SV Kooky Dance: ……A good Passage

By First Mate – Tamera
Lets see….where did we leave off…..oh yeah we got our butts kicked.

Tamera enjoying the calm passage

Kooky Dance enjoying the calm passage

Excellent sunset while on passage

The advice we got from many many many sailors was to follow a bad passage with a good passage and that is exactly what we did.
With nerves still on edge we untied the lines from Palafox Pier Marina in Pensacola and made a short trip to Big Lagoon to anchor down for the night. The next morning we awoke to dense fog and decided to wait it out. Finally we pulled up anchor at 8:30 and made our way out to the Gulf of Mexico again. We rode some nice size swells out of Pensacola Pass and into the the deeper waters of the Gulf. We set our sails and began heading East, Port Saint Joe here we come. The winds filled in 8-10 knots from the SE and increased up to 15 knots and gave us a lovely sail doing around 7 knots SOG all night. This was the kind of passage we needed after getting our butts kicked. We made it to Port Saint Joe, FL around 3:15 am and found a wonderful wide & deep entrance into PSJ. We rounded the corner and dropped the anchor in beautiful clear water and white sandy beaches…..Ahhhhh paradise.

Clear water and sandy white beaches

Scott Exploring the many wonders of PSJ

Jill showing us around PSJ

Jill lent a hand at changing a light up the mast

The crew arriving in Pensacola

We have arranged to have a friend of ours Bud Campbell help us crew our boat to Mexico. Bud was in Texarkana for a week to help his family so we had some time to chill and plan our passage to Mexico. The next 14 days we spent living the life of boat bums in PSJ as well as watching the weather to see when our weather window to Mexico would arrive. Port Saint Joe, Florida is a wonderful little town to visit both by land and sea. We anchored outside the marina (to save money) most days. But we did however make our way all over St. Joseph Bay to anchor and explore. The beaches were wonderful and were so full of seashells and lots of sea life to explore, heck Scott even went snorkeling. Let me clarify Scott went snorkeling for about 10 minutes because the water was soooooo cold (68 degrees). Oh well he will have to wait until he reaches Mexico to snorkel…..Speaking of Mexico…..our crew has arrived and a weather window is coming up SOON.

The salty trio - Bud, Tamera & Scott

Lumpy Seas - the water color was stunning

Captain Scott worked so hard and slept so little

We had a few days to visit with Bud & Jill in PSJ and it looked like our weather window was closing so we were going to be “stuck” in PSJ…..or were we??? Bud and Jill were wonderful and generous hosts allowing us use of their home and providing taxi service to help tie up some loose ends. We are forever grateful for their hospitality. But then on Friday March 2nd they “got the call” our weather window was a GO NOW window so we told Bud we were tossing the lines off at 6:00 PM. In the true fashion of cruising we left at 7:20 PM from PSJ with butterflies in our bellies and excitement in our hearts…..we were going to MEXICO.
Leaving for a long passage is a bit nerve racking and leaving for a long passage at night is even more so. I went below to try to sleep a little so I could do my share of watch and about an hour later I woke up to lots of rocking and rolling….we were back in the Gulf of Mexico. The entire night was quite boisterous and the crew was doing an excellent job of avoiding major sea sickness. We all felt seasick to some degree or another – thank goodness for Meclizine, my sea sickness wonder pill. We had a wonderful full moon the guide us each night and a wonderful sunny skies to warm us each day. The seas continued to bounce us around – they were 5-6 feet waves with the occasion 10 footer thrown in for some extra FUN.

Scott holding IPAD with chart showing us just off Cuba coast

Bud holding IPAD with chart showing us just off Cuba coast

The days that followed were even better – the seas calmed, the crew became less seasick and we were getting closer to Mexico. There were a few bumps in the road and only one “Captain shit a brick” episode. That episode happened as we approached CUBA…..what? Cuba?? The Loop current that we had been riding at a speed of 10 knots for about 24 hours runs toward Cuba and when you reach a certain point you sail into the Yucatan Channel and then off to Mexico…..but back to the brick shitting. I was asleep and captain come to my bunk and says “Were in trouble, you need to get up” – OK now the adrenaline is pumping. “we have lost our GPS signal and I need you to get the hand held GPS and get on deck, we have ships everywhere!!!!!….more adrenaline. Oh yeah it MIDNIGHT…..more adrenaline. Arrrrrrrrrrr. I grab GPS and IPAD (it has Garmin blue charts as a back up system) and head out on deck. After many tense minutes and the captain trying to fix the problem and Bud driving the boat without GPS the Captain announces we are turning east to Key West.

Arriving into Isla Mujeres Mexico

Buddy finally getting a chance to check out the anchorage

Boat hair - Don't care - enjoy your well deserved drink Captain

First Mate Tamera

The happy crew in Mexico

We turned and headed east and the GPS began working on its own……after 15 minutes of the captain and Buddy talking the GPS was working. Buddy told of a time it happened to him and it was a case of simply losing the satellite signal and the GPS remarkably came back to life…..Captain decided WE ARE GOING TO MEXICO !!!! So we turned back west and arrived in Isla Mujeres Mexico on Tuesday March 6th at 2:30 Pm and dropped anchor at 3:09 PM. We called our marina and were told come in and tie up…….we tied up and then paperwork Cha Cha can began. It is called the paperwork Cha Cha because it is a not so well orchestrated dance that needs to take place to complete all the necessary documentation to check into the country. I never was a very good dancer so I found this incredibility difficult but the Captain handled it like a champ. It was all finally completed today with the final piece of the puzzle the boat importation document (good for 10 years). Realize many more events happened during this 3.5 day voyage but none of them brick shitting worthy of writing about.
We have now sent our crew home but wish to extend a whole hearted Thank You to Bud for his assistance with the trip. Your friendship and companionship during the voyage was memorable and we truly appreciate the laughs, conversation and extra sleep. We now need to settle into a cruising mode of meeting new people and learning a whole new way of life Mexican style.