A week after completing our crossing from Port Aransas to Fort Myers, I think I’m ready to reflect back on the trip. Statistics: We sailed 789 miles in approximately 6 1/2 days. Our average speed was 5.6 Kts and our top speed was an incredible 18.2 kts! We saw winds that peeked at 55 kts […]
What a week! We arrived at Fort Myers Beach at 7:45 PM. What a ride! Of the 8 trips I’ve now successfully made across the Gulf of Mexico, this was, by far the toughest trip that I’ve ever had. I’ll have some reflections, I’m sure to share in the next day or two. For tonight, […]
Really not much news today. The winds didn’t moderate as much as the wind charts had indicated, so we’ve been bouncing along, beating in to a 25 knot breeze. Jack and Tim seem to have accepted their fate better than I. I was sullen most of the day, but a sun downer, a good hot […]
This evening we finally are getting some relief from the weather. The wind has moderated to 18-25 Kts and the seas are down to around 8-9 feet. Whew! As we were sitting in the cockpit this evening having queso flameado and lemonaide it was obvious that everyone’s mood had improved with the weather. In fact, […]
They say a bad day at sea is better than a good day at work. Right now I think Tim, Jack, and I would be happy to be back in our warm dry office. And yet experience tells me that when the wind moderates all will be forgotten and we’ll be telling the stories of […]
The front came throiugh just after 8:00 PM last night and we’ve been seeing steady 40 Kt winds with 50’s not too uncommon. It’s been really uncomfortable and wet. We’re all fine and Double Wide has performed beautifully – I’ll provide more detail later. Our fastest recorded speed surfing down a wave thus far has […]
At 5:00 PM we reduced size of the mainsail by reefing it to about 1/3 of it’s normal size. Strange thing to do when the wind was only blowing 12 Kts out of the South West. But we have been studying the wind charts for a couple of days now and we were pretty confident […]
All is forgiven. The fight we had with the Mistress of the Sea last night is long forgotten. A good day at sea will do that! It has still been a bit rough, but the wind shifted further south today, allowing us to sail a close reach and make good time towards our goal of […]
I spent every spare moment over the last month fixing and replacing gear aboard Double Wide. I went over systems, replaced questionable components and tried hard to anticipate every possible breakdown. The sea has a way of showing me how inadequate and underprepared I am for sailing across the Gulf of Mexico. Yesterday was rough […]
We cleared the Jetties this morning at about 8:15 with choppy 4-5 foot seas and NNE Winds blowing 20-30 Knots. Fort Myers is 89 degrees from Port Aransas, so we were able to make good time on a close reach. While not ideal, I’d consider this good sailing. The temperature was a brisk 40-45 degrees, […]