Day 1 - Click image for larger view
In the year 2019 I set out to solo sail around the North Atlantic on our 37' CSY "Southern Light" having worked almost 10 years on this boat to reach my goal. Pam Sedwick, was a huge part in helping the dream come true. This is the story of my solo North Atlantic Sailing Adventure!
Having completed a 500 mile shakedown voyage to the Dry Tortugas and a few overnighters around Tampa Bay I've finally shoved off from our home dock in St. Petersburg, FL. It was just another day out for a sail, a very long sail. Wife Pam and an ole bud JJ were there to bid farewell.
I focused on autopilot settings and sailing overloaded Southern Light into Tampa Bay, she was feeling quite sluggish. In addition to all fixed tanks at max capacity I carried an extra 35 gallons of diesel for a total of 85 and drinking water jugs everywhere totaling over 175 gal.
It's a short jaunt into open water on Tampa Bay and soon the AIS alarm was blaring. A fast moving tugboat was on a colision course which she soon altered astern of us.
Heading out while others were returning.
About to sail under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge with the drifter sail up.
By dusk we had passed Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay and turned south down the Florida west coast, our destination, the Florida Keys "Channel Five Bridge". This was the shortest route to my next destination, Bermuda. There is a shortcut I'd taken on a previous boat, a Morgan 323 also named "Southern Light" through the Lake Okeechobee Waterway across the middle of the state however one fixed height bridge prevented that passage on this "Southern Light" due to her increased mast height. Regardless, it would have been a longer trek taking locks, bridges, etc. into consideration.
The Gulf of Mexico sea breeze now calmed enough to warrent a little motor sailing. All systems were go as the first night passed with only shrimp boats to monitor. Speaking of, there were many shrimp boats! Fortunately I had installed an AIS transponder so the shrimp boats could 'see' me as well. Unfortunately the AIS signal was being interfered with by an LED masthead running light bulb I had recently installed for lower power consumption. I did not realize this until troubleshooting at anchor in Bermuda harbor. It was hit and miss until then, when all of a sudden two shrimp boats a hundred yards in front seemingly cut me off on purpose! They had been paralleling Southern Light's course, port side, half an hour, then abruptly cut across my bow forcing a course and speed change in an unintended direction. Having nets down, by rule, they were "restricted in ability to maneuver" which meant that I was the give way vessel. They knew what they were doing! I was a small sailboat passing through their "neck of the Gulf of Mexico" so to speak. A slight inconvenience to me that could have resulted in a very bad start to an otherwise beautiful night had I not been monitoring the situation.
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