Cooper Island

Woke Sunday morning to more rain and gray skies. The wind is out of the north and blowing right into Trellis Bay, so it is a little rough. In between rain bursts, Tracy bails dinghy so we can head in and check what the marina store has. End up just getting ice and (and a carved coconut bird thing for Delaina). Back on board we get ready to go, we’ve been in Trellis too long. Decide to head to the south side of the islands for a little better protection. By 10:30 we are off the ball and sailing downwind with the jib at 6 knots. Clouds are moving through the islands and completely obscuring some of them. Decide to check out Cooper Island and Manchioneel  Bay. The bay runs north and south, and I’m worried that it may not be protected enough. Once in behind the point we can see mooring balls right next to shore, and it looks calm enough. While motoring in, we discover there is quite a  current pushing to the south, that pushed us close to an empty ball. The dinghy bumped it, but didn’t snag. That was our first boat handling error (hopefully the last or worst).

We are moored about 50 feet off the beach in 15 feet of water. Noah is excited to kayak into shore, so we launch it and the kids both hop on and head to shore. There’s a big sandy area and they play and swim while we are on the boat. There is a Dive Center dock right next to us and they holler out that they are about to do a rescue training course. They didn’t want us to be alarmed (or to run them over with dinghy). After watching that for a few minutes we decide its clear for us to run in to the Cooper Island Beach Club for lunch and to pay for the ball.  Noah is starting to like fish, and orders a Mahi sandwich. (Don’t be too shocked, there were no chicken nuggets or any other kid friendly choices). Conch fritters were some of the best I ever had.

After lunch, its not raining (still cool and gray) and we throw the snorkel gear in the dinghy and head south around the point to Hallover bay. On the chart, it looks like it will be a sand beach, but it turns out to be a rocky shore. We head in any way and drop the anchor into the sand just before the shore. Tracy and Delaina check out the shore, and Noah and I try snorkeling. We are right next to the reef, lots of different kinds of coral and fish. Too bad it is so cloudy, as things are colorless. I’m sure in the sunshine it would be beautiful. More dark clouds are moving in, so we start heading back to boat. Bit of a wet ride. The rain has started again and we are heading right into the waves. The splashing water is much warmer than they rain, and helps warm us up.

Wind is shifting to the NNW, and making it a little rougher in the anchorage. More rain is falling and temperature is dropping. I swear we are back on Lake Erie on Memorial day. Evening is spent in the salon playing cards. (anyone remember how to play crazy 8’s?)