Al (l) and Tony on their way out to do some clandestine practising. No spinnaker, of course, since Al had managed to forget his pole at home. Thanks to the miracle of cell phones, we were able to call Jim Heffernan during our drive and he would be bringing us a great pole to borrow but we wouldn't have that 'ti we got to Eustis on Thursday.

And so Mary and the camera kissed us good-bye. We sailed around the north tip of the island (Google image above) and began to beat south towards an intended beaching at the Tween Waters. But after perhaps a mile of sailing, we found the wind to be steadily increasing and decided we had gone far enough. As we turned around onto a run back towards Redfish Pass, the boat began to plane even on what was virtually a dead run. The water was pretty cool so we decided on discretion and sailed back to the pass under jib alone. In the lee of the point (above) we re-raised the main and settled in for a nice, flat-water beat back to the Tween Waters marina. With the tide now near high, we could sail nicely with rudder and board fully down and only touch bottom every once in a while.