Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four
Day 5, They said this would be the easy day…
So no sleep after 3am. But if everything went according to plan we would be on the beach by noon with cold beers and the world was our oyster dammit!!!. We set off promptly at 7am. Again. Not 6. So frustrating. And if we HAD left at 6am A LOT of the problems we were heading into would not have been an issue. The Man in the Mirror wants you to leave already!!!
Anyway, we sail across the bay more or less together and the wind is light. We get into the shipping channel and the wind lightens some more. Andy tells me about this mystical place up ahead in Port O’Conner where they sell Cold Beer for this paper stuff we have in our “wallets”. The wind dies some more. Our Grocery carts are slowing down until they finally stop. No wind. So we bob. This kinda of sucks I think. When will the wind pick up I wonder? Surely soon. Then it does and I can’t believe it. It’s right in our teeth. I mean really? If you miss a tack by an inch, or an Arsehole comes shooting by in a boat you loss 60 feet, and if you do everything perfectly then you gain 20 feet. We are about 3 miles away from the end of the Jetties stuck in this narrow channel.
 |
Leaving in the morning for the “easy day,” they said. |
Let me point out at this juncture that if we had just left at 6am, just this once, we would have been oh so much closer to the those jetties and sailing down to the glory lands. So we finally all give up and pull over to the side and start dragging and pushing our shopping carts down the waterway with the wind blowing at us. At this point it doesn’t matter. Nothing, and I mean Nothing, is going to stop us from finishing this grueling test of endurance and pain. We walk about a mile before getting to a land cut that we have to sail across. It takes a long time but we finally get to the other side and continue walking towards jetties. People stop to offer us a tow. Some of the people in the way back, like Michael Jackson and Wade, Take the Tow!!!! Travis Votaw swings by and offers us a tow but Andy says why don’t you ask Bill back there if he wants one. The thinking being he is the oldest and the last in line walking down there. So Travis goes back and asks bill if he would like a tow. Can you guess what he said? I mean really?
“My boat hasn’t foundered. I am fine. Thank you though, but I am doing the Texas 200 in a duck.”
 |
Pulling our ducks to the jetties. I cannot for the life of me believe we all made it without serious injury. I can honestly say that now that I have done the T200 in a PDR I am not afraid to do any sailing trip in any boat. |
Christ on bike. Of course this meant war. None of us could accept a tow now. So we walked and pushed and cajoled our shopping carts onwards on this, the easiest of days. When we get to the Jetties we discover that they are made of large concrete poured anti tank blocks. They were horrid. There were large spaces between them where a leg could easily fit up to the thigh and conveniently lined with oyster blades. Kept walking. Finally, we decided to see if we were able to tack and make enough progress. I think we could have made that work but with the motorboats coming by they always screwed us up. Fine. We headed over to the jetty on the north side thinking it would be easier to round that point and head north when we got to the end. We keep walking. Bill falls down a lot and keeps going. I cut myself a lot and keep going. Rick at this point is having a new appreciation for how bad an experience this whole thing is. Right about the time Rick is really just feeling the lowest he could possible feel his painter breaks, his sheet catches, and his boat sails away from him heading towards the south jetty. He looks at me with a look of total disbelief and says, “what should I do?” At this moment I picture him as a Native American looking at the white man taking his land. It was the same look of despair. I say wait for a kindly fisherman to help us. No longer than 30 seconds later a fisherman sees this boat sailing across the water by itself and comes over and picks Rick up and takes him over to the boat.
 |
All of us finishing together! |
We keep walking. It is painful. Down right nasty. There are marines currently serving who could not have done what we did. Bill, Jason, Andy, Chuck, and everyone else finally gets there and one way or the other takes off to the finish line. Finally. Oh my good god just writing this leaves me weary again. The wind really picks up at this point and we all put in reefs, then double reefs. We are sailing large waves. Bill is in the lead and sailing fast. He is done with this shite and is going to get his shopping cart to the finish line. We all try to regroup so we can parade into the beach together. At this point it’s at least 4 in the afternoon. It was way past when we were supposed to have pulled in. Anyway, we all land and everyone is joyous and happy. And Cold Beer! And Free Beach showers! And Shrimp Broil! I cover all my cuts with Band-Aids. I make Bill take a picture with me at the finish.
And that is the tail of 13 sailors sailing 300 miles and 60 hours in 5 days.
 |
Paul and Bill Moffitt at the finish line! The oldest and youngest person on the PDR team. |
|
