Jan. 14, 2012 – Daysail

Our original plan was to head out Saturday and return on Tuesday. School is out of session for Monday in observance of Reverend Martin Luther King, then is out of session Tuesday for teacher planning day. The weather forecast began really nice for all 4 days, but as it seems to be the new routine, the forecast changed overnight. At least it appeared we’d get in a nice daysail with temps in the 30-40s, but only 5 knot wind.

We headed out around 9am CST to blue skies.

Pogo was ready for some sailing.

There were a few other sailboats who joined us on the Pensacola Bay.

Family photo.

Dad and son photo op.

Blake was enjoying the nice weather.

Another sailboat on the bay.

The Pensacola Bay was smooth!

There are courteous powerboaters! Fourplay slowed considerably as they passed and provided nearly no wake! With the bay as smooth as it was, the courtesy was much appreciated.

Another sailboat caught in the doldrums.

Pogo on typical dolphin patrol.

Cocktail time!

The wind picked up to around 7 knots and white caps just started to form. It made for faster sailing, though made the temp feel much cooler. This group was clearly enjoying themselves on the Pensacola Bay. They called out and waved as the sailed by.

The wind continued to build and the bay chopped up considerably. Overall the wind wasn’t bad at 12 knots gusting to 18 knots, but the salt spray coming over the bow is much more fun in 100 degree summer temps, so we headed back to the marina.

As we were approaching the marina, Ken on s/v Private Stock was heading out singlehanded, but decided to turn around after we informed him of the conditions on the bay. He can easily singlehand his boat, but it isn’t much fun when you’re battling the weather. He decided to motor around the bayou since he was already out of his slip, so he could allow his diesel to get up to normal operating temp. About the time he decided to motor about, a large barge came through without any prior courtesy notice over the VHF, so Ken had to tuck off to the side.

After the barge passed, Ken went about motoring around the bayou for a bit.

It’s time to perform some routine maintenance on Monomoy, so we changed out the primary and secondary fuel filters to knock that task out. We’ll be changing the oil and transmission fluids Monday.

It was time to relax like these fellas.

Conrad and Roxanne from s/v The Great Escape took their new kayaks out for a try.

We ended the day be heading over to The Oar House via dinghy for a cocktail with Ken, Conrad, and Roxanne; we ran into Barry (s/v Just Cruising) and company while there, so it felt like Palm Harbor was taking over The Oar House.

We then returned to the marina for grilled steak and a nice Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by gathering under the marina gazebo for social hour.

It was a really nice way of ending the day. Today (Sunday) has some discrepancies between forecasters on how the weather/wind will end up, so we plan (hope) to get out for another daysail.