Daysail at Lake Tarpon

Spent this past Saturday sailing on Lake Tarpon with friends from the WCTSS.  We had perfect weather with winds up to about 15kn.  I was single-handing so I had the first reef in the Goat and it was a bit hairy upwind, at times.  Off the wind I got a few short planing runs.  Full sail would have been awesome but I need crew on the rail to fly full sail in that much wind.

Flat water and a decent breeze.  Photo by Carol Marshall sailing with Dennis on "Duckling" a Michalak Skat

Me in Goat.  Photo by Carol Marshall

Photo by Carol Marshall

That's close to rail under.  The big rudder has awesome grip so I can usually get away with being on the edge in a puff.  Photo by Carol Marshall

We stopped for lunch at the Tarpon Turtle.

Foreground is Welsford Houdini, then Michalak Skat, then Storer Goat then No Mans Land Boat.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Eric and Jane Devoe's Brand new Houdini "Belafonte"

Dennis and Carol Marshall's Michalak Skat "Duckling"

Our "Goat"

Rex and Kathy Payne's No Man's Land Boat "eyeCod"

Dale Niemann's Core Sound 17 "Lively"

Skat, SeaPearl, Siren and a Bay Hen

Had a lot of fun chasing Dale's CS 17 and Tim's SeaPearl.  Dale and crew just walked away from the Goat when the breeze was up and I had to reef but then when the wind died down and I put full sail up they were toast.  Tim's very well sailed SeaPearl was impossible to catch.  I could at best stay with him but a lot of the time he was a bit faster.

Sunday Morning Kayak to Shell Key

We spent Mother's day morning kayaking with friends around Shell Key, Ft DeSoto park.

We discovered a crossover path near the north end of Shell Key.  Lots of Great Blue Herons around.

It's a short walk through the scrub.

A tidal stream teaming with minnows cuts through the Key.

Tons of shells on the Gulf side but we did not stick around long enough to find any real good ones.

Cedar Key 2013

What can I say, Cedar Key was as good as it always is.  This event is the highlight of the year for us.  It's the second year that my sister and family flew down from DC area for the weekend.  I'm thinking this may be the start of a family tradition.  The weather forcast was downright awful, calling for storms and rain all weekend long.  Thankfully it all broke up and we had mostly good weather, with a few scattered showers.  This is the first year that we had a catered dinner Friday and Saturday night.  It was a hit and it sure relieved a lot of the volunteers to go play. 

 The beach in front of Island Place.  With her shallow draft, Egret felt right at home among the Sea Pearls and other minimal draft open boats.  We had strong onshore winds which caused our stern anchor to really dig into the muck.  The retreival process resulted in a bit of mayhem as we struggled to break the anchor loose while fending off the channel markers. 

 

The fearsome "Black Pearl" high and dry.

 

"Black Pearl" heading out for Atsena Otie.

 

Skipper and deckhand getting ready to set off for Atsena Otie.

 

The other crew insisted on riding in the kayak.

 

At Atsena Otie.

 

Dave Lucas's "Helen Marie" on Atsena Otie.

 

Early arrivals at Atsena Otie.

 

Never found out what this beautiful boat, Wes White was sailing, is.

 

We had good winds most of the weekend.

 

 

 

Sea Pearl screaming past our Egret.

 

Steve Wood chasing Egret, brother in law Doug steering.

 

Klingon warship blasting by.

  

 

 

Steve Kingery took this picture of me while I took....

 

this picture of him.

 

I think that's Martin on the left who finished the Everglades Challenge in that 8ft CLC pram!

 

Steve's Wee Lassie

 

Atsena Otie invasion

 

 

Bella liked WoodWind. Unprompted, she said "he must use a lot of poxy"!

 

 

Back in front of Island Place, Jim Brown is first to hop off the Seaclipper and walk her ashore.

 

Everyone getting back to the Island Place beach for the Saturday evening cookout.

 

 

Will Marsh's beautiful Elver.

 

 

 

Stunning Melonseed with Dave Lucas upgrades.

 

Sunday we sailed over to Atsene Otie and just did a whole lot of nothing.

 

 

 

Teamwork.

 

This was the first time 5 year old Bella got to paddle a kayak.  She picked it up immediatley without any istruction and was paddling all over the place.  She and dad paddeld all the way back from Atsena Otie to Cedar Key.  She was tethered to dad's kayak, just in case, but she paddeled the whole way!

 

 

 

So many critters, so little time.

 

It's tiring out there.

 

And then it was time to pack up.

 

And head home.

 

Cedar Key Rocks!