New Orleans to W. Florida I

New Orleans to W. FL I

Mon., June 3, 2013

Capt. Mike and I left New Orleans (finally) on Sat., June 1st.  Our marina neighbor and friend, George, and his apprentice, Nick, arranged to caravan with us part of the way on our trip to W. Florida.  So a Lagoon 37 and Privilege 39 set sail early with hopes to reach Ship Is., MS by evening.  That is with the cooperation of the winds and wind direction, mechanical health of the cats and its people, if, if, if.  That day would be memorable, as the next day would be too but in a very different way.  More like opposite way.

The first day held the thrill of starting out and hours of terrific sailing (not motoring) at a good clip.  The next day, however, surprised us with a sudden thunderstorm that initiated another kind of adrenaline rush accompanying the loss of our main anchor, running aground, and general misery.  We're all well and at the Gulfport Small Craft Marina.  I'm at a local coffee shop reporting on the experiences.  Meantime Capt. Mike is on Capt. George's boat gone to try to locate and retrieve our 35 lb. Delta anchor, possibly still attached to its 70 ft. of chain and some rode.

Day 1 was what most sailors look for:  favorable sailing conditions to speed along, in full harmony with Nature.  The winds were out of the southeast, maxing out at 18 kts.  Mike tuned the sails until we reached speeds of 7.9 kts without motoring.  Both cats reached the northern side of Ship Is. by 7:00 p.m. (Central).  We went to bed tired but content with expectations of exploring completely intact Fort Massachusetts and other points of interest  on Ship Is.  We had hoped to dinghy into shore, less than a quarter mile from our boat next morning before resuming our trip east.

Day 2 was what most sailors try to avoid:  a sudden and strong thunderstorm that catches you unaware and creates havoc.  May I also add havoc in an otherwise ideal environment?  We were up shortly after 6:00 a.m. and I commented how calm the waters were, almost flat with a beautiful shimmer.  A rainbow arched above George's boat.  The calm before the storm.  Then we noticed dark clouds building on the horizon but didn't react accordingly since the day before we had had a brief shower during our sail, and predictions were for several days of the same.  For the next hour or hour and a half we experienced up to 30 kt. winds and heavy chop.  We were not able to pull up anchor and push us away from shore in time.  It seems that the anchor rode got caught in one of the propellers while the waves were pushing us inevitably towards the shallows of the shore.  Though Mike wanted to cut the rode and attach a buoy to it for future retrieval, the propeller cut the rode first.  Before we could redirect the boat away from the shore, the waves had moved us onto the bottom.  We bumped several times on sandy bottom before finally being able to thrust the boat northward and point towards Gulfport, a couple of hours away.

Now Mike, George and Nick are trying to locate the anchor settled in up to 22 ft. of water in the approximate area around our anchorage, 30 deg. 13.061' N/ 88 deg. 58.208' W.   Stay tuned for Part II:  anchor retrieved or not.