It's time to make plans for the 2024 Cruising Season, and we plan to head to the Bahamas once again, leaving early January, 2024. We are planning events with SSCA, including a Bahamas Rally and Bahamas Gathering. Watch this space for more info as the plans develop. But here's the flyer for the event.
More informaton:
Gulf Coast: ndaviesgeo@me.com
East Coast jasonnlewis1@gmail.com
Watch the video at: https://youtu.be/NoOxU4f1rIw or click below.
Who said: “you have to go to the Bahamas for great beaches and anchorages”? “Have you been to the Forgotten Coast? Do you know where it is?” Boats rallied in the Josephine/Pirate’s Cove area located on the Florida/ Alabama line. We had a great turn-out of 13 boats registered plus one RV! Unfortunately, one boat did have to withdraw at the last minute due to mechanical issues. Nonetheless, 12 boats left the area on or about May 1. The weather window was looking good after a stormy few days preceding. Our posse consisted of 7 trawlers/power boats and 5 sailboats (3 mono’s and two cats).
As expected, people had different schedules and different tolerances of weather – but this had been built into our Rally plans. So essentially there were a couple of ICW groups and a couple of offshore groups with each skipper selecting his route and speed. Several of the trawlers convoyed along the ICW sharing anchorages and stopping points. We went offshore from Ft. McRee (Pensacola) to St. Andrews Yacht Club for our first leg, making the approximate 88 mile trip non-stop in 13 hours – which was real good going for us and we were able to complete our first leg in daylight hours (just). We had a fast crossing with winds up to 25 kts and the typical lumpy Gulf seas of 4 -5 ft at 4-5 second period. But the saving grace was that the wind and seas were behind us.
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| Midnight Sun III at Cape San Blas |
Anchored in the beautiful St. Joseph Bay, nestled between Cape San Blas and Port St. Joe. It was a serene night with a full moon. Sailing Vessel Midnight Sun III was back to her wonderful self. After being struck by lightning almost a year ago near this location, it seemed appropriate to “return to the scene” on the first significant voyage we have made since that heart-sinking day.
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| Lightning Tree - Cape San Blas |
We were joined at the Cape by one of the other sail boats in our fleet, SV Patricia Ann, crewed by the Chapman Family.
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| Chapman Family |
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| Port St. Joe Marina |
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| Apalachicola Marina |
At this point, some of the boats in our group had reached their planned destination, while others elected to continue onwards farther towards Florida’s Big Bend. The following day, we took a leisurely motor along the ICW which becomes part of the Jackson and Apalachicola Rivers before crossing Lake Wimico and transiting by Apalachicola. Some of us that made this leg of the trip stayed at the Apalachicola Marina located close to the downtown area. Others stayed on the City Seawall. We picked the marina as this spot has a large dock area that we used for our next gathering. We had surprise guests during our stay with a visit from SSCA Board Member, Kingsley Ross and his wife Sue and our good friends John and Jody Horner who caught up with us by land.
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| Kingsley, Sue, Janet , and Neil |
Apalachicola is a wonderful Florida fishing town that so far has managed to strike that fine balance between attracting sufficient tourists to stay vibrant, while still maintaining its “Old Florida” feeling and local characters. Our favorite bar which happens to be immediately across from our dock is now called the “High Five Dive Bar” and was previously named the “Bowery”. They have the best live entertainment, combined with local characters and a selection of interesting beverages and bar signs. One can always guarantee an evening of entertainment and I’m sure our group with its sailing stories added to the entertainment that night!
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| High Five Dive Bar |
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| Dog Island |
This then became our turning point, and we started our separate ways back home, For us, we made stops in Apalachicola once again, Port St. Joe, St. Andrews, then Redfish Point (near Pensacola Pass) before returning home.
The weather had been spectacular for us with near no rain and just some distant afternoon thunder – we were happy for that! It turned out to be a wonderful trip!
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| St. Vincent's Island |
Participating Vessels:
• SV Midnight Sun III
• SV Tinamarie
• SV Kanaloa
• SV Kee Kat
• SV Patricia Ann
• MV Gracie
• MV Lady of Leisure
• MV One Love
• MV My Bonnie Lass
• MV Monark
• MV Gitana
• MV Slo Motion
• RV Laughing Buddha
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| St. Joe Marina |
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| Florida's Forgotten Coast |
Time flies when you are having fun..........but it moves slowly when the boat is out of the water!
Midnight Sun III was re-luanched in February 2023 after repairs from the Lightnig Strike
Well it is now October - time flies when you are having fun with boats.......NOT!
I am happy to report that after a very slow start with the boat's evaluation etc, progress is being made. The list of things that were affected ont he boat continued to climb for some time. Perhaps the most worrying was the engine ECUs that Yanmar originally said were "not available".....Maybe available next year! I found it hard to believe there were not 2 ECUs sitting in a warehouse somewhere - and that proved to be correct after reaching out to friends in the industry and calling or emailing many Yanmar distributors in the USA, Bahamas, and Europe, I did finally locate 2 units.
Other electrical and electronic items were on baack-order, but I think we are finally getting most of the critical items in and installed. The one big outstanding item is the freezer - yes the freezer went bad and after leak detecting etc., it was found that the plate was leaking somewhere, and was completely enclosed and not practically serviceable. In fact removing the freezer was not possible without damaging either the freezer or cabinet. So we have elected to cut out the freezer completely and replace with a 2-drawer unit...........which is back-ordered!
The mast is being removed this week to allow re-wiring. I think it was a close call between re-wiring on the boat or removing the mast. Our trusted rigger recommended removal for a more complete inspection and thorough job. So the mast will be off mid week.
Electronics - yes, everything replaced. Usually this is a good time for an "upgrade", but MS3 was pretty up to date. So I think we will have basically the same B&G setup, but the chartplotter apparently has a faster processor, and I have addded remote control for the autopilot. Other majot items include:
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| Caterham - runs like a rocket! |
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| Panhandle British Car Association - Rideshare Day |
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| Lost Bay Regatta - Perdido Bay/Point YC |
We had just entered St. Joes Bay
from the ICW/Gulf Canal on our way from Apalachicola to Panama City.....or that
was the plan.
We had just filled up with diesel expecting light wind on the last legs of our trip. When we were in the bay, it was relatively blue skies and a light wind, so we raised the sails. No sooner had we done this when a small black cloud started to grow very quickly. Then lightning about 2 -3 miles away. Hearing that, I decided to start the engines and motor sail to try to put some distance between us.
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| Anemometer |
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| Masthead light?? |
After a few minutes to collect
ourselves, I decided to sail across the bay to Cape San Blas where I knew we
could safely anchor in shallow water, so that we could assess things further
and come up with a plan.
After anchoring we did a more
thorough inspection. No visible damage - that was good! No
instruments working, and some electrical systems malfunctioning. But at
least we could sail.
We started to put a plan in place. Basically there was no viable repair facility before Pensacola. Panama City had a place that might be able to work on engines, but there was a powerline height issue getting there. Pensacola seemed like the obvious spot as this is close to home. Then the logistics kicked in…. The wind looked like it would be light at best, but with a 2-day window when it would at least be in a favorable direction.
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| No Data on the instruments |
As you can
imagine, there was lots of texting an calls to friends and family to let them
know what had happened. Salty, our dog was with us and will not go potty
on the boat - that's one of the reasons we try to limit long legs. We
were looking at 24 to maybe 30+hours to get to Pensacola in light wind, so we
talked to friends in Port. St. Joe that agreed to take Salty for the night and
our son would pick him up the following day.
It was a long dinghy ride to deliver
Salty - all went well until the return.....of course our very reliable (until
now) outboard quit about 2 miles from the boat. Start
rowing.......fortunately a fellow boater anchored near us cane to our rescue
with a tow - Thank you "Wonderer". I think your name was Glen.
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| Engine ECUs, probably fried |
The plan then came together – best friends
Larry and Tracy were staying at our house, and they set off towards us in their
truck………with another dinghy and outboard. We got a little sleep to get ready
for an early start the following morning.
At first light, Larry and Tracy dinghied across to us. We sailed back to close to shore, got Jeff to
their truck, and set off to Pensacola.
The winds were light but at least
favorable in direction. At first, we
were very slow (2-3 kts), but the wind built a little and we were up in the 6kts
+. We were navigating using apps on
phones and iPad.
By this time, I had done the
following:
·
Life jackets were on deck and ready.
Amazingly, our VHF radio was still
working. I have no idea why, as the
antenna is located at the top of the mast – but amazingly, it worked. The wind died at about 2am – of course! We were about 32 miles from Pensacola Pass –
but no problem, we had a pre-authorized tow set up. I made the call. The dispatcher had our claim info – no problem. He called Captain Mack of BoatUS Pensacola. Captain Mack refused to come out….said it was
“too far” and in Destin’s area. Destin
would be no good for us – nowhere to go, no repair facility. After a few choice words, we waited. After an hour or two of drifting, the wind
picked up slightly, we were making way again.
Soon after sunrise, no wind again.
Now we were 12 miles from Pensacola, but no phone service. I called the USCG on VHF and asked that they
call BoatUS, Captain Mack on our behalf.
I also told the Coast Guard of Mack’s previous refusal – but this time
told a little white lie that we were in danger of drifting towards shore.
Now Mack agreed to come get us.
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| Under Tow, Pensacola Pass |
Could we have made it all the
way back sailing? Yes, but it would have
taken a long time. The wind came back a
little while we were waiting Mack and we made a couple more miles. The wind was coming from the North, and it
would soon be an outgoing tide – so getting into Pensacola Pass would have been
a very slow and lengthy process that would have taken many hours. The bottom line – we have insurance and a
Boat US membership for these eventualities.
Anyway, Mack showed up about 3 hours later and towed us in to the
Pensacola Shipyard. Meanwhile, Jeff made
it home and things are now good with his wife’s health.
AND of course, to our best friends
and A-team crew, Larry and Tracy for their help. Without you guys, this would have been an
ordeal!
I will keep the story of our return trip brief as we have visited many of the spots we hit previously either on our way to the Bahamas or on previous trips.
We had an uneventful crossing - which is always a good thing. Very calm but not a lot of wind. We arrived in the Miami area and secured a mooring ball at the Coconut Grove Sailing Center.
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| Midnight Sun III at CGSC |
Moorings are "tight" but they seem to work, and once again the staff at CGSC were great! We spent several nights here and managed to catch up with old friends Tom and Michelle who were able to spend a night with us.
We are not "big city" people, but Coconut Grove has a small town feel within an obviously large city and many friendly bars and restaurants - most of which are pet friendly.
Night views from CGSC.
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Then we spent a night in a new-to-us anchorage at Cayo Costa known as Pelican Bay. It was a nice anchorage - except for the Bugs! OMG, the boat was bug graveyard the following morning!
Onwards again for a night at Venice YC, then anchorage at Desoto State Park, and a night at Bradenton YC.
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After a quiet night at Anclotte Key, we made a run for the Gulf crossing, headed for Dog Island and ultimately Apalachicola.
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| Sunrise over the Big Bend |
After a brief potty stop for Salty at the end of St. George Island, we continued on for a couple of hours to get into Apalachicola. Another successful crossing - we were tired and ready for a couple of
"down-days".
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| The Tin Shed has a new location! |
