Transitions- Leaving BCNM for St Petersburg

Transitions

July 7^th 2014

We finally left Boca Chica Navy Marina casting off all lines by 8 AM. Weather reports gave us iffy winds on the Gulf side but that didn't bother these intrepid sailors, we have a motor on Cool Hand. Pop up thunderstorms were already showing up on Sirius…. Not close enough to worry about, but made great photos.

This is a transition trip for us. I don’t want to say that it’s Cool Hand’s last trip. She has been our home for over two years, through rough seas, low tides, snow, a wedding, finding lost family and meeting many new friends. Cool Hand is a wonderful lady and we were looking forward to this trip…

After clearing the inlet to the Marina we found the Atlantic side a tricky ride in rough seas more in the 2’+ range and I had a chuckle seeing a sail boat being towed. We had to quickly do some reshuffling, stowing and cleaning up as we were tossed about. Lost my favorite measuring cup and a flower pot that never held water as advertised. Good news the pot was empty, bad news the coffee maker, with coffee grounds and coffee, made a spectacular bounce from counter to floor. Glass, pottery and coffee grounds are hard to clean up while in a moving boat.

The sun heated up the cockpit and I pulled out our trusty cloth and soon had it pinned in place, however it was hot, and the inside thermometer was reading over 100. I put wet wash cloths in the refrigerator. Tom laughs until I give him one and he realizes how refreshing they are.

We were within 4 miles of our turn north when Tom went to check the bilge. Here is where the best laid plans started to fall apart. We had transmission fluid in the bilge water. Time to rethink options.

We are in a sail boat so …. We will sail to St. Petersburg

We did call Tow Boat US to bring us out transmission fluid and as soon as their boat was off in the distance we had NO wind. For the next 4 hours we drifted semi aimlessly watching storms on the horizon. Drifting to near an artificial reef Tom used the motor for 15 min. completing our turn north. Again very little wind…. Then we were in 15 + winds, reefing sails and watching the weather. This was a portent of our entire journey. We were to be hot, sticky, in the doldrums with no horses to pull us out or slaves to row us out into wind. Storms, lightning flashes all round. Cooking was just not a thing to do. I made sandwiches and we had cold salads. We catnapped, pulled in the sails and drifted and slept praying for wind that was not attached to a storm. Rain was welcome but we were only blessed with it twice.

Our trip which should have taken maybe 3 days was in its 4^th day when our friend Terry suggested to call Tow Boat to see if we could be towed the rest of the way. We were just North of Fort Myers with over 50 miles still to go and creeping along at less than a knot. Making the call we found out if we could get to Venice then they would tow us the rest of the way in. We had 34 miles to go and it took us from Wednesday until Thursday around 10 PM to make that 34 miles.

Andre arrived around 10 and finally at 7 PM we were snugged into our berth. Five days without going ashore.We went 200.5 nautical miles in 5 days. Five days of sponge baths and only our hair washed. We used all the water in our holding tanks, a good thing I brought gallon jugs of drinking water. We spent Friday night on board with the Air Conditioner on full blast. Cool Hand brought us here, maybe under tow but we are safe and now gathering up the memories to transfer them to Cool Hand Too.

One other odd thing,we were boarded by fish and game at 11 PM on Thursday, apparently we looked like illegal fisherman, or drug smugglers or something.I guess we needed one more thing to make this a trip to remember This trip was the hottest and slowest one we have made, but all it all

IT'S A BOAT