Camping in St Joseph's Sound!

The spoil islands just north of Dunedin Causeway have been a favorite of mine to camp on for quite a long time. The last weekend of October shaped up to be a perfect weather weekend to celebrate a round of birthdays (some of us are entering into our 5th decade :).

Over 3 days we had 12 guys out there, everyone came on canoe, kayak or my buddies john boat.

I brought the Islands 17 out, rushing to get there and get launched by 4pm Friday. My sail out was heaven! I didn't even drop my trolling motor in, had the boat loaded up with gear, and extra gear as many folks were in from out of state. I was loaded with firewood, water, cast iron camping cookware, extra chairs. Not really camping, more like outdoor living.

I blasted out close hauled into a NW wind, bouncing over whitecaps and hiking out to keep her flat. Sailed right up to the beach where the early canoers helped me unload and buddy Johnson and I turned right around and blasted around until almost dark.

I ended up using the boat swap rudder, and the blade kept kicking up on the sail out. Johnson and I put a couple extra washers in it to stiffen it up and it worked great.


I was planning on camping on another island, and mooring to the trees, so I left my huge oversized anchor at home. We didnt have that island, so I had to keep hauling her in at night with the tide, and ended up high and dry until 10am. Johnson and I went out the next morning to try and pick up a few stragglers coming in. Drying out on the beach jammed the centerboard, and I jumped in to clear it, but it fell lose as soon as I went overboard. When I jumped back on and sheeted in POP, my windward shroud lost a wire. That ended my sailing for the weekend, exept for the sail back on Sunday, but that shroud was the lee shroud and not loaded. Time to learn how to fix that piece!

All in all it was a great trip, I didn't take nearly enough pictures, hopefully my buddies will send me theirs. Glassy and Joaquin each brought 5 gallons of home brew, which was damn good (Joaquin had a really nice pale ale, but Glassy's honey brown hit me just right that weekend).  I was super comfy in my Hennessee Camping hammock. The cast iron dutch oven provided; cinamon rolls, egg fritata, peach cobbler, and the lid made for a nice bacon and pancake pan on Sunday. This little Islands 17 easily swallowed all the gear I had, it is a nice little beach camper!