The Gulf Crossing May 2010

SAILING KEY WEST TO KEMAH on the s/v Hakuna Matata.

Craig and Angela are coming back to Kemah to try some ‘land time’ and do some work. (read; will work for cash) But Angela got off the boat in Key West to run up to Tallahassee for family time while we sailed back across the gulf. For this adventure Craig’s friend Dave Damm and I are going to assist with the sail. So there will be 3 of us. We are working 3 hour shifts. (3 hours at the wheel and then six hours off to rest.)

Wed. 5/19th The adventure starts with our flight to Key West. Fortunately this is all uneventful and we meet Craig at a little restaurant on the pier, Turtle Krawl down in Key West. After a quick dinner of; Conch Chowder, Coconut Grouper and seafood Enchiladas we hit the hay.



Thur. 5/20 Departure Day. First jump in the dingy and run to shore to stock up on a few last minute groceries. Then tie down the dingy on the deck of the boat, and motor the sailboat to the dock and fill all the diesel tanks. We finally get under way about noon. It’s sunny with very light breeze from behind and we motor out of the Keys heading due west.
Matt & Linda, s/v Worth W8N4

Notes from my ships LOG:

Fri 5/21_ 2pm and I am at the helm. Winds 9.5 from the East, we are making 5.8mph under sail. We sailed 126 miles in the first 24hrs. for dinner last night we cooked on the outdoor grill. (note: it’s unusual to have seas so calm you can cook outside on the grill while under sail. Craig said ‘he has never ever grilled while under sail before.’) Last night for dinner we had; honey mustard & jalapeno chicken, onion & garlic green beans, French onion rice, and salad. Breakfast is coffee and cereal. Lunch was sandwiches and chips. Dave is sitting in the cockpit reading a book and craig is below in his bunk asleep. We had a pod of 11 dolphins on the bow of the boat for 5 minutes just after sunrise. Now we have 640 miles to go… (at 5 miles per hour) I napped earlier today, as my watch last night was 330a-630a. NOTE: this afternoon a white Crane landed on the boat. I think he’s tired and just needs to rest. We named him Ichabod. The winds are very light and seas are almost flat. This allows us to keep the ports and hatches open the entire voyage. (something I’ve never seen before.) Craig and Dave rigged a spinnaker pole from a boat hook and a windsurfer mast. This kept the jib from flopping around and making so much racket.

Sat. 5/22_ 6:30AM and the winds are light at 3-6 knots from direct aft. (this forces us to go slightly to starboard so the wind can fill the sails) the seas are gentle swells of about 4 feet but evenly spaced and calm. Both Craig and Dave just went to sleep. I got the best shift and slept from 12:30a-6:30a soundly. Last night Dave cooked Spaghetti with meat sauce and chicken over spaghetti and bow tie noodles and garlic toast. (after dinner I napped till my helm shift of 9:30p – 12:30a) NOTE: we should see oil today if we’re gonna see it. Clear skies everywhere – except due west where we are headed. To the west are some grey fluffy cotton balls building on the horizon. Ichabod is still sitting here. He had a second bird fly in as a guest this morning early, but the second bird flew away and left Ichabod after a three minute visit. We sailed 123 miles yesterday. Today we have sailed into the Gulf Stream and the current has slowed us down a lot. Dinner Saturday was a Craig Creation of Soft Crunch Tacos. Muy Delicioso!


Sun. 5/23_ 7:57am wind 7 knots, seas 2-3 ft. sunny with clouds building. It was a long hard night with little sleep. The sails kept flogging and banging as the wind was very light and variable all night. (bang, flop, bang, pound, slap) hot and stuffy below with noise reduced sleep to minimums. Oh and my work shift was my least favorite, 12:30a-3:30a. Note: at 2:30a Craig came on deck because we were only doing 2.7 knots and everything was flapping and banging around in the light wind. We rolled up the jib to motor sail under main sail alone. But the wind kept flogging the main and it broke the outhall. (pop, crack, clang and metal hits the deck – rattle rattle) Now we have to lower the mainsail and go under motor alone. Lots of cussing but nothing to be done till daylight. 7am finally rolls around and Craig stops the engine to ‘dive’ under the boat to confirm we aren’t “dragging anything”. (we are going so slow it’s possible we have picked up a net or line on the keel, Craig puts on his swim suit, ties a rope around his chest and enters the Gulf Stream waters) nothing there. It’s a bouncy, rolling boat today as the very light winds don’t fill the sails. We only made 84 miles yesterday. Moral is low due to slow crossing. We had a large pod of 20 Dolphins @ 8am playing off our bow. NOTE: Ichabod is still asleep at 11:07am. Five times he has flown off, circled a few hundred yards off and returned to settle again on the stern rail in his spot. Also: the large vessel Dole Ecuador motored less than a mile across our bow. (sobering to watch them appear on radar and then twenty minutes later go buzzing directly in front of us. If we are going max speed 5kph and they are 13kph or more, we cant outrun them or dodge them.)

Mon. 5/24 _ 9:06a It’s a sunny, perfectly clear day. SEAS 1-2’ swells, WIND 4.2mph (we are still motor sailing) now we are going to pour all our deck cans of diesel into the boats fuel tank. There is more ship traffic as we near Houston and we keep an eye out for other vessels as well as oil rigs. A ship from New Orleans bound for Mexico came just aft of us by ½ mile. (we called him on vhf radio and he saw us) • Everyone got some good sleep last night as we motor sailed. • The entire crew is Left Handed. • Ichabod is still sitting on the aft rail. He does not pay attention to us any longer and we forget about him. (he no longer sleeps with one eye open. He turns his back and tucks his head down) • Dave is at the helm and wants to do some fishing. We ‘caught’ 3 fish. (landed 2) Dave got all the luck so he’s in the photos. (my Dorado was huge and spit out the hook at the boat) A small female Mahi Mahi and a large SkipJack Tuna. The tuna was about 25” long, and 25lbs. we sautéed it for dinner and have 4 bags of fish in the freezer. • Dinner Sunday night: sausage with black beans and rice, onion, jalapeno and some left over carrots.

Tue. 5/25 _ 746am SEAS dead calm and flat. WIND 2mph from directly off the nose. Our heading 287 (west) Our Position: N27*55:665 W091*22:303 Last night we had seared Tuna encrusted with sesame seeds, wasabe glaze, brown rice and green salad. • I had the OFFWATCH spot from 12:30-6:30a and got some great sleep! Also when I started my watch, ~ 9:30-10p I mistook 2 drill platforms for ships we needed to avoid and woke up Dave for help! (I was momentarily overwhelmed) in true sailing fashion a multitude of errors compounded. First the compass light was off so I couldn’t see the headings. Then suddenly my flashlight battery’s flickered and died. I’m in the dark trying to find 2 ships supposedly bearing down on us. Dave strolls on deck and looks at the radar, “skip that looks like a ship tied to that oil rig and there’s nothing moving but us.” (Better Safe Than Stupid!) • We sail with an AIS device. AIS (Automatic Identification System). Starting in 2002, all new commercial ships over 300 gross tons, and all new passenger vessels, are required to include AIS transponders. The requirement for existing ships has been gradually phased in. the AIS device beeps when a ship comes within range. (or their course and path predict them to) so there was a ship there, it was just tied to the Oil Rig we were sailing around. • Ichabod finally flew away between 3:30a-6:30a during Dave’s watch. He got so relaxed at the end of his visit that he was ‘in the way.’ This is a wild bird but I actually ‘pet’ his back and he is not scared. He sort of attacked Craig while he cleaned fish. (flying through our cockpit between the 3 of us) He tried to eat the fishing lures and generally got to standing too close while we were working on the boat. He refused to eat Tuna from my hand, and instead required me to toss it to him one scrap at a time. ( I think he was training me?)

• 9:30am Dave is below deck in the Galley cooking breakfast; bacon, eggs, toast. Craig is still asleep aft in his cabin. I can smell the bacon up here in the cockpit. Ahhhhhhh the pirates life. • 11:40am Craig never ate. Instead he fixed the ‘dead starter battery’ which affected the alternator, and the voltage regulator, and the amp meter, and the tachometer…. • Well, it’s later now and Dave and Craig have spent an hour or more extrapolating our time travel. (imagine a team of NASA scientists with slide rules figuring the distance to Mars) measure again the exact diesel fuel now, the exact distance to Galveston now, the time estimated to reach Galveston now, to determine our arrival time – when? Now let’s refigure with boat speed at 4kph…. And so it goes over and over and over. Calculus for dummies.

Wed. 5/26_ 7:35am Scattered happy clouds and calm seas. Winds 8mph from the north. Yesterday we sailed 120 miles. I am in the cockpit watching Dave, who is fixated on finding an “invisible radar blip.” (“it’s something out there at about 2-oclock and I cant see it.”) it turns out the ‘blip’ is a 60’ tall bright yellow oil tower that I can see with the naked eye at over 4 miles away. {this made me feel better about not being able to see the ship the other night because of the oil rig} Craig went off watch, ate 2 poptarts and went to sleep. • New estimated arrival time: Galveston midnight, kemah 5am • Spirits are high, moral is at a peak. We have plenty of diesel to make it to Galveston, of this we are certain. Dolphins visit again to celebrate with us. • DINNER last night: APPETIZER Tuna sashimi, plus Tuna medallions very lightly seared in sesame oil, wasabi drizzle and soy sauce. MAIN COURSE; Mahi Mahi fillets sautéed, green beans*, mashed potatoes, & texas toast. (*the green beans were seasoned with sautéed onion, garlic, 5 slices of left over lunch meat – smoked turkey breast, and 3 pieces of beef jerky diced small.)

Thur. 5/27_ 10:38am Back in Kemah, tied to the dock at Watergate Marina. Like a horse who can see the barn, we used all speed (and diesel) to make it in last night arriving at 4:45am today. Happy to be home, but tired. Yesterday we started the day over coffee with talk of ‘arrival time’ estimates. All day we ran the engine at max rpm’s and trimmed the sails to make top speed. At 5pm we got to the Galveston ship channel leading into harbor. For miles you motor past other large ships anchored waiting their turns at the docks. We made a quick trip into the Galveston docks for some diesel fuel – to refill our tanks, then motored up to kemah. It was an uneventful motor. (like puttering down the freeway.)

For our last meal we heated a frozen lasagna.

Thanks for sharing the voyage with us. - pirate skip