T&T: A trawlering topic

[Rich Gano]

We are still waiting on mother nature to settle down in the area of the Dry
Tortugas before venturing forth from the security and convenience of the
Navy Marina here on Boca Chica Key.  What an amazingly good deal this marina
is for those eligible!  You DO have to get a rental car though due to
isolation from everything.  Even our bikes are insufficient, especially
since we'd have to brave US 1 to get any where!

We could have run out there yesterday or today, but we would have then been
trapped by and rocked and socked by 25-knot winds and whatever of the 8-10
foot seas found their way into the anchorage for a week.  Thank goodness for
computerized assets like windfinder.com, stormsurf.com, sailflow.com, and
the NOAA experimental Marine Forecast product.  Those products enabled me to
get the boat through the last 800 miles (many in open waters) with little
more than some spray over the bow (this boat is BAD for that).  Makes you
wonder how we ever survived (some didn't) without them.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL (near Panama City)
lying Boca Chica Key near Key West