Sailing from Key West Florida to Galveston Texas Single Handed May 10, 2010
This purpose of this trip was to move my newly purchased boat from Florida to my home in Texas. This boat was in the middle of a complete refit when I purchased her so nothing electrical in the boat works and there is no plumbing. I spent several weeks in Florida just getting the items I absolutely had to have for an ocean crossing working and nothing else. This was a "roughing it" sailboat trip, none of the nice and comfortable things usually found in a yacht were in this boat. This trip with perfect winds should take 6 or 7 days but I was planning for a bit longer and was figuring on 8 to 10 days but I didnt step off the boat until 18 days later.
The first 3 days out from the Dry Tortuga islands were great, with winds at 10 to 15 knots from the south. The boat was galloping like a stallion. I was flying all sails jib, main, and mizzen and had the boat balanced perfectly, I hardly had to touch the wheel at all. I reached my mid ocean halfway point and remember thinking wow I will be home early in only 6 days, and then it happened........
No Wind !! Nothing, nada, negative windspeed, zero,
no blow no go.
It was like God just pushed me out into the middle of the ocean and said there ya go have fun, see ya later. I will remember to be more specific with my prayers next time.
I was not prepared nor had it ever entered my mind that the wind would not blow at all in the Gulf of Mexico. I knew their might be some slow days but I was not ready for days and days of just sitting and baking in the sun. The transmission was broken so I couldn't power the boat anywhere. I didn't have any light air equipment on board. The Jib was only 100% size and 9 ounce cloth and just hung there like a big claw in the light air. The main sail would just pop back and forth as the boat rocked in the current unless I removed all the halyard tension.
Adventure Tips
bring more wind next time!
- Edit Added: 2/5/2012 - The question I have been asked the most since my trip is "Were you scared" and/or "Were you afraid you were going to die" The answer to both is NO, although I thought I might die of boredom just sitting waiting for the wind to blow.
- I had one little scare one evening when a minor little rain storm came through. I was at the mast putting in a reef and one large wave came through and rolled the boat really hard and I lost my grip on the mast. I went over backwards landing on my backside at the edge of the deck. My jack line and tether worked like it was supposed to and kept me from falling off the boat.
- Edit added: 2/5/2012 - Looking back: The worst part was after I entered the oil field and quit sleeping. You cant believe how much stuff is out there 300-400 miles from Galveston and I was afraid to sleep for fear of hitting something. I was suffering from sleep deprivation and I really wanted to find a way to sleep so I contacted a rig tender workboat, hoping that I would be able to tie off to him and sleep. He was busy and couldn't really help but I must have sounded really bad to him over the radio and he contacted the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard met me about 100 miles from Galveston and towed me in. I slept hard for the 12 hour tow into Galveston. I only got up to close the hatch because we were in a strong storm with rain, winds, and lightning.
- I did know the storm was coming by listening to the radio, and I was getting prepared for it. My plans were to reef and heave-to, which slows the boat down to a slow drift and go to sleep while the sun was out and the weather was pretty. Then I would be awake and rested when the storm rolled in late that night. Luckily the Coast Guard showed up while I was getting ready so I didnt have to do anything but go to sleep.
- Edit Added: 2/5/2012 - The whole story is written in the map markers along with photos, so if you want to know what really happened you need to zoom in the map and read my notes on each marker.
You will really need to zoom the map in and move your mouse over each of the markers to read my notes about this trip. These markers on the map are my check-in "ok" markers from the satellite spot tracker device and some are really close together because I did not move very far due to NO WIND!!!!!!!!!!
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