Another sailing adventure is coming!

my next sailing adventure will be aboard this boat

 

      Hello faithful readers.  If you dreaded the thought of no more exciting travel narratives from your favorite blogger, fret no more!  Using the website FindACrew.net, I have hooked up with another skipper and made plans to crew for him on his journey eastward.  So although I will not actually be aboard Dragonfly, I will nonetheless still be in pursuit of my sailing dreams, and will use THIS blog to chronicle my adventures.  (Makes things simpler.)

Paul

      Here are the details:  The name of the boat is Whimsical.  It is a 37 foot Gemini catamaran.  Yes, you read corraectly, a catamaran: the ultimate design in sailing performance, but unfortunately out of MY price range.  The skipper's name is Paul.  He actually lives up in the northeast US, and regularly sails the Chesapeake Bay.  He purchased Whimsical remotely, then drove down here to get it.  His plan is to sail it back to his home waters.  And I will help him get it there partway, at least to Florida.

looking at Galveston Bay over Whimsical's bow

      Today (Monday) I met up with Paul, Whimsical, and her former owner Harry, and we took the fine lady out for a test sail.  Wow - talk about a boat designed for SAILING!  She's got a blade staysail, a screecher (a cross between a spinnaker and a reaching jib), and a big ole' mainsail.  On an upwind close reach, we were hauling ass at nearly seven knots without even breaking a sweat.  Oh and best of all:  NO HEELING!  Plus, she's got a huge salon deck, power winches, lots and lots and lots of control lines, a stack-pack bag for the mainsail, auto-pilot, lazy jacks (lines to help guide the sail into the bag when lowering it), a great big GPS chart-plotter, dual throttles, and lots of other delicious goodies too numerous to mention.  Boy oh boy oh boy do I look forward to traveling aboard this magnificent vessel on a nice, long journey!

mermaid silhouette on hull

       Our planned departure is on Thursday, May 13.  There's a good weather window then with winds out of the northeast.  The itinerary is to sail out into the Gulf of Mexico, eastbound across the Louisiana coastline, and around the Mississippi River delta.  Then, with winds predicted to shift back to the southeast, we turn northward, up and into Mississippi Sound.  (That's the body of water between the Mississippi coast and a row of barrier islands about ten miles out; the Intracoastal Waterway runs right thru it.)

      From there, we'll work our way along the Florida panhandle, and possibly beyond, until I run out of time.  (Gotta be back in Houston by around May 25.)   Stay tuned!