Time In The Keys Is Winding Down For Some

My friends from Tennessee, John and Susie are leaving tomorrow, their two months in Paradise is ending until next year when they plan to stay for three months. Same old story, one month turns into two, two turns into three Etc.,Etc, Etc.

John enjoys fishing and the prospect of a new boat for the Keys next year is looming large.

John and Susie, goodbye until next year!

Snapshots from Florida

Small Fry!

Cocktail hour at the Club

Davit station

Twilight Glider

Pete, waiting for a handout

OK, where's the fish?

Repairs to the lifting hook.

Paul, fishing on the reef

Our host Mark

Paul cleans the fish, I clean the boat, a good catch on this day.

Coconut and Bougainvillea still life. Hamburger Key in the background.

Have you seen the Visine?

Time has a way of slowing down when you are in the Keys, everyone seems to march to a different cadence, it is actually refreshing to not rush around all the time. Like the saying goes, "why hurry, you're here!"

Photos from the Regatta!

Here are a few more photos from the Upper Sailing Club Regatta! Feb. 17,18, 19 2012.

A smart little craft, sailed well too.

Forty winks! Tough day on the water.

Rick and Mary arriving in their Sandpiper.

School of Snappers find shelter under my hull.

Gill Smith Catboat keeping cool.

Rescue Me!

While Paul and I were sitting on the dock yesterday we were admiring two dauntless Sunfish sailors enjoying themselves in a twenty knot wind. It soon became apparent that their little craft had developed a problem, they were no longer skipping along the surface, like a Flying Fish evading some predator from the deep, but rather a wounded water foul being blown around by the wind. The next thing we noticed one of the crew members pulled out the dagger board and started using it as a paddle from the bow of the boat, not a good sign. After a minute or two of viewing them through my binoculars, without making much head way in the wind and sea, Paul and I lowered away my flats boat.

I think that by the time Paul and I arrived with a tow rope in hand, they were ready to be relieved of their paddling chores, with a smile they quickly made the line to their bow cleat and we were off to the safety of their dock. The chap that was doing the paddling was obviously the Captain and after some small  talk it was learned that he under went a triple by pass some years ago, this was not part of the therapy that he was looking to perform.

We towed them to port and said our good byes, Paul and I were happy to have helped and they were happy that we had helped.

Pictures by Eileen Smith.

Waiting for a tow

We'll toss you a line

Arriving at the scene

Under way

Where's your dock?

It turned out that their rudder split in half lengthwise, the half with the tiller broke away!

There Be Oysters

Eight dozen Oysters! Tomorrow they will be shucked, coddled and consumed by the three lucky individuals. Sauteed fish, silver queen corn on the cob, Stone Crabs and a great fresh green salad will accompany. Hmmm, maybe a knobby salad, you never know.

Fish for the table

Yesterday Paul Smith and I went Back Country looking for some fish for the table, with a little skill and a lot of luck, we came back with two very nice Speckled Sea Trout and a Spanish Mackerel. The picture shows the fare after a nice filleting job by Paul, somebody had to wash the boat. Paul was so quick to clean the fish I did not even have time to photograph them.

Speckled Trout were 17 and 19 1/2 " respectively while the Mackerel came in at an even 26".

Any recipe suggestion, Chef Davey?

Upper Keys Sailing Club Official Regatta Photo

This is the picture that was representative of the UKSC Catboat Regatta. From Right to left is Ibis, New Marshall Sanderling, Katzenjammer, Lee marie and Felix. Sanderlings, one and all.

Although these were all 18' Sanderlings there were other Cat Boats participating.
There was a Handy Cat, Sandpiper and a Marsh Cat as well.
Five Nonsuch also were thrown into the mix, they raced in a separate class.

Some interesting Catboats show up at The Regatta

Newly delivered Marshall Sanderling
The color on the bottom is not paint,  it is a yellow gelcoat as per owners instructions

Leaving the dock for the first sail

Friday night was a great opportunity to get a some shots of just a few of the Catboats that came to participate in the Regatta. Here are a few that I managed to capture.

New Marshall with Geoff Marshall, Ed Fernandez (owner) and his on board for the first sail

This Catboat, inboard powered, came all the way from Michigan

A homemade Marsh Cat, left and a Handy Cat

Two of the smaller Catboat varieties

Hand cast Dolphin Pintles
Nice touch

This little Cat was built by it's owner, everything from the hull, mast, to the hand cast bronze hardware was done by the amatuer builder.

Great Job

Class of the Regatta, in my book

All the blocks were hand made also

Cockpit detail, notice the steam bent cockpit coaming

Lee Marie
A-Lee and Ibis behind

A-Lee owned by Salee and Charlie Lawrence

Ibis, owned by Roland Barth
Rolands boat proved to be very formidable in the races

Felix owned by David Adamusko
(With the green cover)

Run to the finish...

After getting off to a decent start and being very competitive for two thirds of the race, the final push to the finish line sucked.

Everyone said at the Skippers meeting that morning that the "Race" was going to be basically a fun tour around the course while relaxing and taking pictures of all the Cat's in the race. For me, my goal was to record the event on video, hoping to get some great footage of all the boats, unfortunately, when the flag went up to start the race, it was every man or woman for themselves. Boats were tacking all over the place, scattered to the four winds as it were. So, my friends at the Regatta, I did not get the footage sought after, what you got and have is a lot of video of Lee Marie and her crew.

The following day we were scheduled to sail out into Buttonwood Sound in convoy, a concept that would have made for better video and sailing, that never happened and it was decided that there was going to be another race instead. Well, having reviewed the video from the day before and seeing that there was very little coverage of other boats, I decided that I was going to stick with the original plan. As the others gathered for their final race, my crew and I headed out at had a great sail around several Keys and ultimately headed for home.

We had several boats and crew who never sailed in the Keys before, they were limited in their exposure to what the Bay has to offer in the way of it's vastness, peaceful nature and wonderful sights. One sailor came all the way from Michigan only to sail around a race course three times. Additionally, Geoff Marshall came from Massachusetts to deliver a new Sanderling, I'm quite sure that he would have enjoyed seeing more of what Florida Bay has to offer.

Perhaps next year, the "powers that be" will stick to the Plan and allow the participants to sail more than a half mile from the UKSC Clubhouse.

All that said, it was still a great gathering of Catboat owner's and their vessels, the weekend certainly was a resounding success. Hats of to Wavy Davy, Skipper Larry and anyone else who were the driving force behind this event. Thanks to the UKSC for hosting the Regatta!

Davy, I did my best to capture your Regatta!

Third leg of the second race at UKSC Catboat Regatta

Ok, here is the third leg of this race, this is when the proverbial $(-)!+  hit the fan for my crew and I.
Excuse the F Bombs if you pick any up on your speakers.