Cedar Key 2022 Windy Boat Meet

Cartop Cruising

Thursday, before the May boat meet, a 16-19 knot southwesterly blew straight on the ten-foot bluff at the end of 6th Street. An hour past noon, Bruce Matlack’s reefed WindRider sliced and crashed along, blasting spray on Daughtry Bay. Ida Little, Karen and I stood in the wind, while below us, the flood was coming into the shore of muck, oysters, and sand. Ten-foot Clam Girl was nestled in mangroves, her black mast above them. We didn’t sail.

Karen had come back to Florida April 20th. The next day, Thursday, we rolled Clam Girl on four inch PVC pipes, down the 6th Street beach. In the three weeks Karen was here, CG went down and up eleven more times.

That first day we tacked out doublereefed in the 12-15 knot easterly, crossing the Main Ship Channel, eyeballing the eastbound flood, which is half of Cedar Key’s virtual two-way river at the Town Dock.

Wednesday the 27th we wanted to sail through Old Faithful” Atsena Otie Key’s Channel-thru, or Pass-thru.” see SCA 136). Over the years, oysters have filled in, so we want high water to get through. But, the light southerly thwarted us.

Thursday we tried again for the Passthru, two reefs for an easterly 11-17. We zipped across the flooding Main channel so quickly we said let’s go to Snake Key— we ll have time for the Pass-thru.