Steve91T
Guru
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2016
- Messages
- 898
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Abeona
- Vessel Make
- Marine Trader 47’ Sundeck
Finally had our first practice trip in our new to us boat! We had a blast! The boat performed flawlessly.
We went from St Petersburg where the boat currently is about 2 hours away to Egmont Key. We chose to anchor on the SW side (the Gulf) of the island because of the SE winds. I made the mistake of thinking we’d be more protected there than on the other side. It was a little rolly but not awful. So we dropped the dink and spent an hour or so exploring the island. As the sun went down, the waves picked up. It was too dark to do anything about it as there were crab pots all over the place. Long story short, my wife and I didn’t sleep at all. The waves kept picking up. We were weather vaning into the wind, waves were coming in perpendicular to us. It was awful! But somehow the kids slept through it. As soon as the sun came up we pulled the anchor (by hand, windless doesn’t work) and we went home. Really too bad because we planned to spend the entire next day on the island. Maybe next time.
Overall it was an excellent trip and we learned a lot!
We went from St Petersburg where the boat currently is about 2 hours away to Egmont Key. We chose to anchor on the SW side (the Gulf) of the island because of the SE winds. I made the mistake of thinking we’d be more protected there than on the other side. It was a little rolly but not awful. So we dropped the dink and spent an hour or so exploring the island. As the sun went down, the waves picked up. It was too dark to do anything about it as there were crab pots all over the place. Long story short, my wife and I didn’t sleep at all. The waves kept picking up. We were weather vaning into the wind, waves were coming in perpendicular to us. It was awful! But somehow the kids slept through it. As soon as the sun came up we pulled the anchor (by hand, windless doesn’t work) and we went home. Really too bad because we planned to spend the entire next day on the island. Maybe next time.
Overall it was an excellent trip and we learned a lot!