Crossing The Gulf

Wednesday, August 3, 2016 we picked up our one-way rental van, packed it to the ceiling with stuff and headed south to St. Petersburg, FL where Viridian was waiting at Embree Marine Boat Yard with fresh new fuel tanks and upgraded navigation electronics.  My brother Richard drove his car to Apalachicola, FL where we swung by, stuffed him and his stuff in the van and proceeded to a hotel just north of St. Petersburg FL.  On Saturday, Richard and I boarded Viridian and sailed 3 miles north to St. Petersburg Municipal Marina while Meg drove the van to the marina and met us there.  We unloaded our gear, food, etc. and began making Viridian ready for her journey north to Huntsville, AL.

After shocking the fresh water system on the boat and stowing all the gear, we hired a captain to spend 24 hours with us to teach docking, anchoring and basic seamanship skills.  This was money well spent.  We felt much more confident in our boat and in ourselves.  We also got a list of things that needed attention but could wait till we got to Mobile.

We finally got a weather window to leave the marina but my brother's annual leave was spent sitting in the rain so we planned a day trip to Clearwater, FL where he could rent a car and drive to Apalachicola to get his car and go back to work.  We set sail on 11 August and intended to go to Clearwater via the ICW.  Unfortunately, I charted a course that took us up a canal that had a bridge too low to pass under.  We backtracked out into Tampa Bay and decided to run off shore to Clearwater.  However, once in the Gulf we discussed going ahead and making the crossing.  The weather was great and we got independent confirmation from trusted sources, so I set a heading of 330 degrees NNW for East Pass.

We watched Clearwater, FL slide over the horizon as we headed north at 8 mph in Viridian.  The sun set on our port side, and we settled in for a long trip.  Later that night the wave action increased and was still coming in on the port quarter-bow, making the ride kind of like being on a mechanical bull in slow motion.  We had to hold onto anything we could just to move around on deck, so we stayed put on the fly bridge unless we absolutely had to go below.  The night sky began to fill with patchy clouds and the deepest darkness surrounded us, seeming to suck any light away that we threw into it.  The spreader lights were burning on the mast to light the stairway below but only illuminated just beyond Viridian’s hull.  Flying fish could be seen launching from the waves ahead of the bow only to be swallowed up by the darkness of the sea.  Dolphins went on a feeding frenzy around our boat, chasing down food at lightning speed with their fins slashing the water as they made quick turns right and left.

Around 2 AM, the captain became seasick and the crew was beginning to wonder if we had made a mistake taking on such a long and lonely journey for our first-ever voyage in our new boat.

Pressing on, we followed the GPS rum line all night using stars, clouds, the moon or anything we could fix a reference on to steer a steady course.  Viridian rumbled smoothly along the electronic path doing what she was built to do while we held on and watched for signs of other boats in our path.

The sun rose in a blue sky with white fluffy clouds on the horizon.  East Bay finally rolled up over the horizon and we were able to get cell phone coverage and call our people to close out our cruise plan and announce we had arrived safely on schedule.

East Pass opened in front of us with a boat sitting still just out of the channel.  They had engine trouble and radioed us to see if we would tow them in.  We were in no condition to deal with that and told them we were sorry but we were not configured for towing and unless they were sinking they should hail a professional towboat to get them in.  We later heard radio traffic indicating they were being towed to safety.

Viridian turned west after clearing East Pass and sailed into the sun for 25 miles to our dock in Apalachicola, Fl.  Along the way, a half dozen flying fish were tossed overboard after crash landing on our deck over night.  The captain hosed down the decks to clean off the contents resulting from several seasick episodes hurled from the fly bridge during the night.  After 30 hours of rocking and rolling, the crew of Viridian was ready for showers, naps and food!

That's the news and here's the views:

We are here

Approximately 230 miles over all that included the backtracking due to low bridge.

Arriving at Embree Marine to take Viridian to St. Petersburg Municipal Marina

The Crew!

Our slip in St. Petersburg Marina

This was the weather most of our stay at St. Petersburg

The Captain is expected to do the dirty work.  Rebuilding the toilet in the master head.

Waiting for the weather to break so we can set sail across the Gulf of Mexico

The park next to the Marina

Is that blue sky we see?

Finally the rain stops and a high pressure system moves into the Gulf!!

My brother checking the weather

Heading out of Tampa Bay into the open Gulf

Turning NNW to 330 deg we see Clearwater to our starboard

Steaming North

No land in sight

View from Salon

Meg takes the helm

Water water everywhere!

Into the Night

The radar is a must for this leg of the journey.  We detected all kinds of vessels and had to make a course correction to avoid them.

Early next morning

Docked in Apalachicola where the A/C was immediately turned on in Viridian.