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26-27 April 03 Punta Gorda to It's Sunday and a beautiful day. We've been underway for about 24 hours and it's very nice -- low, rolling seas (1-2 feet), sun shining, sparkling water, 5 knots of wind. We are motor sailing (full sails and the engine running) and making between 5 & 7 knots in the water between the Keys and the southern tip of Florida. There is a dolphin swimming with us just off our bow. We are slightly heeled, very comfortable and into our routines. I now have time to take stock and reflect. All last week Barb and I were busy preparing for this voyage. Actually, we were paying for neglecting the boat, Sweetpea, for the last six years. Sweetpea is a 1967 36 foot C&C Invader, designed by the C&C design group (before they were a boat building company) and built by Hinterhalter. She is a Canadian boat with classic lines. We purchased her in 1990 and spent 6 years rebuilding her so that she was basically new in 1997 (only thing original was part of the mast and the outside of the hull). We brought her down to Punta Gorda from Annapolis in the fall of 1997 and with three years of house remodeling and a couple of years of heavy business traveling, we have not done any cruising, installation of planned equipment or more than just yearly maintenance. Last week we did what was necessary to prepare her to go off-shore. We bought a life raft, replaced important systems that had corroded over the years, installed solar panels to charge batteries, replaced pumps, cleaned out the water tanks, sent sails out to be resown, added rigging, shackles, additional lines, installed the vane gear, cleaned all lockers, tightened bolts, and the like. Barb spent a lot of time inventorying medical kits, stocking Abandon Ship Bags and running to the Marine supply stores for parts. We worked 7 AM to 9 PM all week and all night Friday night to be prepared for the crew to arrive at 8 AM Saturday morning. They did and I was out buying a backup GPS (the old one failed the night before) and filled jerry jugs with diesel fuel. I was spending so much time on the boat, I was experiencing "dock rock' when I got off and went into the house at night (the sensation that the room is rocking like the boat because your equilibrium system has so acclimated to the boat's movement that it carries it into all situations). I was getting to know the boat again and it felt good. I spent a lot of time on her from '90 -- '97, but had been neglectful since. Sweetpea seems to like all the attention too. She was looking good and ready to sail. They say "ships and sailors rot in port'. We might have let that start happening, but no longer. "T", the Captain and Chris, the first mate are about 35 years old and were roommates in College at Saint Mary's college in Southern Maryland. They both have a great deal of experience and both are delivery captains (deliver boats from one place to another for owners who don't have time or experience to do it themselves). I am in the latter category. I wanted someone who could teach me a lot about ocean sailing. T has experience racing blue water (ocean) boats 65- 80 feet long, has crossed the Atlantic, captains large boats for organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, has refitted and maintained several boats, and he spend this last winter in New England racing ice boats. Chris has a lot of cruising experience, was a sail maker in Soloman Island, Maryland, races a lot and is providing T with 'local knowledge' about Florida waters. Remember, T generally heads from point A to point B across the ocean for his deliveries. Chris has sailed Florida fairly recently. They are a good combination and work well together. T brings a 'get it done' approach and Chris is more thoughtful. T lives to race and has no fear of pushing a boat to the edge. Chris is more of a cruiser and more in tune with my comfort. T stretches Chris to be more aggressive and Chris restrains and provides more caution appropriately. I am enjoying watching them work as a team.
26 Apr We motored out of our canal system into Charlotte Harbor and Barb was there to snap a picture as we went through the inlet. We turned south and got a call 10 minutes later, from Barb who wanted to shoot another picture of us raising the sail before we got out of sight. We declined. We were busy clarifying roles, discussing safety issues and doing the things that a good team would do before engaging in life-threatening activities. In this case clarifying roles is important. I am the owner and will be on board. However, I wanted to be perfectly clear that T was the Captain, with responsibility to deliver the boat safely and I was a crew member to follow orders (of course as the owner I would make economic decisions and provide input when asked). He, very appropriately needed to assign duties and make clear certain rules. After motoring south for about 45 minutes, we headed west for another hour and motor sailed. We exited Charlotte Harbor and entered the Gulf of Mexico through Boca Grande Pass. (Boca Grande is a barrier island where the Bushes often spend Christmas together). As we entered the Gulf, the wind stiffened to about 21 knots and the seas became confused probably because we were close to land, the winds were high and currents in the pass are strong. The period of the waves (distance from one crest to another) was very short, about the length of my boat, and the waves were about 4-5 feet, so we watched the bow of the boat rise and fall what seemed to be 10-15 feet every 15 seconds and putting lots of water over the bow and running down the deck to drains -- that's the way it's supposed to work so it was a good sight, but a the movement was somewhat uncomfortable and boat handling in the narrow channel was difficult. Once out of the channel, we headed west to clear Sanibel Island, then south into the wind. We experimented with various sail combinations. Reefing (three levels of shortening) the main or rolling in the jib (head sail) until we found the best combination of sail for wind and waves. Remember, these guys are racers. What they settled on and the way we spent the night was: full sails, about 30 degrees of heel, and the rail (edge of the deck) often buried in the water. This is one thing I am learning: the boat can take much more than I can and can be pushed more by better sailors. Our speed averaged 5-7 knots and with gusty winds, there was a lot a motion. Moving around below decks, in the dark (we don't want to screw up the night vision of the helmsman), reminded me of the spinning room feeling you get when you've had too much to drink except in this case, the room is moving and you aren't. The movement generally has a pattern, but there are unpredictable movements thrown in. All you can do is grab hand rails and wedge yourself in to accomplish whatever you need to do. In the cockpit were I spent several hours talking with the person on watch, I was stretched out horizontally across the cockpit, but because we were heeled, it seemed I was almost standing up. The night was clear, the wind stiff and we were making way toward Marathon in the Keys. The guys took pity on me and said they would pull the watches and do the sailing (a good thing since this situation was much more extreme than I would like to sail in). I was also a good decision because I had been feeling a little sea sick since we entered the Gulf. We were using acupressure sea bands on our wrists to combat the motion sickness and they worked pretty well, but about midnight, I thought I needed something to eat so I ate a protein bar (which is easy to eat and tastes terrible). Evidently, that was all my stomach needed and because all came out when I barfed over the side of the cockpit onto the deck. I felt much better after, but was very tired and I went to bed (in the lowest, most stable place in the cabin) and slept until 8 AM on Sunday. 27 Apr It's Sunday and we were headed for a lay over in Marathon -- should be there by 8PM. The sun just set and on our approach to Marathon, just north of the bridge over the pass into the Gulf, we ran aground. To heel the boat over and shorten the keel, they had me climb onto the boom and they swung it out 90 degrees to the boat for leverage. We slid free of the sandbar and were on our way in no time. The marker (navigation light on a post in the water) we needed to navigate around was not on our chart so we didn't know how to honor it. (FR "12") We will spend the night in Maraton, refuel, and head out into the Gulf to ride the Gulf Stream east and then north toward Miami, West Palm Beach, or points north on our next leg.
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