Change of Plans

12.7.10

We slept in yesterday morning until 8am and got a bit of a later start, not leaving the mooring ball until 9:30. It was already starting to warm up and yet the temperature was still only 50 degrees and very windy. We were, once again, dressed in practically every piece of clothing that we owned and trying to stay in the sun to absorb as much of the day's warmth as possible.
There were not many boats out on the water on that cold and windy Monday so we had the channel to ourselves. We motored down the mile long channel to Gordon's Pass - the entrance to the Gulf. As we were coming upon the entrance, we saw two of the boats that had passed us earlier heading back towards us. We assumed it was too cold and windy and they had decided to turn around and call it a day. Well, we were half right.
When we rounded the last bend and saw the Pass, we debated doing the same thing. The water in the inlet was churning, with wave crests reaching as high as 6 feet. I thought we had it rough coming out of the Gasparilla Inlet, but that was easy peazy compared to this! The Pass is much narrower, being only about 50 feet wide, with a rock wall jetty on one side and shallow 2 foot shoals on the other. We watched a few fishing boats go out ahead of us and though they were being tossed around, they made it out ok. So we decided to press on and hope that it was better once we got through the inlet into the Gulf.
We were about a quarter of the way through the inlet when it hit me, as I was behind the helm, how dangerous the situation actually was. The waves were hitting us on our starboard side bow (our 3 o'clock) and we were quickly being pushed off-course and into the rock jetty beside us. To make any headway, I had to turn the boat directly into the waves at full throttle. The rock jetty was now behind us, but we seemed to be making enough headway that we weren't going to be pushed into it. However, our little 35 hp Diesel was chugging for all she was worth and we were barely moving. We were very slowly going sideways through the channel.
About halfway out, the wave action picked up and we were facing 6-8ft waves head on. We would crest over one wave and slam back down the backside of it and be immediately lifted up onto the next. When we thought things couldn't get worse, the waves came closer together. Soon, as we were cresting down the back of one wave, we were immediately assaulted with the next. Our bow was dipping head on into the wave and water was washing up our bow and over the boat. We cut one wave right in half and the water crashed all the way into our cockpit!
To say we were a bit scared would have been an understatement. Cold and now wet, I was singing "The sun will come out tomorrow" under my breath just to keep my cool.
We finally made it past the first channel marker and away from the rock jetty, but we had another 100feet to go before we made it past the second channel marker and into the Gulf. Suddenly we heard our boat being hailed on the VHF. There was a very large 100ft powerboat sitting at the mouth of the channel behind us, wanting to let us know he was coming out and was going to pass us on our starboard side. Brad responded and said we were almost clear of the channel and then we would be out of his way - hint, hint just wait until we are out and then you won't have to worry about running us over.
Well, he decided to come out anyway. It was pretty comical watching that huge boat get tossed around by the waves. I can only imagine what we had looked like going through there just moments before! But, as I watched him approaching, I knew we were going to have a problem. As I said before, I was turned straight into the waves and being pushed sideways, which meant I was taking up the entire channel just to maneuver. How did this guy think he was going to pass by us?!
We were nearing the last channel markers when Brad said, "Turn to starboard, NOW!" The huge boat had quickly caught up with us and was bearing down on our left side in a hurry. My 35hp motor was no match for his 500hp engines. By the time the mothership had responded to my turning the wheel, the larger boat was annoyed that I wasn't out of his way and was pulling around the other side of me. So Brad said, "Turn to port, NOW!" Again, the same thing happened. I finally picked a side, my starboard, and tried to stay as close to the green marker as I could get without being slammed into it. The boat passed within 50feet of us on our port, leaving us to battle his 3foot wake slamming into the already existing 6ft waves.
HOW RUDE!
Once we got out of the channel, we were dismayed to see that the waves were no less potent out in the Gulf. They were still 6feet high, choppy, messy and crashing into us in irregular intervals. There was no way one of us was going halfway out onto the bow to get the sail ready to raise, so we continued to motor. After about 45 minutes of the crazy swells, we were both ready to call it a day. Luckily, there was one last place that we could pull in and anchor about 5 miles further south - Marco Island. This was the last stop before the point of no return, so we opted to pull in there for a few days and let the cold weather and winds pass us by.
We anchored by 2pm, thankful that we had made it through the experience with everyone and everything intact, albeit a little battered and bruised (including the mothership!). We were perfectly happy to stay in our little cove for a few days and do some minor repairs until the water was calm again.
It was a good experience for us, as these were the biggest waves we had conquered yet. And we now knew that the saying "If you can handle it, your boat can handle it" was very true. Although we were ready to call it quits, our little boat handled it like a champ! We have learned we are not the crazy sailors who like to push everything to the limit. Our whole life is in this boat and we are perfectly content to wait out the weather and have calm seas and a happy crew!