Ship’s Log: Days 56-60

Thursday, Nov. 4

I awake at dawn and check the NOAA weather station. The forecasts are not as favorable as they were last night. Instead of a north or northeast wind, predictions are for more easterly winds, almost directly from where I need to go. Seas are predicted at 3 to 5 feet, 6 seconds apart. In the river port, winds are calm to light. I decide to go. The big powerboats leave just ahead of me. I depart at about 8:30 A.M.

I motor sailed across Apalachicola Bay and through Government Cut and am out on the gulf by 9:45 A.M. The waves were not terrible, much less confused than they were last Saturday, but the wind was building to about 20 knots from the east/ northeast. I had on my life jacket, safety harness tethered to Telesis and my foul weather pants and jacket. There was a lot of spray and I tasted salt as it hits me in the face. I continued to motor sail with reefed main and a small amount of roller reefed headsail. I was beating into the wind hard and not making but three to four knots towards Cedar Key. Telesis was pounding occasionally on some of the taller, steeper waves. My GPS indicated that instead of 21 hours on the gulf, it would take 26 hours at these slower speeds. I consider taking a new course, more to the south further down the West Coast of Florida. That would be more comfortable, a little faster a bit off the wind and easier on the boat, but the time would be near 30 hours. After about one and a half hours and having traveled only 6 nautical miles on the gulf, I decide this is not the day and turn back towards shore.

I reenter Apalachicola Bay and returned to the same marina. Another boat is in the slip I had so I took another. By 1:30 P.M. I’m tied off and settled. No major breakdowns on Telesis, but once again the gulf has turned me back. This is a tricky place to get across. I now fully realize what I had expected; Telesis is just too light a boat for the open waters. If I were to do this sort of thing regularly, I’d want and need at 20,000+ pound blue water boat. Telesis is only a 9,000-pound coastal cruiser. Once across this part of the gulf, she will do fine to Jacksonville, but for now I need fair winds and flat seas to make this crossing comfortably.

I attended the happy hour meeting. Several of my new friends were glad I had returned as they observed the building easterly winds of the morning and were concerned for me. There are many more boaters here now because of the weekend festivities. The marinas are full and boats are anchored on the river. Moderation Too and Soul Caribé both plan to depart Friday morning. I had a couple of beers with the gang, than returned to Telesis a bit melancholy because I can’t seem to get across. I’ve been here a week now. I was also sad to learn from a phone call that a sailing friend in Kansas was gravely ill with cancer. It was a good night to chill on Telesis. I rented a video movie, A Simple Plan, and stayed aboard.

Monday, Nov. 8

We were up and prepared for the crossing by 8:30 A.M. Our float plan was to pass through Government Cut, then take up a heading of 128 degrees for 136 nautical miles to the north of Anclote Key and put in at Tarpon Springs. The total journey would be about 150 nm and take about 30 hours. We should be into Tarpon Springs mid-day on Tuesday. Winds were forecast to be out of the northeast with 3- to 4-foot seas, putting us on a close reach with waves of the port bow quarter, about as favorable as we could hope. Much better than I had experienced on my first two attempts with winds on the bow from the east and waves of five feet or more. The only concern was that Nancy was not feeling 100% and the spicy dinner of the previous night was not helping to settle her stomach, but the weather was right and she opted to proceed.

We put on safety harnesses, lift vests and foul weather gear and tethered ourselves to Telesis. We motored out the channel the seven miles to Government Cut, raised sail with a reefed main and about 130 of roller furled Genoa. The waves were running 4-feet and occasionally more, but the east/northeast wind was steady at about 10 to 15 knots and Telesis settled into a nice close reach with the GPS directing the wheelpilot steering straight for Anclote Key. It was a bit wet from spray at times, but we just needed to keep watch on things and enjoy the ride. The motion of the boat did not seem to aggravate Nancy’s stomach too much.

We saw the occasional commercial fishing boat but no commercial shipping. We heard other pleasure boats on the VHR radio, but did not pass close by any of them. We were making six knots or better and I ran the engine on occasion just to keep the batteries charged for the instruments. Around 5:30 P.M., just before dark, I topped off the fuel tank with one of the five gallon cans we had on board. The wind had dropped a bit to about 10 knots from the north/northeast and we were on a beam reach under reefed main and fully deployed Genoa. At times we were doing near hull speed at 7.5 knots. At this rate, I expected to be off Anclote Key at daybreak, well ahead of schedule. The motion was still pretty strong as the waves had become larger and the spray an issue, but not terrible.

The sun set and darkness was upon us with no moon whatsoever. The stars shown brightly and there was not a cloud in the sky. It appeared that we were going to have a very quick passage with minimal discomfort. That is how it appeared, until 10:00 P.M.

At 10:00 P.M. the wind shifted about 90 degrees and became that damnable east wind. It also increased to about 20 knots and the waves built to six feet and more and were very confused. Suddenly, the wind was almost on our bow and what was an occasional splash of spray was now coming on board with every wave. It was nearly impossible to maintain our heading of 128 degrees to Anclote Key and maintain any speed, even with the engine turning at near 2000 rpm.

From our position at the time, Clearwater was at about 150 degrees and Telesis was better able to hold that heading, so we adjusted accordingly. We were able to maintain about five knots with reefed main, about 110 of roller-furled Genoa and the engine turning 1850 rpm. but it was still wet and we would occasionally pound into a large wave. It now looked like Clearwater at mid-morning.