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 From Venice to Pensacola		  New Topic  Topic Locked
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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts
Initially Posted - 06/06/2004 :  22:01:51  Show Profile
Just returned from a short Gulf of Mexico trip helping deliver the 50' Prout Catamaran from Venice, LA to Pensacola Naval Station. The skipper and I had planned to leave Venice about 8 a.m. We went up to the office to pay the docking charges and happened to notice the weather channel on TV - it showed we were in a tornado watch until noon!! (And good old NOAA was still forecasting "scattered showers and an occasional T'storm" ). So we hung out down below until 2p.m. when skies were blue and the sun shining! Pulled away from the dock at 2.30 and motored out of Venice marina, across the mighty Mississippi and into the Baptiste Collette Pass. At 4.15p.m. we cleared the Pass and entered the Gulf of Mexico - and absolutely no wind! Changed course and headed for Buoy NO (marking the entrance to the Mobile Safety Fairway)which we reached at 7.10 p.m. However, at 5p.m. the stbd engine had decided to quit...fuel filter and algae filter completely clogged. Finally got the problem solved and the engine up again a couple of hours later. (But with only one engine, running at one corner of a 20' beam boat, it had been tough to maintain a decent heading!)
At 3.00 a.m. the next morning we entered the Safety Fairway that crossed ours coming out of some AL city , and started worrying about cross traffic - only there wasn't any! We left that Fairway after 25 mins and turned into the Pensacola Fairway - now we had a great deal of "fun" dodging the working shrimp boats (who have seldom been known to hold a steady course!). Shortly thereafter we were also overrun by a violent T'storm sweeping off the land - the wind went from zero to thirty with driving rain for the next hour and then gradually stopping. Our hopes of sailing after the storm passed disappeared at the same time as the wind...bummer!
We finally entered the Pensacola Naval Station channel (heading up into Pensacola Bay) found the very narrow marina entrance with difficulty - even though we had it logged into the GPS! - ran a slalom course through the day markers into the marina and were tied up at the dock at 2.17 pm.
Total time 23 hrs, 47 mins, distance 141 n.m., averaging 5.89 knots.
It was indeed an interesting/boring/enjoyable trip - completely baffling as to why we saw so little commercial traffic (only one freighter) and why the Gulf was so calm - I've never seen it that quiet for so long...of course, it was better than the last trip when we saw 16' waves and 40 knot winds!
Derek
Derek Crawford
Chief Measurer C25-250 2008
Previous owner of "This Side UP"
1981 C-25 TR/FK #2262 Used to have an '89 C22 #9483, "Downsized"
San Antonio, Texas
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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.