Thanks Martin. I've been a member of CCSC for almost 30 years. It's a great place and I love it. (Hell, my wife and I got married there!)
I used to own a Taipan that I stored mast up at the center and went to Robbie every time something broke (which was often.) This time around I'm trying something different (no more rats living in my sail-box.)
Cool - congrats! I didn't realize you were a CCSC old hand.
(We visit the area once or twice a year, to train with Robbie and/or race in events. Our bay is very nice here in Miami, but doesn't have the organized catamaran racing you get there.)
A great day on the water April 1st. I rigged my boat but was a bit nervous about wind strength when someone came up and complemented me on my boat. I asked him if he wanted to go out and he said yes. With the additional rail-meat I was ready to go. We almost pitch-polled during one spinnaker run. My "crew" decided he only likes going upwind.
There was also a Getaway (with some 6-8 people on board!), a Hobie 16 (a big guy who was single handing the thing. I was impressed.) and Ray (but I didn't see him. He showed up after I was on the water and wasn't back by the time I left.)
There was even a Laser and a Foiling Kite board on the water.
A guy from Com-Pac Yachts and his young daughter was out with a little 8-10 foot catamaran prototype. They were doing some feasibility testing for a possibly new product. The boat had a tornado on the sail.
There was also a Hobie Tandem Island tooling around.
Ray's boat was there as usual, but he never showed up.
And me of course. I was supposed to meet MN3 at 10am but it didn't work out. I flew a hull a couple of times on the upwind, but not very high. I still haven't tested to see if I can right the boat after a capsize...
One thing that surprised me was that when I got back to shore it was high tide and my trailer was in the water. Fortunately I had anchored my wheels to it rather than just setting them nearby. De-rigging the boat was quite a pain because there was nowhere to beach the boat...
I actually got my powerboat in today at 9am (lowtide) and it was higher than some high-tides are around here. I lasted about 30 minutes on the water - it was too choppy for me so i packed it in.
If you park on the causeway close to Glenn's (high and dry restaurant and rental shack) there should be enough room for your car and trailer regardless of the tide and when you get back you can pull your car/trailer up 30' or so to give yourself more room (of course you will probably need to ask a few people to get out from infront of your trailer). ya gotta get there pretty early to beat all the yakers
I had a good day on the water today. I was trying to sail from Dunedin Causeway down to the SR-60 bridge (upwind). I got about half way when the wind almost completely died on me. I put up the spinnaker and drifted back toward the causeway then the breeze picked back up. Overall, the breeze was pretty light.
A great day sailing yesterday! I went all the way from Dunedin Causeway to Clearwater sailing center. It took me 2.5 hours to get there (downwind) and 1.25 hours to get back (up wind.) I think the wind was stronger going back, but that could have just felt that way because I was going up wind.
I'm one step closer to my goal of sailing around Clearwater island. I'm not ready to go out into the gulf yet, especially not alone.
get a sea-tow membership at costco for $100 and go sail laps around clearwater island and or go north to 3 rooker - great anchor parking on the gulf north tip and mid way on caladisi (the old dunedin pass)
I had a good day sailing today, but I had some heat exhaustion issues while I was packing up. I almost got the nerve to go out into the gulf, but realized at the last minute that I forgot to rig my righting line so I stayed in the ICW.
I finally went out into the gulf! I went out through Hurricane Pass and then south along Caladesi Island. The wind was very weak and fluky in the ICW but nice and steady in the Gulf.
I was coming back through the pass dead downwind. Man is my boat slow when dead downwind and there were too many motor boats for me to be jibing back and forth across the channel though.
of course. I carry tide apps on me and when i was sailing 3 days a week, i didn't need a table, i knew the tides. But if you sail all day long you have a good chance of catching both tides. And if you want to sail up to Anclote you are gonna get caught in low tides and boat traffic. Can't always be avoided - Especially on race day.
It was an ebbing tide when I was coming in. I didn't have a problem coming in (except like I said, I was going pretty slow.) However, when I was at the point, near the West bridge of the causeway, where the convergence of waters caused some major short period waves, I was knocked about quite a bit. (At least that's what I think was the source of the waves.)
Ray was launching while I was putting my boat back on the trailer... We really need to get better coordinated and have more of us out there at the same time.