A Bit of Spirited Sailing at Cedar Key

The big small boat gathering at Cedar Key was another success. We had fantastic winds for those who wanted to go bonkers. A bit too much on Saturday kept many boats form launching. Those who did launch had a great time. I finally got the yard cam aimed right and captured some of the fun. Winds on Thursday were gusting to near 30mph. Some of the clips in this video are on that day and the others are in 18-22 mph winds. We had one reef in the sail and it was about right. Full sail is really a blast in these conditions but I didn't feel like capsizing.

Sailing Canoes at Cedar Key

Finally got a bit of time to finish editing the tons of footage we got of Hugh Horton in "Bufflehead" and Bill Ling in "Aku".  Meade Gougeon also makes an appearance in his outrigger canoe "Voyager".  We sailed from Atsena Oatie to Grassy Key then through the cut in Snake Key then back through the interior of Atsena where we encountered lots of oyster bars.  The second day we sailed out to North Key and explored it's Southeastern shore.



Cedar Key Small Boat Meet Messing About Video

A short video of a few of the boats out playing during the event.  Still working on a longer one featuring just the sailing canoes.

Cedar Key Small Boat Meet 2014

This was the 30th anniversary of the big bash at Cedar Key. As always we were really looking forward to this event. It's the highlight of the year for small boat messing about. Two weeks out the long range weather forecast was calling for rain Thursday through mid day Saturday. I've got to hand it to the weather nerds, they really nailed it this time as the rain started Thursday and cleared out Saturday afternoon.

A few folks couldn't wait and headed out Saturday before it cleared up. Photo by Hugh Horton.

We waited it out.



Once we headed out the first boat we met was Mike Jones' gorgeous William Garden Eel "Aunt Louise"

Everglades Challenge veteran Harry Tomlinson "Goke" in his Bufflehead.

Rob Hazard brought his yawl rigged Goat Island Skiff. It's so much fun sailing in company with a sister-ship.

Goat fun.

Beached on Atsena Oatie to check out all the other cool boats. Our Goat in foreground and Doug Engh's Penobscot 17 in the background.

One of the coolest boats this year was the famous Rob White Rescue Minor piloted by his son Wes.  The green hull is a Robb White Sport Boat. 

Hugh Horton arrives with "Bufflehead".

 Saturday mid afternoon the weather had become ideal for venturing out on a small expedition to Snake Key with a stop at Grassy Key. 

 "Goat" and Bill Ling's Sailing Canoe "Aku".

 Meade Gougeon's EC first-in-class rocket ship "Voyager" and "Bufflehead".

 Snake Key.

 Hugh arriving at Snake Key.

 Running through the interior cut on Snake Key.

The cool thing about this shot is that Hugh was taking the next one at about the same time.

Too much fun! Photo by Hugh Horton.

    

 Eventually we headed back in and were last in line for the feast. Geoff Chick's Yakaboo II also heading back in.

Rob's GIS heading back to Island Place beach.

Saturday evening in front of Island Place.

Love the Bahamas dinghy colors.

 Sailing canoes up for the night.

Goat is so light we pull out for the night like the canoe guys do.

Dinner time view.

Sunday and Monday I hung out with the sailing canoes. The sailing conditions were absolutely perfect.  Here we are on our way to North Key.

North Key.

This thing working?

 Exploring North Key.

 Goat can go pretty much where the canoes go but hitting oyster bars with the dagger board is a lot more exciting. Down wind we were generally OK with the board out and an occasional scrape. Up wind amongst the oyster bars was quite interesting. Bard (Hugh's son) was my able crew and he had a workout tending to the board. At one point it got so bad that Bard was poling us along with the dagger board. Fun times.

Ghosting along on the lee side of North Key.

 White pelicans on the way back to Cedar Key.

Packing up Tuesday. Pretty much the last ones to leave.



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!