Did you hear the one about the three old birds on a post? Na, me neither.

What a great night's sleep last night. Ann and I were completely zonked for about 11 hours. Night passages, especially two nights in a row, don't strike me as quite a romantic adventure now as they might have 20 years ago. Fortunately, this Gulf crossing should be the only time we'll need to run all night for the rest of the trip.

After a leisurely morning putting away all the extra gear we had out for the crossing and a general tidying up, we motored out of Pelican Bay around noon headed for the anchorage off Ding Darling Park on Sanibel Island about 20 nautical miles away. This is one of my favorite passages because it crosses a wonderful sailing ground, Pine Island Sound, at least for those of us who are comfortable sailing in five feet of water.

As we entered into Pine Island Sound, the wind was gentle at 6 to 10 kts and the protected waters flat except where chopped up by motor boats. The wind was close to being on our nose but that just made the sailing more fun. We got in a lot of tacking practice.

After a great three hour sail, we pulled into the Ding Darling anchorage at about 4pm. And, as is going to be the practice for the rest of the trip, we hopped into the water for a cooling swim. The air temperature was 80 deg, and the sea temperature as measured by the boat's thermometer on the bottom of the hull, was 79 deg. Ann judged the water too cool to get her hair wet, but I on the other hand, declared the temperature "bracing but not too bad". That is, as long as you stay in the top foot or so. I tried diving down to check the anchor but the water really gets cold, cold, cold as you go down.