October 30-31, 2015
We slept pretty well but woke up early, excited and anxious
about starting the Gulf Crossing. It
seemed a bit windy after a calm night, but if I think back about the days we
have been close to the Gulf, most mornings were similar. Sometimes the winds would settle down a bit
as the sun came up and sometimes they wouldn’t.
The wind and wave forecasts had not changed much overnight – Rob was up
around 2 a.m. checking on them – so the Crossing was a go!
Everyone else also had a pretty good night’s rest. Bob, on The Bar B, slept at the helm as usual
when at anchor, because it is the only way he gets any rest at all. His friend, Clifford, from Clearwater, had
joined him yesterday for the Crossing while Barbie drove herself and the cats
to the marina in Indian Rocks Beach where they had a reservation for the winter. Apparently, the cats really don’t do well on
the Crossing if it is too rough, so they try not to put them through it if
possible. It’s not that we expected a
rough Crossing, but there were enough uncertainties for parts of the trip that
they figured it was better safe than sorry.
As usual, the forecasts were not completely right. We were expecting winds and waves from the
west to southwest but they were mostly from the east and northeast starting
out. I say mostly because we think we
may have been at the edge of where conditions were changing, so the seas seemed
a bit more choppy and confused rather than the rolling swells we had pictured
in our minds. Since we were heading pretty
much southeast, the waves were on the beam or slightly to the stern, and Bob
estimated that they were 1.5-2 ft with occasional 3 ft sets thrown in. We rolled a bit, but it wasn’t bad at all,
especially after we stopped using the Course-keeper and steered by hand.
Rob didn’t get seasick at all, even when he had to be
downstairs doing engine checks and other things from time to time. Since being at the wheel helps you feel
better – just like driving a car if you tend toward carsickness – Rob did more of
the steering, especially at the more rolly times. Sasha didn’t get sick and even ate some food,
but she did stick close to us. We played
from time to time, but when the bigger waves rolled us more, she would stop for
a while.
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| Sasha stuck to us like glue |
In 1965, our Ware Engelhard Automatic Pilot was state-of-the-art. It still works to keep the boat on a heading,
but we can’t set it for an actual GPS location so it doesn’t correct
automatically for the push of wind and waves.
It also seemed to us that when the bigger waves came, it was a rougher
ride to try to stay the course rather than go with the push of the waves and
then correct back after they passed.
Since we are accustomed to hand steering and the ride seemed better that
way, it wasn’t an ordeal for us. When we
were buying our new Garmin navigation system, the guy we bought it from had
talked Rob out of getting an autopilot right away since we had the
Course-keeper. He told us that if we
were going to spend a lot of time in Florida and do most of our cruising on
inland waterways, we likely wouldn’t use the autopilot much. We can always add it later if we think it
would be of benefit to us.
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| "Auto pilot" panel with handheld tethered remote! |
It didn’t seem like any time at all and then we could see
nothing but water and the 2 boats in front of us. We were sure glad they let us tag along with
them, because it would have been lonely and more scary without them. We saw a few boats off in the distance and a
couple passed us, but they weren’t in view for long and then they were gone.
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| Water, water everywhere |
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| The Bar B and Second Noelle leading the way |
We saw dolphins and they played in our bow wave as they
usually do, but they seemed more frisky.
We saw a number of them jumping almost completely out of the water as
they approached us! Rob even saw some at
night after the moon was up.
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| Dolphins coming in to play |
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| 4 dolphins, including a young one, on the bow |
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| We haven't gotten tired of watching them yet, especially when the water is so clear |
Sometime in the mid to late afternoon, the sea started to
settle down, becoming more organized and more of the rolling swells we had
expected. Once night fell, it flattened
out even more, and when the moon rose around 10 p.m., it looked like wavy
glass. The moon was pretty bright, but
since we tried to stay at least half a mile apart, we could still only see the
white navigation lights of the other 2 boats.
We had the course line on our Garmin chartplotter to follow, but it was
nice to be able to have something ahead of us to focus on as well. Of course we also had the radar on and
extended out 6 miles so that we could see if anything was ahead of us. The radar also helps keep the distance from
other boats at night since it is difficult to do it by sight.
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| Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico |
We all pretty much stayed in the salon unless we had to go
below briefly. We napped and slept on
the reclining loveseat so that we could be readily available if needed. Sasha would lie near whoever was resting or
sometimes she would lay behind the loveseat.
We had a cooler with food and drinks in it so that we could minimize opening
the refrigerator since we had it strapped closed. We didn’t have trouble with anything falling
to the floor since we had tried to secure things before we left, although I did
have to wedge a towel at the base of the microwave after it slid out partway
twice while I was in the galley.
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| We don't know if we really needed the straps, but we felt better with them on |
Between around 3 and 5 a.m. the seas became rougher with
waves on the bow of at least 3-4 ft.
Since they were on the bow, we bounced more than rolled which is always
better than taking waves on the beam.
Lorelei IV is pretty heavy at 25 tons, so we think she takes waves
pretty well for a small yacht. Second
Noelle is only 35 ft long and much lighter, so she had to slow down for a while
to keep from taking a beating.
Fortunately, the seas began to settle down again as we got closer to
shore and the welcome lights of Clearwater, FL.
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| Daybreak and the lights of Clearwater, FL |
We started thinking about crab pots about 25 miles out, but
since that was the time it started to get rougher, we didn’t worry about them
for long. Second Noelle has cutters to
help protect her props, so we tried to stay behind her. Rob also sat out on deck with a spotlight for
a while but he never did see any. We
don’t know if they were there and we just didn’t see them, but our engines
never gave any indication of a line possibly being wrapped around a prop so
maybe we just got lucky.
Day was breaking as we passed through the inlet near
Clearwater Beach, just in time to have light to help navigate through the
narrow channels now that we were back in the GIWW. As early as it was, we saw lots of small and
larger boats going out to fish, but then we remembered that it was Sunday.
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| We were back in the narrow channels after we crossed under the bridge |
First we went to the Indian Rocks Beach Keegan Clair docks
to rest for a while. They are nice free
docks which are right off of the GIWW, but they are for day use only. It was a little tricky getting in due to the
current in the narrow channel, but the 3rd try was the charm. The Bar B docked at the marina right next
door which is where they will stay until they go back to Kentucky Dam Marina in
the spring.
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| The inlet is upper left and the docks we went to are just after the bridge at the lower right corner |
After a few hours, we went about 5 miles further to an
anchorage that Ray and Linda use when they pass by this way. It was good to have them lead the way,
because although the anchorage is very nice and protected, it is tricky getting
in. There is a sandbar out in the middle
of what looks like a big cove off of the GIWW, so you have to know to stick
fairly close to the docks that line the cove.
Once we were around to the back side of the sandbar, however, there was
plenty of room for both of us to anchor and swing. We had 8.5-9 ft all the way in and where we
anchored as well.
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| We went from the docks near the bridge (left) through The Narrows to the cove at the right side of this picture |
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| Lorelei IV at anchor in the cove off of Boca Ciega Bay, Redington Shores, FL |
Once we were settled, we went to shore with Sasha, but we
couldn’t find a good place for Frisbee.
We were actually now in Redington Shores, FL, and there was a park right
on the cove, but dogs were not allowed in it or on any of the beaches. After we took Sasha back to the boat, we went
to a local tavern with Ray and Linda for some food. We didn’t stay out late, however, because we
wanted to be on our way south early the next morning.
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| Wahoo's Famous Smoked Fish Spread |
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