Here’s Part 3 of Catching Up…

Getting out of Pensacola, away from the ICW, and back into the Gulf was an awesome feeling. We felt like we’d finally gotten somewhere, or rather, we we’re finally going somewhere. After spending the bulk of the trip in the ditch dodging North’ers, trailing tugboats, and dealing with the old diesel, the open Gulf was invigorating.

The forecast called for a breezy first night with Northern gusts up to 20 and waves around four feet. Well, it’s a good thing we were mentally prepared for it.

That first night was a wild one. By 8 o’clock the wind was out of the NNW up to 25 knots and we were running SE at around hull speed. The waves seemed to be changing their mind every hour or so, but for the most part they wanted to come out of the West or WSW. We were making great time but the sail was a bit rough.

When things seemed to settle down for a while I went below to grab some Zs and left Paul at the tiller. This was this guy’s first bluewater experience and he tackled it like a champ. Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico/Great Washing Machine were at least as sloshy as advertised, and things seemed to be changing constantly. At one point the wind died almost completely and Paul was practically surfing Contigo over five-foot rollers with hardly filled sails.

Then the wind changed its mind again and picked up from the North, then West, and we were suddenly on a run. Then the waves changed their mind again too, and they started following the wind. Breaking rollers, now easily eight feet tall and chasing us just off our starboard stern quarter, conditions were getting tricky by the wee hours of the morning.

“Hey Hank! HANK!”

I think I remember hearing the mainsail tear but I’m not sure. When I got above, Adam and Paul were doing whatever they could to get the sails under control in those wild seas, but with full sails Contigo was well overpowered by the strongest gusts yet. We didn’t measure it, but even heading mostly downwind it felt windier than earlier. The waves were doing jumping jacks behind us, clapping against the hull and splashing us in the swinging cockpit every few seconds.

Ok, so it wasn’t quite as bad as that picture…

It wasn’t anything to be too nervous about, but it was just dicey enough to be exhilarating and challenging. We got Contigo back under control with more appropriate sail area and she balanced well even in steady Force 6 winds.

Looks like we’re not bringing that mainsail up any higher this trip.

The thing is, we should have reefed those sails way earlier. Between the three of us, we heaved in the shiny new Genoa to about 30% and started pulling in the haggard main to its second reef. The tear was about 20” long and just above the second reefing point.

Things calmed down enough for the next 48 hours or so for us to enjoy a calm downwind sail. I hope you’re ready for a whole bunch of sunset/sunrise pictures.

 [^ Thats the moon rising just above the sun that morning… very very cool!]

On the third day, as calm and sunny as you could imagine over a hundred miles offshore, we picked up some traveling companions for a while…

To be concluded…