Wednesday, June 16, 2004
I'm at the Public Library in Clearwater, and they're the worst yet...I've got 30 minutes, once a day, so I'll do my best to sum up the trip now, then I'll have my more organized thoughts written down for you tomorrow
Hey people! I hope the last few days have treated you well. I have made it to Clearwater, FL, and appear to be unscathed. All said and done, it was just over a 40 hour trip, traveling more than 175 nautical miles (about 200 statute miles).
Dad pretty much summed it up...there were times when I was getting tossed around like a ragdoll (and no, he wouldn't have enjoyed it!). There were also times, though, that were amazingly surreal...To describe the sun setting on the horizon, then after hours of being battered by wind and waves, it rizing again...I just am not good enough at this writing thing to do it justice. You really have to sit on the bow of the rocking boat, looking all around & seeing nothing but water & sky...It's simply amazing.
Let me paste the forcast from the National Weather Service for the days of my trip:
Wednesday
EAST WIND 5 TO 10 KNOTS...EXCEPT BECOMING ONSHORE OVER THE NEAR SHORE WATERS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. PROTECTED WATERS SMOOTH. ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
Thursday
SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 10 KNOTS...BECOMING SOUTHWEST. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. PROTECTED WATERS SMOOTH. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
Friday
WEST WIND 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. PROTECTED WATERS SMOOTH TO A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
Ok...seas 1-2 feet...about as smooth as I could possibly hope for. Not a bad outlook. Alright...you ready for what I actually experienced? When I left Carrabelle Wednesday afternoon, the pass was extremely rough...3-4ft, very steep, with some 5' waves in there. It calmed down to a 2' swell before dusk. I wasn't too surprised...I'd never really been more than 8-10 miles offshore, so I didn't know what to expect.
The sunset Wednesday night was spectacular...soo cool to watch it just sink behind the water.
The moon was in it's "new" phase, so in other words, it produced no light whatsoever. The stars were out bright as day...it was like I could reach up and grab them. They didn't, however, light up the water very much. Around 1am Thursday morning, I began to notice lightning on the horizon. I couldn't really see the clouds very well, and all I could go by was where the stars were blacked out. So, I was able to kind of track the storm and avoid it to the north, however, I still was quite affected by the wind and waves that it had kicked up. I dropped all my sails in anticipation of the high winds that a storm can bring, so I was doing my best to use the motor to keep the boat headed into the oncoming waves. (when the waves are coming from the front of the boat, it's a bit better than if you're broadside, and swaying side to side the entire time.) There were 2 problems with my ability so succeed using this tactic. The first problem was the motor...with the up and down of the boat, it spent just as much time out of the water as it did in the water. Literally, every 5 seconds I'd hear the deafening whine of the prop spinning in mid air, then hear it sink back down and try and grab hold of the water, only to jump right back out. The second problem was the waves...it was dark...I couldn't see them! Had I been asked at the time how high the waves were, I would have easily replyed 25-30 feet high. Of course, I'm pretty new to this whole judging wave height thing, but I can honestly, conservatively say that I was seeing constant 5-7's, with an occasional 8 or 9. Luckily, they were all rollers...none of them actually broke. The height of the waves wasn't really the biggest problem, though...I had no clue which direction they were coming from! In storms a lot of times, the seas are 'confused'...meaning they don't have a particular direction pattern like they normally would.
Put it like this...You're in the ring with Evander Holyfield...you're all prepped and ready to go, then the lights go out. You can't see your hand in front of your face. He puts on his night-vision goggles and starts swinging. Ok, so you've kinda got the picture, but that's not all...about every 20 or 30 seconds, his trainer throws a big bucket of salt water right in your face. Then there's an earthquake and the ring starts shaking uncontrollably. Now that's more like it. I'm not sure exactly how long it went on, but after an hour or so, I got to where I could get the autopilot set just right, and back the motor down to 1/2 throttle, lay down in the cockpit, harnessed in, hold on to a few stratigically placed lines, and catch 5-10 minutes worth of sleep at a time before everything got all catywompus & I needed to start all over. (don't think I was very successful at the spelling of catywompus...oh well.)
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