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.