This post is about yesterday. We were too tired to blog yesterday.  The morning wind was fresh, sending us scooting off the beach at Atsena Otie.  Getting Tridara off the beach out of the small cove at Island Place was a little tricky. The un-weighted rudder makes sailing off the beach virtually impossible.  The onshore wind didn't help any either.
It is clear that the rudder deployment lines and break-away cleat needs to reside in the cockpit instead of well back on the stern deck.
The windward tacks out the main ship channel went well and the boat speed was gratifying.  We fell off on a run just before Seahorse Key and worked our way over to North Key.  After a brief encounter with an oyster bar in McCrary Cove, on the southeast side of North we beached Tridarka on a leeward shore and deployed a beach anchor.

Karen and I enjoyed lunch on a sand spit

Soon after leaving the wind died on the north side of the Island and we had to motor back. To make it back after running out of gas, we had to paddle and finally drift back in a 3 knot wind shift.  

Getting the Porta-Bote deployed turned out to be a royal pain. But we finally towed it out to the anchorage across from the dock near Atsena Otie key.  We got the Porta-Bote dragged up the rough beach to the above the water line only to notice the dry bag containing wallet and valuables was obviously still on Tridarka.  Back to the beach, dragging the boat and carrying the heavy motor and tank.  

We were certainly ready for our margaritas when we finally reached the trailer.  

So far we have seen friends Tosh, Alan and Anne as well as Catboat Willy no doubt with Bill Dolan aboard.

The weather is lovely, with nice sailing breezes.  Bugs are at a minimum.  We're off for another sailing adventure.