The Captain's Post #8 - Roatan, Honduras to Jupiter, Florida…The Preparation, The Departure, The Devastating News, The Arrival

Post by Larry McCullough

Roatan was a great place to wait out developments of the virus, the people were very nice, nobody on the Island was reported sick, we had a nice place to tie up, but it was time to leave. We were there for about 6 weeks and the monotony and smoke were getting to me. Like so many Central and South American countries the fields are burned for the next planting season. On top of that, the jungles are burned in the Dry Season to make way for fields to plant. We were over 30 miles offshore and the smoke was so thick you could taste it.

I had been watching the weather reports, especially on Windy.com, a great site. Despite what the locals said, it was always windy on Roatan. The locals told us April was a very calm month to the point people did not like it without the wind. Just our luck the wind would not stop, with wind you get waves, with waves you get…

While waiting in Roatan I looked at several different routes that we could take. When looking at currents and the map it would seem the best way to proceed would be to head north west from Roatan to the coast of Belize. Unfortunately, this route had waves that were substantially higher and it would add a few more miles, but not many. The route we choose and plotted into our Furuno navigation system, took us east from Barefoot Cay, by another Bay Island and then a direct shot north, 15 miles off the western point of Cuba and then, while maintaining that 15 miles off of Cuba, a direct line to Key West, totaling 730 miles.

After several weeks with the urge to leave and no weather window, we were finally getting a spot that looked ok. The forecast would change and then close but finally we got one for a departure date of Wednesday the 29th of April, and yes of course it was windy off Roatan, and as you know, with wind you get waves. Windy.com said they would be 3-foot waves every 3 seconds. Then the forecast changed to 4 footers every 4 seconds with 17 to 18 knot winds. Three- or four-foot waves might not sound like much, and to Independence they are not, they are just uncomfortable when the wave height and the seconds apart are the same or less. It is like a bam, bam, bam as opposed to a nice drive down a rolling country road. This forecast was for the first 50 miles and then once we got further north and east the waves would be smaller and the seconds in between the waves would get larger.

Estimated arrival times at mileage marks with wave height & directions & the boats estimated mph

Weeks prior to departure we filled up the fuel tank to over 1,100 gallons of diesel. I had changed the oil, drained the Racor fuel filters, cleaned the bottom of the boat, etc., we were ready to go, itching to go. At first light, 5 AM local time, we untied the boat and we were off. The channel leading out of the harbor is a little tricky, but we had a “track” on our navigational plotter from when we came in. I had also gone out through the channel in our dingy a few times to get a feel for the channel. When we made the final turn out of the channel the waves hit us immediately since they were coming from the east, the direction we were headed.

Another thing about wave height, and another good thing about Windy.com, the forecast might say, for example “3 foot waves from the east” then you can also click on “Swell” which has three different choices because many times you have swells coming from different directions. When we left, we had a forecast of “Wind Waves 4 feet every 4 seconds, Swell height 2 feet every 6 seconds”. Therefore, we would sometimes get the Wind Wave on top of the Swell Wave for a combined wave of 6 feet. Another thing about forecasters, they are kind of like politicians, there is always more to the story, that being “Significant Wave Height”. “Significant Wave Height is the average of the one-third highest waves thus half the waves will be bigger, and half will be smaller”. Well I don’t know about the smaller, but I do know they WILL be bigger.

Big waves leaving Roatan early in the morning

We were ready though, we slept well it was early in the day, bring it on. We were heading directly into the waves and sometimes the back side of the wave would be very steep, therefore I had to be like a “throttle man” in an ocean racer, if I saw the wave with a steep drop I would pull back on the throttles and turn the boat a bit south so the boat would just not drop off the wave into the trough. This lasted about three hours until we made our turn north to go in between Roatan and Guanaja where we received some protection from swell and wind.

Playing the throttle so the nose doesn’t get buried in the waves

As the day went on and we headed further north east the swells became farther apart but we also picked up a northerly swell to join the easterly swell.

As evening came the wind waves calmed down and the swells were farther apart, it was turning into a beautiful night. It was warm and the stars were out so we decided to navigate the boat from the flybridge. We grabbed some pillows and a sleeping bag and took turns at the helm and taking naps. What a beautiful night it was. I genuinely enjoyed my time at the helm. We were on a direct heading north and there was the Big Dipper pointing to the North Star guiding us to the point off of Cuba (ok the Furuno GPS system was actually doing the work). At one point I saw a big fire ball come out of the sky and it looked like it made its way to the ocean. At 3 AM I saw a flashing light in the sky, the first plane I had seen in the sky for a month, probably heading south to some Central American City I thought. It then turned east, moving fast and low, then turned north, back south again towards us, then east. Thirty minutes later it appeared again. A US reconnaissance plane, probably looking for boats bringing drugs, I thought we will be boarded by the Coast Guard when we are close to Key West.

Dan Hennessey on a mountain bike ride at Lake Tahoe 2010

The sun rose to a great day, lite wind, small swells, coffee.
It was such a nice day, then some terrible news. We have a Garmin InReach which is a satellite tracking-navigational-messaging device that sends our location to a satellite every 10 minutes so we can be tracked by family and friends. You can also send text messages back and forth. A friend, Steve “Gumby” Grant was kind enough to watch our progress and let us know of any forecast changes. Steve made the passage earlier with us from Key West to Isla Mujeres. Early on the morning of the 30th I get a text “Dan H crashed on bike. Does not look good. When you get to KW call. Weather / Route look good”. This could not wait until Key West. I texted Steve right away for details but with the satellite delays it was very frustrating. We soon learned that Dan had passed away on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, doing what he loved doing, Mountain Biking with his buddies. Dan was one of my best friends. I am not exaggerating when I say that 50, maybe 100 people, have said “Dan was one of my best friends” he was loved by everybody. He was that kind of a guy. You wanted to be around him, funny, witty, lovable. When he would come into a room you would want to go up to him, not so that you could hear him, you could hear him from a mile away, he was loud and oh how he could laugh, with a big smile. I will miss you Danny.

When your out in the middle of nowhere the sea & clouds are all you have to look at

The day went on, life went on, with a big void that will always be there. The weather and seas had been great all day as we passed the western tip of Cuba. We went about another 15 to 20 miles north to stay out of Cuban waters and the waves started to increase. We had planned to stay 15 miles off the coast of Cuba and head north east, aligned with the coast. We choose this route instead of going farther north and catching the Gulf Stream current because winds and waves were forecasted to build and move south the next day. Well the forecast was off by about 12 hours and we found ourselves in some good size seas, rain showers and clouds blocking the moon and starlight. It made for a tough night, diet cokes and M&M’s. Sleep was hard to come by and when you finally felt like you were getting some deep sleep it was time to take the helm. Sunrise was a welcome sight, now we could see the wave that was about to greet us and align the boat a little better. This was the first time I had changed our course or took us off autopilot since Roatan.

Early afternoon on Friday the seas started to settle down and it was turning into a nice day. We started to see many ships, oil tankers that were making their way to Houston to pick up some cheap oil. We also had the “Dole Ecuador” off our stern, a banana boat on the way to some US port. An uneventful day, which was fine. The boat was running great and had gotten covered in salt, salt everywhere from the waves the previous night.

The fatigue was starting to add up. We had never planned on doing long passages with just the two of us, but we had no choice. All the countries in Central America had now been shut down, friends could not join us. We had to suck it up, Jamie did a great job on her helm watches, allowing me to relax and get some sleep. Naps during the day were now essential. In my planning I had thought we would arrive at Key West Channel around mid-night. The rougher than anticipated weather delayed us a few hours. We debated about slowing down and trying to time our arrival at first light but decided to go for it.

We arrived at the Key West Light (the beginning of the channel to get past the reefs) at 2 AM Saturday. For a town that was shut down there were many lights, making for a confusing entrance, that is why you have to trust your instruments and trust those big beautiful screens that show the buoys marking the channel. Once we got in the harbor, we needed a place to drop anchor since we were not allowed to tie up at a dock or get off the boat. We found a small area just off the channel across from downtown Key West. We could not deploy much chain scope due to other boats being so close. We have “Anchor Watch” which tells us if our boat drifts out of a certain yardage area, I turned that on, grab some sleep on the couch next to the instruments and woke to the sun blaring in at 7:30. Along with the sun boats were cruising by and coming within twenty feet doing 30 plus MPH! #&@$#&!

While drinking coffee trying to wake up and clear the fog out of my mind, I notice a Homeland Security Boat off to our side. We had not checked in yet and I thought for sure we were going to get scolded and boarded. But no, they kept going. Then a Coast Guard boat, within twenty feet, here comes the boarding I thought, nope. At around 10AM I used my US Customs and Border Protection “ROAM” app that allowed me to input all the information about the boat, where we had been, and who was on board. Within 15 minutes our arrival had been approved.

No reason to hang around Key West, especially the way the speed boats were coming so close to us. On Sunday we pulled anchor early and went to Marathon where we took on 200 gallons of diesel, told we had to stay on the boat because the Keys were still closed, then anchored just outside the harbor. Monday morning at first light we headed out into the Gulf Stream for a 110-mile ride to Key Biscayne where we anchored with the Miami skyline close by. Tuesday it was 86 miles to Jupiter where we have signed a lease for six months.

The trip from Roatan to Jupiter was 804 Nautical miles or 925 Statute miles. The engine hours were 84 and the fuel burned was approximately 900 gallons which included running the generator 44 hours.

Sunset from our anchorage in Key West, FL

Lighthouse entering Biscayne Bay, Miami, FL

Transiting the channel to the Miami waterfront

A fellow Nordhavn…this is most likely a 57 foot trawler

One of the last cruise ships anchored out in front of Miami…evidently, there were about 8 or 10 a few weeks ago

Entering the West Palm Beach inlet…back to the land of the Mega-Yacht

Best part about returning to the Bluffs Marina at Jupiter is that our friends Eric and Patty (of boat Congrio) are here too. Thank you for helping us dock and especially for helping us celebrate Cinco de Mayo