Jono and I walked the touristy Clearwater pier area this evening.. just got back. We looked and looked for dancing girls but only found acrobats, fire eaters and jugglers… no dancers so we were out of luck there…….
Russ is flying in to Tampa tomorrow to help us bring the boat home. With 3 of us piloting SYL the crossing will be a breeze, especially with the light winds and flat seas… we will just burn gas and keep it on 290 degrees true for 3 days. Looking at passageweather.com we may get a bit of help from the wind but very little. Most of the time it may be only enough to knock the sweat off your brow. Wave direction also looks amenable to travel in our direction. There may be times we are faced with 10 inch waves, but mostly not. You never know for sure.. but a high pressure area is dominating the gulf so it should be dog days of summer even offshore.
Jono just left for the local Walgreens for a first run at provisioning. He won’t get it all.. .but probably all he can comfortably carry at one time. We’ll go back tomorrow for a final run. We need another loaf of bread, snacks, drinks and some gas cans. The dock master told me Walgreens has a marine section (being so close to the water) so they may have fuel jugs.
We have not added water to the boat since we left Nassau and we have over 1/2 a tank left. Men are naturally more frugal than women on everything. We like our stuff to count at least twice for everything we do…. efficiency first. For instance when we take a shower we wash clothes and clean the bathroom at the same time. When we wash one dish to use it, the suds go in the next dirty one to soak and the rinse water is added to it. Anyway… enough about masculine efficiency…. women definitely have their advantages and us guys couldn’t (or wouldn’t) live without our wonderful counterparts. The water is free here so I’ll leave full and thoroughly expect to have plenty water when we arrive in Kemah without making more with 3 men onboard except for maybe a bit more drinking water.
So our passage crew is set, Me, Russ and Jono… the three Sitton men will brave the wide open ocean and attempt to come out alive…. lol (in ten inch seas)…. regardless of sea monsters, trolls and pirates we will make it to our final destination hopefully without loss of skin or much of our sun bleached hair. My only regret is that Russ and I had a contest going to see who got the darkest when he was on the boat and I won in the two weeks he had to catch me. That boy tans quicker than anybody I know. I beat him with the 5 month head start… but I fear he may catch up in the next week or two.
If all goes well we will be in Venice (below New Orleans) Monday. Our only hold up might be fuel consumption. We might have to run slower than full speed to make the passage if we don’t get any wind. However the Monday mid day arrival is calculated at 5 knots, so if we don’t get serious headwinds or waves we can motor that speed easily. On flat water I can travel in the high 6’s, so maintaining 5 is certainly doable given the expected conditions.
Its getting late and I need to eat a small bite before going to bed. If I get a chance I’ll blog a bit in the morning but probably not. I’ll be resting and prepping so we will Sea Yawl when I get internet again!
Rusty