November 22, 2010
A year ago today, Nathan set out on his journey, launching in Western Arkansas, sailing the Arkansas River to the Mississippi, heading into the rivers and bayous of the Intracoastal Waterway in Louisiana and continuing on the Intracoastal to Western Florida, then across the open Gulf of Mexico to the Tampa area. After spending hurricane season there, he sailed to Key West. Last week, he set out sailing with another vessel up the Florida Keys, with an intention of heading east to the Bahamas. But he called yesterday from Key Largo to say he was turning back toward Key West.
The other craft he was sailing with has been using its motor a great deal, while the wind and current have prevented Nathan from keeping up. “He’s a good guy, but he’s not my kind of sailor,” Nathan said. As a result, he decided to part ways with the other craft and do what he had originally intended: winter in Key West.
Nathan had a job offer near Key West to work in a boatyard and he’s going to see if he can still get that job. Besides the different travel philosophies between Nathan and the captain of the boat he was sailing with, Waltzing Matilda has battery problems and Nathan said there are a lot of little things that need to be fixed on his boat.
Heading back down the Keys, the wind was more favorable: “It took two hours to backtrack what it took ten hours to cover,” Nathan said.
Actually, Nathan plans to winter at Stock Island, the key just east of Key West, since that’s where the boatyard is and Nathan has little good to say about Key West.
Thus ends the first year of the voyage of Waltzing Matilda. Nathan hopes to make it a three-year event, eventually ending up sailing the Atlantic seaboard, then into the Hudson River-Erie Canal-Great Lakes-Mississippi River and back down to Arkansas.
--Posted by official correspondent Dad Landry
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment