Five Days, No Shoes, Part One

Eric's business trip was cancelled at the eleventh hour and I was checking the weather before he was off the phone.  It was looking perfect for a week on the boat and boy, did we have some fun on Willadine, including what Eric calls a BFS, Big Freaking Sail.

As usual we followed the wind, because we can and because there is absolutely no use in fighting it.  With a fine northerly wind, we zoomed down to Goose Creek and anchored for the night.  It was cloudy and cool, but we were bundled up and full of excitement for the days to come.

The ICW has its own sort of scenery.  We got a kick out of this funny little boat carrying a pickup!

When we came out of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) I wanted to continue out into the "big" water of the sound, but Eric was keen to check out Bonner Bay across the Bay River.  He'd looked on the satellite and saw there were several canals leading out to the sound and we both liked the idea of an "inside passage" to save going out in the big scary water.

We sailed like a dream downwind to the bitter end of the aptly named Long Creek, only to find all the canals blocked by funny metal gates extending down into the water and some serious-looking no trespassing signs.

We saw no houses the whole way in and only one little fisherman

Unfortunately, having sailed downwind all the way into this creek, we had to motor all the way out.  Trusty the Outboard carried us well and we decided to weather the predicted blow on the other side of Bonner Bay in Spring Creek.  We were amply rewarded by a fantastic pod of frolicking dolphins, coming right up out of the water in curvy flips.

After going all the way up Spring Creek to a bridge and nearly getting pinned in by the strong wind, we sailed back across Bay River to a tiny bay called Rockhole Bay.  Ringed with marsh and protected from the waves, we dropped the hook and launched the kayaks just before sunset.  With beers in the cupholders, we paddled up a narrow canal and came out on the big, big water.

It was wavy gravy out there.

The sunset was so worth it.

And that was just the first two days.  (To be continued)