Columbus Day weekend

Columbus Day weekend we had four days on the boat. After driving down and un-packing and settling in we called it a night. Saturday was calling for 15 to 20 knot winds with gusts of 30 to 35, seas, 4 to 5 feet with a chance of thunderstorms. We have wanted to get out and sail in some waves as we had yet to do it. Its always been so smooth. Our plan was to anchor up at Shell Island for a couple days and just relax. As we are headed out the pass we started noticing several dead fish. At first I couldn't figure it out. As we made it into the gulf I noticed the water wasn't the pretty shades of blue and green I'm use to seeing. Instead it looked like we were on the Mississippi. Things finally clicked, "red tide". Apparently a pretty good case of it judging by the amount of dead fish. So plans to anchor by the island were pretty much shot as you really don't want to be anchored among dead rotting fish in the heat. It also cuts out any water plans you had. We did however have some nice sailing as I get use to the heeling side of sailing. It was actually fun crashing into the small waves. By no means were they 4 to 5 footers as called for but it was still fun.

As we headed back to the marina we were being chased by the chance of thunderstorms. We made it back into our slip right before the rain hit. That evening we had friends over for a shrimp boil. Sunday we decided would be maintenance and Monday I had my sister from Naples visit on the way to Louisiana. After getting Rebecca and Chance, her dog aboard we headed out for a sunset sail. Alas there was no sailing to be done so we did a sunset motor out to a spot and sat on the bow watching the sun set catching up on each others lives. My brother flew in for a business trip and caught up with us later at the marina. We had not seen each other for close to a year so it was nice playing catch up.
My brother Jerry, sister Rebecca, and myself
Dirk with Rebecca
Dirk with Jerry and Rebecca