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April 11, 2009
We sailed and motor sailed all night. Mark took the helm until 10 pm and I took the 10 pm to 2 am shift. He then took the 2 am to 6 am. I came on at 6 and he went to bed for a while.
I started seeing Portugese Man of Wars sailing by with their full sail up. It was interesting that we had not seen any until this morning, then saw possibly as many as fifty to a hundred scattered over the sea. Some were as large as a cantaloupe, others as small as a lemon. Mark said that he has seen groups of them so dense that they were packed together and stretching for miles.
About midmorning, a pod of porpoises swam with the boat, splashing in and out of the boat’s wake and diving under and around the boat. They were larger than others I’ve seen.
The boat lulls Linda and I to sleep. I took a nap after breakfast, sleeping sideways in the bed because the boat was heeled on a port tack (leaning to the right).
We are late getting to land. We went due west last night trying to stay in favorable winds. The wind was out of the south and by going west we had a beam sea and we sailed on a beam reach for hours. Then, as the wind shifted to coming from the west, we turned northeast. Unfortunately, a front is coming across Louisiana into the Gulf and we are going to have to sail directly into it, meaning that before long we will have north winds. In fact, as I am writing this the wind has shifted to the north and we have furled the jib and are motor sailing. The winds are only about six knots.
I’m concerned that everyone will be worried since we won’t make port tonight. I doubt that I get into cell phone range but I will prepare and send an email from my blackberry so it will go out once we get close enough to a tower. We planned to get in today but we are now about 23 hours out of Pensacola. There is nothing I can do about the worriers. I started to buy a Spot navigator but didn’t. It is a little device that allows you to push a button and it sends a prewritten message saying we are safe. I did not really realize that we would be so far offshore because I was thinking that Linda and I would stay near shore. This little jump across the Gulf requires that we go offshore. I hope no one calls the Coast Guard when we don’t show up on time.
Once, I went hunting with my Dad in Mexico. I had to drive back to the border one afternoon. One of the hunters on the lease had a cell phone that had fair reception and while I was gone my Dad used it to call my Mom. He was describing to her that I went back to the border and had not returned when the cell phone lost reception. He did not think anything about it. I was gone a few hours and the next day, after I returned, I used the same phone to call Linda. Apparently, my Mom thought that my Dad was worried I had been kidnapped in Mexico. She called my sister and they began an overnight process of worrying about me being kidnapped and they started making plans for my brother-in-law to head to Mexico to help find me. The irony was that until they learned how serious it was, they did not want to call Linda. If they had, they would have learned that she had spoken to me that night while I was at the border. They spent a sleepless worried night. Hopefully, they won’t be so worried tonight. They know I have an EPIRB if anything goes wrong. I hope a Coast Guard plane doesn’t fly over before we get to shore.
Our first Gulf crossing is beautiful The winds have died and the sea is flat. This would be excellent scuba weather because we could run the boats wide open to get offshore and back. The water is clear and blue.
The satellite radio shows rain showers ahead of us. We are approaching the edge of the front so rain is to be expected. The rains are not showing as severe and there is no lightening in them so, if we get a little rain, we will put on our rain gear and motor or sail through, depending on the direction of the wind. We hope it moves to the northeast or even better, east. That would give us a great sail to Pensacola.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.
We sailed and motor sailed all night. Mark took the helm until 10 pm and I took the 10 pm to 2 am shift. He then took the 2 am to 6 am. I came on at 6 and he went to bed for a while.
I started seeing Portugese Man of Wars sailing by with their full sail up. It was interesting that we had not seen any until this morning, then saw possibly as many as fifty to a hundred scattered over the sea. Some were as large as a cantaloupe, others as small as a lemon. Mark said that he has seen groups of them so dense that they were packed together and stretching for miles.
About midmorning, a pod of porpoises swam with the boat, splashing in and out of the boat’s wake and diving under and around the boat. They were larger than others I’ve seen.
The boat lulls Linda and I to sleep. I took a nap after breakfast, sleeping sideways in the bed because the boat was heeled on a port tack (leaning to the right).
We are late getting to land. We went due west last night trying to stay in favorable winds. The wind was out of the south and by going west we had a beam sea and we sailed on a beam reach for hours. Then, as the wind shifted to coming from the west, we turned northeast. Unfortunately, a front is coming across Louisiana into the Gulf and we are going to have to sail directly into it, meaning that before long we will have north winds. In fact, as I am writing this the wind has shifted to the north and we have furled the jib and are motor sailing. The winds are only about six knots.
I’m concerned that everyone will be worried since we won’t make port tonight. I doubt that I get into cell phone range but I will prepare and send an email from my blackberry so it will go out once we get close enough to a tower. We planned to get in today but we are now about 23 hours out of Pensacola. There is nothing I can do about the worriers. I started to buy a Spot navigator but didn’t. It is a little device that allows you to push a button and it sends a prewritten message saying we are safe. I did not really realize that we would be so far offshore because I was thinking that Linda and I would stay near shore. This little jump across the Gulf requires that we go offshore. I hope no one calls the Coast Guard when we don’t show up on time.
Once, I went hunting with my Dad in Mexico. I had to drive back to the border one afternoon. One of the hunters on the lease had a cell phone that had fair reception and while I was gone my Dad used it to call my Mom. He was describing to her that I went back to the border and had not returned when the cell phone lost reception. He did not think anything about it. I was gone a few hours and the next day, after I returned, I used the same phone to call Linda. Apparently, my Mom thought that my Dad was worried I had been kidnapped in Mexico. She called my sister and they began an overnight process of worrying about me being kidnapped and they started making plans for my brother-in-law to head to Mexico to help find me. The irony was that until they learned how serious it was, they did not want to call Linda. If they had, they would have learned that she had spoken to me that night while I was at the border. They spent a sleepless worried night. Hopefully, they won’t be so worried tonight. They know I have an EPIRB if anything goes wrong. I hope a Coast Guard plane doesn’t fly over before we get to shore.
Our first Gulf crossing is beautiful The winds have died and the sea is flat. This would be excellent scuba weather because we could run the boats wide open to get offshore and back. The water is clear and blue.
The satellite radio shows rain showers ahead of us. We are approaching the edge of the front so rain is to be expected. The rains are not showing as severe and there is no lightening in them so, if we get a little rain, we will put on our rain gear and motor or sail through, depending on the direction of the wind. We hope it moves to the northeast or even better, east. That would give us a great sail to Pensacola.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.
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