Hello all,
Today Rosa and I took our sweet time waking up, then lunch, 2 movies, trips around town, and finally we're ready to leave the dock by 3pm. The weather here is great, lots of wind from the hurricane, and clear skies making it 100F. Anyway we get out into the bay and I'm determined that we're going to sail to Destin. We've been motor boating so long because there just isn't any wind in the summer, so anyway we take off with full sail.
Let me relate to yuall some mistakes. First is having the dinghy in my poor excuse for davits. Immediately it's grabbing water. So I try to lower it into the water but the aft section fills with water. So it's low in the water, the motor is still on it, and it's getting more water. Great, so I furl the head'sl , hop in the dinghy and get the life jackets, fuel can, then the motor into the big boat. Note that the seas and wind make this interesting, but Rosa was an awesome help. So I'm tired after that so wonderful Rosa hops in the dinghy and bails the water out. Go Rosa!! Ok so I get her back onboard, let out the jib and keep trucking.
I pull out my Kestrel anemometer, and it's blowing 16-20kts. I'm reading about these cruising boats not having to reef until 25kts. Not so for Nadesico! We're getting knocked down every little puff, so I reef the main, and that's not good enough so I bring in the jib a bit too. Anyway after that Nadesico is happy. Man it's been a long time since we've sailed in a fresh breeze!
Last fun thing is Rosa caught a big one, almost 21' long! That's right, here we are sailing along when a stinkboat decides to run right behind us. It drag and clicker start flying, rosa's holding the rod, I grab the pliers and snip the line. I then give a little courtesy call out to 'the motorboat that ran over my line, you might want to stop now before you do some damage.' Motorboats are exempt from the USCG requirement to listen to 16 on the VHF I think, so he kept trucking for about a mile. Well he took about 300 yards of my 50lb test line, and that eventually boogered him up. Yup, he was dead in the water in not too good a sea state for a 21'. I guess he didn't have a radio because I never heard the call for seatow. Anyway Rosa was excited to catch her biggest fish ever, but alas that one got away.
Anyway we had a spirited sail on into Destin. We anchored up, and fired up the generator to get aircon! While I have a job, I guess I'll pay for gas for the aircon.
Tomorrow we're planning on trying to wake early to go buy some more lures (clark spoons 2.5-3" in case anybody wants to give Rosa a gift, they're expensive!). Then we'll go offshore motor trolling to try for redfish, spanish and kings. After that we'll try to be back before the wind pipes up too hard and we can go swimming on crab island and walk in harbourwalk.
Dad, why don't you get a HAM HF adio so you can talk to us when we go out to sea? You can also talk and listen to lots of other people. I know it's a hobby you can afford, and I think it would be good for you to be able to talk to anonymous old guys all over the US and other countries. Also, I bet you could set up a killer antenna in your yard.
Last thing, I told rosa of an idea I have to sail down to the keys over the xmas holidays. We'll have to get this boat a tad more ready, but I really want to do a trip, and if I buy another boat who knows how long it will be until I trust it. Right now I trust this boat a good bit
Anyway, nobody ever replies to me! Email back guys, just please be sure to remove all unnecessary text like signatures and the copy of this message. As is, this might take 10 minutes to send.
Anyway love you all
Mike and Rosa aboard Battleship Nadesico
73's
KK4BSX
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