Cayo Costa March 2019 With WCTSS
Always fun to sail out to the island park Cayo Costa out in Charlotte Harbor by Boca Grande Pass. On this trip, I took along my friend Bob who is a kayak guy who likes to fish. We determined that we need to spend some quality time before hand to determine how to rig his kayak onto the Astus boat trailer so that little boat did not go on this trip; maybe the next one. Also while unloading the truck and rigging the tri at the ramp, Bob discovered his spinning reel was broken so no fishing was done. We did camp with about 22 other WCTSS boats, slept in tents pitched on the tramps (did that on a previous island overnight on ICW in Dunedin), and of course the campfire and tall stories were told.
Photo from Unknown
Wind was fickle on this trip. Did engage the motor more that I liked. But we were out on the water with friends and that makes the trip.
After launching at Eldred's Marina, we discovered that the Gasparilla Pass was essentially closed out. The shoaling was showing breakers at high tide and could not see a clear path out to the Gulf. So we turned around and traversed the swing bridge crossing after calling for an opening on the half hour. The bridge was showing 22 ft clearance and my mast is 30 ft off the water. Had Bob on the helm a good portion of the starboard tack broad reach run to Cayo Costa. Lots of boats were already there early Friday afternoon. More came and some arrived after sunset.
Frame grab photo from Rick Valdes drone footage.
Saturday, Ricky (sailing is WR17 this time, with green Coleman pop up tent) decided to join Bob and I to sail down the ICW and try to find dockage and space at one of the island restaurants. Hamburgers in Paradise at Cabbage Key was super packed. We headed further south to Safety Harbor of North Captive Island to Mango's Grill. Of course fashionable, crowded, and moderately overpriced, the place seemed to be a ridiculous thing to do at the time. We had fun.
Ricky, Bob, Dock Master, and the one with biggest beard.
The wind was pretty light and we motor sailed most of the time. Got to the Safety Harbor and there is this tiny weeny bayou creek to get into the dockage. We managed and the dock-master tried to fit us in to 3 different slips and the 14 ft beam proved to be a challenge. well he go is in there, and we had expensive sandwich lunch after a wait. Some of the folks there made some creative comments about pulling the trimaran into little bitty marina. Hit some tree branches with the mast stays on the way out trying to avoid another eight boats cueing up to get in. Ugh.
Frame grab photo from Rick Valdes drone footage.
Again we had campfire that night. The previous night a park ranger told us the campfire was a no-no. Don't think we have seen that ranger action in six years of doing this maybe twice a year. Forgot to mention that Friday afternoon Rick (a F-28 sailor) got his drone up in the air and I grabbed a couple of frames.
Sunday we motor sailed back to Eldred's. Have had the motor assiting more on this trip than any other. Oh well.
