Day 154, Year 8: Sailing, Sailing
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day, High Temp in the 60’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Well, there is sailing, and then there is sailing. We pulled out of the slips this morning at 10 am with Rex and Pam, their friends Mike and Penny, and two of Tommy’s children, Olivia and Cory. There was not a cloud in the sky, and even though a bit on the chilly side, it was a beautiful day. It took us about an hour to get out of the Intracoastal Waterway and out to sea and the sailing conditions were perfect. We had 12-15 knots of wind on the beam with less than one foot seas. This was SAILING. We sailed along for about an hour and a half and then we started experiencing the ‘other’ sailing. The winds started building, so we reefed the headsail. Then both the wind and the seas started building. The winds went from 15 to 16 to 17 to 18 and on up to 23 knots. The seas went from 1 to 2 to 3 feet and then on up to 5-6 feet with an interval of about 5 seconds. We reefed the main and turned to head home. By this time the wind had clocked around so we were headed into it which with the wind speed and wave interval resulted in a bit of a rough ride. We only had one ‘casualty.’ Cory, Tommy’s fourteen year-old, got sea sick, but everyone else survived the conditions and had a good time. Cory swears he also had a good time, but I don’t know how that is possible as sick as he was. One thing’s for sure, he was a good sport, and never complained. Rex’s friend Mike flew down from West Virginia just to go sailing, and he certainly got to experience a wide spectrum of conditions. He loved it all, as did Mark. All in all, it was a great first sail of the season, and it reminded us of some things that need to be done before we head north the end of the month.
Patsy is doing great and we all descended on her house for dinner. Tommy grilled shrimp and hamburgers and everyone spent the evening watching basketball. We’ve had a nice couple of days visiting with family and the weather is warming—so life is good.
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| 130406 Day 154 South Carolina, USA–First Sail of the Season |
