Crossing the Big Bend sans Sans Chibli

Notes on crossing the Big Bend of Florida

We exited the pass at Dog Island between 1400 and 1430 and by 1500 had lost sight of land in the thin fog.

At 1500, the south wind is still creating a few white caps, and the southwesterly swell is coming at us at about 1-2 feet with an occasional 3-4 footer just to keep us on our toes. The ride is not uncomfortable with little roll and light pitching, and the boat tracks well into the seas on auto-pilot.

We are expecting a lot of moon and further calming of the seas as the night wears on. Our ETA off Anclote Key is around 0830 Tuesday.

The Sans Chiblis are manning their vessel on the flying bridge while we Calypsos prefer to remain below probably because the big bucks we spent a few years back on modifications have afforded us a very comfortable two-person elevated seat behind the lower station helm. The boat’s motion is amplified higher up and there is no climate control up there for when the night gets cold, as it will. Additionally, most of our alarms and other equipment, like radar are mounted below. I always tell people that I prefer to run the boat from the lower station, because that’s where the food is kept. I am sure we will be spending a lot of time up top later on as we traverse the confined waters of the ICW.

For now, Mary is asleep on the settee resting for whatever relief I will need during the night.

In the loose arrangement we have with the other boat, they have apparently decided to follow about a quarter mile astern of us. We have no other agreement except to start off together and stay within radio range. If they should breakdown or have some other trouble, there is little we could do but standby as moral support and energize our emergency locator, if we could not contact the Coast Guard on the radio. Should either boat go down, there is at least another one to swim toward. Anyway, being in the lead means I don’t have to sweat changing engine speed to match them. With their engines running at a reported 1729 RPM and ours at 1600 we paced each other perfectly yesterday. I don’t know what causes them to have to work harder to go my speed, maybe bottom smoothness – engines and props and probably trannies are identical.

At 1620, the Sans Chibli reported the lady of the boat, who wanted to try the crossing for the first time, is not faring well, and they are returning to port. We continue on alone with a point-of-no-return at about 2330 tonight. (A report from them a couple of days later said they had returned home to Gulf Breeze andwould drive to Fort Lauderdale to babysit their grand children).

About 1700, I backed off a hundred RPM to 1500 RPM to see what it would do to our ETA at a ;point off shore from Anclote Key, and the computer promptly told us it would slow us up from 0830 arrival to 0907 - big deal, but we’re saving a few gallons of fuel.

As the evening wears on, the winds have died off to calm, but we are still dealing with the 2-3 foot swell from the southwest, putting it on our starboard bow. Even so, we have only had two instances all day of spray coming over the bow.

Mary took the watch for a couple of hours before darkness fell, and then I sent her below to get some sleep about 2100. She will get another trick at the wheel a bit later on, but for now she is sleeping through the point-of-no-return.

At 2200 I was visited by a large pod of oceanic porpoise. They were smaller than the big guys we see off our pier and in the bay all the time. There was quite a crowd of them, and I played tag with them using the searchlight.

Up to midnight we have seen only one other vessel, and that was an AIS contact which first showed up on the computer and later on radar out at eight miles.

AT 0830 we anchored off the eastern side of Anclote Key and waited/slept/ate until 1230 for our slip at Tarpon Springs City Marina to clear. We are here in TS for two days. then on to visit with Jeff Wright.