The Gods Know I’m Here

We cleared the Jetties this morning at about 8:15 with choppy 4-5 foot seas and NNE Winds blowing 20-30 Knots. Fort Myers is 89 degrees from Port Aransas, so we were able to make good time on a close reach. While not ideal, I’d consider this good sailing. The temperature was a brisk 40-45 degrees, but from within our cockpit enclosure the sun warmed us and we quickly shed our jackets. As I said, good sailing. As we crept up toward noon, the wind increased to 25-35 kts, but it was still out of the NNE, so I put a reef in the mainsail and we charged on with water flying.

And then my old nemisys Aolean noticed that I was at sea again! At 12:15 I was at the helm and in less than 1 minute, the wind dropped to 8 kts and shifted East. I just thought I fooled him! Since then we’ve been motor sailing to the North East in 10-12 kt East winds.

It’s a bit depressing to look at the chart and see that we’re actually heading for Western Louisiana, but I’ve been here before. We’ll contniue on this course and wait for the wind to change — and it will. We’re expecting a new frontal system on Sunday afternoon which will give us the north winds we need to push us south. In the meantime, we’ll sit back, hold on, and enjoy the ride!

Our coordinates at 5:00 PM CT are:

27 58.406 N
96 15.964 W