Ok, so that brings us to Thursday Morning. The sunrise was an extremely welcomed sight! The seas were still 3-4, but at least I could see what I was dealing with...that made it much easier, and I was able to make pretty good headway. It stayed pretty rough until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and then calmed down considerably. I had my main & jib up for the majority of the morning, but it was kinda tough to keep them happy, because the wind seemed to always be coming from the direction I was going. Having the main up, although, did help tremendously with the rocking motion, and seemed to balance the boat out pretty well.

Thursday night began very calm, and I was making good time. I made the decision to bypass Tarpon Springs altogether, and head for Clearwater, which is about another 15 miles South. I did this partly because if I was able to continue at the rate I was going, I would arrive at the pass around 3:30am, and Clearwater would have been much safer to try and enter at night than Tarpon.

Around 11pm, I was about 25 miles off of Clearwater, and could actually see the glow of the city's lights, which was a really cool thing...To have traveled 150 miles and realize that you're almost there...it's a tough feeling to explain! Unfortunately, however, I began to see the sky turn black between me & land...then I saw lightning in the distance. I did my best to track the storm and alter course to sail around it, which put me northbound. It didn't take long, however, for the wind/waves of the storm to find me, and the sea was giving me another run for my money.

Now, I'm still pretty new at this whole thing, but I've read enough to know a number of storm tactics. I knew that the one I attempted last night wasn't the most successful, so I figured I'd try a different one tonight. I decided to 'lie ahull'...in other words, completely drop all sails, shut off the motor, and lay there at the mercy of the sea...waiting it out. I quickly noticed one huge flaw in this method. Lying ahull puts me broadside to the waves...so the boat is rocking side to side uncontrollably. At first, it wasn't that bad, so I buckled down, and decided to give it a shot. Then, the waves started building. I was laying in the v-berth trying to take a nap, and I was getting tossed from one side to the other. At one point, I looked out of my hatch and saw about an 8 foot breaking wave. Not good. It was at that moment that I began to feel a little queasy.

Yup...if you'd somehow been watching me around 2am Friday morning, you would have seen my attempt to eat a Ritz cracker. I couldn't even swallow it. So, I gulped down a bottle of water real fast, and went above to wait for the inevitable. It wasn't 2 minutes before I'd thrown up 3 times...but then, thankfully, I was fine! The whole sickness thing lasted all of 10 minutes, and then I was filled with a good bit of adrenaline, and ready to go. So, still lying ahull and being thrashed side to side, I went down to my VHF radio and called the Coast Guard. It wasn't a distress call, or anything like that, I was just going to chat with them about the weather. Coast Guard St. Pete answered, and I asked him what he thought the weather was going to do, because I was getting thrown about pretty good. He told me to hold on a sec so he could check, & when he came back, he said that best he could tell, for the next 3 days it was the same... Seas 1-2, wind SE at 10 knots. Um, man...I can tell you right now, I haven't seen a 1-2 foot wave in about 3 hours, and the wind's a gooooood 18-20 solid.

Anyway, so that kinda made me mad...and I was about sick of this lying ahull thing, so I decided that I was going to raise the jib and try and sail some. I think it was around 3:30 or 4am by the time I finally got the jib up (you try walking around on the front of a 25' boat in 5-7' waves!). Once it was up, the ride smoothed out a good bit, and I was able to slowly sail a southerly course. I was comfortably making about 2-3 knots, and the autopilot was handling it well. I was finally able to get a little bit of rest...about an hour and a half's worth, anyway. I awoke around sunrise, and the weather was a lot better...I trimmed the sail and pointed straight for Clearwater.

I finally actually saw land when I was about 10 miles out, and I was pumped. Let me tell you...making landfall brings about a huge mixture of emotions...and I was only gone for 2 or 3 days! I can't imagine what it'd be like to be gone for a month or so. When I stepped foot on the dock at Clearwater Municipal Marina at about 10:30, I was glad to be on land no doubt, but I already missed the open water. It was quite an experience...and I can't wait to do it again.