SOME OF THE DETAILS
i left wed at 1115, but i woke up that morning at 0300. I had stuff to do before i left, and was too excited/nervous to sleep. Stowed all the gear, got a bildge pump to work, added a switch, and then got out the roller furrled jib. Never used a roller furler. Uncoverred the mainsail, fired up the 8hp outboard, slipped the lines, woohoo, this is it. The forcast was for ENE winds at 5-10, temp 72 for a high. The wind actually cam from the NW at about 3-5k. So i motored, but hoisted the main and unfurrled the jib anyway. Or nearly unfurrled the jib, it has a suncover that is deteriorated and ended up having it wraped around the upper shroud. I said "F" it and put the furrling line on the winch and tore it free. Never been in tampa bay before-wow, the chnnel is like 100 yards wide. There are huge ships comming and going. I recall glancing the path ahead-thinking to cut a straight line to the skyway, the chart showed deep water-but there is an island there. That was no island, it was a huge ship. Got to the skyway at 1715. Got to sail the last little bit as the wind picked up to 10k. It was starting to get dark so i dropped anchor behind mullet key(i think), and started trying to fix running lights. Pulled switch panel and attatched post wire from battery. then went into bilge area and attached ground to buss bar, almost got stuck. GGot caught on a screw with my shirt on my back (wonder how long it would be before someone found me?) Nothing on panel worked. So decided to find individual wires and that worked. Raised the main, started the motor and dam near could'nt get the anchor up-it is sooo heavy. Winds had picked up and fron the ENE, so motor sailed to the open water and shut of the motor. Was utterly beautiful! Almost full moon overhead, warm breeze, mostly smooth sea, large ships all lit up in the distance, the thousands of shore lights, awesume! The boat sailed herself at a perfect heading NW. never touched the tiller until 0500. She does seem to have a fair amount of leeway though. Hopefully when the bottom is clean it will improve. At one point there were 10-20 dolphins around me, going in and out of the moonglow off the water, they were with me for about 30 min.WOW. Fatigue started getting me at about 0530 (come on sunrise) Had trouble keeping my eyes open. Throughout the night the boat did 2-3.5k. Not bad for free miles. I had 11 gal of gas and used 5 to get to the skyway. At the last 2-3 hours i had had enough. Kept hearring marine radio-when it was off, eye strain was getting me, and i did'nt recognise my home port. Knew it was it, but was;nt sure. No i'm not under 40yo. Be 48 in Jan. Determined and broke. Coud'nt afford to stop and pay slip fees. Thanks for everything. Can't give DR, all i got from gps was heading and speed. Could'nt figure it out-did'nt have the manual. Thanks, Patrick
