April 12, 2014 – Keys Log: Day 10 (Part One) – Rain On Our Parade

I woke to find a friend on our stern line the next morning.

He didn’t even move as we rustled around in the cockpit and readied the boat for another passage.  He just watched us inquisitively and minded his own business.  I almost hated to shoo him away when we were ready to leave.  But, we were ready to leave!  We were heading back out into the Gulf that morning to make the approximate 100 mile (24 hour) run to Charlotte Harbor to meet up with our friend Johnny and his son, who were anchored out in Cayo Costa.  That was the plan anyway.

We waved at the rising sun and made our way back out into the Gulf.

Now, when we came in the previous day, we unfortunately ran aground on the shoaling around the little island just after the bridge.

Right around here we believe:

After talking with the dockmaster at the marina, we decided to take the longer route this time, around the little island, where the channel is deeper.

There will be no running aground today, thank you!

We had one of the best sails yet of the trip that morning.

“Hoist them sails there, Mate!”

“You got it, Cap’n!”

The water around Clearwater really is the most brilliant green.  Like torqouise but not so blue.  This is the closest replica I could find:

They call it #00ff83.  It’s 0% red, 100% green and 51.4% blue.  But, I’ll tell you, it’s heaven.  The most beautiful sight to see under the hull of your boat.

It was just gorgeous.    And, we had a great east wind, right on our port bow, around 10 knots.  As the Captain would say, “We were cooking!”  It was a great sailing day.

                       

And, for my fellow sailing blogger on the Sundowner – this one’s for you Dani!

 

Rockin’ the selfie!

We did get backwinded at one point, though, when we were messing with the sails and it turned us around.  No problem, really, to turn a circle and get back on track, but we did have the trolling line out when it happened, and it got caught on the rudder.  But, that wasn’t a problem either.  The Captain jumped right in for a nice swim in the Gulf and got her untangled.

            

AOK!

Ahhh!  Nice and refreshing!

It was like nothing could get us down.  I couldn’t help but keep singing, “Ain’t nothing gonna break-a-my stride.  Nobody gonna hold me down!”

Whoa-NO …

THEY DID-UHHNT!!  Relive this lovely 80’s leotard and sparkly gloves rendition HERE.

But, what we didn’t expect was rain.  No, not that kind.  The skies were clear, the sun was out, the conditions were ideal.  And, yet, it still rained.  The winds started to kick up, so we decided to reef the Jenny in a bit.  As we were winding her in, we heard a loud POP from above and then it rained …  Ball bearings … All over the boat.