Hello and Welcome

When I was six years of age I had a nightmare. It was about a small sloop in a calm sea. It was a new moon kind of night, a heavy fog and no wind. Halloween type ghosts were flying and moaning in and out of the small boat's round portholes. It scared hell out of me and I started to wake up. Then I said, it's just a dream, and went back to watch to see what happened next. That was the first horse I broke and rode and it became an evolving dream of sailing the ocean in a small sailboat.

I've spent most of my life around water. Fresh water lakes and rivers, creeks and pools. There was always a johnny boat or canoe handy and places to use them. Dad was a boating enthusiast and by extension, I become one as well. Over time I learned the joys of boat ownership, second hand, and decided I really didn't want or need one. Years pass.

Now I find myself 800 miles south of my birthplace, living on a sailboat, Avalon, much like the one in my dream, in Pasadena, FL., teaching myself about sail and salt. Folks I'm here ta tells ya! I ain't had this much fun with my cloths on since I was a teenager.

Over a period of time I will be making entries here. Hopefully this will become my Captain's Log in a year or so. That's the idea, at least. As a newbie to sail and saltwater I imagine I'll get myself into some interesting situations and places. So, STAY TUNED! It might be worth a thesis.

Example;

I got back to the boat about noon today after running a few morning errands. There was a warm 6 knot breeze coming from the WNW and the dinghy was half full of rain water from the last cold week. Its hull needed cleaning and it looked to be a nice day for a little sail around Boca Ciega Bay. I got the gear together, climbed down into the dinghy and started to bail.

Half an hour later I started rowing the mile to the spoils island, the dinghy loaded with disassembled mast and sail, bailing bucket full of cleaning tools, a life jacket, flotation pillow, small sailing bag water and a partridge..... That took me another half hour. Its a good upper body work out and I enjoy it.

At the Island, the beach was full of gulls, feasting on the recent fish kill caused by cold weather. They were full and slow to fly off, complaining all the way. Rats with wings. The cold has really done damage to the nursery and many of the adults as well. The Snook and Mullet look like the hardest hit

Took my time cleaning the hull, enjoying the sun, the breeze, the day. The sandy beach was all mine but for the herons and cormorants hanging out in the mangroves. Way cool. Good thing there was a steady breeze. I was also surrounded by the half eaten corpses of snook, mullet, red snapper, perch, needle fish, cat fish and a few I had never seen before. The row out to the island was a parade of isolated floating fish, some quite large. Kind of reminded me of an old Louden Wainwright III tune.

Finished up the hull cleaning, put the dinghy back in the water and then put up the mast and sail. Have to fix that to something useful, but that's a blog for later. With the dagger board and rudder up I let the wind pull me like a bathtub with a sail, out into deeper water away from the spoil island. It's amazing how big a shallow footprint that island has. More dead fish.

The wind was steady and the sailing was good, averaging around 4 to 5 knots. That can seem fairly quick when your sitting in the bottom of a small sailboat, your head about a foot and a half above the water. I wasn't in any hurry. I figured to spend about one hour out and one back, describing a long figure 8. The WNW wind was real helpful as the main course was South and then back to the North. I'm getting better at this. No uncontrolled jibes, no scrambles for balance, little loss of speed in the tacks.

Back at the Island and once again chased off the birds. Not on purpose. Took down the sail and mast, stowed it all away and started the mile row back to the marina. Once I was past the shoals a pair of dolphin came up on my starboard side and then at oar length, escorted me back to the marina. Maybe they thought I was going to feed them or something. No matter the reason, it was way cool in ways I'm still buzzing with. That's what it's about in some ways for me.

I like to participate with nature and always will, given the chance. The thrill of being near a wild animal of that size in it's own living room was well worth the work and sometimes inconvenience, to just enjoy the moment

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This will be the place I put my daily (or not so daily) impressions, observations, situations and the occasional ramble. All and any are welcome to comment and join in. Any creative writing will be found at my google home page, garybushproject. That's where I will truly ramble, spinning out yarns of absolute bunk and nonsense. Information about Avalon and myself will be found there as well.

Happy sailing.