Adventures in Sailing  - Petit Bois Island

I suppose every man who lives near the water at one time or another has to have a boat -either sail or power. My time had come. I’d recently retired from the military and now had time for such things as a sailboat. I looked in the classified ads, found the boat that I wanted – a 27 foot Catalina and promptly bought it (within a bank loan, of course). After becoming familiar with the diesel engine and the sails, I started taking my family, mostly my wife, on short excursions. There were two sailing adventures that lasted more than a day that stand out.

 The first was to trip was to Petit Bois Island, a barrier island south of the Alabama-Mississippi coast. Since 1971, Petit Bois (“little woods” in French) had been a part of Gulf Island National Seashore. Approximately six miles long, it serves as a habitat for gulls, terns, alligators and other wildlife. The other trip was to Bluewater Bay near Niceville, Florida. Petit Bois Island is southwest of Fairhope, Alabama where I kept my boat. My wife, nephew and I set sailed for Petit Bois on a fine June day and arrived at Petit Bois ten hours later. We anchored near the eastern of the island in eleven feet of water about 50 yards from shore. We celebrated our arrival with a beer, glass of wine and gator aids. Transportation between the island and the sailboat was by dinghy. One had to row the dinghy at a quick pace or you would be taken away by the current. I got plenty of exercise rowing back and forth between the boat and island.

 We met with some friends and my daughter who had traveled there by motor boat. After our “Hellos”, we had dinner consisting of fried chicken, cucumber and potato salads. It was great! That night my wife, daughter, nephew and I slept on the sailboat. The other family slept on the Island. Most of the second day we spent fishing, swimming and sailing around the Island. That night we had fish for dinner and ate on the beach – the weather was nice. It was great being away from noise and civilization – no one else was on the island. The seas picked up a little as night approached. Sleeping for my wife and I was a little difficult because the boat was pitching about and I was worried about the anchor dragging. We survived the night and went fishing with our friends the next day. My wife caught quite a few bluefish and that made her day.

We were enjoying the day when we received a bad weather warning over the radio. We saddled up and headed toward Dauphin Island for shelter. The power boat and our friends were long gone, but our sailboat was just putting along. The bad weather hit us when we were just north of Dauphin Island. I would define it as a squall – about thirty to forty knots of wind speed. I brought the sailboat into the wind and put over two anchors. Everyone had their lifejackets on. The rubber three man dinghy that was being towed behind the sailboat became airborne, however the line held, so we didn’t lose it. My wife and I were worried about the weather, but the youngsters seemed to think that the whole thing was fun and exciting. I supposed for them it was similar to riding a roller coaster. It was all over in a manner of minutes and then we were off to Fairhope. “Sweet Home Alabama.”

We had a great time at Petit Bois Island – now it was time for a home cooked meal and a long hot shower.