Running at hull speed

Tuesday, March 3rd, AM

Many of you know this but for the others. A sailboat will just go so fast (hull speed) after that you are just overpowered and getting beat up. We were hull speed for most of the day yesterday.

We had to wait for the tide to lift us off bottom yesterday before we could leave the marina. The strong north winds had blown all the water out of the bay. We hadn’t planed to leave early anyway. It is supposed to be a 16 to 18 hour trip and we wanted to arrive about sun up this morning. We cleared the sea buoy about 12:30 got all the sails out started the trip. The winds were pretty much as forecast about 12 knots out of the north. The seas were surprising calm; we had expected it to be much rougher because of the front that had just gone thru. It had been gusting over forty on Sunday.

When we left, we were showing about 7 knots over ground but the wind were forecast to die down as the day progressed. We knew if the hugged the coast the waves would have a chance to build with the north wind. We decided to sail a straight line since the seas light and were dying. That course only takes you about 20 miles off the coast and we figured we could always work our way back if we needed to. Well I can tell you that the forecast was wrong for the rest of the day. The winds shifted a little to the north-west which put us on a broad reach and started to build. By mid afternoon we were seeing a steady 15. 15 is about the limit for us before we have to reef the main. With all sails up we where hitting a steady 8 knots. We have hours where we were logging 8.4 knots. That means we were seeing over 9 some of the time. It was one heck of an afternoon. By sunset, we were off the coast of Destin. That meant we were over half way so we were looking at a very early arrival. For you non-sailors it is no fun to enter a bay and harbor you don’t know in the dark. Michael talked about it and figured it was better to negotiate the bay than endure the cold air. It was actually pretty warm with the full enclosure up and we were protected from the spray. I wouldn’t have wanted to make the trip without the enclosure. Alain re-read that last sentence.

Carole had a real challenge with fixing dinner. She was going to cook a clam chowder with pasta. With pots and pans flying around in the galley, she thought better of that idea and warmed up a pre-cooked roast in the microwave. It filled us with good warm food and dishes didn’t get washed.

We reefed down the main to about 50% about sunset because the winds were continuing to build. That eased the angle of heel but had almost no effect on the speed. I don’t know what happened to the 7 knot winds and flat seas because we were seeing a steady 20 knots and 3 to 4 footers. The waves would catch the rear of the boat and kick it around, sliding everything in the boat across the cabin. Our Autohelm “Bubba” worked his ass off. We had the response level set high so he could keep up. It wasn’t a comfortable ride. Michael’s point of reference is that if you got thru 2-a-days in football you can get thru anything. It was a 2-a-day ride. You just wedge in get as comfortable as you can get.

We hit the Port St Joe sea buoy about 12:30. We had to turn down wind to blanket the jib to get it to roll up. Even with that, we had to winch it in. Most of the time I can just pull it in. It took a couple of hours to cross the bay. Thank heaven for chart plotters. We just sat down, plotted our next point and set our course. Have you ever tried to find a 20 hole into a marina in the middle of the night when you don’t even know where the marina is? Thanks to Michael standing out on the deck, we were able to spot a few masts on the other side a earth berm. Then a small red light and what looked like an opening. We ease thru the slot, find a spot on a “Tee” dock and throw out dock lines. After a family vote, we decide to run the generator and not mess with shore power. So about 3:00 we all crawl into bed to get warm. It must have taken my feet about an hour to warm up.

After several cups of coffee, we are coming to life. The boat is covered in salt. If you were tracking us on spot, you can see there are large gaps in the information it sends.

We are looking at weather to see what our next leg is going to be like but it might be more of the same.