Day 2 - Living the Life

There's honestly nothing like an ice cold beer at the end of long day.  All three of us have popped the top and we toasted to our good fotune of being here in a scenic locale.  The weather today has been outstanding - high 80s with good wind in the morning and late afternoon.  Unfortunately, the wind in the afternoon was a header (blowing you back to the wrong direction off the bow) so we had to "motorsail" much of the afternoon.  Motorsailing is exactly what you'd think it would be - the main sail is up while the motor is running.  The obvious preference is to sail at all times but you do what you have to do to get to your destination when it's upwind. 

Currently, we are sipping some beverages and we have a hobo pack on the grill stuffed with, potatoes, garlic, onion, and a red pepper.  Here's a shot of the cooks:

The steaks will be hitting the grill shortly - it definitely doesn't suck to be out here right now!  "Here" is a place called Useppa Island, home to the insanely wealthy.  The only way to get to this island is by boat and, much like Fantasy Island, this one is private!  We "dropped the hook"  a few hundred yards from shore and I'm picking up a bit of a wifi connection from Cabbage Key.  It's not strong enough to do much but I can get to Google and, hopefully, update the site.  We've settled in here for the day as this is close to the sailing playground known as Port Charlotte Harbor - that's where we'll tack and jibe and play tomorrow....

Last night was a bit of a long night.  You'd think that the sounds of the waves gently crashing against the hull of the boat would be an intoxicating way to fall asleep - well, you'd be wrong!  The waves hit a hollow point in the hull and reverberated like crazy.  It made for a long night.  Your's truly eventually fell asleep - I guess I'm gifted like that.  Meanwhile, Beth had a long night and visted several spots on the cat hoping to find a quiet one - that particular mission was unsuccessful.  Thank God for caffeine and the rush of sailing, right?  :)

We saw several dolphins today and each sighting goes something like this:  Beth and Stephen - "Oh my God, it's dolphins, it's dolphins!!!!"  Mark's reply was always the same - yes, and we'll see a lot more of them as the week goes on.  This essentially meant, now if we can please get back to the tasks of sailing, that would be lovely (he's British so remember that).

So, honestly, that's pretty much the update for today.  Sailing won't be the death of me but this entry into the "head", aka bathroom, just might. The score stands at entry way 2, Stephen none. One was darn near a TKO as I'm pretty sure I was a wee bit concussed after that one...

We've  sailed or motorsailed 30 miles from the Pink Shell to Useppa Island so that's been the the focus of the day.  We dropped the anchor at around 5:30 or so and we'll stay here the night enjoying gentle breezes and scenic views.  Hope you all are doing well - we are still on the right side of the water so we consider that a huge success!!!!

Our bed: