Departure: May 1, 2017 @ 6:32 AM.
Following tradition, Darrel and Sue Peters joined us in the
morning and helped us cast off. We met them in Florence Alabama in November of
2010 while on a Great Loop side trip. Sue left her pocketbook in the courtesy
car and, having found no money in here purse (just kidding), we guessed that it
was the folks on the 50 foot Ocean Alexander, returned the pocket book and have
been friends ever since.
Back to business.
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| The Crew: Guy Aries, Les and Bob Benson |
Departure from Sarasota is always a challenge as there is no
easy way out to the Gulf. There are three options; Big Pass, New Pass and the
Venice Inlet via the ICW, and each has its issues. Big Pass is a local
knowledge pass that is tricky in calm water and dangerous with rough seas due
to the shallow depths. New Pass, recently dredged, has a bridge with restricted
openings before 7:00 AM and a very shallow channel leading from Sarasota Bay (where we almost touched
last March) leading to the pass. Taking the ICW to Venice involves 4 bridges,
two of which open every 20 minutes and numerous no wake zones.
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| Casey Key Swing Bridge |
We chose Venice via the ICW on Monday morning as a brisk 20
knot wind out of the south was making 3 foot waves according to the forecast.
That wave direction increased the risk of bouncing of the bottom at Big Pass.
To shorten our time on this route we left at 6:30 AM to take advantage of the
fact that the Siesta Key bridge opens on demand before 7:00 AM. The run to the
inlet took two hours and 13 minutes.
When we entered the Gulf at Venice we saw that we had made
the right decision as we immediately started pitching in a 3 to 4 foot head sea.
Seas calmed to 2 to 3 feet as we passes Marco Island around 7:00 PM then
increased to 4 to 6 as we progress toward the Keys. The 63 handled the seas
well but pitching is not fun unless you’re playing baseball.
Around 4:00 AM on Tuesday morning we were 17 NM north of
Marathon and the Seven Mile Bridge. Winds that had been 25 to 30 knots out of southeast
winds reduced to 15 to 20 knots and the seas calmed. At 6:27 AM, 24 hours after departing Sarasota, we crossed under the Seven Mile Bridge. We had covered 182 nautical miles at an
average speed of 7.7 knots.
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| Seven Mile Bridge |
Explanatory Note:
The 63 cruises at 8.4 knots at 1400 RPM. The head winds and seas had reduced
our speed by .7 knots. That may sound trivial but it’s not when you running 24
hours a day for multiple days. Essentially, you lose 16 NM and 2 hours every 24
hours.
Decision time. Run the Hawk Channel in protected water or
run outside the reef in deep water to catch the Gulf Stream. This proved to be
an easy decision as the forecast of south southeast winds at 10 to 15 knots
with 3 to 5 foot seas was the same on both sides of the reef.
Would we get the promised push from the Gulf Stream? That
question was clearly answered 4 hours later when we recorded an average speed
of 7.9 knots. We were now seeing current speed readings of approximately 8.8
knots and, best of all, we were running in 3 to 4 foot seas off the starboard
forward quarter. Those seas continued to calm (to 2 feet) and our speed
continued to increase to 9.0 knots. The Gulf Stream was giving us a 1.5 knot
push.
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| The depth increases as we cross the reef. Our position is shown on the right hand screen Sorry for the poor photo |
The Gulf Stream turned Guided Discovery into a
speedboat. OK, I know. You think that’s
a big exaggeration but you need to read on.
Written by Les
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