Sarasota to Shell Pt, Fl trip
 

I finally made the trek from Sarasota to Shell Pt. FL over the past few
days in my 28' S2. Took my 14 yr old son and another crew member.
Sat. morn. left Cortez, Fl and went across Tampa Bay and up the ICW cuz
it was sort of choppy outside. Anchored Sat. night near Clearwater
just N of the Welch Causeway. Sun. morn., went out Clearwater Channel
on a course of 320 for 31 hours for a distance of just over 145 miles.
Unfortunately, the wind was mostly so close to being on the nose
that we did little sailing although the main did provide about .5 kts
for the first 12 hours. Wind finally became NW so we just used the
main for stability. Wind was about 14 kts during day and about 18 at
night according to anemometer. Full moon and very clear sky made
everything fairly visible at night. It was fairly choppy at night but
when we entered wide Apalachee Bay, it smoothed out.
Just by chance, we seemed to have picked a temporary lull in the
normal pattern of thunderstorms and intense heat because a very weak
cold front had passed leaving day temps of low 90s. Any later in the
year and thunderstorms would have made me crazy.
After dark, saw no signs of humanity except high flying aircraft and
a satellite. Saw no other boats until 10:00 am Monday as the NE Gulf
of Mexico has few ports.
One sad note: In the ICW, near Johns Pass, two Coast Guard boats
raced past and we heard on the VHF about people being given CPR.
Later, when the Coast Guard stopped us to tell us that our solar panel
was obscuring our rear running light (the panel tilts), they told us
that a power boat had run down a jetski resulting in probable death.
All in all, a good trip. My son did some steering and "Ragtime"
seemed happy. Many, many dolphins, great weather and now I have her
back close by for hurricane season.

I have no objection to you calling my boat a trawler. In fact, if you
really question cruising sailors, you will probably find they run their
engines 75% of the time.

Here is the reality of sailboat cruising.

Assume you can sail into 270 degrees of the 360. Assume (based on my
experience) you only have useful amounts of wind 50% of the time. This
means that 75% of the time, you cannot sail directly where you want to
go. Hence engines. Ergo, the best cruising boat is a motorsailor.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I finally made the trek from Sarasota to Shell Pt. FL over the past few
days in my 28' S2. Took my 14 yr old son and another crew member.
Sat. morn. left Cortez, Fl and went across Tampa Bay and up the ICW cuz
it was sort of choppy outside. Anchored Sat. night near Clearwater
just N of the Welch Causeway. Sun. morn., went out Clearwater Channel
on a course of 320 for 31 hours for a distance of just over 145 miles.
Unfortunately, the wind was mostly so close to being on the nose
that we did little sailing although the main did provide about .5 kts
for the first 12 hours. Wind finally became NW so we just used the
main for stability. Wind was about 14 kts during day and about 18 at
night according to anemometer. Full moon and very clear sky made
everything fairly visible at night. It was fairly choppy at night but
when we entered wide Apalachee Bay, it smoothed out.
Just by chance, we seemed to have picked a temporary lull in the
normal pattern of thunderstorms and intense heat because a very weak
cold front had passed leaving day temps of low 90s. Any later in the
year and thunderstorms would have made me crazy.
After dark, saw no signs of humanity except high flying aircraft and
a satellite. Saw no other boats until 10:00 am Monday as the NE Gulf
of Mexico has few ports.
One sad note: In the ICW, near Johns Pass, two Coast Guard boats
raced past and we heard on the VHF about people being given CPR.
Later, when the Coast Guard stopped us to tell us that our solar panel
was obscuring our rear running light (the panel tilts), they told us
that a power boat had run down a jetski resulting in probable death.
All in all, a good trip. My son did some steering and "Ragtime"
seemed happy. Many, many dolphins, great weather and now I have her
back close by for hurricane season.

Good story, too bad about the wind.

John Cairns

In article .com,
wrote:

I have no objection to you calling my boat a trawler. In fact, if you
really question cruising sailors, you will probably find they run their
engines 75% of the time.

Here is the reality of sailboat cruising.

Assume you can sail into 270 degrees of the 360. Assume (based on my
experience) you only have useful amounts of wind 50% of the time. This
means that 75% of the time, you cannot sail directly where you want to
go. Hence engines. Ergo, the best cruising boat is a motorsailor.


I'm of the "tack" crowd and have sails that keep us going when others
motor, except in times like this. You had to be somewhere quickly, you
got there. That's what the engine's for.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

You cruise your way and I'll cruise mine.

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message ...
The wind freshened about 7 hours later and we got home around 2AM, wishing
we'd never pulled that main back out of the mast.

Noone should ever set foot on a sailboat that has to "be somewhere". It
sure ruins it for the rest of us aboard...


One should never use a wind-up mainsail. It's an inferior system.

CN