Kim Jo IV: May 23 through 25, 2014

Sunday, May 25, 2014

May 23 through 25, 2014

5-23 and 24, Friday and Saturday, Gulf of Mexico crossing:

We got going about 11:00 from Clearwater, FL. All the wind and wave reports were for calm seas with 1 foot waves but right away the seas were 3 to 4 feet with 10 to 15 knot winds with occasional 5' footer and only 3 seconds between waves. This kept up until about 03:00 on Saturday morning; it was a long day and night. We are kind of getting use to high seas as we have had them so much lately. Anyway, we made it safe and sound.

Early on, about 13:00, we kept hearing transmission on Channel 16 from the Coast Guard and Tow Boat US. First we heard that a boat had capsized and sunk and there was one person in the water with only a hand held radio and he didn’t know his GPS location. Then we heard the person had been attacked by a Bull Shark and he was bleeding; and then we heard he had lost his right leg from the knee down. There were several boats involved in the search and a helicopter but they couldn’t find him. About an hour or so later they called the search off after finding out it was a hoax! Unbelievable someone would do such a thing. It was a busy day and the start to the holiday weekend. We heard several more calls for the Coast Guard and all we think were legitimate. One 51 year old woman was missing after kayaking and they were still looking for her late into the night; we don’t know if she was found or not. Another person was in the water after their jet ski sunk but the person was saved, and the last one we heard was on Saturday morning and their boat was taking on water and that was all we heard. These were just the ones we heard; I am sure there were more. Crazy things happen on the water especially on a holiday weekend and the Coast Guard and Tow Boat US are kept very busy.

We got across the Gulf as far as Dog Island, just outside of Carrabelle, FL, by 06:30. We were traveling about 10 mph most of the time but had to slow down some so we had day light by the time we got to Carrabelle. From there we picked up the GIWW and kept going as far as Port St. Joe Marina on the Gulf, just 5 miles off the GIWW at about Mile 330.0. We arrived at the Marina by 13:00 after putting 26 hours on the engines and traveling 245 miles. We were both very tired and got about 3 hours of sleep before going out to eat at Dockside Restaurant here at the marina. We asked our waiter if we were in Central Time Zone yet and he said the Marina is still in Eastern Time Zone but where he lives is right on the border between both zones. He can actually hold his cell phone in one hand and get one zone and hold it in the other and get the second time zone. He said when he first started working at the restaurant he was an hour early because he evidently had his phone in the wrong hand! After dinner it was an early to bed for a good nights sleep. We will stay at Port St. Joe until Monday AM before traveling on.

N29.81439
W85.31007

CO's comments: After we docked at Port St. Joe I talked to a couple of sport fishermen and they said that the wind and wave forecasts have been way off for the last month. He also said he never knew what to expect. I think weather men today rely too much on technology and not enough on the old fashion art of weather forecasting. As a professional pilot, they got it right more times in the 70's and 80's than they did in the 90's plus when all the new technology came out.