We slept great last night. Of course, we were pretty tired from our early rise that morning. But we still got up at 0500 as we wanted an early start. Since this was Saturday, and with the airshow starting at 0930, I figured there would be lots of boats coming out.
Once we got up to the pilothouse we knew we would not have to worry about a huge influx of boats. The fog was so thick I could not even see the boats already anchored around us. We decided to leave anyway, so cranked the engines and had the anchor up by 0600, heading east. We idled through the anchorage over to the Pensacola land cut (very narrow channel between Big Lagoon and Pensacola Bay). Keeping a close eye on the radar we proceeded through the cut. We could just barely see each side of the channel.
Once out in the open bay I saw a radar target approaching rapidly. It looked like it would pass close down our port side, so I altered course a bit more to starboard. A couple of minutes later a large workboat loomed out of the fog moving fast and throwing a huge wake. As soon as he saw us he slowed down, but I was not sure if it was soon enough. We slowed to idle and turned into his wake. It was not as bad as it could have been, and only a couple of things fell off the counter.
A few minutes later I picked up another fast moving target on the radar, but this one was heading directly at us. I altered course to pass at a safe distance, but he turned towards me again. I changed course again, and he did the same... right at me! He was getting very close now, still moving at 25 knots. I changed course yet again, and gave 5 blasts on the big air horns. He changed course towards me again, and shortly after a small center console fishing boat blasted past me only about 30' off the port side. He did have radar. I can only assume he was using it, and saw a large target (me) and wanted to see what it was. I can't think of any other reason why he would continually change course to make a close approach. At the very least, he should have slowed down once he got close. Vis was less than 1/8 mile, so we could not see anything until we were on top of each other.
That was pretty much the excitement for the day. As we traveled further east the fog began to lift. By the time we were passing Pensacola Beach we had clear conditions, but overcast.
We arrive at Big Sabine Point, the beginning of the Gulf Islands National Seashore in this area. So just white beaches and sand dunes. no buildings. Only one road on the other side of the dunes, and traffic is limited to 35 mph. So it is a very quiet anchorage. No other boats are here, we have it all to ourselves. We go all the way to back and anchor in the deep hole in the middle of the shoals. We will be exposed to the high winds that are forecast, but the shoals will protect us from any major wave action. Anchor down and set by 0900. Due to the expected wind of 30+ knots for the next two days I let out more chain than usual to get 7:1 scope, and back down hard on the anchor to be sure it is well set. But the oversize SuperMax anchor has never let us down yet.
We spend the rest of the morning continuing to stow away provisions and gear we brought aboard last week. It is nice to finally get it all put away. Now it is time to relax. Put the hammock up on the bridge, have a Bloddy Mary, and listen to the waves crashing on the gulf side of the dunes.
We had one small mishap. Paula set her phone and drink down on the back of her seat, just below my hammock. I let my leg dangle off the side and bumped her drink, spilling Bloody Mary all over her phone. I quickly turned the phone off, shook as much liquid out of it as I could, and wiped it clean. Put it in the sun to dry. Check it an hour later, and it still works! Well, mostly... the earpiece speaker must have gotten saturated, as you cannot hear anything while on a phone call. It does work in speakerphone mode, though, as well as with a wired headset. So we can work around the issue for now. So if any of you call her, don't get mad when she puts you on speakerphone! ;)
It was a warm and pleasant sunny afternoon. I alternated between napping and reading. Paula read and puttered around the boat. Sat on the bow and enjoyed the sunset, then the wind started picking up. Everything was secured already so no worries. We went inside to cook dinner, watched a little TV, and went to be early.
I woke at 1:00 am to the sound of howling wind, and waves slapping at the side the boat. I went up to the pilothouse to check on things. It was pouring rain and wind was gusting up to 40 knots. The boat was bouncing a little from the 1' waves, but the shoals were doing a good job blocking the big stuff. I had left the Drag Queen anchor app running on my Android tablet to monitor whether the anchor was holding. I checked the app and could see the anchor was holding fast. Double checked the alarm settings in the app, made sure the volume was turned up, and went back to bed.
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