Sailing The Distant Horizon South

On Monday, I waited for a rising tide to sail Distant Horizon out of Cortez, FL. In their typical fashion, the boatyard staff came together to help me off the dock.  It was more like a send-off from friends, rather than help from a boatyard.

It takes less than an hour to carefully navigate the channel, ICW, the bascule bridge, and Longboat Pass to reach the Gulf of Mexico. Some folks like to save time by shaving a little off the turns. The last two who tried that did not save time! The motor yacht had to return to the boatyard. He bent a prop shaft and both propellors. The sailboat... well he thought he could cut the corner; after all, it was high tide! It took two SeaTow boats to get him off the rocks... ouch!

I heeded every one of Fernando's warnings. An hour later, I was in the gulf ready to raise the mainsail. My autopilot connected to the WindPilot (wind vane steering system). Having taken the WindPilot off, I had no autopilot.  I have not fabricated an adapter for the autopilot to connect to the Hydrovane. It didn't matter, though. I engaged the Hydrovane for the first time with the boat pointed into the wind and the engine running just above idle. The mainsail was raised without any issues, which was new to me. The WindPilot almost always had issues when I was raising the mainsail. So, it was a nice relaxing start to my journey south.

The winds were light; around 10-12 knots. The waves were small; providing a gentle motion. Distant Horizon sailed wonderfully at 5.5 knots as we got reacquainted.

About two hours on the gulf, we crossed the path of an isolated thunderstorm. Once we passed by, we were able to use the downdraft winds (18-20 knots of wind) from the storm and sailed for a good 20 minutes at nearly 7 knots!

This thunderstorm gave Distant Horizon a nice boost

The winds gradually subsided and we had to resort to turning the engine on for a while before the wind picked back up.

We were able to sail through the night. This was a blessing because the Hydrovane could do the steering. I maintained a reasonable watch and updated the log books. With an old Timex digital watch, I set the timer to repeat every hour. This allowed me to get by with 20-40 minute power naps all night. On the ocean, I would do it differently. However, I planned this trip to be about 45 hours. So, I could do this for two days.

Tuesday, was quite different. The waves remained small, but the wind gradually went away; entirely by evening. So, I had to start the engine again and begin motoring to Marathon. Jimmy Buffet should write a song: "Motoring to Marathon".

Sunset, Sailing on the Gulf: Tuesday July 21, 2015

Tuesday night had the most amazing sky I have seen in years! Good thing too. No wind, no autopilot, Kevin is doing all the steering, so... no naps! The moon set early. I was well off the west coast of Florida. The sky was black, lit only by the stars and the Milky Way. In photos, the Milky Way is colorful. I wish I could have taken a picture, but the slow shutter speed does not work well on a moving boat. Still, the Milky Way looked fluorescent; popping out of the sky like a 3D picture. I know it is actually 3-dimensional, but we can not get that perspective from earth.

All night as I star gazed and counted shooting stars (12), I would be interrupted by a flash of lightning off in the distance. As morning approached, I realized we were headed toward the lightning. When the sun started to rise, I could see the storm.

The cloud looked like the result from an explosion! I used the sextant and radar to estimate the storm was about 8 miles wide at its base. My route took me right through the center.

Thunderstorm in my path

So... do I go right? Or should I go left? After consulting the charts, going right (where the lowest clouds were) could put me in much shallower water. It had to be left.

It took two hours to reach those clouds! By the time I did, the sun had time to do it's thing... heat the earth so the moisture could rise. Another storm cloud developed to the left... and it was shooting off lightning bolts every 2-3 minutes! I had to go between the two storms!

Luckily, all went well and it was an uneventful transit... and so here I am writing this.

Sorry, got to go. I just found a place to relax on these hot days!