Talking About Adventure In Small Boats
JibeTurkey
Member
I'm the shore contact for JibeTurkey, Harry's sister, Barbara, up in Beachton, GA. I'm posting updates for him over on my blog spasmsofaccommodation.com.
I'm writing these from the perspective of the complete n00b, for people with no idea what is going on. And by that I mean myself. I'm figuring it out as I go along. I use my blog to document my research mostly for my own reference later, so be prepared to skip past things that aren't compelling to your interests.
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey set off wearing his SPOT transmitter on one shoulder strap of his personal flotation device and Personal Locator Beacon on the other shoulder strap with a little strobe light dangling down the back. He said when he leaned back there was a thing that really pushed against the back of the seat. As he headed across the bay he heard a snap and a *PLOP* over his shoulder into the water.
"Oh shit!" he thought. "Something popped off my PFD and fell into the bay! My SPOT beacon is disappearing behind me! What will I do! I can't keep going without a SPOT! Where will I get another one?"
JibeTurkey
Member
Just got a phone call from JibeTurkey. He doesn't know where he is but he's making good time. Reports excellent conditions for going fast today but he stopped to adjust things and fell behind.
N8R
Latitude:27.18014
Longitude:-82.49411
GPS location Date/Time:03/01/2014 16:51:41 EST
Beachton, Raconteur with a Rake
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey is past Venice now and is moving along behind Mansota Key.
3/1/2014 8:39:49 PM Coordinates: (WGS84) 27.03494 , -82.42587
He called around 4:50 and reported it was a great day for making good time under sail. He seemed a little wistful that he had dinked around with lost lights and rigging up strings to his feet so he could control the rudder while paddling instead of just making good time. Apparently AhMaChamee left him in his spray.
He called because he stopped to lower his mast to go under a bridge. Then they raised it. He was irritated with himself for not just tacking back and forth to wait for it.
Having lost two lights today Jibe Turkey is a little worried about what he looks like from behind. He's planning to just wear his headlamp on backwards and hope the light on the top of his mast performs well. He has more spare lights including a strobe on his PLB and a handheld flashlight. I sure hope he doesn't end up sailing into the checkpoint by the light emitting diode on his smart phone. I wonder if he has a brake light app for bicycling? I bet there's not a clear plastic pocket on the back of his PFD. Y'all need to get on that.
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
(My iPad ate my update. Typing it again)
Day 2, JibeTurkey (Harry "Gokey" Tomlinson) sent his initial OK message at 8:21 am Sunday morning. He is just south of checkpoint 1.
His time to the first checkpoint was 17 hours 44 minutes, 12:44 am. I'm impressed he got there before his race buddy, AhMaChamee (Bryan Tindell), who made it in 18 hours 35 minutes. I think JibeTurkey waited for AhMaChamee then they found a beach south of the checkpoint to camp for the night. I got his OK message around 2 am.
The conditions yesterday were ideal for the light bufflehead with its big red sail. When everything is perfect it is faster than the Hobie AI. If it gets rough, though, that advantage is lost. There's still a long way to go. — Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey sent an OK message at 11:43 am then called on the phone. He says he didn't just finish something risky, he just hit OK because he'd been still for so long. He is becalmed. I think the wind is shifting around to the west so hopefully it will pick up.
He reports he broke his seat a little bit, but hasn't thought of how to fix it yet so he's not going to paddle to shore to work on it. He has enough gear shoved up against it to make it work ok.
The float plan for today is to stay in the Gulf and head for Marco Island. AhMaChamee is behind him right now but has the same plan.
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
I'm sorry I keep getting these double updates. I should stop trying to use my iPad and just come sit down at the computer.
I just figured out that if I do that I can delete the second one and replace it with new information. JibeTurkey is just about to clear the pass with no discernible name between Gasparilla Island and Cayo Costa. Still going pretty slow. — Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey left the west end of Sanibel at 9:22 this morning. I assume AhMaChamee is with him but I haven't seen a new message from his tracker yet today. They camped in the same place last night. I guess there wasn't much wind this morning so they just waited for it to start blowing before they set out. According to JibeTurkey's track he's making a straight line from Sanibel to Naples in the Gulf. He's currently making about 5 knots. I estimate he'll make Naples about 5:30 pm or at least before sunset.
Naples has a semi-diurnal tide. High was at 1:18 pm (+3 ft) and the next low is at 7:43 pm tonight (-0.3 ft). Then there's another high at 2:01 am (2.6 ft) and low at 7:39 am Tuesday (0.3 ft). I could guess what that means for their sailing but I'd probably be wrong.
Beachton, pondering amphidromic points
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey just called in from out in the Gulf. He's been out of cell range most of the day. I told him AhMaChamee's OK message didn't come up this morning and he said he'd pass that along. JibeTurkey is not really alone out in the middle of the Gulf, it just looks that way on the WaterTribe tracker.
Their plan is to keep sailing on the fastest course. They just turned a bit more south as the wind moved around to the west. They are trying to get closer to shore to catch the land breeze. They hope to end up somewhere around Marco Island.
JibeTurkey said AhMaChamee made him paddle south this morning for what seemed like 5 hours. (It was really only 2 going by his track.) I expect the Hobie AI is a cinch to paddle compared to the bufflehead. JibeTurkey confessed he really prefers sailing to paddling, as though it would surprise me. It did not.
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee are out in open water skipping past 10,000 islands towards Chokoloskee. It's almost sunrise, a few degrees above the dew point, and a only enough wind for 1.8 knots. They've been on the water since before 9 am yesterday with only one stop on the beach on Marco Island for under an hour. I got an OK message and a text: "Need water."
I guess they really wanted to be sure they don't miss office hours at the ranger station. I hope they'll make it riding the high tide this afternoon. — Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee seemed to be heading for Picnic Key when the tracker satellites thinned out and stopped updating like they did this time yesterday. I think they are likely resting at the campground now. — Beachton
(Last night around 1 am I got an error on the SPOT shared page that the website exceeded their allocation of maps from Google for the day. Doh! I figured it would renew at midnight PST and it did.)
JibeTurkey
Member
I got a call from JibeTurkey just now from checkpoint 2. He and AhMaChamee both checked in a few hours ago after stopping for camping permits. He said he is very tired after being awake for 36 hours. I said he sounded surprisingly normal. He allowed he may have gotten a second wind after having a good lunch at the Cuban restaurant.
"But I was incoherent this morning," he said. " I thought I was going backwards. Bryan caught up to me and convinced me I was going forward."
"Harry look at the GPS! We're going 3 mph!" Bryan said.
"Yeah, 3 mph BACKWARDS!" argued Harry.
"Harry, there's no current, it's fine! You're hallucinating!" explained Bryan.
"So I just concentrated on two points on the shore and convinced myself that I was going forwards," Harry said. "Bryan and I just have to look out for each other."
It sounds like a solid plan. Between two of them operating on about half a brain each they add up to one lucid individual.
I asked if it could be caffeine withdrawal hallucinations but he said he made coffee on the beach at Marco around midnight last night and sipped out of his thermos all night. That makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing.
They are heading out of Chokoloskee now to try to get to a camping spot. "Hope we make it," Harry said flatly.
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee have landed on Pavilion Key to camp after about 40 hours without sleep. Custom OK message at 9:41. I bet that beach feels like sand by Sealy Posturepedic.
DivesWithKraken and WyomingWolf are there too, OK button at 10:04 on the tracker.
I think in his current state my brother may understand how manatees were imagined as mermaids. After moving in the boat for so long being still must be disconcerting. Will he have a dream that the island picks up and crawls away like a giant snail in a Doctor Doolittle book? Am I the only one who has that dream?
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee set out from Pavilion Key around 10 am. DivesWithKraken and WyomingWolf left several hours earlier in their Hobie TI. Currently the tracks for the bufflehead and the TI both show 3.47 knots. AhMaChamee in his AI doesn't have a track so I can't see his speed. The wind forecast showed higher velocity farther south but it doesn't seem to be significant. Is the TI longer than the AI? Would it be faster or not so much with increased load?
Beachton — Vexed by Vectors
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey seems to be taking a break on the beach at Plover Key.
I want to thank the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the high resolution aerial photography served up by Google Earth. I can see the ripples in the sand bar off the beach. And I'm grateful to the space program for building rockets and satellites so I can see exactly where my brother is at a precise time. I love that technology has allowed me to become a full time vicarious observer of adventure and accomplishment. I think I'll go paint the roof of my shed with a thank you note.
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
Going by an erratic SPOT track I think JibeTurkey got up on the mud bank in front of Graveyard Creek. He backed up and went around. Hope he waved AhMaChamee off before he hit it too. I heard Bryan has already had his share of Everglades mud banks in years past.
Not sure if the guys are going to stop on Cape Sable for a bit of a campout or keep going. Low tide at midnight, they may be dragging their boats a long way to dry land.
— Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee stopped around midnight on a little island at the mouth of Shark River in Ponce de Léon bay. It was low tide. They rested and probably made coffee then set out again around 4 am up the next river to the south when there was more water over the mud. They are currently moving behind Cape Sable in Whitewater Bay. Looks like they're probably sailing slowly, not paddling. Wonder where they'll be when this afternoon's predicted thunderstorm comes?
Beachton
JibeTurkey
Member
JibeTurkey and AhMaChamee have entered Coot Bay! Nearly to Flamingo Canal. Will they fill up their water jugs and try to catch the 6:30 high tide? Or wait until morning. I expect this will depend on sailflow.com. Does anybody in Flamingo have Internet access now? — Beachton
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