Stars, Sails - the Parallax View

A family of astronomers at sea... coming soon to a galaxy near you...

28 May 2020 | Fort Myers, FL
13 February 2019 | SW Florida
25 May 2018 | Fort Myers, SW FL
02 September 2016 | Fort Myers, FL
11 July 2014 | Fort Myers, FL
04 July 2014 | Fort Myers, FL
01 July 2014 | South Jersey Shore
23 April 2014
11 November 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
05 July 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 March 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
11 March 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 February 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
24 January 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 December 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
15 December 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
28 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
25 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
07 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL

Green Turtle to Port Fierce :-)

26 July 2012 | Fort Pierce, FL
Heather / sunny 92 F / SW 5-10
Catching you up: we left Green Turtle Cay on Tuesday the 24th in the morning, motorsailing in fairly light following wind to Great Sale Cay, where we anchored overnight. On the way to Great Sale, Derek caught a nearly-4' barracuda. Well, he got it all the way in to the boat, but he didn't want to get anywhere near those teeth (really substantial little knives at that size, not like the little needles you see on edible-sized barracudas). I wish my picture could show the scale correctly: remember, the fish is about 3' below the people-feet you see here. It's larger than any of the others he's brought aboard, and the first barracuda he caught we measured at 3'. This one he could not lift on the line from the water one-handed. Note, this isn't even really big for a barracuda, it still looks like a fish. Derek's been in the water with the ones that have gotten big enough that they look fat, they look like the rump, thigh and leg of an adult held out in the water horizontally (I know that because in the BVI once, I was getting into the water and thought there was a human near Derek, I looked above the water for the part of the human from the waist up, and there wasn't any. It was a big-butt-barracuda). Once they start to get thick-looking, they are really big. Anyway, we were not gonna eat that fish (ciguatera), and we didn't want him sampling Derek, either, so he cut the leader, and it threw the hook and the lure off almost immediately once the pressure from the line was gone. Here it is by the boat, after a very long struggle. Both of them were tired: Derek and the barracuda.
Derek and his four-foot barracuda

The cat came out after the large barracuda was gone and we were anchored off Great Sale...
Cat exploring at anchorage

During the night, the wind shifted from light southerly to 5-10 SW, very close to the direction we were heading next!

Wednesday morning we headed to Mangrove Cay across the banks, the whole way about 15' deep, but occasionally we would cross a patch that looked very scarily light blue, like a shoal just under the water, but there would be nothing on the chart and the depth was still 10' or more, plus you could not see into them, the water was milky. These are called "fish muds" and they happen when the fish stir up the white bottom sand and send clouds of it into the water, which turns a very light milky white turquoise (looking like a sandbar with only 2-3' of water over it!). July is the mating season for nurse sharks, who are apparently very vigorous and do things in large groups -- perhaps that is the answer to the "fish mud" mystery. The more usual but more boring explanation is that it's schools of bottom-feeding fish stirring things up. Whether it was naughty nurses or not, it was a disconcerting thing to pass over!
Crossing a
Crossing a "fish mud" -- the depth gauge reads 13' but the eyes are saying shallow :-)

Derek also caught more King Mackerel, tasty:
Derek and King Mackerel the Second
Derek and King Mackerel the Second

And bigger:
King Mackerel the Larger
I made mackerel ceviche.

By the time we were passing Mangrove Cay, the forecast was in for the evening, updated, and the winds were supposed to go south at 8-13 kts overnight: pretty much excellent for the direction we wished to go! So we decided to just keep going and exit the banks just south of Memory Rock just before sunset.

There is a weird haze on the horizons, apparently a pink African sandstorm that sent dust over to us in the Bahamas... so the sun doesn't set, it just gets redder (pinker) then disappears above the horizon. More weirdness...
Sailing into the pinkish sunset
Sailing into the pinkish sunset

Also, the banks drop off rather abruptly. Here's the depth under keel just before sunset:
6.3 feet under keel

And 10 minutes later:
whoop, there it is

The moon was first quarter, so for the first part of the night we had a good moon illuminating the sea ahead. I was first evening watch, so after dinner I settled to that and Derek tried to sleep. He usually has trouble sleeping the first night of an offshore passage, so we were not expecting much. I handed over to him at midnight. Despite being prepared for the Gulf Stream to push us 20 degrees north of our intended course, we were taken by surprise: the stream was cranking at more than 4 kts for hours, and the wind strengthened but it stayed SSW and even SW, rather than S, so we could not hold our point far enough south to make Port St. Lucie. On the plus side, we were hitting up to 9.4 kts on Derek's midnight watch! Eventually it went too far west, after 3:30 I asked him to take the sail in so that I could make sure we actually made Fort Pierce, the next inlet north of the St. Lucie. For a while, the wind even went north of straight west, what was up with that?! But it also calmed significantly, so the passage was still quite speedy even without the sail. Boosted by the Gulf Stream a bit, heading for Fort Pierce at 1800 rpm, we were still going nearly 7 kts some of the time.

Eventually we made it into the Fort Pierce inlet; although it was supposed to be slack low water according to our GPS's tide function, the tide was still flowing fast outward, the marker buoys were leaving wakes as we crawled past them at 2100 rpm but only about 3 kts! We pulled into the Municipal Marina in the morning and Derek called the Customs office to check us in. Then we all went to the airport in person to check in, it's a security thing. If we had come in at Port St. Lucie, it would have been a much longer drive -- the airport is north of Fort Pierce.

Derek called his parents to tell them we had landed, and we all ate and napped (even the cat!).
Landfall! The yellow Q flag is flying.
Landfall! The yellow Q flag is flying.
Comments
Vessel Name: Parallax
Vessel Make/Model: 37' Prout Snowgoose (1982)
Hailing Port: Pensacola
Crew: Derek, Heather and Grant
About:
Two astronomers, looking for variable stars and adventure. After cruising the Caribbean aboard S/V Paradox for 18 months in the early 90s, the crew swallowed the anchor and had a child, always planning their next Great Adventure: cruising under sail with Grant, showing him the world. [...]
Extra:
We knew that if we ever got a catamaran, we'd want a name to celebrate her twin-hulledness. Parallax is seeing the same thing from two slightly different points of view, which with our two eyes is what gives humans our depth perception. It's also a good metaphor for one of the benefits of marriage. [...]

S/V Parallax

Who: Derek, Heather and Grant
Port: Pensacola