the sailing (mis)adventures of Willis

On Sunday, we decided to go visit Pastor Bob and Marcia Pavey up in Islamorada.  As always, the sermon was excellent, and the church had the most folks I've ever seen there!  I had no doubt that Pastor and Marcia would grow the church, and that is happening for sure.  Aunt Linda and Uncle Louie (Mamaw's baby sister and brother-in-law) have been there every Sunday since they came down the first of February.  Like so many snowbirds, their time here is quickly winding down.  There will be a mass exodus off the islands and out of the marinas on the first of April- us included.  After the service, the firehouse across the street was having a BBQ fundraiser, so Linda and Louie treated us to lunch before we headed back.  It was really good, but the company and visiting was even better. We always have lots of laughs when we are with Linda and Louie :)

Five Sheets to the Wind got together to practice Sunday afternoon.  They
have another gig at the Yacht Club on 4/25, but they will likely not all
be together again before that date.  We will be leaving soon ourselves, to
begin moving the boat up north to the Jacksonville area for long term storage.
Boy, are we ever going to miss Marquesa, the Keys, our friends, the
music, the church, the sunshine and fresh salty air...when we are in China
this next year :/  We'll just be having (mis)adventures of a different sort!

I spent the afternoon doing oodles and oodles of laundry- all the guest linens, towels, and such.  I also started sorting through all of the 'stuff' that's been stored at Mamaw and Paps.  Everyone is starting to get into "move mentality", us included.  It's a bit overwhelming to think about getting the boat moved, properly cleaned, serviced, and stored for the long term, AND to think about how to get everything in a rental car and back down to the Keys.  The plan is to leave our car here when we set sail, then rent a car one way back from the mainland.  We plan to return on April 24th, to sort through all of our crap and repack it into our car.  The band has their gig on April 25th, then we will be leaving Willis with Kenny and Fran when we fly to Germany on April 26th.  We will return on May 12th, grab the cat and our car, and then begin the long ride back home to Indiana.  These last six weeks are going to fly in a whirlwind- no doubt.  I'm already tired just thinking about it, but then I had all of about three hours of sleep last night.  More on that later.

Yesterday, we had a big sailing and fishing adventure planned with
Uncle Kenny and Willis T. Cat.  Willis was excited that Uncle Kenny
was coming; he was already laying in his bunk just waiting for him!
No really, that's his 'excited' look.  He's a cat. A dern cat.

When Cap'n fired up Bessie, Willis got all out of sorts, as he usually does.
It's time to get this boy out of the mangroves and off the dock, too.  He's
forgotten what it's like to sail.  He was a little stressed at first.
Notice the depth gauge says 5.1- it's hard to find water on the Gulf side.

By mid-afternoon, we made it to East Bahia Honda Key,
dropped anchor, and the boys started fishing.  I saw a
loggerhead turtle near the anchorage, and a shark swam
by the boat not long after we got hooked.  It didn't
take Kenny but a minute to reel in a nice ocean catfish!

Once Bessie shut up, Willis couldn't wait to go exploring topsides. 
He saw the shark, too!  I told him he better not think about stepping
off, or in his thrashing, he'd quickly become a shark snack.
It always worries me if he remembers there is water all around him
when Marquesa is on the move, but he does.  He does NOT want to fall in!

He saw Dad reel one in this time!

Just chillin' as he's watching the water.  It's one of my
favorite things to do, too.  The water was crystal clear.

He loves climbing all over the boat and smelling the salty smells.  Especially when it is flat calm out there.

I went down below to warm up the pasta and meatballs that Fran sent with
Kenny, before we got underway again. I felt somebody was peeking in at me
 through the salon hatch. He thinks he's such a BIG cat. and all that.

Once the pinfish came in, it was time to pull up anchor
and head for another spot.  The boys decided to go
out beyond the reef to the bridge rubble, to see what
they might catch.  We were motoring, and Windy was
hard at work making power as we headed out.
We had the wind on the nose, naturally. 
It didn't seem to bother Sassafras at all, at this point.
Now he thinks he's a hood ornament.

Mom, get the camera!  We're going under the bridge!



Got it- all lined up at the chute :)

It was a beautiful evening sail out the Atlantic side.

Willis was supervising Uncle Kenny as he set up his trolling rod.  We
eventually anchored up in 56' feet of water beyond the reef.  There
were several other boats we could see in the night that were also
fishing.  We kept our steaming light on, as we found out (after dark) that
the anchor light is burned out.  That means Momma K has to go aloft
to the top of the mast to change the light bulb.  That's on the to-do list
for later in the week; but definitely before we leave to head north.

 

As the boys continued to fish after hard dark, Willis
seemed content on the gunnels, smelling the salty
smells. Until he wasn't.  I was down below changing
clothes and I heard Willis crying up top.  He howls
just before he pukes- always.  I peeked my head up
from the hatch in our Vberth just in time to steer him
away from the hatch.  Else, he would have puked on
our bed!  I was worried for him as he continued to
wretch, as he always backs up as he pukes.  He was
walking backwards right over the anchor locker and
nearly off the bow.  I couldn't get to him, between
squeezing myself through the hatch and crawling
on deck between the piles of puke.  Ugh.  I had Cap'n
fumble in the darkness to bring me paper towels
to clean the mess up, and I pitched puke-face down
on our bed for safe keeping.  It was then that I discovered
the second mess of the night- he pissed on our bed :/
I was NONE too pleased with the furball.  I guess
he didn't have his sea legs after all, (though up to
this point in the evening, it had been an easy sail.)

It's all very blurry, but by the time we got back to the Gulf
side and dropped the hook for some more late night fishing,
Willis obviously was feeling better and was up to his
usual tricks.  Here is supervising Dad from on top of
the solar panel.  It's a good thing he didn't get his tail
caught up in Windy.  One of the fishing poles met its
demise in Windy earlier in the day.  Her blades are sharp!

Donnie got into some lane snappers, mangrove snappers, and small tarpon.
As soon as he'd release the tarpon, something MUCH BIGGER was thrashing
 in the water having a tarpon snack.  Donnie shined the spotlight in the water,
and sure enough, it was a shark, most likely, a bull shark.  I was afraid for Willis, 
and searched all over the topsides with a flashlight. I couldn't find him anywhere!
He had himself sandwiched on top of the dodger, but under the bimini.
Dern cat.  He was really getting on Momma's last nerve.  First messes
out both ends, a stinking bed, and then he scared the bejesus out of me.

As it got even later, there was heat lightening all around us.  By 1:30am, that wasn't heat lightening, as it was accompanied by thunder!  Fortunately we weren't far enough offshore to lose a cell phone signal, so I brought up the live radar to see what was happening.  There were no stars out, for the clouds. It was pitch black.  We were in a horse shoe, with red, yellow and green surrounding us, blowing in from the WSW.  It was nearly to Big Pine Key and heading our way.  Time to pull anchor and head for home.  Staying out all night was out of the question.  I tucked Willis in the chair next to me in the cockpit, and we stayed up with Cap'n keeping an eye on the weather.  With Bessie scaled back and a full jib up, we were heading home in record time.  We were steady at 7 knots and sometimes more-  until we weren't.

We were just beyond Key Fisheries and coming up to Pretty Joe Rock just outside Banana Bay.  The
temperature dropped, the wind shifted E/NE, and it was gusting well over 25-30 knots.  Cap'n tried to roll in the jib, before turning in for the channel...but it would. not. budge. at. all.  I took the helm while he went forward to sort out the problem.  There was a knot up in the bale somewhere, it seemed, and there was no getting to it.  After about 10 minutes of wrestling with it, us drifting toward
the rocks next door, and the usual yelling that cannot be heard over the WIND, he had no choice but to release the jib halyard and drop it on deck.  It's a lot of sail to try to corral in the gusting wind, and it's still new, and slippery, even without the rain on its way.  Finally, Cap'n came back to relieve me at the helm, while I laid on the sail and readjusted our lines.  We couldn't go into our slip on the wall without any help.  Our prop rotates us off the dock anyhow, and the wind was blowing us off as well.  Instead, we turned in and took Sundance's spot for the evening.  Though our ETA had been 4:00am on the chartplotter, we were all tied down and ready to turn in to bed by 3:40am.  Needless to say, when I jumped onto the dock to tie down, Willis also jumped on the dock and then got thoroughly confused.  He couldn't decide which way to run....he'd never been on this side of the marina before.
With the blow soon came the rain, and Willis T was nowhere to be found.  Lord knows how much le loves to be wet.  It was his own dern fault.

Kenny took the port berth, and I put Cap'n on the starboard berth, since Willis peed on his side of the bed.  I piled the covers up over the Willis' mess, and turned on the fan to blow the stink away. We all attempted to sleep a bit.  Between the pouring rain, lightening, and thunder, (and me being worried about the dern cat that was no where to be found), there was very little sleep to be had. 

I was back up by 8:30am making coffee and fixing breakfast.  The rain had stopped for the moment, so we decided to move back to our spot on the wall.  I went looking for The Turd (his pen names were getting worse as the night turned into day and I was feeling sleep deprived).  We were back 'home' before 10am, but it was after 2:30am before the boat was washed down inside and out, all the fishing gear was unloaded, the linens were all washed and put back on the bed, the dishes were washed and put away, the floor was swept, the trash was out, and the jib halyard was replaced. 

While in the early morning hours it seemed there was a knot in the bale (which was true), I think the good Lord was trying to save us from a bigger problem.  Back on the dock in the light of day, our jib halyard was in tatters....it was about to blow.  It was a good thing Cap'n dropped the sail to the deck before we broke a halyard and had all of the sail and sheets in the churning gulf.  I don't even want to think about what a disaster that could have been. A trip to West Marine, and $200 later for 100' of 7/16th's line, and we are now good to go once again. 

We had a nice bag of snappers and a grunt, and another
bag of ocean cats.  Cap'n was making a stinkin' face,
but honestly, I was too- we all smelled like stinkin'
fish, fish guts, chum, and just plain nastiness.
A shower never felt SO GOOD.
My clean home never smelled SO GOOD.

We visited with friends and family after our showers.  We were afraid to take a nap; we might not sleep tonight.  I made chicken fried rice for dinner, at the request of my Cap'n and we decided to take it easy the rest of the evening.  The wind has continued to build all evening.  It is now out of the W/NW- blowing us into and bouncing us off of the dock.  It's a steady 18-20mph (I just checked) with gusts even higher. Cap'n has had to go out a few times already to readjust lines and fenders.  The boat is like a bucking bronco once again.  It is supposed to blow like this all through tomorrow and Thursday.  Great.  You know who is nowhere to be found, once again.  Not that I blame him tonight.  The bed is a little too bouncy for me, too.  Time for a pop tart, a glass of milk, a Dramamine, and bed for Momma K- in that order!  G'nite, y'all!