PDQ's March 8, 2009

Catrina says Goodbye to Marathon City Marina. We leave N-2 along with a dolphin!

Gas Tanks are filled and we head southwest toward 7 Mile Bridge. Is that Really? I don’t believe it! It’s a PDQ Troller passing us upwind! Snow Cat.

Catrina passes under 7 Mile Bridge and out into the Gulf.



Wind is about 12 out of the East. The sky is more clouds than blue.



In front of us is Gulf Water, and Beautiful Sky! (crab traps and fisherman)



The Captain is in his seat with breakfast - sorry we lost the captain!




We cross the three miles from land imaginary line (its on our map) and our radio sounds, “Sunshine to Catrina” Tom did you hear that. That’s the third PDQ sailboat. (There were also 3 PDQ Trollers in port).

We look out and there is Sunshine! We switch to another channel and learn that they are also going to Little Shark River tonight. We make plans to meet them there and learn about his genoa sail. It is definitely propelling him along faster than Catrina. I bet he does not have a motor lock down the way our starboard one is.



After lunch we decide to raise the spinnaker. Debbie has packed it and hopes there are no twists. We rig it up to port (remember the two bikes and cooler are strapped on that side so each time we go forward we have to use the starboard side). We get it up with only one twist and with a little yelling it is out and flying. It is so beautiful, even with all the stitching. We are chugging along at 6 ½ to 7 mph.






However, with 30 minutes the wind has crept up above 15 and we decide to take it down rather than rip it again. We are now going along at 5.5 mph. When we fly the spinnaker, we take the furl the jib so all the wind goes to the larger sail. Saying that, this time the spinnaker gave us 1 to 1 ½ mph speed over the jib.





Finally, we reach Cape Sable and sail up the coat to Little Shark River.

Sunshine is sitting just inside the River. We move farther up the River to a side inlet we used before. Tom is so happy to be able to get TV again on Catrina but it is not coming in well. We leave to accept Sunshines invitation for drinks and a tour of their 1989 PDQ. It is 18 by 34 feet and was the first one sold of 9 in this series. We see lots of different features including two queen beds and a bunk room. What we wanted to look at was their genoa. When we see their set up we know it will not adapt to our boat but it gives us an idea.

We return to Catrina for dinner and to work on TV reception. Immediately, we are attacked by nats - hundreds of them. Nats are NASTY. Our final solution is to move out into the river away from the mangroves and where the SW sky is open. We now count six other boats in residence.


At last we settle back after a quick shower to remove bugs and watch TV. Day 27 and Tom can watch TV in Catrina!