Challenging SKINNY water sail to Florida - Ep 48 Sailing Luckyfish
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- This week on Luckyfish we:
almost lose the drone
cross one of the busiest shipping lanes
explain collision avoidance
see our first water spout
find the dangers of micro-sleeps
meet head-on, the power of the Gulf Stream
and Zaya has a shower
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Special thanks to :
Max Noremo (Opening tune)
Tatono (Closing tune)
Mongolian National Song and Dance Ensemble
"Tumen Ekh"
www.bensound.com
What do you think of this route to Florida? Is it something you would try after watching these two episodes? Huge thank you to Patrons old and new - you are making these videos possible xxx Stew and Zaya
Probably, if I had your Exact Track and Course, lol. Save that, for Future Reference. You may need it again one day. Never know when you might need to Steer Clear of others....
We like to go down to the Jumentos first and then swing up under Andros. Cay Sal bank is great in June for watching turtles lay their eggs!
I wouldn't hesitate that route! 😉🏴☠️
I'm a total landlubber, but wouldn't it have been better to cross the current more steeply to minimize the time in the current? Possibly even make the earlier waypoints trend a little more to the west so that the current would put you back on course? Isn't this like not fighting a rip current, where the advice is to swim across rather than fight it directly?
Well, my route from Great Exuma would have been more boring, but then I would never go to Key West on purpose... to Americans, that's pretty famous as an overpriced hellhole tourist trap. If fact, I'd avoid making landfall anywhere in that region until your destination port, just to reduce contact with bureaucracy and crime.
[I would also never sail the ICW with a seaworthy boat like yours unless it was to keep company with a party fleet. The Ditch is... industrial at best. It's famous for being protected, not for being nice. There are a ton of nice little protected bays and inlets all up the proper coast for people who can navigate, pretty much good harbor nightly, and that's where the native boat people live.]
Anyway, I would have skimmed along the southern side of the Tongue, and stayed at 270° to round Cay Sal Bank on the south, then run 275° or so to avoid the exclusion zone, and parallel Cuba at a distance to use it as a current & storm shield.
Then at about the longitude of Matanzas or Hershey, I'd turn to 345° and take that one long reach with max sail to Boca Grande Channel if I was trying to shave miles, letting the Stream hopefully side-slide me right into place to cut through to the east Gulf proper.
If I wasn't shaving miles but wanted easier navigation, I'd go to the Fort Jefferson channel and then set course direct to the port desired. Winds should be towards the shore, so you should pretty much be able to hit any harbor on a single point of course as far north as Tampa from there.
Fort Meyer is (or at least used to be) basically a retirement & residential city, so that would be a better place to land first in America. Sensible shopping, friendly natives, people from all over the country, and so on. I haven't been there myself (I boated in Panama City years ago, a ways up the coast), but Ft Meyer has a very middle-class comfortable reputation. The Coast Guard is competent & good everywhere, but in some other ports they are hard-pressed to keep up with all the crap that goes on.
I guess, at this point, I'll see future episodes to see how Ft. Meyer has evolved lately. You'll be the one telling me.
So, like I said, boring blue-water course, but minimal trouble... or so I think from here. As I recall, once I'm on the water, landfall may be a necessity, but not a preference. Now on to the next episode to see how Key West actually treated you :)
Well Stewart hope you and Zaya doing well in Florida
Congratulations on becoming a naval aviator Stewart! Looking good Zaya!
hehe thanks mate!
Hi, fantastic your vídeos I wish yuo good luck and I await the next vídeos, until the next bye!
When you're in Florida buy a heavy duty rubber bucket with an Aluminum handle. at Tractor supply. :)
will keep and eye out for one - they are good! Thanks
Did very well lot of painted krays and coral trout macro and Cobia food was no problem and the water is just so gorgeous everything down here is that way
So pleased ya finally got outta the gulf stream . Good thing ya wasn't rowing outta there ,lol. Fanx muchly for sharing your adventure ;-)
Thanks mate
Hello Stewart and Zaya, this video was very interesting. Good job on getting back control of the drone 🙂
Always great. Can’t get enough of you guys. Hope you’ve sorted out the bugs in your drone. :) Fair winds.
+Clay Farnet, thanks mate. Thing with drones, like any tech.... every time you turn them on its an adventure. Sometimes they work just like last time, other times there's a glitch...
Great episode, again! Love your improvements on editing!
Great video guys. Hope you are doing well.
Peanut butter and marmalade, one of my faves. Loving the adventure. Cheers from Aus 👍
+Captain Crusty - great to hear. What part of OZ?
Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle NSW. 👍
Know it well. Beautiful spot !!
Below deck are boats are almost identical but the decks are totally different I guess that's where the Builder comes in
Good episode you two. Some exciting sailing and having to deal with the Gulf Stream too. About the drone...whew! Sounds like you had it in 'newbie' mode and it treated you like a newbie, for sure! Sounds like that took some time to get sorted out and it could have been expensive. Good thing your type of catamaran has a lot of desk space on which to land the drone!
Yes, newbie mode for sure! Cheers and will write you a proper note soon, thank you
@@SailingLuckyfish looking forward to hearing from you, if you have time. Am working my way thru your videos in my spare coronavirus time. Just spent 5 days on my Catalina sailboat. Saw seals, two loons, and a humpback whale!
And the people are just wonderful very helpful very friendly you asked where we were Southwest to Perth any Marina called
Another super vid. Thanks. I'm starting to wonder if "luckyfish" refers to those that we didn't catch :D . Glad you sorted your drone, expect we will see some spectacular footage from it yet. Cheers
Zaya yasan mundag yum be .bi Lav engej ywahaas aina 😉. So brave Zaya 👍
Will you two be coming to Louisiana? We would love to meet you both and see your boat! We have very good food and friendly people! The keys do too! Welcome to the United States! Glad that both of you are here! We hope that you both have a great time here! Enjoy! LOVE your videos!
Thanks dee dee! We did have a great time in the US - vids are a bit behind Sorry for the confusion!! We are working hard to catch up the timeline.. and another visit to the southern US is not out of the question! Cheers
Great episode STEW N ZAYA, thanks.
Kailis marine very nice and very busy and very helpful
Great episode again Sir! your editing is really improving. Looking forward to you getting to the Hui of course!
Hey lucky fish Reef runner back we passed the test insurance companies happy so much to say don't know what to say by the time you get this we'll be on our way to the montebello's Islands
+Barry Stone - brilliant mate, safe sailing, have a blast !!!
Glad you made it past Cay Sal safely.
nice thanks
Really interesting viewing and the route seeming challenging but enjoyable. Having faced adverse current down the coast of Malaysia I felt the pain...
Ha, I hear you mate. Which coast? East or West - I need to research that.... Thank you
Between KL & Malacca, tidal flow unlike the Gulf Stream. I didn’t time it right. Great fun however once it turned 😁
Good information about a sailing route and currents. How is the Watt n Sea working out? Are you power independent now? I think the redundancy of two separate engines is a real benefit.
Agreed. Love that redundancy. Watt & Sea so far so good. Need to replace the seal in prop shaft bearing this season (its now 2 seasons in service). This should protect the bearings from sea water. Yes, we have always been power independent its just that now we can run things for longer (eg nav gear at night time, water maker during day). We started with just 270W of solar. Its still a work in progress :-)
Clark says to tell you, in his best Crocodile Dundee accent, "that's not a water spout...THIS is a water spout!" th-cam.com/video/Nb7PJB4LJBQ/w-d-xo.html -Emily
Stunning link guys. Looks like you were anchored off Hamburger beach? The best waterspout footage I have seen. Friggin scary.
We were right in the gap off chat and chill, in front of St Francis. It touched down just south of Sand Dollar beach and traveled on a course that took it pretty near our bay on Crab Cay. Glad we weren't there that day!
If you want to know how I got the AC in let me know I'll tell you we put the fridge just like you but the pulldown Shelf I had to cut reinforce and set the AC there so not a whole lot of Headroom but it works as far as the vent I carry it to the top hatch forward facing 8 lag bolts Wingnuts
The captain love the boat he said she was a fat lady my wife put me to the side and said what did he mean I told her too much junk after the trip she donated a whole bunch of stuff and we lighting their up our best speed what's 10 knots 12 apparent downwind cap said we could do a lot better the wife is into it now I love it she sailed well second lashing took well I had them watch the video of yours until they got it down and I carried some extra wedges just in case but not necessary and the AC was cool
Great stuff mate. Glad the vid is of use.!
Sort of surprised you got that much current from the GS that far south. I would rather expect that off the NC coast.
+spencer marshall surprised us too. I was expected max 2.5 kts. It must have been at least 5 near about 15-20 miles out from KW (we weren't even directly into it). We left Marathon for Bimini (Sth Riding Rk) the following season expecting the same thing but with us this time... and got diddly squat... about 1.5kts. Have you crossed the GS much? Cheers
Yes, I have been across it probably a dozen times. Mostly off the Carolinas. I don't generally expect it to be running over 2.5 kts through the Florida Straights and 3kts north of GA until northern NC where it accelerates to 4+ before turning to the east off Hatteras. I actually heard it was running 4 kts through the straights earlier this year but just thought somebody was being overly dramatic. I guess not.
I guess not too.... video never lies, mostly. ! on a small sailing boat a 4 or 5 kt current is a major game changer if you plan to go any distance against it. Running with it - a completely different story!
Oh I know! Nothing like being pinned in one place or worse waiting for the tides to change. Taking 24 hours to round Hatteras (24 miles) is not an uncommon event southbound on near shore passages. You're far better off being out 200 miles doing that really if your headed to the Caribbean from up north. That's far enough out that any low pressure fronts exploding have piddled out and quite beyond the all too typical breaking waves known for their consistency there to be of concern. Biggest mistake people make when things go to hell off Hatteras is trying to run in to the west when they should be running east back out to sea. Oregon Inlet is nothing but a trap in those heavy weather situations. I myself HATE the ICW, but that is how most avoid rounding Hatteras south bound. Running north past it can be a real blast though.
How goes the double vanes work to the tillers. I’m used to single. Rudders.
just one in operation at a time.. the windward one. made a short video on them here th-cam.com/video/HwEejk7bhCw/w-d-xo.html pm stew at svluckyfish dot com for info on sailing with us, cheers
Just love that Mongolian music ! Do you think the musicians were influenced by a Western band !!! eg Supertramp !!! :)
+Garth Robinson absolutely influenced! Everyone steals from each other right! Im going to listen again though.. and try to pick up Supertramp ;-)
Seeing as your a music lover ask Zaya if she knows Whulan Toyo - (Spelling may be wrong) - But she was going great till she had a fight with her record company :(
I'm watching your episode 48 crossing the gulf stream. I was always told you just cut straight across and then turn up. Is that advice wrong?
Not sure I would sail fast at night over the reef and would not take the stream on the head... Better to move to one side...
+Lach Elting - agree, Although sailing fast over Cay Sal - well, we had just crossed the GBB and had a feel for the charts and the banks during daylight so we kinda felt ok in 8m of water. The banks are really flat and the bricks seem well charted :-). Still felt un-seamanlike though! We did not know too much about how close inshore the stream would be and we were still making progress so all was good. As it turned out, the stream got stronger before it petered out. have you crossed Cay Sal before, something we should know? thanks for the comment, Stew
Hey about that route. Do you think if you squared it up a bit it would have helped. Either hug the coast of Cuba or cross the stream square to the keys you would have made better time?
In hindsight yes. We really weren't expecting so much current though. It seemed unusual, even for the GS. If we stopped making way altogether the only thing to do would be bolt for the Keys coast then hug it like you say. The Cuba option may have been too much of a dog leg to pay off... you'd need to use the counter current which sits in really close to the edge of the reefs there... We were just fortunate to have enough wind to get us through it that day.
Here in Cozumel we face a similar issue. Close to the coast we can get counter currents in our favor when headed south. when going North it is always better to stay a little farther offer shore. My dive boats run the Yucatan current daily so squaring it up works great for us. But I don't know much about the area you crossed., Maybe that is why people dont sail it much. Hurah! For good tail winds for your trip eh?
Yes, a good tail wind always makes up for shortcomings elsewhere! We would have preferred to hit the Keys a little further north, say Marathon... but, needed to go to a port of entry, hence KW.
My 3 year old niece seen Zaya on screen with fishing pole and yells " Its Moana" so you have a new nick name Zaya.
Cute ! Dark hair, similar boat... :-)
What's the new lithium batteries and the charging systems we can run it during the day about 4 hours tops she doesn't like cooking in the heat Mama's happy so am I happy wife happy life LOL
I'm curious about the shipping lanes you showed yourself crossing. Isn't that classed as a Traffic Separation Scheme? I was just wondering as you didn't cross it perpendicularly.
+Ian Jones Well spotted. If we had crossed the TSS presenting a right angle heading we would have given up ground due to current. The COLREGS are of course important but in reality we were keeping a proper lookout, maintaining a safe speed in good visibility and not impeding the nav of other craft. I do regret not making a note highlighting your point in the video though. Thanks for drawing our attention to it.
you will send her up the mast but you won't have her catch the Drone is way easier to catch the Drone then two land it on a boat
+Lee Martin - receiving you mate! have since started doing hand catches... thanks alot, Stew and Zaya
Well ICE didn’t get you, or you uploaded from the prison ship.
Ha - ICE were good to us - better than some of the Carib countries believe it or not, Cheers
Please get rid of the words. They are often gibberish and if one can't understand what you are saying verbally, then very good chances you will certainly not be understanding the words.
+Bill MacQuarie - I hear you mate. You can turn the subs off. Click the cc button below video. I'm fixing the subs now - it takes about 2 hours. Did you find the video interesting?
A little harsh Bill. Great video and remember this is an amateur channel so it wont always be perfect. Greetings from Aus.
Thanks for your subs advice.
Yes, I find you videos great.
I too am from NZ and lived in China a number of years boat building...
Interesting. Sailboats?
Power... generally Noah Thompson designs (NZ - Catamarans)