With my trusty navigation by Braille method, augmented by my scratch-and-dent procedures when entering or leaving checkpoints, distance offshore was not too daunting! My main fear was that I would hit something at speed in a racing catamaran and pull a Puma (sorry Joe). As the sun sank and we were 6 miles off of Sanibel I figured there was nothing out there to hit and we could see the lighthouse waaaaay out! I did not count on there being a slight breeze and several thousand floats from lobster or crab traps. I got hung up by the rudders several times in the dark. I may have been more than 25 miles offshore between Sanibel and Marco Island and as the wind picked up I was cranking! And hallucinating as I mistook Venus for a very tall masthead light. I should have stayed offshore as I did bounce off Cape Romano Shoals a dozen times before heading into Indian Key. Offshore and speed will not hurt you from Cape Haze to Indian Key as long as the sea conditions are manageable. When it got flat we just drifted leaving the sails up.
Keeping the light over your left shoulder works with a bigger boat. I have had more difficult times in a kayak! I can see where you could quickly become disoriented in a small craft. In a loooong G-Cat that won't tack I had little problem lining up a few star patterns just to the visible side of the mast and holding a course until the wind changed slightly and I would flick a light on the compass to check the heading and pick out a new set of stars. This was my night from Pavilion Key south until the wind died and we drifted in circles with all sails up and slumbered. The only light I saw all night was the light off of Pavilion Key and we say that from 7 pm until dawn so our VMG was not exceptional. I think we made 4 miles drifting. The next night we were off Flamingo and could clearly see the microwave tower but the prevailing winds from the East kept us to making only about 4 miles in 3 hours. We were so aggravated we actually got that pig of a G-Cat to tack and clocked some phenomenally idiotic speeds while making no distance toward Flamingo. Finally threw out the anchor in 8 feet of water in 2 foot waves and curled up in a soggy sleeping bag to bask in regal comfort while the salt water washed through the trampoline or over the hulls to reactivate the jellyfish stingers in my sodden shirt. Still slept however and the dawn brought fair winds and a straight shot into Flamingo.
Florida Bay was a hoot! Mucking around trying the Murray-Clive Channel. Running into shallow areas that no sane mariner would ever take a catamaran, or even a kayak into! Should have just run straight west and then to the deeper channels with the lovely flashing lights that clearly mark the route to Key Largo. But nooooo! We had to play EC Hero and muck it up in Rabbit Key Pass in the dark and spending from 7 pm to 6:30 am with the lights of the Keys off our right shoulder and no idea of which channel would get us unstuck. We did toss the anchor for the second time to avoid drifting the wrong way in the dark just in case. Dawn came and we were 90 feet from the main channel with all the reflectors on the other side of the poles so we never saw them in the dark. A very powerful flashlight would have seen us finishing wednesday night and avoided a thursday capsize and impounding of the boat. We spent wednesday, thursday, and friday in Florida Bay alone! I did not believe veteran EC finishers when they told me Florida Bay is the second half of the EC! The irony is I had pre-sailed that area many times from Manatee Key Pass and along the southwest areas for 25 miles, but I never sailed through Rabbit Key Pass because it was wide and well marked! Never assume you may skip pre-runner chores. It will bite you!
We had everything we needed to make good. A very nice Garmin 78 SC GPS, charts, many compasses, lots of batteries, but we missed the channel on one easy pass and sat on our ass for nearly 12 hours. And I dragged that miserable banana-shaped crappy piece of fiberglass through 4 passes that led to nowhere in the dark until I could not drag anymore. I must say, I did sleep well that night. No rocking for 6 hours because we were hard aground on both hulls. When you are screwed you may as well relax and enjoy it. The sun will come up the next day and you can enjoy new challenges and screw up more interesting stuff. I went snorkeling when we pitchpoled the next day, and nearly ended up in jail the day after!
Do you find this somewhat disconcerting, perhaps discouraging? Please don't! As Chief says, "never forget the prime directive. Have fun!" My first Everglades Challenge was the longest, most extensive, most intense, most expensive, and most satisfying 6 days of my entire life! Those three days in Florida Bay was the longest month of my life (what?) Time loses all meaning in the dark and dirty! The only disasters would be breaking the boat in half (no finish, no paddle), sinking, or becoming separated from your boat. The niggling stuff like hypothermia, hyperthermia, bugs, monkeybutt, cramps, pain can be overcome to some extent unless your muscles start breaking down and then it is time to push the SOS on your Spot or your PLB. Other than that is is just another delightful cruise through the tropical paradise that is Florida! I also heard we are going to have a moon in 2015! See you all on the beach!
