July 3

We're leaving for Tampa Bay today.  We will be going straight across the Gulf and we expect it will take roughly 48 hours.  We stowed things that we had gotten out, had a light breakfast and coffee, and weighed anchor about 08:00.  We motored over to one of the fuel docks to fill the diesel.  We topped up the fuel, and then Barb walked to a nearby store to get some ice, while I put the new anchor on.  I first had to get the anchor on deck.  Leaning over the bow and pulling the 35 lb anchor out of the roller and getting it on deck required a little strength and balance, but I managed to not go in the water.  I unhooked the spade anchor and put it back on the stern rail mount where it normally rides, and then attached the nice new shiny Delta plow anchor like the one we lost.  This time, I also used some seizing wire on the shackle, so it cannot unscrew by itself and leave us as the old one did.

By 08:45, we were heading out to sea.  There was a good three knot current coming in against us as we motored out of the Destin channel.  Fortunately this channel is less than a mile long.  Once we cleared the jetties we pointed her at Tampa.  The winds were favorable for sailing, SW at about 7 to 10 kts, but since we were anchored for four days, we need to recharge the batteries.  The boat has a large battery bank, about 900 amp/hours, which means we can be anchored for awhile without charging, but it also means it takes quite awhile to recharge when we do.  So we will have to motorsail all day to get the batteries full.  With the mainsail up and running about 2300 rpm, we made almost 7 kts all day long.  This will make it easy for us to make Tampa in two days. 

As night fell, and the batteries were nearly charged, of course the wind died down.  It also shifted direction a little more to south, so sailing now wasn't going to work.  We continued all night at just slightly slower a pace, about 6.5 kts, since we weren't getting any help from the main sail.  We had started doing four hour watches right from the start.  Usually if we are doing a day trip, I drive most of the time, but since this would be our first big overnight leg, we did the real watch schedule thing.  Of course AUTO really drove all the way, so the person on watch just had to watch.  As it should be.

I have read other's logs about what you do while off-watch on a passage.  I'm sure some of it is just a matter or getting used to it, but what I do when off watch is just turn off.  Since Barb is not an experienced sailor, I don't go far.  I lay in the cockpit and sleep or just rest.  But I'm not inclined to really "do" anything while off watch.  I'm sure part of this has to do with the ride also.  The Gulf of Mexico is known as natures washing machine, and the ride is usually bumpy at best.  This trip was no exception.  Even though the winds were light, there was about a 3 to 4 foot chop to the water.  Chop is usually how you describe the water in a bay or lake, but this time it applied to the Gulf.  There was no nice predictable swell.  It was a random chop of 3 to 4 feet, with the occasional 6 footer thrown in to keep you on your toes.  We would move along nicely for a minute or two, and then suddenly bury the bow in a wave.  Thank goodness we have the nice enclosure on the cockpit so we could keep the spray and water out and stay dry.

July 4

By morning, we were more than halfway there.  This might seem like a good thing, but it meant that if we continued at this pace, we would arrive before dawn tomorrow.  The wind was starting to pick up a little, so we decided to sail.  This is a sailboat after all.  So out came the genoa and off went the motor.  We needed to slow the pace a little anyway, so this was ok.  We sailed all day, making anywhere between 3 to 5 kts.  Mostly on the slower end of that range.  The wind was very variable in it's speed all day, and in the afternoon, it again moved more to the south instead of southwest, so we were not making a lot of progress.  I had changed course a little to get more out of the wind, but this was taking us more east than we needed to be.  In the eight hours we sailed, we only made about 20 miles.

About 4pm, the wind shifted enough that we couldn't stay on our desired course and sail.  It also was getting lighter.  We took advantage of the fact that the seas had calmed some and dumped the four jerry cans of fuel into the tank.  This would give us plenty to motor the rest of the way.  We fired up the motor and got back on course.  The navigation software I run on the laptop gives you a time-to-go calculation based on your current speed, so we watched that and adjusted our speed so that we would arrive at the entrance to the bay a little after dawn. 

The night was very uneventful.  Motoring along at about 5kts, meant the engine was not as loud since it was not working that hard, and the seas laid down a little since the wind died.  We were still offshore about 40 miles, so we were not able to enjoy any fireworks displays.  Ironically though, we could here all the chatter on the VHF radio from boaters who were enjoying fireworks from their boats.  The fourth of July brings out a lot of boaters who probably only take their boat out once a year.  So as dark fell, we heard lots of people asking on Ch16 what radio station was simulcasting music with the fireworks, and then about an hour after dark, once the shows were over, we heard tons of calls to Sea Tow and Tow Boats US from people who were out of gas, or lost, or had dead batteries.  By 11:00 the radio had gotten pretty quiet, except for the regular announcements from the Coast Guard every thirty minutes or so. 

July 5

As far offshore as we were, there were no boats at all.  I don't think we saw five lights in the distance all night, and nothing was close enough to show up on radar scanning six miles.  Barb had the 4am to 8am watch, and as planned about 7:15 we were within sight of the outer marker of the Pass-a-Grille channel.  Our friend Brian, who's marina we are headed to, had given me GPS waypoints for the entrance and important turn points to get inshore and to the marina.  Once inshore, we were in the ICW again.  Commercial barge traffic here is minimal, and the only boats we dealt with here were large power boats heading out at full throttle making huge wakes for us to cross.  They don't seem to have the concept of slowing down as a courtesy to a sailboat here at all.  We followed the ICW north several miles through Boca Ciega Bay and then turned into a private channel around Pasadena Island.  Pasadena Island is just off the west edge of the peninsula that St. Petersburg is on, and just east of the barrier island of Long Key.  Once on the east side of the island, we found the Pasadena Marina entrance tucked back in amongst some trees.  Brian had given me directions to where our slip was, and Ben the marina owner's son knew we were coming and saw us as we approached.  He met us at the slip and took our lines.  The marina fairway is quite narrow, and turning in the slip without hitting anything was very tight, but I made it on the first try.  The dinghy hanging off the back did brush the bow of a powerboat in the slips across the fairway, but didn't harm it.  I think it may have put a little tear in the dinghy cover on a screw or something, but no big deal. 

We were secure at about 8:30 and immediately rinsed the boat off with fresh water.  It's amazing how the salt water gets on everything when you are splashing around offshore.  After a basic boat rinse, we then turned our attention to rinsing ourselves.  We are parked right next to the pool and bathrooms, so we headed to the showers and enjoyed a nice long cool shower.  After showers we met Jim the dock master who had been out sailing overnight but came in just a few minutes after us.  We also met Jerry, a county sheriff deputy who lives aboard a boat a couple slips away.  We chatted with him for almost an hour.  About noon, we walked across the parking lot to Wendy's for lunch, then came back to the boat to take a nap.  Brian and Tammy won't get home from work until about 5:00, so we will try to catch up on sleep so we can visit with them when they get here.

A little after 5:00, Brian and Tammy were home and we joined them on their boat for drinks.  After a while we went out to eat at a little place down the street.  We went back to the boat to chat and drink more, but we were getting tired and they have to work tomorrow, so we retired a little after 11:00.  It will take me time to get used to east coast schedules again.  I am used to going to bed about 10:30, but east coast TV doesn't finish prime-time until 11:00.  We wanted to see the news about the developing hurricanes, so we waited for that.

Tropical storm Cindy is about to hit Louisiana, but more worrisome is Dennis which is forming down around Hispaniola.  Dennis is forecast to dome into the Gulf and go west of us by Sunday, but it's pretty early to count on that.  We will stay put here at least until then.

GPS N 27-45.184 W 82-44.218  Miles made good this leg 265.