From Tehani - out cruising

[Captain Smollett]

Another great cruising thread to re-read, so I gave it the old freehand (not GPS track points) chart treatment also.

22 March 2010 - 12 June 2010:

Crossed from Angelfish Creek, Florida, to Alice Town, Bimini
Chub Cay, Berry's
Nassau, New Providence
Rose Island
Nassau
Staniel Cay, Exumas
Black Point, Exumas
Eleuthera (multiple stops)
Nassau, New Providence
Crossed back to Key Biscayne, Florida (via Bimini?)

[CharlieJ]

Wow! Does that route sound familiar!!

Virtually like Tehani's, with a few differences.

Angelfish to Alice Town, to Berry's to Nassau to Rose Island to Exumas to Eleuthera back to Rose Island, Nassau, Berrys, Gun Cay then Biscayne Bay.

I'd love to do it again ;D

[Tim]

Wow! Does that route sound familiar!!

Virtually like Tehani's, with a few differences.

Angelfish to Alice Town, to Berry's to Nassau to Rose Island to Exumas to Eleuthera back to Rose Island, Nassau, Berrys, Gun Cay then Biscayne Bay.

I'd love to do it again ;D

???????????????? Frank is not down there with you Charlie....is he? ;D

[CharlieJ]

Lol - no. I just missed the fact he had changed to our cruise. sometimes this tiny Iphone screen isn't easy to read!!

No wonder it looked so familiar :D :D :P

Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here for another day or so. Seems this system in South Florida is gonna run over me. Senseless to sail INTO it when I'm securely tucked away here.

[CharlieJ]

Tonight Tehani and I are on a mooring in Vero Beach, Fl.
Depending on weather, we'll stay here tomorrow, or move on down to Stuart, Fl.

Stuart is at the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway, crossing Florida. Pretty soon we'll be back Gulf of Mexico side of Florida.   

Spent the weekend hanging out with some good folks in agroup called the West Coast Trailor Sailer Squadron. Fun weekend!

Waiting to see what this crappy system down in the Carribean is gonna cause. Well protected here if it blows.

[luckettg]

That's about 1000 miles since you started the return from Annapolis. Do you plan to keep following the coast back to Matagorda Bay or take the short cut across the Gulf?

[CharlieJ]

Yep on the miles- 1060 since Deltaville, Va. More since Annapolis

Little of both- some places you HAVE to sail the gulf. Hoping for (cute) crew  ;)

At one place it's a 160 mile open gulf jump, minimum.

[luckettg]

Open water means 24 hour watch standing if you are alone. Dogs are cute and not nearly as demanding as other possible crew. ;)

[CharlieJ]

Tehani and I have exited the Atlantic ICW ( at mile 988) at Stuart Florida and are heading west via the Okeechobee Waterway (OWW). Currently at mile 68 OWW, just above the Port Mayaca lock. Will cross the lake tomorrow to Moore Haven I hope.

The St Lucie lock lifted us 13 feet. What a blast singlehand!!!!

[CharlieJ]

Crossing Lake Okeechobee

Woke up this morning to find the boat totally covered with little tiny flying things. Shades of Wax Lake Outlet in La. But these were tiny so I just used a bucket and sluiced them off the decks. Glad I'm in fresh water.

Weather forecast was NW winds at 5, increasing to 10-15 by afternoon. I had 15 miles to go to get across the open part.. So what do I see as I exit the lock?

White caps- All over the place. And BIG waves.

Rounded the last marker out from the lock and put the boat on course. Very soon I had a wave deposit solid water on the weather deck- about 6 inches deep.. Then another.The third one went over the coaming and filled my lap. And wet much of the cockpit.

Wind was really 10-15 (at0900) and built to around 20 by noon.

Something is wrong with this picture!!!

So I changed course to intersect the rim canal- longer but protected. Protected- Yeah, right!!

The first 12 miles are totally open to the lake-same seas, same white caps, no protection, but now you are running on a lee shore. A ROCKY Lee shore!! One thing goes wrong and you are screwed. And it was ROUGH!! Fortunately nothing went wrong and I made it into the actual protected, rim canal.

Smooth water finally- ten extra miles, but I'm not really in a hurry..

At mile 60, you come onto one of the interesting things on this canal. The Torrey Island swing bridge. It's slow. It's slow because the tender isn't ON the bridge. He's ashore doing things.

So you call him on the radio and he says he'll be right out. And sure enough, in a few minutes, a golf cart shows up, the guy gets out and lowers the crossing gate. By hand!! Then drives to the other end and lowers that gate.

THEN he walks out to the center of the bridge, sticks a large pipe in to a hole in a capstan, and starts walking around. As he does, the bridge slowly swings open.. Yep- all done by hand!

Wonder how many of those are still around?

Rest of the day was fairly quiet, lots of bird life- Blue Herons, MANY Osprey, and loads on others. One alligator, no manatees.

Spending tonight in Clewiston in a marina because there is simply no place to anchor here and it would have been after dark before I got to the next lock. Didn't want to get caught there over night.

So I'll finish the crossing ( actually the half circle around) tomorrow morning.

[CharlieJ]

At 1452 Tehani exited Frankliin Lock. Last one onn the Okee hobee waterway

For the first time since 2-15-2010, we are on the Gulf side of Florida (and the US) ;D

Water isn't salty yet but will be soon!!

[CaptMac]

I was wondering what is the max depth for a boat crossing the canal you would be comfortable with, and congrats on the crossing.
Thanks
Jay

[Grime]

Well Charlie is at Mile marker 0

[CharlieJ]

Howdy everyone.

A quick recap-

Sailed a friends boat in the Suncat Nationals in Punta Gorda. Never sailed a gaff catboat before and managed a forth place ;D

Then did short one day offshore sail with several friends(4 boats) from Maderia Beach, Fl to Tarpon Springs.

Just today (couple hours ago) brought Tehani in from a gulf sail Tarpon to Apalachacola single hand. Wasn't a horrible trip but was a bit rough. Lots more wind than forecast and MUCH bigger waves. Have a jib track ripped out that I need to fix >:(

Just got a shower and something to eat- bed time for one tired old man!! ;D ;D

[Frank]

Ya been busy CJ !!  Great feeling, after a tougher sail, to get secured, showered and a rum to unwind. Have a good rest.

[CharlieJ]

Tarpon Springs to Apalachacola.. Or "crossing the armpit"

Also known as "the missing link"..Because of the very shallow waters that extend a long way off shore there is no Intercoastal Waterway between these two points. Actually between Tarpon Springs and Carrabelle, but it's just a short distance more to Apalachacola, so I chose that .

You can short hop from place to place, but that would take 4 or 5 days. I chose to cut across. I had wished for crew but not finding anyone, I did it singlehand.

Let me say here that although I had a good bit more wind than forecast, and lots larger seas than predicted, I wasn't in any serious danger, just quite uncomfortable at times. A 25 foot boat can be a BIT bouncy

So- on to the crossing--

Awoke Saturday morning, my day of departure, to almost no wind, cloudy skies and drizzle. Made ready to leave anyway. Got the sail covers off and all below stowed for sea, and at 0830, cranked the engine and dropped the dock lines. Began motoring out the long channel from the dock and at 0930, reached the open gulf, set the sails, engaged the tillerpilot (Albert), and shut down the engine, as the winds were now blowing N at about 8-10.

At noon I had to begin motor-sailing again. Winds had dropped away and I needed to maintain about a 5 knot speed so as to reach the Apalachacola channel in the daylight the next day. What wind there was was still N, instead of the forecast NE-E.

By about 1700 the predicted 5-10 knot winds had increased to 10-12 and I shut down the engine again. By 1930, the wind still increased, now maybe 12-16 or so, on a close reach. Was of course dark by now and the seas were building. The boat was sailing pretty fast, I couldn't see the waves, so I reefed the main to slow us a bit. GPS still was indicating 6-6.5 boat speed. Later on, as the wind built even more (forecast was for "moderating") to somewhere around 18, and as the seas were continuing to increase, I decided to drop the main. Still making 5.5- 5.8 under just the jib.

Up until around 2200 the winds stayed quite stiff and the seas continued to increase, and began to crest. Awful sounds when one comes up behind you and crests RIGHT off the transom!! I was , at this point just about at the half way point.

Between 2200 and 0500 at times I was seriously concerned about losing the dinghy I was towing. I had it snubbed up very close to the transom which kept it from sliding past me on a cresting sea and jerking to a stop, at which point it could have easily capsized. Even at that, at times I could see the entire floor of the dink as it was up on a sea, then it would go totally out of sight on the backside. Sleeping during all this time was in 15 to 20 minute snatches, using a timer to wake me to check course and surroundings. Albert thankfully continued to do a fine job.

By 0530 things were settling down. Winds were dropping, seas were no longer cresting, although still large. and my speed was way down. Cranked the engine and motorsailed on a very broad reach. No main since that would have just blanketed the jib and it was to rough for me to want to set the pole. Could have-didn't want to. Probably too tired

At 0700, with 50 miles to go I watched the sun come up over the empty Gulf. At 0800 discovered that the forward foot of the jib track had torn away from the rail and was bent upwards, with the jib car out at the end. Got it pushed down far enough to get the car moved aft of the bend. Would work for off-wind- NOT for beating.

Winds continued dropping and came way aft. almost no wind in the sail, so I dropped the jib and continued with just the engine. BORING!!! At that point I was about 25 miles out from the seabuoy.

By around 1400 I spotted buildings ashore, called "land ho!!" and at 1500 I passed the seabuoy and entered the channel into Apalachacola Bay with a large following swell running. (more on that later) That channel is NOT a great one and had the seas been any larger, could have been really nasty. As it was, it was a TAD squirrelly. Has rocks along each side and is quite narrow. Fortunately only about a quarter mile long and you're in Apalachacola Bay.

At 1705 one tired old dude tied up to the docks at Water Steet Marina in Apalachacola. Laura and I had been here in 2009. Nice friendly place. Got a hot shower, fixed a sandwich from leftovers, and crashed. Slept 10 solid hours which is a rare event for me.

On those swells- When Laura and I left here in 2009, we were bound for Cedar Key. The very large swells running were then on our beam causing the boat to roll miserably, so we altered course for Tarpon Springs, which put them on the starboard bow, and made for a MUCH more pleasant ride. This time they were dead on my stern and large. But strange. I was running in mostly 2-3 foot seas, but looking aft, could see a set build- maybe 5-6 waves just rose up and rolled towards me.Can't really say how big, but when you are sitting in a cockpit, with your eyes about 5 feet above the water, and you can't see over the waves, they damned sure ain't 3 footers!! I'd guess most were 6, with the very occasional 7-8. Smooth though- no breaking, no cresting.. I was in 150 feet of water, so they weren't feeling bottom. Couple of folks I talked to here commented that that happens often.

Anyway- this was my first singlehand, overnight , open ocean passage. I'm glad I did it, glad I had the experience, but really don't want to do it again. Much much better with two aboard. I admire the long distance single handers, just don't want to BE one. Overnighters are enough for me and I want someone to talk to. Nearly went nuts those last 25 miles, motoring in

Over all the trip was 177.7 miles, took 29 hours seabuoy to seabuoy, and 32.5 hours dock to dock. Almost exactly the same time as when L and I sailed the other way in 2009.

Oh- and when I got in and tied up, reached into the icebox for a beer- and it slipped out of my hand??? Found that a jar of olive spread, made in olive oil, had had the lid come off! The entire interior of the icebox was liberally coated with olive oil. So the next day I soap and water washed all the contents, and after picking all the bits of olive out, washed the box interior. What a MESS!!

Got wet, salty clothes washed, including cockpit seat cushions covers and got the jib track repaired, at least well enough to get me home to proper tools

[luckettg]

A good story Charlie and I am glad you made the crossing safely. Your postings are always enjoyable to Edith and I.
Greg & Edith

[JWalker]

glad you made it across charlie!

we are anchored in an ox bow just outside columbus missippi, mile marker 330.


taking a rest day today.

how many miles do you have untill mobile?

[CharlieJ]

Can't say exactly.. I'm at ICW mile 350 EHL. But all my charts for Panama City westward are in transit to me. Shipped last Weds, Priority Mail,, gonna get here last Friday-still waiting. So much for paying for Priority huh? I have hopes they'll be waiting for me at the Panama City Marina.

I'll be in Panama City tomorrow evening or I should be. Then on To Ft Walton Beach  and then towards P'cola.

I won't actually go up to Mobile- way far out of the way. My next stop after P'cola should be Pirates Cove in Josephine, Ala (also known as Roberts Bayou ) and the next stop should be Lake Yazoo at Pascagoula, Miss.

For those unaware- EHL stands for "East Harvey Lock"at New Orleans. The Gulf ICW mileage is figured eastwards and westwards from Harvey Lock, which is mile zero. Eastward ends at Carrabelle, Fl and westward at Port Isabelle Texas.

An addendum-

Just found mileage info. The bridge across to Dauphin Island is at mile 130 EHL, so I'm 220 miles from there. If I pushed hard every day, that would be four days, but I won't - gonna stop and visit friends here and there between.

[Captain Smollett]

Charlie,

If you want to do the "tourist" thing, the Estuarium at Dauphin Island is very, very cool (if you haven't done it already).  You can do it in an hour or two, and they have a lot of neat (and varied) exhibits.  My children loved it, as did I.

The Fort is right across the street from the Estuarium if you are into walking Civil War forts...this one was part of the battle where the line "darn the Torpedoes, FULL SPEED AHEAD!" was used by Admiral Farragut.   ;D

Cool little restaurant right on the water (not walking distance from the Estuarium, though...about two miles away or so) that has some mighty yummy eats.  Perhaps Craig remembers the name of it, but I'd have to look it up.