This was the innaugural Florida 120 cruise which included every manner of small boat. I don't know what the total count ended up being, but there were at least 30 boats there.
It was already going to be a 12 hour drive from North Carolina, and dummy-me chooses to go through the heart of Atlanta at 5:30pm!!! DOH!
It ended up taking 14 hourse because of that!
This was the view I had out the mirror for the entire way.
I finally made it to the area, and stayed at a nearby friends house Wednesday night.
The "organized" route was from the Pirates Cove, AL to (somewhere near)Navarre, FL over 4 days with 3 overnight stops along the pristine beaches of the Pensacola area.
The overall route is shown on the left (click for a larger picture).
The colors are the different days of my tracklog.
Day 1 - Thursday
Weather: Wind generally out of the E at 5-10, periods of 15. Sunny.
Route Miles Covered: 14
The track on the left here shows the day's route. As you can see, it was a lot of tacking!
Thursday morning I made my way over to the infamous Pirates Cove for the skippers meeting. There were boats of all sorts being put in the water.
ALL sorts.
I guessed my Windrider looked just as strange to some of the classic wooden boat owners as theirs did to me (although, I loved seeing all of those boats!).
I thought to myself, this event was pretty much made for the Windrider 17. Skinny water, good wind (hopefully), and sandy beaches. I was hoping for good wind because I had no engine. I can paddle at 1-2knots with little effort if there is no wind or current. Hopefully this wouldn't be a problem.
I put my boat into the protected lagoon and went over to the skippers meeting.
The first leg was out to Roberson Island, about 15 miles away. We left Pirates Cove beating into a ESE wind. The WR17 doesn't point very well, so I had plenty of practice tacking (see tracklog). Other than not making very good progress toward our destination, it was some really good sailing, mostly 8-10knots of boat speed.
About midway there, the course narrows and goes under a bridge in a fairly narrow canal. My hopes of slack current were quickly doused by the time I arrived in the narrow channel.
Within about 100 yards of the bridge, I could no longer sail, both due to the lack of wind and the counter current. Out came my trusted one-bladed propeller (the paddle). I started paddling. I paddled. I paddled some more. It was no good.
I thought the current might be less over at the extreme edge of the channel. I made my way over to the side and then I really paddled hard. I paddled still harder. I looked over while paddling as hard as I could and saw a piling next to my boat just sitting still. It was no use.
I was about to get out of the boat and walk it along the shoreline until I got to some water I could sail in, when a familiar sound came to my ear. Chug, chug, chug, chug...
A slow, methodical, and more importantly MECHANICAL sound, chug, chug, chug, chug...
It was my friend in his big aluminum boat which, more importantly to me, housed a big iron DIESEL motor! A quick tie-up with a dock line to my bow eye, and I was under tow at 3 knots.
Just after the channel and out into the sound I gave the line a toss and I was off under sail again!
The new ENE course allowed a nice sail with only one tack all the way to Robertson Island
The location was absolutly gorgeous.
I set up my new tent arrangement for the first time and fiddled with it until the sun went down.
Some nice conversation around a small campfire made the evening complete.
I ate a "heater-meal" that tasted about as good as any restaurant meal I've ever had.
I am not sure why it was so good - hmmm..........sun, wind, beaches, gulf coast - riiiight.
Day 2 - Friday
Weather: Wind out of the SSE at 5-10. Sunny.
Route Miles Covered: 30
The next day it was off towards Navarre. The wind was once again on the nose, so it was tack, tack, tack, tack, tack. This is the route for the first half of the day.
After all that tacking, and once under the bridge at Quietwater, my compass started spinning wildly! The boat began to turn hard to starboard by itself! I tried to turn back, but the rudder seemed to have no effect. The compass was still going crazy! It was if the boat had a mind of its own!
I was under some kind of spell and there was nothing I could do about it. I sat back and watched in amazement as the boat veered ninety degrees to starboard and sailed itself right up onto the beach! After grounding on the beach I looked up at the building in front of me and then I knew immediately what had happened. I had landed (through no fault of my own, mind you) at "Surf Burger" on Quietwater beach. Burger and a beer for lunch!
It's nice when your boat knows when you need a break.
My boat's shenanigans had somehow enticed a few others of the fleet to join in, and soon we had a nice lunch crowd scarfing down some great burgers. I didn't think to ask the others if they were in control of their boats at the time, though. They must have run into the same "bermuda triangle" effects.
After lunch we headed back out (the boat seemed to be behaving itself now). Fortunately the wind had come around to a more favorable direction and it was a great sail down Santa Rosa Sound towards Navarre.
You can see how much easier it was from the track log at the left.
The sailing was great, the scenery was spectacular.
When it got to be late afternoon, and our original destination was still nearly 10 miles away, it was decided to stop over at Juana's for the night. Judging by the radio talk, I don't think it took a lot of convincing at that point.
The beach at Juana's was just perfect.
The Hoffman's (Mr. "diesel") had graciously gone into Juana's and asked if it would be OK for us to camp on the beach adjacent to the ramp.
They said that it would be no problem at all.
In fact, they actually offered to host a barbeque the next time if we used Juana's as a destination!
Another gorgeous sunset.
We had fabulous dinner at Juana's.
A full day of sailing and too much food made me barely even hear the reggae music playing until 2:00am!
Barely.
Day 3 - Saturday
Weather: Wind generally out of the ESE at 5-10. Sunny.
Route Miles Covered: 31
Well, it was time to turn around and head back down Santa Rosa Sound. Our destination was locally called "Sailboat Cove". It was just past the first night's stop heading west. It was a great 
(albeit a bit slow) broad reach/run all the way back.
Along the way (somewhat bored at 4-5knots), I put out a fishing line with a clark spoon and a planer. I just tied a light line to the planer and cleated it off at the cockpit. What ensued was quite interesting (I am in no way a fisherman).
I had heard that trolling at a specific speed was critical for catching fish.
When the wind was enough for the boat to be going 5 knots or more, I was hooking fish every 20 minutes or so. As soon as my speed dropped to 4knots - nothing. Back to 5 knots and wham! It started again. Really wild!
I was not prepared at all for fishing (except to have brought the line, planer, and spoon). Mostly because I never catch ANYTHING. I don't know what it was about this time!
When a fish got on, I had to manage a mainsheet, jibsheet, steering, an enclosed cockpit, no deck space, and on and on. It was difficult for me this first time fishing from the Windrider. As such, I hooked 7 fish, brought 4 of those TO the boat, got 2 of those IN the boat, and managed to bag........NONE.
It was exciting nonetheless and it made me want to try again -- more prepared next time.
By late afternoon we were close enough to the evening's stopping point that there was time for some of us to stop at Ft. Pickens.
It was really neat climbing all over the fortifications and cannons, imagining what must have gone on there, on the very spot where we were standing.
After leaving the fort, We passed by a bumpy Pensacola Pass on the way over to the final stopover point of the trip.
"Sailboat Cove" was yet another picturesque anchorage - by this point I was getting spoiled. Again, the diversity of small boats all lined up on the beach was really an amazing sight to see.
Day 4 - Sunday
Weather: Wind mostly out of the E at 0-10. Partly Cloudy/Rainy.
Route Miles Covered: 13
It was going to be a run all the way back to Pirates Cove today, but with little to no wind.
Whatever wind there was, however, was coming from the right direction!
It was a gorgeous Sunrise at Sailboat Cove.
I got up early to try to get a head start since the wind was going to be so light.
Then there was the whole red sky in the morning thing.......
I managed to get a cup of coffee ready before I headed out in a ghosting wind at 2-3knots.
It's nice having a flat-sailing boat sometimes! Having two hands available by steering with foot pedals helps, too!
Thunder and storms in the distance were moving along our route, coming from the west.
It was just a matter of time before we got wet.
Just when I got to Big Lagoon, the wind died entirely.
A light rain began to fall, and I put the sprayskirt on the cockpit.
I paddled the next three miles, and under the bridge - luckily there was no current this time.
I had company for most of that section. This little 1oft (gorgeous!) boat was rowing at over 3knots!!
Out past the bridge about a mile, the rain slackened up and I took the sprayskirt off as it was getting quite toasty underneath.
A light mist continued to fall. I paddled a bit further and then the wind filled in a bit from the east. I was ghosting just a bit faster than I could paddle, so the sails went back up and I sat back and rested.
A long slow run into Roberts Bayou and I was back!
A cheeseburger and a fun "poker run" awards presentation topped off a GREAT trip.
So it was really a Florida 90 instead of 120. So?......
So What?!?!
If we count all the tacking distances on the first 2 days, it was at least 120!
I guess I need to start getting ready for next year………
