Day 2 Texas 200
Dawn breaks and some of the
puddle ducks have already started the days journey. Gene and I lag
behind again. After a quick shore call for the dogs to do their
business I fix Gene eggs and I have sauteed spinach and coffee.
After doing the dishes and securing the galley we realize we are
stuck in the mud. Since the wind has dropped to a mere breeze Gene
has no problem moving us out into water where the boat will actually
float.
Once the anchors have been
brought in we're ready for day 2. With a light breeze behind us
Gene has to rig up a whisker pole to keep the jib inflated with air.
We begin moving with periods of going 5 knots . When the breeze dies
we drop to 1.5 which is like crawling. At the point of our lightest
breeze the row boat man passes up. Human propulsion trumps air.
Amazing to be watching his stern in the distance as we baely move.
Today I've got the GoPro
camera out to capture some video of the trip. Almost everyone has
cameras and takes picture of us as we pass and we reciprocate. Most
sailors seldom have pictures of their boat with the sails unfurled.
We look forward to seeing what Sun Dog looks like to everyone else.
A view we never get to see. Pictures and videos will be share at the
end of the race.
As the day wears on our
breeze suddenly goes away. If we were at sea in certain areas of the
world this is called the doldrums...No Air....No Go. With a facid
jib we are only being pushed by the current, and it's not happy. The
longer we go without a breeze the warmer it gets. Our only amusement
is listening to Jimmy Buffet and Roaul Malo and eavesdropping on the
tugboat Captains. The are doing their daily job and suddenly here
are sixy sailboats of all shapes and sizes on their super highway.
One Captain to the other “There's a lot of little sailboats out
here” Second Captain “I'll try not to run down too many”.
Then as suddenly as the air
stopped it started again. It was literally a breath of fresh air,
and we were once again on the move. We were skimming the water at
5.5 knots. Life is good! As we skim the water we are visited by a
pod of dolphins. It;s hard to say exactly how many were in the pod
because they were all over. I always know when dolphins are near
because Cruiser's keen sense of smell alerts him long before they
appear. Our challenge is to keep him in the boat. As soon as the
smell hits his nose he on his hind legs looking over the side of the
boat.
When we were crusing on
Rainbow Chaser we went through a pod of dolphins. It started with 10
or 12 dolphins circling the boat and increased in size to several
hundred. Zach, who was 11 at the time went to the front of the boat
and sat on the bow. The dolphins jumped up seemingly to see what
creature had their legs dangling over near the water. Others jumped
and flipped next to the boat showing off for us and each other. This
went on for some time and suddenly they were drawn to some other spot
in the ocean, leaving us in awe of their numbers and abilities.
The breeze brings relief
from the heat, and I again ponder all the puddle ducks who have no
protection from the sun and can't decide if enduring this heat is
heroic or just plain crazy! I will be the first to admit that I
prefer “Diva” sailing. This requires a bimini, an auto pilot,
some kind of recetacle for ice, and if possible water for a shower.
I can get by without a microwave but no bimini for me is a no go.
As we cruise toward the
anchorage we have only one episode of …. how can I say
it.....marriage challenge. Our rudder which steers the boat keeps
popping up. It's up to Gene to pop it back down which takes quite an
effort. So as he's trying to pop up the rudder I'm watching and
trying to steer. My version of the story is we suddenly are heading
dead on to a channel marker. Gene's version is we were yards from
said marker.....The end result was me screaming Gene, Gene,
Gene....in an attempt to get his attension before we took out the
front of the boat. Needless to say Gene wasn't pleased at my
screeching and I wasn't pleased that he didn't appreciate our dire
situation. In the end we didn't hit the post and I apologized but
reiterated that sheer terror required loud communication.
As we neared the stopping
point for the afternoon it became clear that the chart didn't match
what we were seeing. Gene was giving me channel marker numbers that
had no correlation to the chart. He of course attributed this to my
inability to read the chart. In fact the map and the channel markers
didn't correlate for some reason. What we did agree on was that the
anchorage for the night appeared to have only 2-3 feet of water in
it. For the smaller boats this isn't a problem. For us at 3 feet
were digging into the mud. As we pondered this Gene came up with a
plan for approach. I pointed out that all the other boats were going
on an entirely different course. My comments went unnoticed and we
went on a different path.
You know there is a problem
when the depth gage hits 3.0 feet and then goes to dashes indicating
it's too shallow to revcognize the depth. Hitting a little mud once
in a while is no big deal. When you hear a loud crunch and come to a
dead standstill, it's a big deal. Thankfully we weren't taking on
water, and if we did we were in little danger of drowning since the
water was only about shin deep.
Gene hopped out of the boat
and began trying to push the boat off with little success. In
desperation he decided to start the outboard which really struck fear
in my heart. Here's Gene standing next to a whirling metal propellar
in 2 feet of water. As an old trauma nurse I was seeing amputated
parts and Gene bleeding to death in the water. None of this happened
and Gene was able to skillfully get us off and head for deeper water,
closer to the path that the other boats had taken.
We eventually got to the
anchorage which was very shallow in parts and found a slightly deeper
area to anchor in. With a nice breeze and a the anchor safely in the
dogs got to do shore leave. I stayed on the boat to tidy things up
and wash some of the salt out of the cockpit.
Tomorrow is our longest day
at 40 miles. There will be a welcome respite coming into civilization
ie Corpus Christi. We'll have a short stop over at Snoopy's, one of
our frequent haunts on the water. We'll get lunch and some fresh ice
before we continue on to our next anchorage for day 3.
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