(or how to move onto a sailboat)
With the advent of our 50th birthdays came the usual sorts of life evaluations that one goes through. At what have I succeeded? What contributions have I made? What do I have left that I want to do before I die? Living on the water was high on both our lists.
For any who share the dream, and for our family members who might not understand, this is our story. We don't know where it will take us, but welcome along for the ride!
Had the weather apps we checked first thing this morning suggested that the days's wind would be 10 to 15, gusting a bit higher and more or less on the beam, we would have stayed right where we were. But they didn't. So we didn't. What they actually suggested was a bit of wind in the morning then light and diminishing throughout the day.
The forecast that was, wasn't.
The forecast that wasn't, was.
But that didn't become obvious until we were well under way. Still, though the channel waters varied between being lightly peppered with white caps to pretty heavily salted with same, the ride wasn't all that bad. The original destination anchorage was a place called Thessalon, 26 miles and about 4 hours away. Our arrival time was around1300 hours but, seeing as the ride wasn't terrible I wanted to cover a few more miles if possible. Tomorrow's route was almost 7 hours long as planned and landed us at a dock for a couple of days. There we are going to indulge in a side excursion. (More on that after we actually do it.)
Deb allowed that going on for a while would be okay and found a string of anchorages where we could stop when the day was long enough. The first one was about 20 miles and 3 hours away, a little cove near a place called Hole in the Wall. (Honest. I wonder how may Hole in the Walls there are in the world?) We pulled off the route, checked it out, and that is were we are for tonight.
Of course being on anchor means that the generator has to be started. Deb tried to get it going from the switch in the power panel but, nothing. When climbing in and out of the engine hole we occasionally bump the remote control switch to "off". She crawled down into the hole from the front access under the stairs, found the switch was on, but started the generator from below. Not sure what is going on with it so, another problem that will need to be fixed.
While crawling out of the hole she found that a little green snake had taken up residence onboard First Light. After informing me that we had a stowaway she asked what she should do and, of course, I said, "Kill the thing." But Deb is a much better person than I am. Instead of dispatching it to snake heaven she tossed a rag over it while I got her a jar. She got the little critter into the jar and handed it to me. It was kind of a cute little bugger so killing it might have been a bit of an over reaction. I tossed it overboard figuring it could swim. And swim it did, heading off toward shore as if it knew where it was. So that was something new. (Ed note: no photos of this as I was trying desperately to keep the thing from crawling into some crevice from which I couldn't extricate it.)
In complete defiance of the weather forecasts, the wind is now rattling the tops of the trees and the boat is back to swinging like a wind vane. Protected as we are with little fetch, I am glad we pulled in when we did. Tomorrow's weather calls for winds light to variable. Ahh...yeah. Still, the laws of Probability and Statistics suggest that they have to get it right once in a while.
This is yet another pretty place tucked into the terrain with trees, rocks, and pretty green water. (The green snake we apparently brought with us.) We have been several weeks now in the midst of places just like this one. Truth is, it is all starting to look pretty much the same. Which is part of the reason for our little side excursion. Once we leave there we will be heading south, west, and south some more. For the first time on this trip, the bow will be pointed, more or less, toward St. Louis. It has been months. It is starting to get cold in these parts. It is time to be heading south. And home.
The Captain hard at work. And, yes, we need to work on some kind of cushion extension
so you can see out better.
The water here is almost as pretty as the Bahamas
A rather plain sunset this evening.
Only 3 more days to fly this flag then back to the old Stars & Stripes
The past few years of cruising, weather decisions have been made incredibly easy due to the entrance of the Storm weather app to the market in February of 2015. We were so impressed with it that I did a post about it, King of the Weather Apps. The Storm app enabled us to ditch a half dozen other apps because it had all the capabilities under one roof: daily and 7-day forecasts, marine zone forecasting, tropical storm warnings and tracks, a kick-ass radar, lightning, wind prediction...you want it, it had it. But like a not-so-new teenage crush, or that zippy sports car that acquires its first ding, Storm began to lose its luster. First off, the marine forecasting - even though it was offered under a subscription - was dropped. Then, a few months later, every time you opened the app it had an ad for the new Storm Radar app. A few months later it was no longer an option, but a mandatory upgrade. As of May 23rd, the Storm app will no longer be supported and only the Storm Radar will continue.
Storm was originally hosted by Weather Underground, a service originating from the University of Michigan in 1995. Even though The Weather Channel acquired Weather Underground in 2012, Storm was released in February of 2015 under the Weather Underground name. Storm was the app that TWC was using for its forecasting and tracking. In fact, that's where I first found out about it, while watching TWC tracking a hurricane. My only guess is that they didn't want everyone else having access to the same info (and therefore not needing TWC to interpret it for them) so they released the much less capable Storm Radar app and discontinued support for the Storm app.
In the already frustrating environment of Garmin's takeover of Active Captain and Navionics, the loss of Storm hits the cruising community hard. The information is not lost It's still all out there through NOAA (since that's where all apps get their input from anyway,) but it's not in an easy-to-use condensed format. It requires much more digging, and much more internet usage to get the same information, and nearly every cruiser finds internet bandwidth to be their most valuable currency. So what are we to do?
Some have elected to purchase subscriptions to weather routers like Chris Parker. He offers a great service to a good many people and I'm grateful he's there. But for former pilots like Tim and I, who have always done our own weather, it's not an option. We want to do our own forecasting and be responsible for our own weather decisions. I've spent the last few days while we're stuck in Marathon waiting on a weather window, to research all the options. A discussion of them follows. If you have any additional information or sources that might be helpful, please leave it in the comments below.
General Forecast Information:
NOAA's New Experimental Forecast Chart: This is probably the best replacement alternative to the Storm App. Their new interactive map allows you to pan and zoom, and to click on your location on the chart for a detailed forecast. The chart looks like this:
You can see where I clicked on the Marathon area where we are located. When you click on the More Information link in the block, you get a wide variety of forecasting tools, charts, and maps all for your specific area.
Weather Underground: Still one of the best general weather forecast sites. Typical radar, 10-day forecasts, precip, etc.
Weather Bug: Same info, nicer layout, better radar.
The Weather Channel (weather.com): Almost exactly the same format and news stories as Weather Underground, not surprising since they own them.
NOAA's Marine Forecast Home Page: This page gives you a wealth of information. You can get the coastal zone forecasts, the offshore zone forecasts, and the high seas forecasts by clicking on the zone block on the map. Here is the Coastal map:
Once you click on the zone you want (in my case the South zone,) it will take you to the next page for that specific forecast.
Continuing deeper, I clicked the Key West Zone and this is the next map:
And, finally, I clicked on the Hawk Channel just outside Marathon to see what the conditions will be like for the next few days. Here is the forecast:
If you click on the link in the lower right corner "Forecast Discussion," you will get a text discussion for the area which can be very helpful in discerning trends. Here is the discussion for this forecast:
The cat's meow, though, is a very cool interactive graphical forecast map for when you have adequate internet bandwidth. Using the drop-down menu in the upper lefthand corner you can get a forecast map for any of the following parameters:
Maximum Temperature (°F)
Minimum Temperature (°F)
Prob of Precipitation (%)
Precipitation Potential Index (%) experimental
Weather
Hazards
Temperature (°F)
Apparent Temperature (°F)
Dew Point (°F)
Relative Humidity (%)
Wind Speed (kts)
Wind Gusts (kts)
Wind Direction
Sky Cover (%)
Precip Amount (in)
Snow Amount (in)
Ice Accumulation (in)
Total New Precip (in)
Total New Snow (in)
Total New Ice (in)
Snow or Sleet > 0.25in LE, Prob.(%)
Marine
Wave Height (ft)
Fire Weather
Maximum Relative Humidity (%)
Minimum Relative Humidity (%)
Dry Thunderstorms
Critical Fire Weather
Severe Weather
Convective Outlook
Tornado Probability(%)
Extreme Tornado Prob.(%)
Damaging T-storm Wind Prob.(%)
Extreme T-storm Wind Prob.(%)
Hail Probability(%)
Extreme Hail Prob.(%)
Total Prob. Severe T-Storms(%)
Total Prob. Extreme T-Storms(%)
Tropical
Tropical Wind >34kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >50kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >64kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >34kts (Incremental Prob.)
Tropical Wind >50kts (Incremental Prob.)
Tropical Wind >64kts (Incremental Prob.)
Hurricane Wind Threat
Hurricane Storm Surge Threat
Hurricane Flooding Rain Threat
Hurricane Tornado Threat
Water Resources
Daily FRET (in)
Daily FRET Departure from Normal (in)
Total Weekly FRET (in)
There's a lot of other marine specific forecast pages and apps that you can use as well. Most are very specific in the information that they cover. Here is a list of the popular ones, although not comprehensive I'm sure.
Because we have an aviation background, we use prog charts to help our forecasting. Prog charts are surface charts that span several days. It helps to see how the fronts move over the time period to understand the progression of the weather. You can get them at the Aviation Weather Center at the link below.
The definitive hurricane tracking site is NOAA's National Hurricane Center. It's also available on both iOS and Android as an app. While there's other sites out there doing it, they're all getting the info from NOAA so the NOAA Now app is the industry standard.
The past few years of cruising, weather decisions have been made incredibly easy due to the entrance of the Storm weather app to the market in February of 2015. We were so impressed with it that I did a post about it, King of the Weather Apps. The Storm app enabled us to ditch a half dozen other apps because it had all the capabilities under one roof: daily and 7-day forecasts, marine zone forecasting, tropical storm warnings and tracks, a kick-ass radar, lightning, wind prediction...you want it, it had it. But like a not-so-new teenage crush, or that zippy sports car that acquires its first ding, Storm began to lose its luster. First off, the marine forecasting - even though it was offered under a subscription - was dropped. Then, a few months later, every time you opened the app it had an ad for the new Storm Radar app. A few months later it was no longer an option, but a mandatory upgrade. As of May 23rd, the Storm app will no longer be supported and only the Storm Radar will continue.
Storm was originally hosted by Weather Underground, a service originating from the University of Michigan in 1995. Even though The Weather Channel acquired Weather Underground in 2012, Storm was released in February of 2015 under the Weather Underground name. Storm was the app that TWC was using for its forecasting and tracking. In fact, that's where I first found out about it, while watching TWC tracking a hurricane. My only guess is that they didn't want everyone else having access to the same info (and therefore not needing TWC to interpret it for them) so they released the much less capable Storm Radar app and discontinued support for the Storm app.
In the already frustrating environment of Garmin's takeover of Active Captain and Navionics, the loss of Storm hits the cruising community hard. The information is not lost It's still all out there through NOAA (since that's where all apps get their input from anyway,) but it's not in an easy-to-use condensed format. It requires much more digging, and much more internet usage to get the same information, and nearly every cruiser finds internet bandwidth to be their most valuable currency. So what are we to do?
Some have elected to purchase subscriptions to weather routers like Chris Parker. He offers a great service to a good many people and I'm grateful he's there. But for former pilots like Tim and I, who have always done our own weather, it's not an option. We want to do our own forecasting and be responsible for our own weather decisions. I've spent the last few days while we're stuck in Marathon waiting on a weather window, to research all the options. A discussion of them follows. If you have any additional information or sources that might be helpful, please leave it in the comments below.
General Forecast Information:
NOAA's New Experimental Forecast Chart: This is probably the best replacement alternative to the Storm App. Their new interactive map allows you to pan and zoom, and to click on your location on the chart for a detailed forecast. The chart looks like this:
You can see where I clicked on the Marathon area where we are located. When you click on the More Information link in the block, you get a wide variety of forecasting tools, charts, and maps all for your specific area.
Weather Underground: Still one of the best general weather forecast sites. Typical radar, 10-day forecasts, precip, etc.
Weather Bug: Same info, nicer layout, better radar.
The Weather Channel (weather.com): Almost exactly the same format and news stories as Weather Underground, not surprising since they own them.
NOAA's Marine Forecast Home Page: This page gives you a wealth of information. You can get the coastal zone forecasts, the offshore zone forecasts, and the high seas forecasts by clicking on the zone block on the map. Here is the Coastal map:
Once you click on the zone you want (in my case the South zone,) it will take you to the next page for that specific forecast.
Continuing deeper, I clicked the Key West Zone and this is the next map:
And, finally, I clicked on the Hawk Channel just outside Marathon to see what the conditions will be like for the next few days. Here is the forecast:
If you click on the link in the lower right corner "Forecast Discussion," you will get a text discussion for the area which can be very helpful in discerning trends. Here is the discussion for this forecast:
The cat's meow, though, is a very cool interactive graphical forecast map for when you have adequate internet bandwidth. Using the drop-down menu in the upper lefthand corner you can get a forecast map for any of the following parameters:
Maximum Temperature (°F)
Minimum Temperature (°F)
Prob of Precipitation (%)
Precipitation Potential Index (%) experimental
Weather
Hazards
Temperature (°F)
Apparent Temperature (°F)
Dew Point (°F)
Relative Humidity (%)
Wind Speed (kts)
Wind Gusts (kts)
Wind Direction
Sky Cover (%)
Precip Amount (in)
Snow Amount (in)
Ice Accumulation (in)
Total New Precip (in)
Total New Snow (in)
Total New Ice (in)
Snow or Sleet > 0.25in LE, Prob.(%)
Marine
Wave Height (ft)
Fire Weather
Maximum Relative Humidity (%)
Minimum Relative Humidity (%)
Dry Thunderstorms
Critical Fire Weather
Severe Weather
Convective Outlook
Tornado Probability(%)
Extreme Tornado Prob.(%)
Damaging T-storm Wind Prob.(%)
Extreme T-storm Wind Prob.(%)
Hail Probability(%)
Extreme Hail Prob.(%)
Total Prob. Severe T-Storms(%)
Total Prob. Extreme T-Storms(%)
Tropical
Tropical Wind >34kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >50kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >64kts (Cumulative Prob)
Tropical Wind >34kts (Incremental Prob.)
Tropical Wind >50kts (Incremental Prob.)
Tropical Wind >64kts (Incremental Prob.)
Hurricane Wind Threat
Hurricane Storm Surge Threat
Hurricane Flooding Rain Threat
Hurricane Tornado Threat
Water Resources
Daily FRET (in)
Daily FRET Departure from Normal (in)
Total Weekly FRET (in)
There's a lot of other marine specific forecast pages and apps that you can use as well. Most are very specific in the information that they cover. Here is a list of the popular ones, although not comprehensive I'm sure.
Because we have an aviation background, we use prog charts to help our forecasting. Prog charts are surface charts that span several days. It helps to see how the fronts move over the time period to understand the progression of the weather. You can get them at the Aviation Weather Center at the link below.
The definitive hurricane tracking site is NOAA's National Hurricane Center. It's also available on both iOS and Android as an app. While there's other sites out there doing it, they're all getting the info from NOAA so the NOAA Now app is the industry standard.
The plan was to make it to Tampa Bay in one 48-hour jump, but
everyone knows how cruiser plans work out. A heavy rain started to
fall while we were still at the fuel dock in Boot Key, the first hint that the
weather wasn't going to be exactly as forecast. We waited a bit, each
of us having an internal argument over it being better to just go
back and pick up the mooring, then wait some more for better weather.
And I suspect, had either of us said as much to the other, that might
have been exactly what we would have done. But we didn't. So we
didn't.
Other than the rain, conditions going under the bridge and out
into the Moser Channel were pretty much what we expected. So we drove
on to exit the Keys and sailed into the Gulf of Mexico. There we
found the wind was on the wrong side of the boat (at least according
the forecast) and the sea state more confused than expected. At least the waves heights seemed about as forecast. We pressed on, not
knowing that the last chance to avoid a thrashing had just been passed by.
The bridge on the Mosier channel
Twenty six hours after leaving Boot Key we got ready to drop the anchor behind
Sanibel Island having, in the wee hours of the morning, decided to
take our bail out option of Big Carlos Pass. The expected seas state
of two feet or less on a two second period turned into waves of 3 to 5,
occasionally seven, then a bit more than occasionally, eight or
more. They hit us on the quarter, both pitching and rolling the boat in an ugly figure "8" motion that trashed my inner ear that set me to feeding the fish. Rough enough that, when we finally made it in, the hook dropped about
five feet and hung. After climbing over the v-berth and into the
anchor locker I found the spanking we had taken had twisted the
3/8" anchor chain into something that looked like a giant yarn ball
formed at the paws of a demented kitten. It actually had knots in it.
Anchor finally set, we set about securing the boat in a bit of a
daze. A shower to warm up and wash off the salt, fresh clothes, and a
little food to help settle the stomach, were big steps toward feeling
human again. Even though I was pretty beat, sleep came slow; a usual
reaction for me as I tried to puzzle out just how I had managed to
stumble into such a mess. Wind, waves, confused seas, lighting on the
horizon, rain, how in the world had we ended up in the middle of all
that? Where the forecasts that wrong? Did I miss something? Did the
need to get on our way overwhelm the need to be careful?
No good explanations presented themselves. Sleep finally took over
to put an end to what had become a very long day. We had managed the
conditions we found, not hurt the boat, not gotten hurt ourselves.
That is going to have to do.
Day 2
Except for a brief sunset assault of black flies (thankfully we have excellent screens), the anchorage at Sanibel Island was quite and calm, making for a
good night's sleep. The plan for the day was simply to get near the
inlet of Charlotte Harbor, staging for an outside jump from there to
Tampa Bay. Sanibel to Charlotte may be the best piece of the ICW
anywhere; no bridges and open enough that, should the winds be right,
sailing is a good option. And it was an easy sail in light winds and
on flat water.
Along the way, and for the first time in the years we
have been out here, a passing Sheriff's boat turned on its flashing
blue lights and pulled alongside. One of the three officers jumped
aboard to check our papers and safety equipment. Deb took care of
those details while I answered the questions of the other two. They
insisted on knowing where where we kept the boat, our “St. Louis”
home port-of-call catching their attention for some reason. It took
several tries to get them to understand that we lived on the boat,
full time, and didn't “keep” it anywhere. They then asked about
our recent travels. Learning that we had been in the Islands for a
while they wanted to know where we had checked in upon our return,
(Miami) and, while we were in the Islands, if anyone had asked us to
bring anything or anyone across with us (No). We talked about the
weather and our recent thrashing being the reason we were in the ICW
at all, and not in Tampa already.
Another bit of confusion was with our “check in”. They
expected us to produce some piece of paper that showed us having
complied, and it took a few minutes to explain that using SVRS
doesn't leave a paper trail, at least on our end. Other than that it
was completely painless and I'm sorry I didn't ask for the officer's
names, for they deserve honest recognition. They were utterly
professional and non-threatening (in spite of the big guns on their
hips), but they were too far away for me to read their name tags. In
any case, and in spite of my normally low opinion of all things
“official”, they were excellent examples of what officialdom can
be when the people involved have the character and the heart. Blue
flashing lights, guns and all...there was nothing negative about the
encounter.
The anchorage just south of the Charlotte Harbor Inlet was
comfortable and very, very quiet. All the rest we could get would be
good. Even though every weather source we could find suggested that
the jump to Tampa Bay would be done in pretty good conditions, we
were still getting over the first day's beating, and it would be a long day's sail to Tampa Bay.
Day 3
Up before dawn to lift the hook as soon as there was enough light
to see. There was little chance we would make the inlet to Tampa Bay
before dark, but wasting daylight seemed a poor way to start. Wind
and tide were working against each other in the inlet, making for a
bumpy ride out. With at least six other boats in the parade it was clear we were not the only ones taking advantage of the
forecast.
The main had gone up right with a single reef right after the
anchor had come on board. After clearing the inlet and turning north
the jib spun out, the Beast went silent, and we headed off at better
than 6 knots, hand steering for the time being. One of the quirks of
Kintala is the wind vain / tiller pilot set-up. It takes a bit of
rigging to change from one to the other. All the forecasts had the
wind fading as the day went on, making most of the day a motor. And,
about four hours in the winds did, indeed, fade away. We rolled up
the jib, centered the main, woke up the Beast, engaged the tiller
pilot, and kept going on flattening seas.
Everything according to plan and forecasts.
A little later Deb looked up and asked why, if the
forecast had nothing but good weather in it for the next five days, the sky was full of mare's tails? I had noticed the same thing, and the
only answer I could come up with was, “Well, someone, some where,
missed something”. Usually mare's tails portend weather 12 to 24 hours out, but not always. And, truth to tell, all of the "positive" forecasts for the day had me a bit wary. If there has been a theme for this season's cruise it would be the blown forecasts and unexpected weather. The inlet to Tampa was still some 15 miles away. The hairs on the back of my neck were insisting that was 15 miles too far.
Sometimes being right is a major pain in the ass.
The wind started to back and build out of the north west. The
forecast following seas of 2 feet or less gave way building seas
directly on the bow. The tiller pilot gave up. Though the Beast was
doing its best, it didn't have the horsepower needed to drive the
boat through the heaving water. The staysail spun back out to help
keep us going and, with the Beast, allowed us to point a few degrees tighter on
the wind. But it wasn't enough. The inlet to Tampa Bay was directly
upwind, and we just could not hold that point of sail.
The moment it became apparent that we simply had to tack back out
into the Gulf of Mexico for an hour or more if there would be any
chance of making the harbor was, perhaps, the lowest moment of my
last few months. Kintala's bow was going completely under every few
minutes, water gushing down the decks flowing over the toe rail,
having completely overwhelmed the limber holes. A series of such hits
would slow the boat to less than three knots, where she would wallow
and struggled to get back up to speed before the next series of waves
pounded her bow once again. We were now taking our second serious thrashing in just 3 days. Having to add miles to a trip that I really just wanted to end, frayed my last nerve.
But there was simply no choice. No amount of wishing, wanting, or
even needing, to get out of the weather would make any difference.
The only way out was out into the Gulf. So out we went.
The temptation, when tacking into weather like this, is always to
turn to soon; a mistake that makes matters worse by forcing an
additional series of tacks. But no one wants to go any further than
they have to, adding more miles that will be covered at barely walking speed. The first tack we made got it wrong.
The second one got it right and we made the entry not long after the
sun went down. Inside Egmont Key the seas settled to nothing but big,
rolling swells. A bit later the staysail rolled in clean and the main
dropped into the lazy jacks. By the time we made it to an anchorage,
got the hook set and the deck minimally prepped for the night, it
was after 2300 hours.
Day 4
The plan was to sail up to Tampa and take a dock or mooring ball
for a few days. But a morning phone call to the marina uncovered that
they are completely full, and will be for the near future. Instead we
motored into Snead Island and settled Kintala into the dock that will
be “home” for the next six months or so.
Over the next several days we plan to rent a car and take a night
in a hotel in Tampa just to do something different. Next week it will
be off to St. Louis for a much needed visit with Daughters (3),
family, and friends.
It will take a few days, at least, to let the
adventures of the last few months take their place in our life's
story. For now I am glad to be settled in, safe and secure, not
having broken anything major, not having made any major bone-headed
moves that ended in disaster. And I will not be the least bit sad to be off the boat for a while.
But I am also sad to be stopping, even if it is only temporary.
Mixed emotions that don't really make any sense. So I am going to just set them aside for now. The
days will unfold as they will and we are, to a large extent, just
along for the ride.
