This weekend I finally had the opportunity to sail again with James and his grandfather. We had a great overnight sail. We sailed off the west coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, which I hadn’t done much of.
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The boat is moored off the Anclote river and we motored down the river into the Gulf of Mexico to do our sailing.
Saturday was pretty tame. Not much wind at all when we started out on the water. We sailed south of Anclote key for the most part. We putted around with the engine for a while, but the little diesel is pretty annoying compared to the quiet of being under sail. Even with what little wind there was, it was nicer to have the engine off. There was so little wind, I think, it felt like we were actually going backwards, the boat being moved by the tidal currents than wind in the sails.
The wind picked up a bit more towards the afternoon. At one point we were enjoying it so much we stopped paying attention to where we were going and ran aground on a small shoal. 
(Actually, I think everyone but Bob were napping or reading.) It wasn’t a big deal, we tightened the sails, motivated the boat to tilt to one side and we were off with the wind shortly. The wind kinda died down toward the evening. We anchored right off Anclote key and started making preparations for dinner. Only to find out the alcohol tank was completely rusted out and wouldn’t hold any pressure. We ended up having cold-cut sandwiches for dinner (the same thing we had for lunch). But it was good enough, anyway.
I like sleeping on the deck, so that’s what James and I did. It was nice. The temperature was very mild and there was just the slightest breeze blowing. I slept pretty well, better than I ever have on the boat. I woke up several times through the night. The moon was 1/2 full and the stars were out, so it was fairly bright. All was well until about 5 am when it started raining. We scrambled at the first drops to clear everything below-decks. 20 minutes later the rain was done and I was wide away. Everyone else snoozed off to bed and I stayed up to snack on cookies and finish off the last few pages of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.”
And yes, the sun did rise later for us on Sunday morning. It brought with it 10-20 mile and hour winds. Perfect! Excellent weather for sailing. We had a blast for two hours. I think James took a picture of me wearing myself out at the helm, keeping us in the best wind. It would be great to have a picture of the boat some day. I’m curious what it looks like at full-tilt on a close reach.
It was a great, exhausting day out. I sleep very well after sailing trips.