Sarasota Laundry Blues

Go figure that I got too busy to write a blog entry at one of my cooler destinations, St. Petersburg municipal marina. Hey wait it would appear that I forgot to write about Sarasota. Except right now I want to write about my present sea state, which is rough. The winds have been blowing out of the NE all day, and sailflow has been correct that the winds are 15-20 kts. Tampa bay had a moderate chop that made steering hard. However now I’m inside a Pringles can being shaken around. I had to eat something, and it’s too rough to prepare much so I finally busted out the mountain house packets that Chiung gave me. And she gave them for just these seas. I would prefer to stay out of the north Gulf in anything above 15 kts from now on, but the silver lining is that all the way out of Tampa bay and all day I’ve been making 6.5-7 kts. The motion got a bit too intense with the big jib, frequently hitting 7.3 kts. That’s too much excitement, so I traded the big jib for the little one, and I’m still pushing 6.5-7 kts. There are a lot of mechanisms that make the boat work, and I can hear the noise of me testing all of them. I really hope I don’t have a failure. At least the moon is out. I didn’t write about Sarasota because I had just visited this exact same locale with my mom when I visited her on motorcycle. What I can say is that motoring northward through Venice on a weekend was quite the busy spectacle. However, after 7 hours of motoring what I should have done is immediately gone to eat. At least I had the forethought to take a long hot shower at the marina. Instead of dinner I decided to do laundry, and what shouldn’t have taken very long turned into a 3 hour affair. Finally at 8pm I had a rumbling stomach and was downright annoyed with life. I found a Thai place and had a good if expensive dinner, then I trotted 2 miles across town to visit Publix. Like a crazy person, I bought way too much stuff and then had to carry it all back to the boat. Once I got back to the boat around 9:30 I was beat after pushing myself too hard. The next day I should have relaxed, but I was upset with Sarasota and the mooring ball fee was 26.50 a night which was more than I wanted to pay again. So I woke early and headed off towards the St Pete Muni marina. This time it was a short 4 hour motor, but another 1.5 hours was wasted in pumping out the poop tank and then going through the formalities of a ball. I then showered and trotted off through the city. St Pete is really cool, and there’s a lot of stuff to do there. I found another Thai restaurant and ordered “Amazing” a chicken and shrimp dish with peanut sauce that was amazing. I wandered north through a park that had about 100 homeless people camped out, which was pretty crazy. It was getting near sunset and the weight of so many days of motion was beginning to bear on me. I had a quiet evening on the boat trying to relax and enjoy my situation. The next day, Monday, was lovely with perfect weather. I promised to take it really easy this day so I woke up at 9, didn’t poke my head out of the boat until 10. I went to shore and took a shower, then I wandered up and down the street a bit. I was watching the sailors at the marina and it was a lovely day for a sail, so I kitted out the dinghy and took it for a wet and rocky ride that actually curbed my sailing enthusiasm quite a bit. Now it was time for another shower, and then I set to preparing dinner for some friends from high school. I had intended to go to the Dali museum but I supposed that could wait. I prepared a lovely dinner of the remainder of that amberjack with adobo green beans and rice, and we sat and drank wine and talked about old times. Tuesday I hand grand intentions of exploring the town, including the MFA and Dali museum, but naturally I can’t go the whole trip with perfect weather. Tuesday was a constant drizzle, with several bouts of more serious rain that seriously put a damper on my exploratory spirit. Instead I sat and read from my new Kindle, like all day. Every time I went out the rain would get more serious. I finally went to shore to drop opff garbage and take a shower during a brief respite, and then the rain started earnestly as I was halfway to the dinghy dock. Well you get the idea. Furthermore I was anticipating leaving Wed morning, so I took it easy Tuesday. And I guess it’s a good thing I took some time to rest in St Pete, because now the waves are really trying. I know I won’t be able to sleep much at all tonight. The weather forecast this morning indicated that the wind and thereafter the waves wouild slack off into Thursday. I had my hopes up for a Friday morning Landfall. Right now at the speeds I’ve been making landfall is predicted at 4AM. So I certainly hopwe I get a bit of a reprieve. This is a bit much, and I just don’t have experience in these kinds of rough seas. The deck is fully soaked by the sloppy seas that crash against my bow and occasionally explode into the air. The cockpit is also decently wet, and if I have to do any deck work tonight I’ll have to don full foul weather gear or else I will be a cold, wet and unhappy sailor. At least I can say the air is a pleasant 67F. I really appreciate the moon out there, because the old man forsake me for most of the trip. Really, in situations like this I just try and spend the time until morning. I don’t feel like reading, and the boat’s motion makes doing anything quite difficult.