West bound

Tough going against the tide

In December, 2019, Bryce and I left Apalachicola at 0800 making it to East Pass at 1130, to make the Gulf passage across Apalachee Bay to Clearwater. So this time with Ruth and I being anchored near East Pass at Dog Island, I assumed the jump to Apalachicola would take no more than 4 hours. We pulled up the anchor at 0800, on Wednesday, April 8, and steered the boat west through the St. George Sound into Apalachicola Bay where we turned north to the town of Apalachicola. We faced a strong current of 3 knots and west winds of 20-25 knots the entire distance.  The trip took 6 hours.  Our speed was 3-4 knots the entire journey.  Since we needed fuel, water and laundry we paid for a night at the Scipio Creek Marina. Apalachicola is a lovely fishing village with great history that is pretty much shut down because of the virus.

We shoved off the following morning at 0700 EDT

Old Apalachicola Northern Railroad Bridge

uncertain of where we would stop for the night, but knowing we needed to make some headway.  The trip carried us through 2 large lakes and the St. Andrew Bay system which is several bays in the Panama City area.  The wind blew near 20 knots, from the west, most of the day. In narrow parts of the ICW we were mostly protected and in the large lakes and bays, not so much.  The trip took exactly12 hours and covered 76 ICW statute miles, a trip record for a day, excluding overnighters. We left at 0700 EDT and arrived at 1800 CDT in a different time zone. We noticed many damaged trees, especially snapped pines, damaged from Hurricane Michael in 2017.  On the positive side we noticed many bald eagles.  It must be spring because there were many nests with mom and dad eagles.  They must have been guarding eggs or chicks.  We dropped the anchor in the NW corner of West Bay, at Crooked Creek Point and were greeted by a large pod of dolphins; always a good sign.  The anchorage provided some shelter from the northerly winds that blew through. 

Nesting eagles

On Good Friday, April 10, 2020, we upped anchor near ICW mile marker 275 at 0700 CDT hoping to make as many miles as yesterday.  During the early morning we had strong winds and hard rain.  Some of the rain lingered and the temperature dropped into the 50’s as we shoved off.  This portion of the journey would have 3 legs.  The first 22 miles included narrow, winding but smooth motoring just west of West Bay.  It was eventless.  With the temp drop and slight rain we deployed the remainder of the “bubble” (wrap around) to keep the weather out.  The second leg, ICW miles 256 to 223, included the open waters of the Choctawhatchee Bay, between Panama City and Ft. Walton Beach.  With winds between 15 and 20 knots most of the distance, we turned off the Yanmar and deployed both sails.  We did some Art style sailing, meaning no reefing under any circumstances.  Fortunately, the wind was abeam most of the time and we were able to fly.  We sustained our hull speed (7.48 knots) and greater, often.  It truly was a great 30-mile sail.  The third leg of today’s journey included the very beautiful and narrow ICW waters into the Santa Rosa Sound.  On the gulf (south) side is the white sands of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, a protected area.  The north side includes more private and government property including several military bases where we heard a presumed bombing practice.  At 1815 we dropped the anchor off Big Sabine Pt. on the south shoreline, at mile 195.  The 80 Statute miles traveled today is again a record for a daytime travel for Pura Vida.  I’ve been working the ole’ girl pretty hard… and Pura Vida too. 

Remnants of Hurricane Michael

Plans are not set for tomorrow but if we travel we will probably drop the hook in Alabama. 

Old Guy getting lazy steering by remote control

Passage Across the Apalachee Bay, NE Gulf

Apogee

Sunday night, in our Pura Vida team meeting, we decided there would be an early departure for our next leg.  Our plan had several options.  We would awake at 0545, shove off at 0615 to make the 0645 lift at the Ana Maria bascule bridge.  We would follow the ICW into Tampa Bay where we would decide to head west into the Gulf of Mexico or turn east then take the inside passage north.  The inside passage meant the crossing across the Apalachee Bay, the NE corner of the Gulf requiring a night passage offshore, would be delayed at least a week because of weather.  If we steered into the Gulf we would turn NW toward Apalachicola and still have the option of bailing out to Clearwater or Tarpon Springs if the conditions were unfavorable. Otherwise we would make the overnight, 175 mile passage to Saint George Sound near Apalachicola.

Monday morning we were out of bed shortly after 0545 but didn't pull up anchor in time to make the 0645 lift.  So, we circled for 25 minutes waiting on the 0715 lift.  When we reached Tampa Bay, conditions were acceptable so we turned west.  The bay had a chop with NE winds at 14 knots.  We traveled west in the Egmont Channel for about 10 miles before turning NW, 320 degrees.  The Gulf had 3 ft rolling waves on our beam with 14 knots of wind also on our beam.  We were able to travel at over 7 knots, with both sails deployed and the motor running at half throttle.  Normally I would have shut the engine off and traveled near 6 knots but with predicted light winds ahead it was best to get ahead of the curve.

Little Stowaway

I pretended to turn several crab pot floats into packing peanuts with a pretend Remington 1100, along the way.  By early afternoon it was obvious that the wind was rotating clockwise into a more northerly direction.  We tightened the sails until the wind was just too close to sail.  We finally furled the jib around 1600 and steered the boat directly toward East Pass at Saint George Sound. The AIS alarm sounded when another sailboat entered our safety zone at 1500 on Monday. Apogee was headed to Galveston. We had a nice conversation and wished each other well. Throughout the evening we had visitors.  A small bird which looked out of place took a break and eventually got stuck in the bubble of our cockpit enclosure.  A small, but very fast variety of dolphins hung out a while. Finally the sun set in the west, Ruth and I started our 2-hour shifts and the nearly full moon rose in the SE.  This corner of the gulf is very quiet.  Very rarely did we see a blip on the radar or an AIS signal.  Throughout the early morning the wind continued its clockwise rotation becoming very light behind us.  The seas became smooth, like mirrored glass.  When the sun rose at 0719 we still had 28 N/M to our destination. By 0800 there was hardly a ripple. We followed an incoming tide through the East Pass, turned east and anchored behind Dog Island at noon. 

AIS sounding alarm

After making my Tuesday call to Mom, I gave the Yanmar some love and thanks, meaning I performed a little maintenance.  Unfortunately, the weather dictates that we will be required to start our westerly direction in the ICW.   I contacted the Scipio Creek Marina where Art and I secured fuel in December to make sure they are up and running.  We are considering renting a slip there tomorrow to more easily secure fuel, water and do laundry.  This would be the first time Pura Vida has been in a marina slip since early December 2019. For now we will regroup and get some rest.  Until next time! 

All Night Long...

A new day

Heading North

Crab Pots, Enemy #1

We left Key Largo 0800 Thursday, April 2, 2020 after waiting for favorable winds.  We slipped under the Channel 5 bridge, at Long Key, shortly after noon.  We were seeing crab traps throughout Hawk Channel, which is the southern travel route of the Keys, but not as many as we saw in late December, heading east.  Our hopes were that there would be few enough in Florida Bay and the west coast of Florida, that we could make a safe passage straight to Pensacola.  We sailed Yacht Channel NW entertained by frequent visits of dolphins.  We noticed the crab pot population wasn't terrible but grew as we went north.  We continued a northwest direction off the Cape of Florida, instead of turning more northerly while trying to reach deeper water and hoping the crab trap population would be less. However, we saw more pots as we continued. At 0100 we were extremely tired and determined the pots were too dense to continue. So, 20 miles offshore, west of Little Shark River, we dropped anchor in 30 feet of water. It was very rough and we didn’t get much sleep, but we were mostly concerned for the boat. Even though we had a hundred and forty feet of chain deployed, a safely line and a snubber attached, the anchor still jerked the bow pretty hard as waves pounded. At 0430, we determined that we had had enough, pulled up anchor and proceeded north. The crab pots continued to be dense, so we both stayed on watch throughout the morning until daylight. I made a comment to Ruth that I would rather deal with the offshore oil platforms then these little crab pots. The oil platforms show up pretty big on radar, which we run continuously on night passages.  By now our plans had changed. We determined that it would be safest to take the intercoastal waterway route. So, we changed course and headed towards Fort Myers. The sail was smooth and pretty fast.  We saw the wind swing about 245 degrees throughout the day.  When we deployed sails at 0700 we were on a beam reach.  Throughout the day it shifted clockwise until we were on a close haul with the winds at 45 degrees on a port tack.  I moved the whisker pole from starboard to port before removing it completely. We dropped anchor at 2030, in San Carlos Bay, showered, then hit the sack. This is the first time that we went to bed without a definitive plan for the next day.  During the 150 N/M (173 mile) voyage from Key Largo to San Carlos Bay we used only 5 gallons of fuel. Not a bad MPG.

Rainy winter has returned. 64 degrees

On Saturday we awoke late, and wondered if the bridge schedule would be altered because of the corona virus. We made a few phone calls to no avail, so we pulled up anchor at 0830 and turned the vessel north, into the ICW, at mile 0. It turns out the bridge opening schedule had not changed and because it was the weekend the bridges opened more often, mostly on demand. We were surprised to see so many pleasure boats under the “corona” circumstances.  The journey was fast and pleasant. We experienced the same kindness from the bridge tenders as our southern journey in December. At 1930 we dropped the anchor in Little Sarasota Bay at Terrace Cove, 72 nautical miles from San Carlos Bay.  Not a bad day. 

We set no alarm on Sunday thinking we would only go to Sarasota, 7 miles to our north.  After checking the wind forecast we further verified that Monday and Tuesday would be a possible window for crossing the Apalachee Bay, the NE corner of the Gulf of Mexico. The crossing is an overnighter, approximately 135 miles from Clearwater to Apalachicola.  Bryce and I made the crossing in December, his first night on the boat.  After Tuesday, the wind will be from the west for many days and we would be unable to cross.  It was good having Don Thornton, Electric Gypsy, who is back in Kemah, verify the weather forecast. We pulled up anchor at 0930 with a new plan.  We would fuel up and top off the water tanks in Sarasota and continue north hoping to jump outside toward Pensacola or Apalachicola on Monday morning. 

There would be only four bridge openings required which wouldn’t slow us down too much. The first two went smoothly with no delays.  We were making good time until we were stalled for 30 minutes by the Cortez Bridge.  This bridge only opens every 30 minutes and we had just missed it.  A couple miles north was the Ana Maria bridge with only a 10 minute delay.  However, by the time we reached Cortez the wind had increased to about 22 knots, on our nose.  We continued forward knowing the large Tampa Bay was in front of us.  And, if we wanted to jump out at Clearwater on Monday we would have to cross it.  By the time we reached the Ana Maria Bridge the winds had increase to 24 knots, gusting to 28.  The bascule bridge raised its arms at 1515 and we throttled under it.  By now the light rain had increased to “steady”, but we continued-with uncertainty.  Before we reached Tampa Bay, the wind had increased to 28 knots and the rain continued.  When we made the last turn directly into the wind our 6 knot forward progress turned to 3 and we knew it was time to turn around.  We made it back through the Ana Maria Bridge at 1615 and dropped the anchor on the NE side of Cortez Bridge at 1645.  

I put on socks and shoes for the first time in months as winter returned today.  We also dropped the side and top front Strataglass panels for the first time in months.  The rain is supposed to cease tonight and the predicted winds are still favorable for a crossing.  If all is perfect we might still make the crossing, perhaps from Tampa Bay.  However, today Mother Nature warned us that she is still in charge.

Ruth Video'd these guys dancing off the bow: