On April 2nd Buford Eddy, Jim Tipton, and I left
Corpus Christi City Marina starting our trip to Key West. We headed to Port
Aransas where we topped off our fuel. A
final check of the weather showed the Gulf was still very rough from the
previous day’s high winds. We decided it
would be better to wait until morning to head out. We got a slip in the Port A Municipal Marina
for the night. Nancy and Marie came up
and we all went out for dinner.
We left Port A on the third around 7:40 am. We had calm seas and little wind, so we had to motor most of the day. As the sun went down, we picked up 10 to 15 knot winds from the south that allowed us to sail under perfectly clear skies. Night sails like this, with the moon and stars, are one of the greatest experiences when sailing off shore.
After sunup on the fourth, the wind died and we started
motor sailing. The weather was great and
the skies were clear. It was so sunny we
put up the center portion of the dodger so we could get some shade.
Around midday, we came across a pod of 25 to 50 dolphin. The water was perfectly clear and dark
blue. It was amazing to watch the
dolphins swimming ten or more feet below the surface and then come to the surface and jump out of the
water. It was awesome! We had a visitor of the feathered variety
come on board. Jim and the bird made
friends. See the photo of the two of
them.
On the fifth, I talked to Chris Parker and we still have a good forecast to make Key West. We are now heading a little north to try to get as far east as possible before the trades winds kick in out of the east later on Saturday. We hope to stop motoring later this afternoon and sail on a NW wind. This should keep up for several days.
On the sixth, we kept motoring most of the day. We had our second pizza that night. This one was much better than the first one,
which I had burned badly.
We did have a close encounter that night with a large oil
rig that was being moved. We were motor
sailing and could see a large vessel that the AIS identified as being “limited maneuverability”.
As we got closer to the vessel, I called it on the radio and asked them how
they wanted me to proceed. I changed
course after talking to them, but after a few minutes we seemed to be moving
directly into their path. I called them
again and they had us change course again so we would pass behind them. We were much closer to them than we wanted to
be, when we passed behind them, we were less than a ½ mile away!
About 2:00 am this morning we were hit by weather front from
the northwest. A line of rain and wind
came from the northwest at about 20 to 25 mph.
The wind continued through sunrise and into the early morning. We made very good time sailing for several
hours. I talked to Chris Parker who
recommended we continue our current course and then work our way south as we
approached Florida around FT Myers. The
weather for today was light winds and bumpy seas. Later tonight, the winds were to shift out of
the northeast at 15 mph and increase to 20 to 25 with gusts to 30. Those winds will continue through
Saturday. It’s going to be a bumpy ride the
rest of the way to Key West. We are a
little tired, but all of us are doing well.
Kathryn is also performing wonderfully.
One of the funniest things that happened during the trip was
when I tried to tie a line to a zipper on the bimini top to keep it from
unzipping in the 25 knot winds. I
reached up and grabbed the top of the frame with my left hand when a seagull, that
was hitching a ride on top, bit my finger scaring the, you know what, out of
me!!! The seagull must have decided it was too windy to fly so he was riding
with us. He flew off, but in a few minutes came back and landed again. I scared him off a couple of more times, but
he kept coming back. I think he
continued to ride with us until the wind slowed down.
Of Friday the eighth, we were motor sailing in 25 knots of
wind from the northwest and seas were bumpy.
The forecast was the wind would be shifting more to the north east and
increasing to 25 to 30 knots. This will
allow us to start heading south toward Key West. As we approached Ft Myers, we decided to stay
on our current course and stop at Ft Myers Beach.
We arrived there on Saturday the ninth around 6:00 PM. I had a little trouble getting into the slip
because of the strong tidal current. We
bumped the dock kind of hard, but didn’t do any damage to Kathryn or the dock,
just my pride.
We spend three nights in Ft Myers. Buford found out that the people working on
his boat in Kemah needed his help, so he arranged for a flight from Ft Myers
back to Houston. Jim and I sailed on to
Key Wes,t leaving on the afternoon of the 12th and arriving on the
13th. We got into Stock
Island on Wednesday morning. The Nancy
and Marie arrived later that afternoon.
This was one of the best Gulf crossings I have made. With three seasoned sailors on board, we were
all able to get plenty of sleep and had time to relax and enjoy the beauty of
the sea. Thanks Buford and Jim for
making it such a great trip.