We Made It to Gulfport, Mississippi

 In my last entry we were awaiting a storm. We were hunkered down in the Impenetrable Swamp, just north of Port St. Joe, Florida. We were in an oxbow, which is a bend in a river that was cut off by an either man made or natural reroute of the river. We had protection from every direction and did not have to worry about flooding current. 

The storm came as predicted and brought with it about an inch of rain. We are fine with rain; we are a boat after all. We did have some wind approaching 30 knots, but not much more. We did have to pick up the anchor twice and reset because the change in wind direction had us too close to the trees along the shore. The good news is the area was deep enough that we did not go aground. The good news is that we got some needed rest after our long passage across the Gulf of Mexico. 

We were getting pretty close to those trees. The good news is that the water was deep almost all the way to the edge.

That bucket was there to catch some rain. 

We were now in the next phase of this journey. From here we would be doing all day sails. We would be able to go in an inlet each night and put the anchor down and get some sleep. That sounded pretty good to us. 

We left our little place in the swamp on Friday, April 12th. We took the ICW down to the Gulf County Canal, which brings us out to Port St. Joe. We went to the recently reopened Marina there to refuel and get water. It is a very nice marina, but they charged us over $5.00 per gallon for diesel. We took on 25 gallons. We had paid only $3.60 per gallon in Gulfport, Florida just a few days prior. 

We then headed 5 miles across the bay to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. We anchored in 20 feet of water about 500 yards off of the beach. We got the dinghy down and went to shore to take a walk on the beach. We found a great place to leave the dinghy at the boat ramp dock. The local concessioner even offered to watch it for us.   

This beach has some special significance to us. We came here with the RV, just a few days before I retired in 2013. We had a nice camp site just off the beach and Kim loved it. She really wanted to come back to see how it has recovered. The area was ground zero for Hurricane Michael in 2017. Michael was one of the most powerful hurricanes to make landfall in the continental US. The Peninsula was cut in half and the State Park destroyed. They have fixed the break and rebuilt the State Park. Our walk on the beach brought back some amazing memories. It is kind of like we have come full circle.

We had to take a Kim on a beach photo on her favorite beach. It was a bit windy, but a beautiful day. 

Just look at that beautiful white sand. The surf was a bit rough.

We saw an eerie turtle skull. 

Kim loved her walk on the beach, but we could not stay long. The wind was going to build throughout the day. We got back out to the boat in the dinghy and got it ready for travel. We stayed there at anchor that night with winds reaching 25 knots. We had put out 200 feet of chain, so we were ready and held fast. That night, I got a call from an old motorcycle riding friend. Rick and his Wife Mary now spend some time in Panama City, Florida. We were planning to go to PC the next day, so we were going to try to meet up for dinner. 

We got going early on Saturday, April 13th. We made the 35-mile sail and in the inlet. I had chosen a place to anchor, but when we got there it was crazy with many boats zooming past just a few feet away. I had already found another place, but it was on the other side of town about 5 miles away. We headed there and Kim researched a place to land the dinghy. We found a great place to anchor and a local pier to land the dinghy. We locked the dinghy to the dock and Rick and Mary came and picked us up. We had a great dinner and a better catch-up conversation. It is so great when these situations work out. The only bad news was that the outboard on the dinghy was not putting out enough cooling water on the way back to the big boat. We made it, but that would not allow us to use it for the rest of the trip. 

This was the very welcome calm anchorage in Panama City

We were up before sunrise the following morning and made it out the inlet before all the Sunday boat traffic got crazy. We had light wind, but it picked up as we made our way to Destin, Florida. We had not been to Destin by boat before. The inlet looked a bit crazy, so I called Sea Tow to get some local knowledge. I did not ask for it, but the tow driver came out to the inlet and made sure we got in without an issue. Talk about great service. Destin was in full Sunday afternoon party mode. There were boats everywhere, but we had no issues getting into the harbor and finding plenty of room to anchor in the very protected anchorage. 

Destin

More bars and restaurants, but we couldn't go ashore

The beach side of the inlet was lined with boats with very scantily clad women. The captain had issues keeping his eyes on the heavy traffic. The one time it was nice to go so slow.

More Destin

Tour boats cruising by, but most respected the idle speed rules in the harbor.

Destin at night. It was Sunday night, so the music ended early, and it was a nice calm night. 

We were up early the next day and made the sail down to the Pensacola Inlet. It was only 37.7 miles, which felt short after the 51.9 that we had done to get to Destin the day before. That would be the last of our offshore sailing. Our anchorage at Spanish point was great, but we couldn't go to the beach that was only a short distance away. Then on April 16th we moved only 12.5nm to Ingram Bayou in Gulf Shores. That set us up to cross Mobile Bay the following day. We headed out on the 17th expecting strong currents against us and hoping to make it to Dauphin Island by nightfall. I still am not sure why, but the currents did not materialize and some wind behind us did. We moved through the bay at over 6 knots. We were at Dauphin just a bit after noon. We had visions of going all the way to Gulfport that day, but it would be after dark, so we decided to stop for the night at Horn Island. Tired and happy after a 63.1 nm day. 

Here was our view of Horn Island, which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. 

We got up late on April 18th and had breakfast before getting underway. We only had 20 miles to go. The forecast was for light winds, but we had a nice 10 to 15 knots come up and we were able to shut the engine off and sail all the way to Gulfport. We came in the inlet, went to the fuel dock and settled into our slip. We were so happy to be done with this long journey. 

SHIFT in her slip at the Gulfport City Marina

This is where we will be until the lock at Demopolis is repaired and we can continue our journey to Kentucky Lake. We will leave the boat for a month or so to go visit family and witness some of life's milestones. 

So there you have it. 18 days since we left Marathon in the Florida Keys. We traveled a total of 687.8 nautical miles or 791 Statute Miles (the measure most people in the US use). That took us 130.25 hours underway. If you drive a car at 65mph for 130 hours you could go from New York to Los Angeles three times. Why do we do this? Sometimes I just don't know. 

Come back for my next entry where we will continue this journey. 

The Move North Continues

 In my last entry we had just arrived at Cayo Costa after an overnight sail from Marathon in the Florida Keys. A storm was predicted on the following day, so we stayed put and prepared for wind and rain. As it turned out, the rain came, but the wind never got above 25 knots, so that was very good. It is always great when you see a storm on radar break up as it approaches you. 

After that storm we had some sunny days ahead, but we had 20 knots of wind out of the north, so no sailing for us. We decided to take advantage of the sun and move north along the ICW. On April 4th, we moved from Cayo Costa to just south of Sarasota. We had a nice calm anchorage, which was nice after a long day of opening 8 bridges and fighting the strong wind on the nose. 

This shot was taken as the sun was rising on April 5th in our anchorage near Sarasota. I don't know what formed it, but it was illuminated by the rising sun. We really needed that calm night after the bumpy passage followed by the constant movement of the windy anchorage at Cayo Costa.

We had another travel day on the ICW on the 5th that included a few bridge openings and two bay crossings. The first was Sarasota Bay that is a little over 5 miles across. We motor sailed across that. And then after two more bridges we were ready to cross Tampa Bay. 

A crazy thing happened when we were waiting to open the Cortez Bridge. We got a call on the radio from Jeff from Michigan. He was in a marina right next to the bridge. We had met him and his wife Sheila in Marathon while we were down there. They just so happened to see our boat and called out to us. That was amazing and very welcome. 

We got to sail with the engine off for part of the Tampa Bay crossing. It felt familiar as we purchased SHIFT not far from there and spent a lot of time on the bay learning how to sail her. We then motored on to Gulfport, Florida.

Here we are crossing Tampa Bay. You can see the Sky Bridge in this shot. You can also see a large ship on the bow leaving the port of Tampa. That ship was going 15 knots or 3 times faster than us and was 700 feet long. 

When we arrived in Gulfport we decided to go ahead and get fuel, so that we would be ready for our next moves north. We had one of the most stressful experiences we have had in a long time. It is tough to describe, but we called the fuel dock and asked if we could come into the very tight marina. They said the dock was empty and come on in. When we got there, two other large boats had come in unannounced and took up the entire dock. We had to make a pivot in a very tight space and then wait about 20 minutes in the very tight space and not hit any of the boats that surrounded us. It was crazy and took all of the skills I have to make it happen. The end result is we got in there and got a load of fuel and water. Very relieved to have that done, we headed out and found a good place to drop the anchor. It was very rough that afternoon and evening, but finally calmed down overnight and we slept well. 

We had not been off of the boat since March 30th in Marathon, so that was 6 days. We had plans on Saturday, April 6th to see our good friends Geoff and Marsha. We also needed to go to the library to finish our taxes after I had made a mistake on my first attempt. So, we got the dinghy down and headed to the dinghy dock. It felt so good to be on solid ground, so after the library, we took a walk around this very cool town. 

The beach at Gulfport, Florida and the mooring field and anchorage beyond. 

Kim and I were so ready to go for a walk after being on the boat for almost a week. 

The town of Gulfport, although surrounded by the greater Tampa/St. Pete area, still has some old Florida charm including beautiful live oaks. 

We had an awesome time with Geoff and Marsha. We had lunch overlooking the beach and then went back to their marina to see how they live. It is a very nice and protected little marina. They then took us to a grocery store to get a few provisions to prepare us to move on. Thanks to Geoff and Marsha for the great time together. 

We had a really nice sunset the last night we were in Gulfport, Florida.

 We had a weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday. The plan was to move north on the ICW on Sunday to Anclote Key and anchor there for the night and head out on Monday April 8th. I hate running on the ICW on a Sunday, but the weather was cloudy and cool when we started so there was not much boat traffic. By the time we got to Clearwater, that was no longer the case. We had large power boats zooming past us and leaving huge wakes rocking our boat. It is not dangerous on our boat, but it sure is annoying. 

Another crazy thing happened when we made it to Anclote Key. We saw another boat that we knew. Joe on Serenade was very close. Serenade is also an IP35 like SHIFT and we have talked on the phone in the past comparing notes on our boats. After we got anchored, he came over in his dinghy and we got to meet face to face and talk for a while. A small world and it was great finally meeting face to face. 

Joe took this shot of us on SHIFT as he was leaving. Thanks Joe!

 The following day, April 8th, was a big day. It is our son Mark's birthday, it was the day of the eclipse, and it was the day we would start our crossing of the Gulf of Mexico from Tarpon Springs to Carrabelle. We have done this crossing once before in 2020. On that trip we had a buddy boat. This time we would go it alone. 

We headed out just after sunrise and made our way between the barrier islands and out into the open Gulf of Mexico. We had good wind for the first 5 hours and were moving along at between 4 and 5 knots with no motor. As predicted, we then hit a calm area that lasted until sunset. We were not in the area for a great view of the eclipse, and it was cloudy, so it was kind of a non-event for us. We motored along at 5.5 knots with just the main sail up to catch what little wind was there. 

This picture does not capture the deep blue color of the open Gulf, but let me tell you it is amazing.

As I wrote in my previous post, this is not my favorite time of the day at sea, but we did have an interesting sunset. 

This is my favorite shot of our sunset at sea. You can see how calm it was at that point. That would change.

Later in the evening the wind started to build. We ended up getting exactly what was forecast for the entire trip. We had about 20 knots right on our tail. That is not a great sailing angle for us, but we put the main sail out to port and furled the head sail. We prevented the main to keep it from banging in the building swells. The worst part of this night was that we had no moonlight, so it was pitch black. It made for some nice star viewing, but you could not see how large the swells were. The best news about this night is that both of us got some sleep. It made the night go faster and we felt better the next day. Kim did have some seasickness, but I felt pretty good for this trip across. 

When the sun rose on the morning of the 9th, you could now see the swells that were as large as 6 feet. The good news is they were behind us, and we were moving along very well. 

My favorite time of the day and you can see that the sea state has changed. 

Now the sun is up, and I can see. The wind started to come down a bit and we fired up the motor for the final 10 miles of the 145 nm trip across the Gulf. 

Once we got cell signal, I checked the weather. I did not like what I saw. We had strong winds for the following day and a storm on Wednesday night into Thursday. We had planned to anchor behind a barrier island, but that would be unpleasant. I know of a place up the other side of Apalachicola in the swamps that has great protection. We decided to keep going 32 more miles to get there. We sailed for a while and then turned on the motor to make the final 20 miles. That made the trip a total of 179.3nm in 32 hours. We arrived at our spot at about 4 pm. As we came into the anchorage, we saw this guy laying on a log:

I think that is about an 8 foot alligator there to welcome us to the anchorage. 

We got the hook down and watched the boat move around the oxbow. This would be our home for a few days while the coming storm passes. I am writing this on Wednesday afternoon and so far, so good. We had some strong wind this morning and held fast, but the real show is tonight. 

A view of our little slice of heaven. Super calm and protected.

This place is called Searcy Creek. There are a number of large cypress trees around us. We hope they offer some protection from the coming storm. 

You can see how calm it was in the pictures above, so after a zoom call with my family, we went to bed and had the best night sleep we have had since Marathon. I know this is a long post, but I wanted to keep it as real time as possible. So, here we wait for the coming weather. It looks bad on radar, but we are hoping for just lots of rain and not too strong wind. 

We are now 250nm from Gulfport, Mississippi. We can make that it 6 day-sails. No more overnights is the plan at this point. We will try to get started on Saturday after the weather passes. Come back for my next entry to see how we do. 

The Northern Migration Begins

 As I wrote in my last entry, the time has come to begin our northern migration. We have loved our time in Marathon. The community and the activities have kept us busy and entertained. I love being in a secure mooring field with excellent weather protection from all sides, but sooner or later a sailor has to move on, and our time has come. The weather is getting warmer, and we really want to move closer to the mouth of the Tenn-Tom water way so that we will be ready when they open the lock at Demopolis. The other things that are driving us north are some family activities in late April and May. 

We have been watching the weather and it looked like a great opportunity to make a big jump was coming on Easter Sunday and the two days following. We called and made arrangements for a slip in the Gulfport, Mississippi City Marina, which would also allow us to park our truck there for a few weeks. So, the first step was to relocate our truck to Gulfport. That is a 15-hour drive from Marathon.  We left on March 27th and made the drive in just over 15 hours including stops for Diesel and food. We stayed in a Super 8 motel that actually turned out to be just fine. We got up to head to the marina to do the paperwork on our next home base. That was all done without issue, and we are going to be in slip 49 on dock 4. That is the same dock we stayed on in 2020. We saw a number of boats that looked familiar and were happy to see another Island Packet was just two slips away. It felt like a good decision. 

We left the marina at about 9 and went to the airport to rent a car to drive back to Marathon. We were on the road by 9:30 headed south. We set the cruise at close to 80 mph and made good time. This time we made the trip in just over 14 hours. We made it back to the boat at 1am. I got a few hours of sleep and then went to turn in the rent car at the Marathon airport. I then took a 3 mile walk back to the marina, stopping along the way for breakfast. Wow, it felt great to have that completed. 

These are the last two shots I took from our boat in Marathon. The sun setting on one side on a very calm night. 

And the moon rising on the other. This was on March 24th, but it was a beautiful evening that I want to remember. 

We looked at our options and decided to be a bit aggressive and sail almost straight north and try to make it to Cayo Costa State Park. That trip is about 150 nm and should take us about 30 hours. We normally take the day sail route and make multiple stops along the coast, but there was weather coming in 3 days that would not make that possible. The direct route would also shorten our trip by almost 30 miles and we could do in in one day what would take more than 5 the other way. That 5 does not count for stops for bad weather, so it could be more.  

We said our goodbyes and got ready to go. Everything looked good as we exited the harbor and headed for the Mosier Channel under the 7 mile bridge. Just as we came out on the north side our autopilot started doing crazy things. Autopilot on a cruising sailboat is very important especially if you like to make long sails. Having to have someone on the helm the entire time would be exhausting. We worked on it for a couple of hours and did not find the problem. We decided it was best to head back to the harbor and figure it out. Marathon would be the best place to get parts shipped or whatever we needed. We were frustrated.

The good news is that we still had our mooring ball rented for 6 more days, so we just pulled in and hooked up. Our friends, Jason and Natanya came right over to see if they could help. We quickly had a solid symptom to work with and then it just started working. We asked Kim if she had done anything below and she said she had found the problem. She had recently relocated some bar clamps in the very back of the locker just aft of the Flux compass that gives the autopilot direction. I had removed all that I could see in the locker while we were out on the water, but did not see the clamps. As it turned out that was the only issue. We decided to rest that evening and watch some March Madness. OK, I decided to rest for the evening and watch the basketball. We looked at the weather and it looked like we still had time in our weather window if we left first thing on April Fools day.

We were up early to try again. I tested the autopilot as we cruised out of the harbor, and it was working perfectly. We went under the bridge, and all looked perfect. The wind lightened a bit and we had to motor sail for a while. 

We cruised along on flat seas. It was a beautiful start to the trip.

The view out the back. No land in sight for many miles.

After a few hours the wind picked back up and we sailed in silence until sunset. It was a very pleasant day.

This was our sunset at sea. It is beautiful, but not my favorite time of day.

I am not fond of sunset at sea because it starts the 10+ hours of darkness. We would have no moon for most of the night and that makes it hard to see the sea state. It was about that time that the wind dropped off and we had to start the motor again. The sea state for some reason also started to build. That is an uncomfortable combination, so we left the main sail up and the boat rolled from side to side. At first it wasn't too bad, but as the night wore on the wind picked up and the waves went from 2 feet to over 6 feet. The bad news is the wind was right on our stern, which meant that every time the boat rolls the head sail would collapse and then slam back open. That is bad for a sail, so we took it in and kept the motor on. The good news is our speed picked up significantly with the higher winds. I would guess the winds were about 20 knots directly on our stern. Our boat speed went up and down as we surfed down the big waves. That is a bit unnerving in the darkness but SHIFT along with the working autopilot, handled it without a problem. We just rode along in the darkness playing on our phones and trying to get some sleep. 

By around midnight we could see the lights of Marco Island on our starboard side. That helps in the darkness because it gives you some directional bearing to know you are going the right way. I know that sounds crazy, but the darkness can be disorienting. 

This is my favorite time of the day at sea. If you look closely, you can see Ft. Meyers Beach in the distance. You can also see that the Gulf of Mexico has gotten a bit bumpy. 

Good morning sunshine. Now I can really see how big the waves are. 

We had to keep motoring in the heavy swell because of the wind angle right on our stern. We saw some  speeds over 8 knots as we surfed our way along. The trip that I thought would take about 30 hours now looked like it was going to be more like 28. It wasn't long before we were making our approach to Boca Grande Inlet. 

We had to make a 90 degree turn to starboard, which now put those big swells on our beam. The good news is that we had a strong inbound current (about 2 knots). So, the inlet did not take long. Once we got inside Charlotte Harbor the swell was gone, but the wind was between 15 and 20 knots. We got the main sail down and headed into Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa State Park. It is a very shallow approach with about 6 feet of water, but we have been here many times and I have good tracks to follow. I was hoping they were still good as this was ground zero for Hurricane Ian back in 2022. We made it in to our favorite spot and got the hook down with 150 feet of chain and the storm bridle. We knew weather was coming tomorrow. We got the boat put to bed and watched the anchor alarm. It looked like we were holding well so after making breakfast, I went to bed. I had fallen asleep a couple of times during the night for about an hour each time, but I was tired. 

I slept well for about 6 hours. I knew the wind had picked up at times, but was shocked when I looked at the wind instrument that showed a 46 knot gust. Kim was keeping watch and the good news is we now know that we have a good hold, which is good with the stronger weather forecasted for the next day.

I slept right through this gust. 

 The wind calmed down over night and we had a comfortable night.

This was our sunset at Cayo Costa on our first night. 

As you can tell, this post is almost in real time. We are sitting here in Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa on the boat with the wind blowing about 15 knots gusting to 25. We are expecting a front later that will switch the wind from SW to NW. There may be some stronger winds as the front passes. The good news is that we have good protection from both directions. 

Our plan now is to move further north tomorrow, but we will see if the weather matches the forecast. In my next entry, I will write more as we move north.