We headed out after breakfast and it didn’t take long for many other sailboats to join us on the Pensacola Bay.

Pogo was relaxed and enjoying herself.

Till the dolphins came out to play. (note the fin)

Lunch time!

Private Stock didn’t miss the opportunity to sail on this perfect day! What is it with him and barges lately? Ha.

Blake was hanging out below playing with his toys.

More sailboats on the bay.

Ken sailing on Private Stock.

s/v Nightwatch was catching the breeze.

Toward the end of the day Pogo was getting cold, so she put on her jacket and ear muffs to stay warm.

We all had a great day sailing on Pensacola Bay!

The wind was more like 2 knots when we made it out onto the Bay. Ben and Ken were on the VHF discussing whether or not either of us were actually moving.

Pogo took her routine position of dolphin patrol, but we didn’t really see any this weekend.

The temp warmed up enough for Carol to wear her new bikini for about two hours.

Ken (s/v Private Stock) was the only other sailboat, aside from us, with sails up on the bay. We did notice a few in the distance along Santa Rosa Island, but sails were down. So we have lots of pictures of Private Stock.

Ken decided to drop his 110 jib and raise his drifter.

After a bit he swapped back out for the 110 when the wind picked up to around 6 knots. The next three pictures were taken from the same distance, just zoomed in each time.

The wind calmed right back down to zero, so we headed back to the marina. Though we had little wind overall, it was still nice to be on the Pensacola Bay, plus Carol wore a bikini in January!!

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.

Here’s a picture of Peacemaker later in the day once we were out on the water.

Another picture of Peacemaker, which is a large sailing vessel, next to another much larger ship at the port.

We had the pleasure of touring Peacemaker right about a year ago and posted photos on on our blog at that time.

http://sv-monomoy.com/2011/01/crew-of-monomoy-tours-sv-peacemaker/

Carol was enjoying the relaxing sail.

The bay was fairly flat, so it was perfect for some folks to take advantage of fishing.

Pogo was on dolphin alert.

This fellow was enjoying the sun breaking through the clouds.

As we slowly sailed along in the bay, we passed a Christmas tree floating in the water. We thought about that for a moment and considered how that poor tree was just the center of happiness a few weeks ago and now it has been abandoned to the bay by some inconsiderate persons (improper way of disposal).

The wind never made it over 5 knots, but we weren’t complaining, since we enjoy relaxing sails.

Ben on the radio with Captain Ken of s/v Private Stock.

Here’s Private Stock in the distance.

The bay slowly had other sailboats appearing.

The sky cleared/clouded all day.

We passed a sister-ship on the bay..

…who tacked around and headed back toward us.

It appeared they had their own dolphin patrol dog.

They cruised up alongside and we hollered back and forth for a short time chatting about sailing. They seemed very familiar, but we weren’t sure where we had perhaps seen or met them before.

After providing our blog and email address to them, they pulled away and headed back the direction they were originally going.

We then recognized the name of their boat and realized we had met them briefly on the dock before; they also happen to be friends of our friends Tammy and Marlin of s/v Keeldover.

There were a few other boats still sailing the bay, but I think the light wind sent a few back to port.

Monomoy does well in light wind; she has a lot of canvas and would typically be a light boat, though we have her waterline raised around 4 inches due to all of the gear we carry aboard. We can still sail 5 knots in 4 knots of wind, so we were having a good time.

Pogo still on dolphin patrol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvHT7yzy2j0

We have a four day weekend coming up, so we are really keeping our fingers crossed for good weather, so we can get a few days of cruising in.

Temps were cooler than the previous day, so Carol and Pogo bundled in the companion way.

Ben was at the helm.

As the bay began to settle, another sailboat made it out of their slip.

Before long our marina friends were also out on the bay. Here is s/v Sea Lilly (Tim, Michelle, and family).

More of the gang on the bay.

s/v Just Cruising (Barry and guest) in the foreground and s/v Skycatcher (Nate and Jennifer) in the background.

s/v Just Cruising sailing the opposite way.

s/v Just Cruising and s/v Sea Lilly.

Another picture of the gang. You can tell which one is s/v Private Stock (Ken and guest Angie) with the colorful drifter and s/v Clara (Scot) with his tanbark sails.

This boater passed by in the bay and reminded us of Ty and Kiki on s/v Shooting Star; they moved their boat to Niceville.

Ken on s/v Private Stock performing one of his many headsail changeouts that he would do over the course of the day.

s/v Skycatcher running wing on wing down the bay.

Nate standing at the bow of s/v Skycatcher.

Jennifer at the helm of s/v Skycatcher.

s/v Sea Lilly cruising by.

s/v Private Stock cruising by.

s/v Just Cruising.

s/v Sea Lilly, s/v Private Stock, and s/v Just Cruising.

s/v Clara.

Pogo on dolphin patrol.

s/v Just Cruising in the foreground and s/v Clara in the background.

Ken performing another sail changeout on s/v Private Stock in the foreground and s/v Skycatcher in the background.

s/v Private Stock.

s/v Skycatcher.

s/v Clara.

At one point we had dolphins come up to say hello, so we furled the jib and went to the bow to check ‘em out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OL3jG2IuVM

We all had a fantastic day of sailing on the beautiful Pensacola Bay!

The wind initially climbed to 16 knots, so with a reefed main and jib, we were cruising at 6.5 knots. Within an hour the wind climbed to 27 knots, so we doused the jib and sailed along at 5 knots (still under reefed main).

Ken made it out sailing on Private Stock. He sailed along under jib alone and made pretty good speeds it appeared.

No bikini, but Carol was still all smiles.

After a couple hours of sailing, the wind started to settle back down.

As the sun began to set, we decided it was time to head back in.

Blake took the helm to bring us into the channel.

Once we were tied snug to the dock, Carol made some tortilla soup for dinner (thanks for the recipe Roxanne!) and then we enjoyed a Bayou Chico Boat Parade.

We ended the evening having cocktails on s/v Sea Lilly. What a great day!

Ben and Annelle.

There were several other sailboats on the bay, including Animal.

Thomas tried his hand at the helm; he was having a great time and enjoyed watching our speed increase as we sailed along.

Tammy and Marlin on s/v Keeldover cruised up.

Carol and Annelle.

As can be seen on Jaime and Annelle’s faces, a great time was had by all.

Sunday was a different story though. We departed the marina around 8am CST and headed out for a day of sailing.

Carol was prepared with her bikini.

Pogo stood Dolphin watch.

Since Carol typically gets to where multiple bikinis over the weekend and only had Sunday this go around, she changed early.

The day started with around 5 knots of wind…

…though it did pick up to around 12 knots.

We had the gunnels tapping the water on multiple occasions, though the cabin wasn’t exactly prepped for such sailing, so a few items found their way to the floor.

Captain Ken on s/v Private Stock cruised up…

…as did Captain Jim, Admiral Denise, and their Bosun grandson.

s/v Animal was having a blast as well!

It was a fantastic day of sailing! We returned to the dock around 4:30pm CST and discovered that our refrigerator had decided to give up. The compressor fan quit about 8 months ago, so Ben replaced it with a fan from Radio Shack that fit the dimensions exactly as the old. The fridge is an Alder Barber that’s around 20 years old and has run continuous over the past 18 months, so we feel it did its job.

We just happened to catch the last day of Defender.com’s fall boat show pricing, so we have a new Alder Barber on order, expected to arrive on Friday. There is a cold front coming through over the coming weekend which is expected to bring some gusty wind, so we’ll spend that time removing the old fridge and installing the new.

We set sail Saturday morning for a cruise around the bay.

Wind was hovering around 15 knots; other sailors were taking full advantage.

Pelicans flying by.

Ken solo on s/v Private Stock.

Rich and Carol on s/v Blue Ocean cruised up and said HI.

Jim on s/v Another Chance picked up a couple of dive tanks, so we anchored nearby and hopped in to scrub as needed, but the bottom was pretty clean.

Ben zipped around with Pogo, but she actually fell off, so Ben had to circle back around for her.

Jim on s/v Another Chance heading toward us later in the day.

Sunday morning Mimosas.

Enjoying the blue skies while Otto drives.

s/v Cookie Monster sailing by.

s/v Piranna.

Carol hanging out on the foredeck.

The wind was only around 5 knots Sunday, so it made for some really slow cruising.

Pogo hanging out.

s/v Another Chance cruised by as he headed toward Santa Rosa Island and we were heading toward the Pensacola Bay Bridge.

Blake spent the lazy day making uniforms for his Mario.

More sailors on Pensacola Bay.

s/v Private Stock directly off our bow.

s/v Private Stock passing by.

The wind finally picked up and we were moving!

This fellow was cruising too!

Fun day sailing!

Blake taking us back in the channel around dinner time.

We had a great weekend on the bay!!

Carol was prepared with Mimosa material.

There was no wind at first.

Wait, I see wind in the distance.

The wind picked up and we enjoyed a show from our military running exercises.

This was an interesting sailboat cruising by under engine.

Ben and Pogo.

We dropped the hook in Little Sabine at Pensacola Beach, FL, then dinghy’d over to Hooters. Tammy and Marlin on s/v Keeldover cruised over with us.

Tammy and Marlin.

Our little family, minus Pogo.

Kelly and her friend Rhonda, with Rhonda’s little girl cruised over on the bumblebee boat to join us.

The Hooter Girls put Ben up on a chair.

Geeze; it turned out to be another fellow’s birthday as well, so they put him on the chairs, put cones in the guys mouths, and gave them menus to flap like wings while the girls sang a long happy birthday song.

Ben and Carol with the Hooter Girls.

After lunch we went for a short swim in Little Sabine. Blake tried out his new snorkel gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X2_S54Xoks

It was time to weigh anchor and head back to the marina.

Carol grabbed the helm as we made a 3 knot cruise under main alone.

We deployed the jib and was up to 6.5 knots.

Dieseling into Bayou Chico with Pogo on dolphin watch.

Carol picked up pizza for everyone and we enjoyed great conversation and music with friends under the marina gazebo; it was a great birthday.