Ascension Fleet

By 1st Mate Tamera

On March 24, 2018 we slipped the lines from the Isla Puerto Isla Mujeres Marina and headed out to sea again.  Along with our three buddy boats Sea Mist, Rainbow’s End and Arawa we headed south to Bahia de la Ascension which is 110 miles south so it was going to be an overnight passage and what a passage it was……

Cancun Mexico in the distance as we left Isla Mujeres

 

SV Arawa sailing south

You might ask why we were doing an overnight passage when we are not that fond of overnight passages.  Our buddy boat friends did not want to do any overnighters but the weather window we had and not wanting to pay for a marina we could get stuck at for a week due to weather with few option led the Captain to suggest to the fleet that we do an overnighter to Bahia Ascension.  The Captain presented the reason why and even though he was worried it would not be received well it went remarkably well.  His reason were the forecasted bad weather and the fact we could hold up in Ascension for as long as needed without incurring any cost and it could be a cool place to explore.

Since we were going to be in VHF radio contact all night we decided our group needed a name so we became THE ACENSION FLEET and from this point forward that is how we called each other on the radio. 
When we left the wind were out of the east and were behind the island of Isla Mujeres.   The winds and waves were manageable but then we passed the southern point and the ride became rough.  We all thought once we got past the initial wave action you see when coming out of the lee of an island things would calm down.  Wellllllll that did not happen.
Winds were 20-25 knots and the waves grew to 7-12 feet but nobody wanted to turn back and lose the miles we had gained, so we continued south.  We did hourly check-in’s to make sure everyone was doing OK.  Most of us were fighting sea sickness at some level, some worse than others.  I had my Meclazine in my system and only had a few dizzy spells but never got sick.  That is huge for me who has spent many good sailing days sick as a dog.  We did not get a lot of radio chatter from Rainbow’s End and at the time we blamed in on a weak radio signal.  Turns out it was a little more serious than a bad antenna connection.
As it got dark Pam on Rainbow’s end announced she was at wits end.  Don (her husband) was so sea sick he was completely debilitated.  She was sailing single handed and was falling farther and farther behind the rest of the fleet.  It was now dark and as we were getting close to Playa De Carmen the shore lights and other boat traffic made trying to pick out Rainbow’s End wee little navigation light very difficult.  Sea Mist was unable to pick them up on Radar but Kooky Dance could and they were about 7 miles behind us and sailing too far off shore.  The Captain was concerned for Pam and ran through various scenarios with Pam that included sailing over to Cozumel and anchoring down until daylight.  Pam did not think she could even anchor down by herself safely so decided to sail on with the fleet.   The significance of Rainbow’s End being too far off shore was the north bound Yucatan current that runs at 2 knots and in the wrong direction for those boats heading south.  With all the other things Pam  was fighting on Rainbow's End by also sailing too far off shore she was slowing her progress and a major contributor to why they were falling farther and farther behind.  The Captain explained this to Pam to encourage her to work her way towards shore and shallower water but it was a difficult sell.  What sailor wants to take their boat towards a reef strewn shore, at night, alone.   But Pam knew the Captain was right and summoned up her courage and worked her tiny vessel towards the reef and the certain destruction they could bring.
The captain pointed out that we had made exceptional time during the day and had banked up some extra miles that we could now spend by slowing way down and waiting for Rainbow’s End to catch up.  We all did that with Kooky Dance doing most of the slowing and going from the front of the fleet to the rear of the fleet waiting for Rainbow’s end to catch up.  It was starting to work.  The Captain reported they were now 5 miles back but Rainbow’s end was not able to see us.  The light from the shore were too bright and numerous to discern which were boats and which were not.  The Captain used the spot light to help identify Kooky Dance’s location relative to Rainbow’s End.  This worked well and soon Rainbow’s End was within 1 mile of Kooky Dance.  So now Arawa, Rainbow’s End and Kooky Dance were close together and SV Sea Mist had carried on and was about 6 or 7 mile ahead.  This proximity would become very crucial in the next hour or so.  
We passed through Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen around 10:30 PM but the ship and ferry traffic traffic was still busy.   Both the shore of Playa de Carmen and the shore of Cozumel was awash with lights making other vessels and us difficult to see at night.  The AIS system on board Kooky Dance shows imminent collision with every vessel in the area.   Scott spent a good bit of time communicating via VHF radio negotiating with other vessels to keep all three boats in our Ascension fleet safe.
We sailed on thru the night and passed Mahahual at around 4 AM.  It was difficult to make out much in the dark.  This location is also known as Costa Maya and is a brand new cruise ship terminal.  While is make a good location for cruise ships to tie for the day it is not so hospitable to anchored sail boats because it is open to the sea.   The port of Mahahual lays about 2.5 nm south of the cruise ship terminal and while it is technically a port there is only about 4 ft of depth in this port thus making it also inhospitable to  sail boats.  So we sailed on into the night.

SV Rainbow's End

Rene and Michael from SV Sea Mist

Greg and Candy from SV Arawa

Don and Pam from SV Rainbow's End

First anchorage in Bahia Ascension

Our second anchorage farther south in Bahia Ascension

On Sunday, March 25th 11:30 am we arrived at Bahia de le Ascension.  We anchored in 10 feet of muddy bottom near the beach.  The water was a little murky and later became lumpy sea state so we all decided with the bad weather heading our way perhaps we should move further south in the Bahia to Wilson Point to get better protection.  The weather forecast was the next 5 days of strong SE winds and would make our trip south very uncomfortable so we decided to stick it out here.  We moved 5 miles south for better protection.  Bahia de le Ascension is very remote and there was only one small village but we all opted to stay on our boats and when weather permitted we would explore.  We did explore.
Saturday March 31, 2018 – we finally have a break in the weather and we pulled up anchor and was now heading to Bahia Del Esperito Santos 40 miles away.  We left at 0630 am and had a great little sail south.  Scott caught 3 fish but we did not keep any due to the fear of ciguatera poisoning and they were not too big.  It was still fun to catch fish.  At 14:30 we dropped anchor in a beautiful spot behind the reef.  It was beautiful and bouncy.  Scott went snorkeling and said it was a really awesome reef.   Scott said he saw the biggest moray eel he has ever seen anywhere.  The plan was to stay here overnight and get up early and head more to the south BUT mother nature had her own plan.
We woke up to squalls which brought high winds and rain.  The rain part was OK but the high winds also brought high waves.

Our Anchorage in Bahia Espirito Santo

Since we were protected behind the reef The Ascension Fleet decided to wait out the squalls and leave later in the day & make it another overnight passage to Xcalak Mexico.  Xcalak at one time was the last check out point in Mexico for sailors heading south but that has changed to a place called Mahahal (a cruise port).  But our plan was to sail to Xcalak and when it was time to leave Mexico we would take a Taxi to Mahahal and check out that way.  Of course that did not work out either, but that will have to wait until the next blog post.
We arrived in Xcalak on Monday April 2, 2018 at 10:00 am…..Captain Scott will tell the story of this place, checking out of Mexico and tell of the great place Xcalak Mexico.

Isla Mujeres Mexico and South.

By Captain Scott Buckley

As I write this post about our experiences in Mexico I am actually in Guatemala.  We have cruised Belize and traveled up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and are at a Marina.  Cleaning up the boat washing clothes, taking long showers and yes catching up on blog post because we have INTERNET.  Tamera always says the same thing when we are anchored at some remote island with no one around she will pick up her phone and announce that she “cannot believe there is NO INTERET”.  I usually reply, “I know I hate this place”.

I want to talk more about the magic of Belize and the jewel that is Guatemala but to do justice to the chronology of the blog I have to cover those times that are already fading into memory.

In Isla Mujeres Mexico we checked into our second foreign country as cruisers.  It is a bit harder than it was in the Bahamas because of the language barrier.  As well there are much fewer cruising boats that visit the Western Caribbean than the Eastern Caribbean therefore it is a little less cruiser friendly.  To add to the general confusion for first timers like us the system has recently changed.  The Navy took over the Port Captains duties and removed many services such as immigration and custom office up and down the eastern Yucatan coast.  I believe this effort is to combat corruption but it is causing problems for many Mexican as this was their way of doing business with Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad and others.   While I applaud the intent of this action the impact has been hard on the towns down the Yucatan coast that relied on trading other than the tourist trade.  For us and those traveling with us this lost of official services would prove problematic later on.
'I used the services of an agent to help us get through checking into Mexico.  I did not plan it this way but when we arrived in Isla Mujeres I guess I had been running on nerves.  In the past 4 days after leaving St. Joe Florida I had only slept an hour or two.   Once we were tied up at a dock I went ashore alone to begin clearing in the crew and vessel.  Within 30 to 40 minutes of walking to this and that office the exhaustion began to overwhelm me.  I could no longer think straight and my Spanish was becoming horribly mixed with Portuguese, English and even some Russian.  I knew I was screwing up the discussion but my mind was not functioning correctly.  Words kept flying out of my mouth that I knew were wrong but for the life of me I could not summon the correct Spanish ones.  As I walked I felt myself being pulled to the ground by a weariness that I had not experienced in decades.  I no longer wanted to return to the boat but instead find a shady tree to lie down under and drift off.  I asked the Marina office clerk to recommend an agent to help me complete the checking documentation cha cha.  I met him and somehow passed along enough information to get him started checking the crew and vessel into Mexico.  At the time he asked me if I also wanted to check out of Mexico.  At the time that made no sense to my already mottled brain.  I did not know how long I would be in Mexico and there was so much more to see along the coast.  Since you only have 48 hours to get out the country after checking out I wanted to wait.  Turns out I was wrong.

The Crew of Kooky Dance after checking into Mexico.  Scott, Tamera and Bud.  Bud is the handsome one.

But, we were in Isla Mujeres.  Me and my best friend (Tamera my 1st mate) had worked hard save our money, delayed our gratification so that someday we could sail our own little boat to see the world at our pace and not the pace of some tour guide.  We kept looking at each other at odd times and asking; “you know what?”.  “We’re in Isla Mujeres”.  Occasionally it would be followed by a high five slapping of hands.  Sometime we would asking each other at the same time. 

The lovely 1st mate infront of the "Puerto Isla Mujeres marina sign.

We stayed at the Marina for an extra day to that it would be easy to get Bud our crewmate from St. Joe FL to the Cancun ferry so he could catch his plane back home. Back home has a new meaning for Tamera and me.  We have no home in the USA.  Our little boat Kooky Dance IS our home.  Where she goes we go.  So she went and anchored down in the Isla Mujeres anchorage for the next several weeks.  I was keen on meeting some cruisers and was hoping to hook up with some buddy boats heading south that could show us the way.  It is funny how things work out.
In many popular cruiser anchorages there are cruiser radio nets broadcasted almost every morning.  On these nets new boats are welcomed to the area, departing vessel get to say good bye, announcements are made and questions get answered.  Every new boat to an anchorage with a local cruiser’s radio net listens every morning and that includes us.   There was a call on this particular net in Isla Mujeres for volunteers to act as net controllers.  The “net Controller” organizes, schedules and grants permission for communication on the net.  They call for priority or medical traffic, they pass on weather forecasts and make useful safety announcements.  If someone want to pass traffic on the net they announce their vessel’s name and wait to be recognized.   The “net controller” keeps things flowing and controls radio traffic so that people are not broadcasting at the time or what is commonly called walking on each other. 
The 1st mate suggested if I really want to meet other cruisers then I should volunteer to be net controller.  Well I immediately began cussing her and calling her less than nice name.  Why?  Because she was right.  What did I know about being a net controller?  Who in their right minds liked public speaking in high school?  But, I could not think of a reasonable argument to counter her logic (Dam woman).  So I volunteered and thought I would only be doing it for 1 day a week but ended up doing it as much as 5 days a week.  But, Tamera turned out to be right.  Tamera and I got better known and met other cruiser and some turned out to be also head south and agreed to buddy boat with us.  The issue of who was leading who quickly evolved shortly after we once got underway. 
I should write about our stay in Isla Mujeres before I start droning on about leaving.  We soon left the marina after we took Bud to the airport and went to the anchorage out near town.  From here we needed to dinghy into town.  As there are no official dinghy docks and some businesses that had docks reserved their use to customers you generally had to find unofficial places to deposit your dinghy while you walked to town

Tying the dinghy up to the tree on the beach.

Sunset in t Isla Mujeres Anchorage

Stopping for lunch while provisioning

Isla Mujeres 1

Isla Mujeres 2

Isla Mujeres 3

  

El Milagro

Isla Mujeres was pretty friendly to cruisers for a predominately tourist driven town.  The streets teamed with souvenir vendor tour boat operators and taxis.  But expensive restaurants were plentiful and markets were easy and cheap for provisioning.  We made friends with some other cruiser that were also headed south and played around Isla Mujeres for the next 3 weeks. 

Swinging around in the Anchorage

Anchor watch track.  The boat moves around a bit when

at anchor.  Winds shift and tidal current changes 

contribute to this.

……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.

Tamera taking down the "Q" flag

Tamera raising the Mexico flag

The boys enjoying a hard earned night out 

Welcome to Isla Mujeres MEXICO BABY

Turning Back

By Captain Scott Buckley

The Weather:

The weather system as it passed Pensacola

In the last post we planned to leave Sunday for Port St. Joe to pick up Bud Campbell.  The weather was not looking good.  There were these large bands of rain sweeping in off the Gulf and the news was mostly about flooding.  Somewhere I missed what that there was a low pressure trough in the Gulf of Mexico.  On radar it looked like a passing front.  Well about 13:30 Sunday the rains stopped and I looked again on radar and it looked like the weather had passed us and was now heading east towards Panama City Florida.  What I did not realize was that it was headed to Panama City but was not in any hurry to make it there.

Offshore Tamera before the ordeal

The crew (1st Mate Tamera) was concerned about leaving with the weather that appeared to be very unsettled.  I was guilty of feeling the pressure of trying to meet up with crew in Port St. Joe and getting out of an expensive transient dock, but I convinced Tamera that the bad stuff had passed and we would just follow it to St. Joe and to ready the boat and we would leave and follow the weather to the east.  The forecast called for south winds at about 10 knots.  This should be very doable for us.  So we slipped the lines around 2:30PM and headed out.

A Little History

I have been on boats, ships and things that go to sea for nearly half a century.  I have weather hurricane Juan alone in the Gulf of Mexico in a 32 foot flat bottom aluminum boat (something I suggest no one ever do), I have weathered the North Sea and South Atlantic and Pacific all across the world and in all that time I have never turned back.   Once I have fought for miles at sea I am very reluctant to give them up.  The same goes for the 1st Mate.  Once when sail East into an eastern sea back in 2013 I asked the 1st mate if she wanted to turn back.  Our buddy boat behind us had given up and turned back but the 1st Mate said she hates to give up the miles and I agreed.  Those miles are hard to give up if they have not come easy so we pressed on.  Our little bit of history is we are not quitters by nature.

Forecasts be Damn:

Once we got out of Pensacola Pass the winds were not from the south but from the east but were in the 10 knot range.  The swells were quiet large and the sea state was a little rough for no more wind than what we had.  Due to the sea state I decided to raise sails to stabilize the boat and maybe get a little more speed.  The speed would not mean much because with the sails up and the wind on the nose we would be beating towards Port St. Joe about 105 nm at a heading of about 105 degrees true.  The darkness did show up as predicted with no moon and overcast skies so it was going to be dark.  Very dark.

Deteriorating Conditions:

As we worked our way  east the rain started.  The farther east we went the harder it rained and the winds kept increasing.  With the rains and the complete darkness there was no visibility.  Though I was standing watch there was nothing to see. 10 to 15 knots became 15-20 knots.  15 to 20 knots became 20 to 25 knots and the conditions deteriorated into the darkness.   It was impossible to remain dry and everything in the cockpit was wet, crew included.  With the sea pounding and Kooky Dance slogging her way to the east the speed rapidly fell off.  In the first 2 hours of travel we cover about 9 nm to the destination.  I the next 4 hours we only increased that by 10 nm.  Winds started topping 35 knots and stayed constant above 30 knots.  It was pitch black with rain.  I could not see anything.  I could not see how big the waves were but could make out the curling white foam of the breakers seconds before the crashed over the bow.
I was hoping the 30-35 knot winds would abate but I watched them closely for 30 minutes and they were not weakening and if the truth be told they actually looked like they were increasing.  I tried sailing further offshore and while the wind did shift about 10 degrees to the south they increased with each mile further south we traveled. 

Turning Back:

I told Tamera I was going to turn back.  I got no arguments.  You would think that turning around should be easy but with no visual references (remember pitch black and driving rain) and a sincere fear of jibing in this wind it took a great deal of control to bring the boat around under control and get here headed back to Pensacola.  The seas were so big and SV Kooky Dance was jumping around it was very difficult to maintain orientation.  The only reference I had was the wind direction and when the boat was in a wave through that could not be completely trusted.  Once Kooky Dance was turned around and the sail (by this time I had only a single reefed main sail up) eased she was screaming along at 7.8 knots.  Tamera thought I was an exceptional boat handler but I thought I was lucky.

The Lights:

As we sailed west the rain cleared and I was actually able to pick up the glow of some city lights to the north.  In that distant light I was able to see the monsters that pursued us.  At first I thought they were ships or other boats.  These dark shapes would pass between us and the glow from the north.  They were moving fast and at first caused my heart to skip a beat until I realized they were waves and not huge ships intent on doing us harm.  They were the waves we had been beating into that I could not see and they were massive.  In just under 3 hours we were back at the Pensacola Pass.  We had completely undone 6 to7 hrs. of sailing in just under 3 hrs.

The Raging:

As we approached the pass the winds has abated to 20 knots and clocked a bit to the south.  I did not want to go racing thru the pass and chance jibing so just before we got the Pensacola Pass we dropped the main.  When I turn the boat north into the pass our speed dropped from 7 knots to 2.2 knots.  There was an outbound current from Pensacola Bay against the wind and seas.  This is commonly known as when “the pass is raging”.  That is exactly the right words for what was coming next.  The big seas that had been pursuing us were running into this fast outbound current and this stood them up.  It made them peak, crest and break.  It made them crest and break on Kooky Dance.  These seas would slam into the stern of Kooky Dance and try to spin her around.  The current would catch the bow and try to force her off course.  It was everything I could do to maintain control of our tiny vessel.  The Pensacola Pass is not very wide and has shoals on both sides.  At night in these conditions the Pass seemed very small and the way the boat was getting tossed about I had a great deal of trouble keeping Kooky Dance lined up in the channel and not go careening into a shoal.  The channel markers were bobbing around in the waves like us and very often not visible but there was something that stay visible for most of the trip thru the Pass.  That was the Pensacola light house.  If I kept the lighthouse about 20 points to the starboard I was roughly lined up with the channel.   When I say if I kept the lighthouse at that bearing what I mean is if I kept the average bearing about 20 points of to the starboard.  The actual bearing of the lighthouse at any given time was from 90 degrees to starboard to 60 degrees to port.  I probably looked like a drunk walking thru a rock garden that night but I can swear I was VERY sober.  With the boat pitching about I caught a glimpse of Tamera sliding to the cockpit floor and staying there.  I was worried she could see the fear on my face and could not stand to look at it anymore.  That was not the case at all. 

Wrestling the Gas

What had happened and unknown to me at the time was the 20 lb. propane tank strapped to the  steering station had broken loose and was flying around the cockpit like a 2 year old on caffeine and sugar.  Tamera jumped down to wrestle it under control.  The post mortem showed the buckle had broken.  No chafe, no loose straps but a broken buckle. 

Turning the Corner

Pensacola Pass

As you go north into Pensacola Pass you can turn right and into Pensacola Bay or left thru the narrow cut into Big Lagoon.  While Big Lagoon would offer a more secure anchorage I had no stomach for negotiating the narrow cut at night.  Tamera concurred.  We turned right into the bay and dropped the hook behind the barrier island.  The time was about 2AM.  We fell asleep still in our wet clothes.

The Damage

There were two types of damage to be assessed.  The physical and the psychological.  For the physical the newly installed fish cleaning station I had installed on the bow was ripped away.  Only a few bits of torn metal remained.  A boat hook was missing (from the cockpit)  Both Tamera and I wondered how we missed seeing it go flying past us.  It was very dark.  Finally one of the two of our folding chairs that was lashed to the stern was gone.  The psychological damage would take additional time to assess but the first casualty was a loss of confidence.  While Tamera had only praise for my ability to get us home I was profoundly shaken in my estimation of myself as Captain.   Tamera was jumpy the next day which proved even though she was putting on a brave face she too was still rattled.

Bad Passage the Remake

The next morning I got up early and listen to the weather on the VHF and told Tamera we would try again.  I raised the anchor and got us underway.  Once we got out to the Pensacola pass the seas were sloppy and Tamera came up from below and did not look happy.  I had not given her time to take sea sickness medicine and with the slop in the pass the 1st mate was sick.  On top of this we were still wet and the boat was in disarray. This was no way to start out a trip so I turned around and headed all the way back to the dock.  In stead of meeting our crew in Port St. Joe I would have them come to Pensacola and we would depart from here.  That was the plan but plans can change with new information.  I was still trying to hold our schedule together.

Fixing What Needs Mending

The physical toll will be first.  The fishing station was gone.  I removed the remaining pieces of the brackets and tossed them away.  I would be cleaning fish on the deck like most sailors.  We would buy a new boat hook and folding chair in Pensacola.  The psychological toll will be next.  Every sailing couple gets there butts kicked every once in a while.  We had to turn this into a positive quickly.  Tamera turned to “Women who sail” on Facebook and relayed her story and concerns.  We got some really thoughtful responses and advice.  They all said it is a wise sailor who knows when to turn around and most importantly it is important to follow a bad passage with a good one.  I on the other hand got busy getting my weatherfax set up working on the SSB radio.  I was counting on weather app on my phone and once we set off for Mexico those apps would not work.  I replaced the broken speakers in the cockpit and got the IPOD working with the stereo so we could have music while making passages.  We did a better job of stowing things while underway and keeping the deck and cockpit clear.  I also got a better fix on the weather. 

The New Plan

Well plans change and I was not going to rush things.  Probably the biggest mistake I made during the bad trip was letting a schedule of events push me into rushed decisions.  We would eventually make it to Port St. Joe and follow a bad passage with a good one.  More on that in the next update.