Crossing the Gulf of Mexico from Clearwater to Pensacola, FL

Serendipity under sail to fill up on diesel in St. Petersburg, FL - Capt. Brian waving from bow while Raquel steers

Raquel & Brian just before leaving Tampa and a shave

As of the end of April 2016, we are safely in Pensacola, Florida area. Actually Josephine, Alabama to be precise.  Serendipity is side-tied next to her big sister Midnight Sun II in the canal behind the house of our good friends Neil & Janet Davies.

Neil & Janet had inspired us when they moved from the P Dock slip next to us on Lake Lanier 2+ years ago and cruised the Bahamas and then around Florida to the panhandle.  They had joined the Pensacola Yacht Club along with Larry and Tracy Cost and hosted us for a regatta weekend about a year ago.  We liked it so much we planned on moving here and now here we are a little bit early.

Optical illusion of mast under bridge

In April, the weather window to depart Tampa and cruise to the Bahamas was closing fast before June 1st in order to avoid Hurricane season and we were still dealing with fuel issues.  The bladder diesel pump hoses were installed incorrectly so we ended up with diesel in our bilge stinking up the entire boat.  I also had other leaks at the primary tank from replacing the fuel gauge sending unit so basically about 2 weeks were spent soaking the bilge and then having to wash all the sheets/cushion covers and wipe down the entire boat and clean the bilge.

Brian steering under the Bay Bridge

                   








It was definitely better to get these problems resolved in Tampa.  So for a test we sailed to St. Petersburg and topped off the fuel tanks plus the Jerry cans for a total of 42 gallons capacity.  Then we went under the Bay Bridge a few days later out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Terra Ceia Bay Anchorage

We anchored out in Terra Ceia bay and visited Emerson Point at the mouth of the Manatee river in the dinghy.  Shiloh enjoyed running free in the park by Palmettos and beautiful trees with hanging Spanish Moss.

Shiloh helping to anchor

Shiloh at Emerson Point

Half the fun was stopping at the Snead Island Crab Shack and Bait shop and drinking a Budweiser and eating a cuban sandwich we had to press/grill ourselves.  Raquel got eaten up by the No-See-Ums while we sat at a picnic table on the canal and watched neighbors catch fish using the live shrimp from the bait buckets.  Our anchorage was beautiful in a 3 mile by 1 mile bay protected all around from wind and waves with a pretty sunset and star scene on a quiet evening.


That day Neil called to inform us that one of his crew members for their Mexico regatta had broken her foot and unfortunately the couple had pulled out.  He needed additional crew by May 1st and asked if I could get to Pensacola in time?  Since Raquel and I knew we weren't going to make the Bahamas this season and we both needed to get jobs by July to cover the budget we had blown this spring on boat repairs, we had already been discussing a departure for Pensacola in May anyway.  So we pushed up our timeframe and motored to Clearwater on April 23rd.

Clearwater Condos as seen from ICWW

Coast Guard Cutter just off St. Pete

It was a fun 8 hour motor, traveling 40 miles and crossing under 8 Bascule bridges and 3 fixed bridges.  Our mast is 56 feet high and we had to call the bridge operator/tenders to either request passage or wait the 20-30 minutes for the scheduled openings up the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICWW).  This part of St. Petersburg and Clearwater seen by boat is very beautiful with tons of water front homes with docks, boats, canals and condos.  I wish we had spent more time here over the past 6 months, but maybe some future day we will come back for a visit or a longer stay.

Pirate Ship near Clearwater

We arrived at Clearwater Beach Municipal Marina in the mid-afternoon and topped off the diesel tanks again.  It was a mad house.  Dozens if not hundreds of tourists were milling around in lines in the parking lot embarking or disembarking from ferries, touristy pirate ships and commercial fishing vessels.  Plus the sandcastle festival was going on at the beach and pier area just a few hundred yards away causing traffic on this weekend to snarl to a standstill on all the causeways and bridges.  Luckily we just had to clean the boat up and have a few drinks before having a dockside dinner at the Bait House.  John Adair and his wife visited us on the boat and we talked about all the upgrades/repairs we had performed together and how the boat was holding up now that we had done a few sea trials.  We walked along the beach with a full moon.  That was fun.

Saturday morning we cleaned the interior again in preparation for our two guests that would help me make the Gulf of Mexico crossing.  Gale has been a dock neighbor at Westshore Yacht club for the previous 6 months and had gone sailing with me a few times.  Josh Barnes was a Lake Lanier friend that had sailed with me in St. Martin the previous year.  Josh drove a rental car from Savannah, GA with less than 48 hours notice, and Gale brought the 4Runner around from the marina so Raquel could drive to Pensacola with Shiloh that night.

Manatee drinking water in marina
before we left Clearwater

I prepped the crew that night regarding weather, safety and shift schedules at dinner.  We awoke at 4 AM after the wind had changed to blowing from the east after midnight.  We eased out of the slip in the moonlight at 4:30 am and were through the Clearwater Bridge Channel pass by 5:30 am turning Northwest to 300 degrees.  300 miles to go, expecting it to take 60 hours at 5 nautical miles per hour.

The wind was blowing 10-15 knots and we sailed wing on wing for the first few hours with a following sea running 2-4 feet with a short 8 second period.  Later we rolled up the jib and just sailed with the main with a preventer line to keep us from accidentally jibing.  I could have used a whisker pole and asymmetrical sail, but the budget just wouldn't allow it.  This lasted for about 10 hours until the wind calmed.  We began motoring in the early afternoon hoping to raise the sails again at midnight.  Alas we motored for nearly 20 hours, having to top off the primary tank with the jerry can at 8pm and again at 8 am on Tuesday morning.  Unfortunately the auto-pilot quit working just a few days before, so we had to steer by hand continuously.  With the waves behind us the stern would corkscrew nearly 10-20 degrees after each wave causing the helmsman to really watch the compass and the gps heading constantly.

Sunset from Gulf of Mexico Monday 4/25/16

The first sunset was very beautiful with the ball dipping directly into the sea...
We saw the green flash, if you count staring at the sun too long and red mixing with yellow leaving a mark on your retina once the sun has gone down.

Dolphin surfacing

Several pods of dolphin swam alongside us nearly every two hours or so...
The largest pod of 10 had 8 adults and 2 small juveniles.  I sat on the bow in front of the forestay on a little pulpit seat with my legs dangling just above the water and 8 of the dolphins swam in formation just in front of the bow wave only a foot under my toes for a good long while....this was the highlight of the trip for me as it seemed we were communicating and looking at each other as only two similar but different mammal species can do...

Dolphin off Starboard Bow

After taking a turn at the helm we switched to 2 hours shifts where we would steer for 2 hours, navigate/lookout for 2 hours and then go down to sleep for 2 hours.  All three of us hot bunked the V-berth as it was quieter/darker with less vibration from the engine.














I awoke at 10:30 pm for my navigation shift but when I walked up the stairs into the cockpit I had to rub my eyes for a few minutes.  Gale's face was glowing in the dark from the electronic lights of the Garmin GPS and IPAD Navionics display screens.  I looked around into the blackness.  It felt like we were floating in space with no water or horizon line in sight.  The dew had fallen all over the boat making every surface slippery and wet.  The plastic glass on the dodger had fogged up making it nearly impossible to see forward.  I asked Gale what he could see and he said

"Nothing but these screens and the compass.  I can't see anything two feet beyond the cockpit."

It was surreal.  But when I looked up, it took my breath away.  The stars were the most brilliant I had ever seen in my entire life.  The Big Dipper constellation easily pointed to the North Star, but there were dozens of smaller stars within Ursa Major that I had never seen before due to the ambient lights of cities from the mainland.  No light pollution here, nearly 80 miles offshore.  Every constellation jumped out at me with Orion falling Westward into the sea where the sun had been two and a half hours before.  Sirius the dog star and brightest star in the night sky after the planets was leaping after Orion as part of Canis Major.  It really looks like a dog, no doubt!

Jupiter was up in the high South just under Leo (a right triangle and a backwards question mark), my zodiac Constellation nearly overhead!  Wow!  Unbelievable!  It took me 10 minutes to get my eyes adjusted but thousands of stars kept appearing, mesmerizing me until it was time for me to take a plot.  We changed the helm at the bottom of the hour and took plots of latitude and longitude on the paper chart at the top of the hour.  It's a good sailing practice to write down your position in the log book every hour in case the electronics go out, plus it helped us pass the time so that someone was moving around every thirty minutes.

That morning when we were leaving Clearwater the moon had been up with Mars, Saturn and Antares completing a Triangle within the constellation Scorpio.  And here they came up again around 11pm in the East, helping us get our bearings visually in the night sky.  What a grouping it was to behold?  We were so glad the moon was in the phase that it was on this trip as it helped to dispel the fog and clear our horizon lines again so we could see the water.   But that dreamlike state without the moon was something I hope I never forget and get to see again someday.

The next 12 hours are a blur of changing shifts.  Josh didn't get much sleep and was groggy but Gale and I felt pretty good.  We were looking forward to sunrise and when it came we got back into a routine with nearly all three of us in the cockpit eating protein bars, oranges, bananas, summer sausage, sliced cheese, granola and whatever else didn't need to be cooked.

Captain Brian at the helm

Tuesday went very easy as the wind calmed to nothing and seas were only 1-2 feet.  We were visited by a few birds and dolphin, but saw less than 2-3 boats for nearly 24 hours.  We were only 24 miles off Cape San Blas but the horizon was just near flat water with a small swell in all directions.

Capt Brian on the Satphone

I had grown up going to Panama City Beach and Destin every summer since I was a child and dreamed of a day when I would be sailing just offshore, so I was tempted to sail us more north to catch a view of the condos but that would take us directly off our layline so we didn't do it.

Cattle Egret landing on safety line

Josh and I climbed down the ladder into the cool salt water to cool off that afternoon, as it was about 85 degrees and very sunny.  We showered off the back with engine warmed fresh water once the sun was low enough in the sky we didn't think we would sweat anymore.  We topped off the fuel tank again using the secondary  bladder this time, having to clean up a little spill with rags again.  We tried to sail 2 or 3 times, jibing for a few hours which slowed us down so we wouldn't get into Pensacola when it was too dark.

We timed the arrival just right, hitting the Pensacola Bay Channel markers before dawn and then turning into the ICWW at Fort McCree at sunrise.  Plenty of light to see the channel markers.  Strangely three barn swallows flew circles around the sailboat as we neared the channel, finally landing on the safety lines precariously. They looked tired.  One flew at me at the helm and touched my elbow.  A few minutes later I went below and it was dead on the top of the hatchway.  We buried it at sea, wondering what the omen or sacrifice meant....

We had averaged nearly 6 mph so the crossing only took 53 hours, arriving near Pirate's Cove Marina at Arnica Bay just around 8:30 AM Central time on Wednesday morning April 27th.  We had only used the Sat Phone a few times to give our location and get weather information.

Fort McCree Sand dunes

We really enjoyed crossing Big Lagoon and looking at the Sand Dunes.  I'm looking forward to rafting up on the weekends there and letting Shiloh run around the beach.

The homes along the ICWW were more spread out and looked more affordable with nice long docks than what we had seen in Clearwater. I was personally on a spiritual high at the end of the trip, maybe from adrenaline due to lack of sleep but I forced the crew to pop beers regardless of how early it was....

Neil came out in his dinghy and led us through his canal to his slip while Raquel took photos from Harbor Circle point. You can just see the half moon in the picture to the left still in the sky.  It was our guide half the nights, rising later and later...

Our crew of Josh, Captain Brian, & Gale

We made it!  Great sailing with motoring about 2/3's of the way.  The engine ran well, although I had to add a quart of oil about 5:30am as we saw the first red channel mark.  Glad to know the low pressure alarm works. We averaged nearly half a gallon an hour or 12 miles per gallon, which leaves us with enough diesel on board to turn back and make another crossing in reserve.

Josh is wiped out once we hit dry land.
He proceeded to drive 7 hours back to Savannah
to work his construction job on Thursday.

But that's for the next trip.  We hope to leave for Isla Mujeres Mexico this Monday, May 2nd on Neil's 42' sailboat Midnight Sun II.  Cross your fingers that our Cuba Coast Guard application gets approved so we can visit there in June.  Hoping to sail through the Keys mid-June and return to Pensacola later that month.  Raquel and Shiloh are going to house sit here and visit Austin, Texas while I'm on Neil's 42' Hunter sailboat for 6-8 weeks.  Then we'll be looking to get jobs and/or a house/condo somewhere down here.  But that's info for another blog....

Larry, Raquel, Brian, Tracy, Janet & Neil at Pirate's Cove
We had 3 sailboats on P Dock on Lake Lanier but now all have our boats here.