Forgotten Coast Rally/Destination Cruise

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.

Midnight Sun III at Cape San Blas

The following day, we took a “down-day” and explored St. Andrews. Meeting up with one of our trawler buddies on “Lady of Leisure” to explore the downtown area which had some quaint watering holes. A glass-blowing studio and other unique sights.  We then continued on to Cape San Blas and enjoyed a night at one of our favorite anchorages.

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.

Even Salty, our sailing dog, took a moment to sit and admire the view, as the sun started to set.

Lightning Tree - Cape San Blas

This area, known to locals as “Florida’s Forgotten Coast” is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and near pristine  coastal areas of the US, and certainly Florida.  The best areas to visit are towards the far (north) end of St. Joseph’s State Park.  It is most easily accessed by boat; but can be accessed on foot from the state park entrance.  Wildlife includes deer, brown bear, and the occasional alligator.  In the clear bay water, we have observed dolphin, rays, manatee, and sharks just to mention a few.

We were joined at the Cape by one of the other sail boats in our fleet, SV Patricia Ann, crewed by the Chapman Family.

Chapman Family

Port St. Joe Marina

After a gorgeous night at the cape, we made the short trip across the Bay to the newly opened Port St. Joe Marina, where we got almost the full group of our travelers together for a “Cinco de Mayo” celebration. 

Everyone brought dishes to share, and some of our members made tacos with a selection of meats.  We were happy to meet and welcome fellow SSCA members Jim and Nancy Hegland who had joined us for this gathering in their newly acquired RV.  A great time was had by all!

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. 

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! 

High Five Dive Bar

Midnight Sun II, Lady of Leisure, and Monark all continued on to either Dog Island or Carrabelle for a couple more nights.  We anchored at Dog Island for a night and then at St. Vincent’s Island.  The Anchorage at Dog island was great and we enjoyed walking the narrow beach that separates the sound from the Gulf.  At. Vincent’s we found strange currents that spun us on the anchor.  It was also buggy and many alligator tracks on the beach – which always makes for a cautious dog walk!

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!

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

St. Joe Marina

Florida's Forgotten Coast

Time flies!

 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

Progress - The Lightning Strike

 Well it is now October - time flies when you are having fun with boats.......NOT!

Progress 

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:

• New battery chargers throughout (3 units) - I have gone with Victron with Bluetooth interface
• New batterty/tank monitoring system - basically a replacement of the original.
• New solar controllers - same system, Victron
• Bilge pumps
• Condensate pumps for AC units
• Some internal lighting
• Masthead lights and anemometer
• Altenators
• DC voltage regulator on Generator

These are just the major items - its certainly not a complete list.  Fortunately structural damage was negligible - of course the lightening had to exit the boat and this can be a big problem with the possibility of through-hull fittings blowing out.  Thankfully this did not happen, but we have found a couple of very small areas where gelcoat appears to have blown off the hulls (1/4 in sized); while these were not leaking, I think this is where the charge exited the boat.

Keeping Busy

Meanwhile - we have not been sitting idle.  We have had a lot of things going on.  On the personal front, we have been dealing with some medical issues - yes, getting old sucks!   So if you are reading this and are one of those people saying "I just have to work 3, 4, 5 more years......." keep all of that in mind.  You may be able to predict your retirement wealth (well maybe not in this current crazy market.........but I challenge you that you can't predict your future health!  

Janet has had her rotator cuff repaired; and I am in the middle of some dental work.

We have also been messing with British cars, helping our son fix up his house after a water leak, and  helping out with the anula Lost Bay Regatta at point YC - which was a wonderful success!

Caterham  - runs like a rocket!

Panhandle British Car Association  - Rideshare Day

Lost Bay Regatta - Perdido Bay/Point YC

The Big Bang!

May 31, 2022

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. 

Anemometer

Suddenly Boom! and a very bright flash.  Both engines shut down, the instruments seemed to be rebooting, but came back with no data.  Yes, we had been hit.  The anemometer hit the deck like a helicopter together with a molten piece of plastic and circuit board that I think was the masthead light.

Masthead light??

Nobody was hurt.  A quick inspection of the bilges showed that we were not sinking - often lightning can blow a hole in the hull where it exits......but there was nothing evident thankfully.

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.  

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.

Engine ECUs, probably fried

One more thing, our crew member Jeff got some bad news.  His wife was in hospital.  Like the trooper he is, he wanted to stay with us, but we knew we had to get him ashore before we left. 

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:

•  Notified the USCG and put out a Pan Pan message, indicating we were underway with minimal lights, but in no immediate danger.  This was a precaution, but at least the coast guard would monitor us, 
• Informed our insurance and made sure we could get a tow when needed.  I got their 24-hour contact no., as I just knew we would need it in the middle of the night.

·         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.

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.   

Within 20 minutes of our arrival at the shipyard, we were hauled out.  Hats off and a big thanks to
Brandon of Perdido Sailor (our Contractor) and to the Pensacola Shipyard who all did a great job of getting the boat out of the water for further assessment – Thank you!

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!

 

 

Our Return to the US .....and the Big Bang!

 Return Trip

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.

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.

We continued the journey south headed towards Marathon.  We found a nice little anchorage for the night at Dod Island located on the west side of Card Sound (Biscayne Bay)..  After that we spent a night at an anchorage we discovered on the outward journey at Ocean View Inn, located near Snake Creek; and then moved on to Boot Cay in Marathon.  Boot Cay is almost and obligatory stop......well you either love the place or hate it in my opinion.  For a City run facility it is great, with good location for provisioning etc.  There is also a seemingly good community spirit from those that seem to have got stuck there.  Personally - I see no reason to stay more than a couple of nights.  After that, it kind of has the feeling of a "trailer park" for boats.  Now that's just my opinion, and I may get shot down for voicing it.  But take a close look at our Boot Cay neighbor's boat and make your own decision.

Anyway - enough of that.  We moved on and spent a night at Cape Sable, once again anchoring off the beach in very calm conditions.  We were able to excercize Salty on the beach with no crocodiles! (yes, we have seen them in the past- -see some early blog posts)

Now we were trecking North and getting onto the "Yacht Club" run.  As I know I have mentioned before, being a member of a FCYC or GYA club has a fantastic perk of reciprocity, and each member club provides a free night of dockage.  This in itself makes our Pensacola YC membership worthwhile.  Now moving north up the FL West coast, our journey took us to Marco Island (anchoring in Factory Bay for the night); Naples YC,  then a night on a mooring at Ft. Myers, a night at St. Charles YC.

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.

Once again, great staff and a wonderful welcome from all the FCYC yacht clubs.  At Bradenton, we took advantage of the local Publix store and their "insta-cart" delivery service.  It worked well, we grocery shopped online and our goods arrived at the boat within a couple of hours.  Wow!  I'm not an Uber fan but use it, but now my Uber usage will decline when on future sailing trips!  This is the way to grocery shop on a boat!

From Bradenton another short hop and nice sail up Tampa Bay to- - yes, you guessed it St. Pete's YC.  Usually one of the nicer and more affluent FCYC yacht clubs......but they had a problem  - seemingly a big problem as the health Department closed down the club as we arrived.  Hmmmm.....maybe we didn't want dinner there afterall!  Anyway, other than, another great stay.

A good friend Jeff joined us in St. Pete's.  This was Jeff's first sailing experience and little did he know that we were about to give him the full experience!  We enjoyed two great evenings in St. Pete's before heading out to start our longest individual leg of our return journey.

The following day we sailed across Tampa Bay and out of the pass at Pass-a-grille and north up to Anclotte Key ready to stage for our Gulf Crossing.  We had a great sail with about 18 kts and a nice broad reach.

After a quiet night at Anclotte Key, we made a run for the Gulf crossing, headed for Dog Island and ultimately Apalachicola.  

Sunrise over the Big Bend

We were blessed with good weather, but very light wind making for a motor-sail across.  Still, although purists may disagree, I will take a fast motor-sail in preference to a hard beat-into-it crossing for the Big Bend.  Based on my experience, this can be a tough piece of water with weather often changing fast and unpredictably.  We made the crossing in about 21 hours although I don't think I made a note of our finishing time.

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".

If you have read our blog from previous trips, you will no doubt have seen that Apalachicola and the surrounding area has consistently been one of our favorite areas.  In fact, after some time in the Bahamas and not really wanting to head home, I probably look forward to visiting the Forgotten Coast area more than anywhere else on the trip.  Hmmm......funny how one of your favorite spots can be right in your backyard!

We spent 2 nights in Apalachicola - but lesson learned, it was Sunday and Monday.  Many places, including restaurants close on Sunday and Monday - even though it was Memorial Day weekend.  Nonetheless, we had a great stay.

There are some great restaurants in Apalachicola and some unusual spts to visit such as the Tin Shed where you can find no end of nautical and land-lubber junk!

After 2 nights we took the ICW route towards port. St. Joe and St. Joe's Bay.  We took the ICW route as there is always plenty of wildlife and spectacular scenery along the way.  The ICW uses the Apalachicola River  and Jackson River for most of the way to Port St. Joe. followed by a short stretch of man-made canal.

The Tin Shed has a new location!

Well, if you are reading this in near real time, I am going to keep you in suspense for a day or two until I can write the next chapter.  I titled this ......the Big Bang, and yes there was one on our return, but I need to take a break before I can bring myself to writing about it.

As the Coast Guard Says, "......break, more to follow"

To the Berrys...working our way to the USA

 We have chilled out in Spanish Wells for the week!  I did a couple of small boat projects, as you do (cruising=fixing boats in exotic locations!).  But it was nice to chill in a location with a little bit going on while the weather slowly calmed down a bit........at least I hope it has.  We will see in the morning. 

We had a great but short sail (7-8 miles) to Egg Island just off the northern end of what is generally called Eleuthera but is really George Island, Russel Island and Royal Island. The anchorage at Egg Island was beautiful - one of the nicer spots in the Bahamas so far.  Nothing there but beach and some snorkelling, but just a wonderful setting.  We stayed the night at Egg Island to stage for our crossing to the Berrys

To the Berry's - April 26

Anchorage at Egg Island

We left Egg at around 7:00 to 7:30am in order to try to get the best winds.  In hindsight - it looked like we had left it a day too late and sure enough the winds were quickly dying.  We had thoughts of sailing ont he code zero alone - which we tried then switing to the Spin as the wind died.  It wa dead behind us.  It quickly went from 12-10-8-6.  We could have puttered along at 4 kts maybe under sail, but we also had some pretty big swells.  Nothing uncomfortable, but sure enough, light wind and big swells was causing the sails to collapse and flog.  We motor-sailed as long as we could stand it then reluctantly rolled up the nhadsail.  It was a good crossing - but it sure would have been nice to sail more of it.

We entered the Berrys at Little Harbor Cay, about midway along the island chain.  The cut was easy, being nice and wide and deep on the south side of some rocks where we could see waves breaking.  Once inside, the depths became quite shallow.  We headed a couple of miles north on the marked route and anchored at Devils Cay.  We had the spot to ourselves but could see a few other boats in nearby anchorages.  It is beautiful and protected from east winds here, but would be wide open to any weather from the west.

To the south os us is Flo's Conch Shack - at the time of writing we have not been yet, but may go.  Its apparently famous for its conch fritters........which seems like many english places that are famous for their "fish and chips!"  Now to me conch is ok, but not something I would travel for.  Fish and chips on the other hand........well, there are some good ones to be had!

Hoffman's Cay

The next day we moved just a little north to Hoffman's Cay.  This is the site of Hoffman's Blue hole.  Wow!  the anchorage was amazing, we jumped into the BLue Hole; Salty absolutely loved it!  So much sot hat we returned the next day to do it all again!

Hoffman's Blue Hole

I do think this was perhaps one of the very best anchorages we have stayed in during our trip to the Bahamas!  and that says a lot in itself.

The beaches were clean and spectacular, adn the Blue hole was quite a sight!

And as we returned to the boat from the Blue hole - this was the sight that greeted us!

A total "blue out" where the sky truly met the ocean!

After a couple of days at Hoffman's it was time to move on.  We elected to move up to the northern Berrys - Great Stirrup Cay area.

We found a place to stop for the night - but what a contrast!  We anchored at Snake cay and took Salty ashore on the southern end of Great Stirrup.  Great Stirrup has become the "private island" for a number of cruise ships - what a monstrocity!  Fun park with water slides, a helium baloon ride that takes you 400ft into the air........adn everything else that goes with that.  Needless to say, we got a visit from security for taking Salty ashore - we were reminded (very professionally and courteous), that we could not cross private property, but we were welcome to use the beach up to the high tide line per Bahamian Law.  We did, and we left early the following morning.

Our Return Trip

Our return trip took us a with a long day to Bimini - last stop before the USA.  Bimini is far from a Bahamian treaure........well more honestly, its a bit of a dump as far as the island goes.  But its a good spot to clear in and out.  There are a couple fun spots and the Bluewater marina is reasonably priced.  Big Game Club serves reasonable food, and the End of the World Sandbar is definately a place to visit - as we have done on several trips!

We found some old grafitti from a previous trip and refreshed the ink while adding a new one for Midnight Sun III

After 2 nights, we headed back towards Miami.  Winds were lighter than forecast, so it became a motor-sail, fighting the gulf stream to stay south.  But we did have one amazing surprise.  As we left Bimini, we were escorted by a pod of Pilot Whales!  At first, I thought they were dolphins, but they were larger and darker in color - and clearly not dolphins!  What an amazing sight to end out time in the Bahamas!