OK, guys and girls, time to fess up and let Curtis know he's not alone. A few months after I bought "Steinlocker", an Oday 27, my buddy and I decided to take a cruise. I wasn't nearly as prepared as Curtis already seems to be.
We left Mandeville early afternoon and headed east towards The Rigolets, the outlet of Lake Pontchartrain. We weren't very good sailors. The wind was on the nose. By 11 pm, we'd gotten about halfway to the Hwy 11 Bridge at Slidell, about 10 miles. My buddy said he was tired and went below, leaving me alone with the tiller and sails. Around 1 am I gave it up and anchored in the middle of the lake in 2-3 foot seas and went below. Oh, did I mention I had no GPS, no LORAN, and not surprisingly, no idea where we were. I did have a chart. Whoopee! The next day we made it out of The Rigolets into what we thought was "The Gulf". Wrong. As the sun set, we anchored near an oil rig off The Rigolets in Lake Borgne. To this day, I don't know if we anchored in the middle of the ICW or where? I don't think we did because some tow would have either hit us or let us know in a very loud way that we were stooopid! Somehow, we made it back to Mandeville alive and little worse for wear. Now, years later, after several through the night offshore races and passages in heavy winds, the always nasty Gulf of Mexico squalls, waterpouts, thunderstorms, and what have you, my first offshore experience is a dim memory but one that reminds me how far I've come as a sailor. So, take heart, Curtis. I can be done. Sounds like you're miles ahead of where I was and waaay more prepared than me for your first offshore. Anybody else want to "fess up"? Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA
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