Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day2/3)

Exciting! Time to actually hit the water!! (or did the water hit us...)

7am and we were up and at 'em! Melinda made some delicious egg and asparagus scramble that we had on a tortilla, along with some diced melon.  The folks from American Yacht Outfitters were back by about 8am to get the last few things done.  They wrapped up the rest of the items from their punch lists, the water tanks were topped off from the dock pedestal and we were heading to the fuel dock right around about 9:30am.  Right when we wanted so we could have the best/longest wind for our sail.  Nick, from the outfitters, took the helm to bring us to the fuel dock and after about 50 gallons of diesel, the half full tanks were topped off.

Bob did a great job of getting us out from the fuel dock and back to the narrow channel to Charlotte Harbor, which we would take to get to the Gulf of Mexico.  The plan was to motor until we got out to open water in the Harbor before raising sails. We could see white caps as we headed out the channel and soon thereafter we could feel them too.  They seemed to settle down some as we got into the deeper waters of the harbor.

The topping lift, which keeps the boom from going lower than you want, was replaced when the boat first arrived in Punta Gorda, and when it got replaced, it appears that something was not done correctly as the topping lift line was wrapped around the main halyard.  We had to use a pair of binoculars to be able to tell that was what was happening.  We also discovered, through several failed attempts of raising the mainsail and one ripped-off sail attachment point at the head of the sail, that the short line at the top of the sail used to raise the top bit of the sail against the battens also seemed to have been mis-routed.

Sail Attachment ripped right off of a new sail ;-(

Bob, Andy and myself fought with this for about 60-90 minutes, spoke with the rigging company (not much help without them seeing what we were encountering) and eventually came to the conclusion above and then re-routed the short line to serve its original purpose as best as possible.  We raised the sail about 90% of the way, and since we were not comfortable that we were putting too much tension on the halyard, left it there then unfurled the genoa head sail.

We definitely lost some time with this challenge, as we had to slow down or change our angle to the wind several times to make things easier.  That being said, we had a solution and we could continue our trip and get good wind for the longest leg of our sail.

It turns out the waves we encountered as we left the marina were really not so bad.  When we got to the bar that got us into the Gulf, the waves increased to about 2-3 meters and they had a very short period.  Water spray was hitting the front of the saloon and the new enclosure at the helm station, which is about 10-12 feet above the water!  Sue and I don't normally get seasick, but given the wringer Neptune was putting us through, we decided it would be worth the risk of some drowsiness to be on the safe side.  We joined the rest of the crew in taking anti-seasickness medicine. This proved to be a good choice, as Sue and I didn't get sick and everyone else did or at least felt off (the 60 minutes of getting into open water and turning south were pretty rough!)

A lot of up and down on the way out of Charlotte Harbor

Waves crashing over the bow on the way out of Charlotte Harbor, FL

Here is a video taking from walkway behind the cockpit to give the seas some perspective:

So we were a little behind schedule, but not terribly.  No major changes to our plans.  We all just started taking turns between the helm, hanging out or napping in the cockput or in the saloon, or hugging a lifeline and yelling at the fish (*-minus Bob, Sue and I)

The current was mostly following us for the long sail from Punta Gorda to the channel through Key West and we had pretty consistent winds of between 12 and 20 knots off our starboard beam the whole way. The seas were at about 6 feet for most of the sail, but the time between them increased a lot which made the trip more comfortable.  

Sue and I at the Helm after we started south in the Gulf of Mexico.

After our first of many pretty sunsets...

...we had a full moon rise at about 11pm which really lit up the skies, and helped us avoid the crab pots that dot the Gulf. We didn’t need to motor during this section because of the fair winds, so their wasn’t much concern of any damage if we did hit one.  

We took turns as we got tired, which happened quickly, given the Dramamine, the soothing sound of softly crashing waves and the serene, but steady view in front of us.

I learned a valuable lesson during this sail: consult the charts for anything on your projected track, even when you are seemingly in the middle of nowhere and even for something like a lighted channel buoy.  We encountered one (an incredibly large one) about 20 nautical miles from shore with a non functioning light.  It was basically an unlit telephone pole in the pitch black.  We saw it, but only once it was within about 100 yds from the boat. It was about 50 yards off our starboard side, but still close enough that we didn’t like not knowing ahead of time that it was out there. 

Dawn came to break the darkness about an hour or so before we approached Key West. It’s a busy area, with large ships, so it was nice to be able to rely on our eyes instead of just AIS data and/or radar. 

As we entered the Atlantic Ocean through the Key West Channel, we switched from a beam reach on a starboard tack to a broad reach on a port tack. We slowed a little, but pushed on to the anchorage at Boot Key.  We anchored just before sunset on Sunday (our 3rd day of the trip).  Two sunsets during this leg!

One last picture that night of the full moon then off to some much needed proper rest!