The Gulf Crossing

After our inauspicious Friday start, we rested up and got a fresh start on Sunday May 17. After a leisurely breakfast, we topped off the diesel at the fuel dock at Galveston Yacht Basin and started out on our journey again. This time there were no storms, or even clouds in the sky. It was a beautiful day. As we made our way out through the Houston Ship Channel, we were greeted by dolphins all around us. It was so smooth in fact, that we decided to start taking day watches right then. I took the first watch and the guys napped on deck. 

Our first night watch was not anything like what I had thought it would be. We were in relatively smooth seas and all I really had to do was watch for oil rigs and tankers on the radar and make sure we didn’t run over or get run over by either. It actually felt rather comforting know that there were others out in the Gulf with us. It was also chilly. I didn’t expect that I would need a jacket and a light blanket on night watch, but I did. I also had my Kindle with me on deck so I could read. I could see the Milky Way like I had never seen it. It was amazing to see all of the stars and then to watch the night transform into a magical sunrise and watch the horizon light up with its pinks, golds, reds and blues. 

The second day was again spent winding our way through oil rigs off Louisiana and we started getting into a rhythm of watches and sleeping. What I learned was that the watch schedule was more to let you know when you could sleep as opposed to just knowing when you had to be awake. I hadn’t ever thought about that. We also found unexpected cell service out by the rigs and we all got to check in with those back on land and let them know how we were doing. 

Joe and I took turns cooking. Bacon and eggs and grits was our breakfast most morning as Joe really enjoys cooking breakfast. We’d then take turns napping during the day. Whoever was at the helm/on watch got to choose what the crew listened to (music, audio books or movies).  

On day 3, David and I were switching shifts and I stayed up to watch sunrise. David put out the trolling lines and it didn’t take 30 minutes before we had a small Mahi Mahi on the line. We reeled it in and put it away to have for lunch. After having fish tacos for lunch, we caught another small Mahi and made creole style fish over rice for dinner. We certainly ate well on this passage. We were also able to sail without the motor for several hours on this day, It would be the only day we could sail without the motor for the entire passage. 

Day 4 was flat and we again had dolphins swimming with us. We also caught 2 more Mahi that we put into the freezer. On this day, the guys discovered a “leak” in the bow that had water coming into the bilge. It wasn’t a huge amount of water, but it was a steady trickle that was causing the bilge pump to go off frequently. They determined it was in the fiberglass and had probably been there since the boat was built, but until we had pounded for hours on end a few days before, it had never been a problem. They were able to temporarily close the hole with Butyl Tape. This kept the water out and the bilge was dry. We decided that it would be good until we made it to Miami in a few days.

Day 5 started off smooth, but got rough in a hurry. We noticed that the waves changed pretty quickly from nice little 1-2 foot to 4-6 feet or more and were confused. Ashton and David were both sick with these seas and it took us a while to figure out, but we had accidentally let ourselves get into the Gulf Stream. Our original plan had been to ride just above the Gulf Stream, as it can get really lumpy when the seas and the wind are coming from opposing directions and that’s just what we had. We changed course to turn directly East, headed closer to the coast of Florida to get out of it and got in touch with our weather routers to see if they had any other ideas. They agreed going East was the best course of action and after several hours we were finally out of the confused seas. This changed our course a little, as our original plan had been to come in at the Dry Tortugas and we would be coming in closer to Key West. 

We made it to Key West and Hawk Channel around midnight Day 5 going into Day 6. The books all say you shouldn’t run Hawk Channel at night, but since The Keys were still closed due to COVID-19 and were not allowing anyone in, we decided we would just push through and keep two people on watch while running at night. This worked well and the Channel was well marked. We still had around 100 miles to go to get to Miami, but we were so close.

On Day 6, we started figuring how much fuel we had left. At this point, we had been motoring for almost the entirety of the trip. We figured we had 16 hours of fuel left and we still had 19 hours to get to Miami. We had just passed Marathon, Florida and Joe and I were looking online and in the passage guides to see if we could find somewhere to refuel. We found two places open, but Key Largo was only open until 5pm and we wouldn’t make that, but Marathon was open and we could get into the marina there. We woke David up and turned around to get back to Marathon. Since we were close enough for cell service, several family members were texting us wondering what was going on. The people at the marina at Marathon were super nice, although we weren’t allowed to step off the boat. It was nice to see/talk to someone else besides the four of us on the boat. We were also able to fill our Yeti’s with ice and get more cokes. 

Once our tanks were full, we headed back up the coast of Florida towards Miami. We had less than 24 hours until we were there and we were all so excited! The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful until Joe and I took the last night watch. David’s plan was to wait until after daylight to get us into the marina, so we planned to slow down once we got close; however, we were watching storms all around us and as we made the turn more to the northwest to head into Miami, the waves got bigger and were hitting us broadside. Some of the waves would take us all the way to the rail in the water. Joe and I were both tethered in with our inflatable PFDs on to keep us where we were. 

Day 7. As we kept watching storms around us, I looked up the future cast radar. It showed storms all day around the Miami area. Where we had been able to see Miami in the distance, it was now covered by clouds. I woke David up for the final run into the Miami Ship Channel and told him what we had found out. We needed to get into our slip before daylight in order to be settled when the storms came. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to get into our slip. So we powered through the rough seas and pushed to get into Miami. 

We had reservations at the Miami Beach Marina. It’s the first marina you get to when coming into that area. The slips were well protected and it was easy to get into a slip once we were there. It was so nice to be tied up and not in big swells. We could see the storms coming, but were safely tied up. At 7am, the guys had a splash of rum and I had a glass of wine to celebrate our crossing and then we all took a nice long nap. We were exhausted, but we had done it! We had crossed the Gulf of Mexico and were into the Atlantic!!

Stats from the Gulf of Mexico Crossing:

Showers - Joe 4, David 3, Cindy and Ashton 2

Fish caught - Mahi 6, Skip Jack 1 (we only kept 4 Mahi since we didn’t have room for the others)

Number of times there was puking - Ashton 1, David 1

Gallons of tea consumed - 12

Ginger Ale and Sprite consumed - 24 cans

Cokes Consumed - 14 cans

Coffee consumed - not very much 

Hot meals - Breakfast and dinner everyday

Cold meals - Lunches 

Until next time,

Cindy, S/V Verano