Mississippi to Key West
26 January 2013
Pink sky at night, sailors delight
1/21/13, and a few minutes after midnight we arrived at the Mississippi Sound and like magic no more fog. Now what's up with that? We continue on down the ICW but it's an open bay. Don't really have to stay in the channel but we do anyway just to make sure we don't get lost. We motored all night headed for the next fuel dock. Then for no apparent reason Otto decided to change course. Put him back on course and life was good again. Our original plan was to head offshore straight for Clear Water Fl. But the weather man and those GRIB files that Capt. Bill and Phil loves so much are predicting calm seas for the next couple of days. And since we used a lot of fuel going thru Louisiana Mr. Buddha was going to need some more to drink. Change destination to Panama City, easy in easy out, just more miles to cover.
A few hours after sunup we headed out the Mobile Ship Channel and into the GoM again. No more dodging tugs and worrying about running aground. And we only ran aground once, intentionally. Heck we might even get to do a little sailing if the wind ever picks up. Just in case, we raised all sails but Buddha still working. Then for no apparent reason Otto suddenly decided to change courses again. Damn it, now what? Last autopilot I had - when it started doing that a few months later the compass failed. Going to have to order another one soon. Then at about 6pm the winds do pick up, time to put Buddha to rest. 2hrs later - only a fool will forget who is really in charge of the weather. Winds, lots of it, waves getting bigger. Here we go again. Reef down to #2 on the main, #2 on the Jib, and staysail rolled up. Change course to get closer to land and maybe the seas wouldn't be so big. At midnight we are close enough to land that the waves have subsided for a comfortable ride.
With all this wind we could be half way to Clear Water by now. But best to refuel just in case the weather man was right and this was just a joke mother nature was playing on us. We arrive at the fuel dock a couple hours before they open. Cooked a good breakfast, clean up the boat, emptied the trash, and waited for fuel. While we had an internet and cell phone connection I ordered another electronic compass from West Marine and had it shipped to the CW store.
1/22 @ 0730 we are on the way again. 200nm to CW. Winds good for a while then back to calm conditions. Motor sailing again. Nothing exciting happing except Bill is having withdrawals issues. In the rush to empty the trash his big bag of M&M's got thrown away. Since it was almost boring I decided to turn on the watermaker. I'm finally in clear water. It wasn't producing the correct amount of water and the ppm was on the high side. The feed pump began to make this winding noise not to mention leaking water. That was one of those things on the list to fix before I left, but . . . I have the replacement pump just gotta find the time to fix it. Turn it off and will wait until we get to port and try again.
In the middle of the night the wind picks up to 15-20kts. Perfect sailing conditions. But it was my nap time so when I hear the grinding of winches and sails flapping I don't give it much thought, the boat is in good hands with Capt. Bill onboard. Time for my watch. When I come on deck the Staysail is rolled up. The Jib is reef and Buddha still doing 2200prms. Speed 7kts. Now everybody sail a little different. Bill owns a catamaran and does not like to heal. I own a round bottom boat that heals with very little wind and I like it. So to reduce heal he reduce sail. My watch - all sails come out, Buddha goes to sleep and the speed drops to 6.5kts - rails almost in the water. But what a ride, finally getting to sail. When Bill comes back at the break of dawn and see what's going on - You slowed the boat down! A delivery Capt. goes as fast as he can and Bill is the fastest delivery Capt. I know. My comment - SO?
1/23 @ 1500 we are safely tied up to our slip at Clear Water Beach City Marina. Got a short list of things to do. Got to dry all those cloths and blankets, maybe even wash them. The sony video camera I bought just before I left does not want to talk to the Blog. Bill has this nice Nikon that also does videos and it uses the same format that the Blog uses. I just got to have one of those. Most pics for this leg of the trip were taken with his camera. So off to WallyWorld we go. Tried the watermaker again with same results. I'm sure I have fouled the membrane running it in Clear Lake, Kemah where the water isn't clear like Clear Water Fl. Now I will need a new one - that was also on my list of things to do before I left. Well I get to do it now, having one shipped overnight. Off to West Marine for my electric compass. Since we left Panama City it hasn't acted up once. Go figure. But I got a spare just in case. Also got a spare bow light just in case the temporary repairs are temporary. A few more gallons of oil. Had to change oil since we have put over a 100hrs in a week on poor Buddha. I don't do that much in a year. Needless to say this stop cost about $2k. I'm going to have to spend more time at sea, it's cheaper.
1/24. Capt. Bill have a job back in Kemah and need to go. We say our goodbyes and hope to see him when it's time for the Panama Canal crossing. Started getting the boat ready for a 220mi trip by myself. Got out my charts, parallel rules, dividers, calculator, sextant (aka The Capn computerized plotting program) and figured out that for me to make it to the Key West North Channel by morning and beat the bad weather forecasted, I needed to leave CW by 1400, didn't leave until 1600, not like I'm going to miss anything.
If I get tired of sailing, with Bill's help, I located a few anchorages. Basically anywhere along the whole west coast of Fl. when the wind is anywhere but from the North to Southwest. Well the GRIB files and the weather man was wrong again. The wind blew from the Northwest the whole trip.
Since installing the new radar I haven't had a chance to play with the Guard Zone alarms or the AIS Closest Point of Approach alarms. So while I'm 30mi offshore and no oil rigs since leaving Alabama waters I have something new to play with. Also kept me awake. The easiest thing to do would get out the manual and read the instructions. But what fun would that be; besides I can't find them.
Well with all that calculations and leaving late I still got to the entrance to the North channel before sunup. But it is a well mark channel and all the markers seem in place. So I decided to go in, then the bad weather predicted showed up early also. Damn weather man and Grip files. When will they get it right? So rolled up the head sails and continue on with Buddha and the main sail. Now by this time I'm very sleep deprived and instead of having the alarm set to wake me up when I'm taking a nap, I got it set to wake me up before I fall asleep.
Tried to anchor but the current is flowing west and the wind is out of the Northwest and my head is going in circles. When the boat came to rest I was too close to another anchored boat. Up comes the anchor, now I'll go try a mooring ball. Just as I get to the mooring field another Seven Seas Cruising Association member dinghies by and suggested I stay on this side of the field. Several moorings have come loose further down. I said thanks and if it was okay with him I'll just take the mooring next to him. He asks if I needed help, sure I do. Those moorings did not have a pennant attached and for me to be able to tie up to one by myself in this wind was going to be one big joke. He took my line, looped it thru the eye on the ball and gave it back to me and said good luck. Be sure I snorkel on the line to make sure it's not ready to break. I got to keep reminding myself that I'm old and weak and very tired and trying to pull 11 tons into a 20kt wind damn near broke my back. Did stain a muscle. And I just wasn't up to getting in the water to make sure I got a good mooring line. If it broke, I got Boat US towing insurance to pull me off the reef. I need a hot shower and a nap and not necessarily in that order.
According to the weather reports there is another bad cold front due here on Thursday. So look like I'm stuck here until the weekend. Will have time to check off a few more things on my list.