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.