, joined by my old friend Jim Patterson.

We went about 15 miles across the bay to Gasparilla Island, south end, where the tony resort of Boca Grande is located. Boca Grande, for those of you who don't follow society, is where the Current Occupant vacations when he is in Florida. Oh well, it is a nice place anyway.

Our first attempt to anchor in an open bay where there was a breeze (trying to get away from the bugs) was a grand failure . Weeds on top of mud, hard stuff to anchor in. After three tries we went into a small anchorage up a creek, and about 50' from the bar

So we went into the bayou to anchor. Ran aground, but no harm done. We got on up the creek and anchored stern to the mangroves right across from the docks on the left - and the bar, the Pink Elephant. Rowed over ( the dinghy motor wouldn't start - remember this was a shake down cruise).

The golf course on the right in the photo is the nicest, greenest course I have ever seen. I suspect that is as close as any of us will ever get, too. The whole area reeks of Eastern Establishment. We sat on the deck, but the dinner crowd was all dressed, sweaters over the shoulders of the gentlemen - or blue blazers (the yachting crowd), expensive dresses for the wives. The drinks were strong, though, and not too expensive - about $6 apiece.

We rowed back to the boat and had a steak dinner accompanied by asparagus and lots of good french red wine. We all slept well even though there was no breeze to run off the bugs; the boat has screens on the windows, after all!

Today we sailed back to Punta Gorda on a glorious 15 knot south wind. I have found a nice computer program to forecase tides, so we had no problem getting into our anchorage even though the water at the entrance is very skinny.

Mike and Sue