Regatta del Sol al Sol as told by Jake Dye

IYC Sailors took on the Gulf of Mexico while competing in the 45th Annual Regata del Sol al Sol.  The regatta is an open-ocean sailboat race from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  IYC member Captain Jay Nadelson and crew members Al Alexander, Skip Mansfield, Don McAlpine and Jake Dye prepared for the race aboard Playmobil, Jay’s C&C 110, by competing in several local races and by a practice overnight sail from Punta Gorda to St. Petersburg.  

The 443 nautical mile race, scheduled to start at 1000hrs, Friday, April 26th, didn’t actually get underway until after noon as calm winds covered the Tampa Bay start.  Shortly after the start, the winds began to build and stayed strong throughout the race, reaching 30 knots at times.  Though we estimated it would take as long a four days to complete the race, we actually completed it in 77 hours.  We averaged 5.73 knots and saw boat speeds of over 13 knots at times.  Of the 26 boats that started, Playmobil crossed the finish line tenth and had a handicap corrected finish place of 17th.  We took the 3d place trophy in the Spinnaker Division, as well as the “Humanitarian Trophy” for helping another racing yacht one night when they lost their mast in high winds and heavy seas.

Currents from the ever-changing gulfstream loop are a major factor, and finding just the right place to cross them is key to a winning time.  Though we thought we had the perfect course, we had to battle currents as high as 4 knots on several occasions.  With winds consistently between 15-25 knots, the seas built as high as 12 feet and had steep troughs in the gulfstream, but Playmobil didn’t mind it and the crew eventually got used to the conditions, even at night.  We learned during our training that meals would have to be eaten with one hand or from a bowl.  We knew from the start that this would be a demanding race, not a fun cruise!

Each of the 25 participating yachts carried a “YellowBrick” satellite tracking device, which allowed anyone on land to follow the progress of each boat and to get real-time weather and performance data.  The race, jointly sponsored by the St. Petersburg Yacht club and Club de Yates de Isla Mujeres finished across a line established by a Mexican Navy gunboat, with each racing yacht escorted into the marina by a Navy tender.

  

After a few days of exploring the island, catching up on sleep and sampling some outstanding Mexican food, we headed home, starting out in 25 knots of wind, which, unfortunately, became light and variable, and even calm at times.  We finished our trip back in 86 hours, which included a boarding by US Customs and Border Protection.  Our adherence to strict safety practices, good training and a sturdy boat combined to make the experience free of injuries and damage.   Would we do it again?  Absolutely, but we have a bunch of sleep to catch up on, first!

Regatta del Sol, The Beginning

The race begins on Friday, April 26 from St. Petersburg, Florida.  By water, from my house it is 96 miles.  I decided that in order to bring the boat up, we should do a night sail to do some team building with the crew and to shake down the boat to see if all of the safety changes done over the last year work as expected.  We left Sunday evening, planning on arriving Monday morning so we could make any repairs if any were needed.

We left the dock at 3:45 PM and motor sailed to Boca Grande.  We got there at just about 7 PM as expected.  We put a double reef in the main before we went through Squash Cut which s a very narrow unmarked passage by Boca Grande that would take an hour off of our trip.

We settled into our watches with Jake Dye and I on the first watch and Al Alexander and Don McAlpine taking the next.  The wind was pretty much on the nose and we motor sailed with the jib rolled up for the 1st two hours.  The waves we against us and we pounded quite a bit.  The last hour of our watch, the wind clocked around and we unrolled the jib, cut the engine and sailed along quite nicely until we passed along the helm to the next watch.

The winds kept building up to about 20 kits during the night and continued to clock around.  Don and Al decided to roll up the jib.  There appeared to be some sort of snafu and the jib sheets got mixed up with the sail and it would not come in.  Jake and I came to the deck to help out.  Did I mention that it was pouring rain and that there was lightening all around.  It seemed to take hours but I am sure it was less, but at around 12:30 AM we got it all sorted out and the rest of the sail was uneventful into St. Pete.

We did find that the gas line that connected the new propane

Some pictures that have not been previously posted.



Spinnaker Flying for the 1st Time



Sunset Leaving Key West

Our run down to Key West from Ft. Lauderdale was memorable for a few reasons.  We flew the chute for the first time on the trip and it was a thing of beauty.  The set went smoothly and the drop was nice for the skipper since the sail did not touch the water.  For those of you with interest, it was set with both sheets and guys on both clews.  We did not jibe the spinnaker so perhaps the effort was wasted. 





Richard getting ready to set the chute

Also on the way down to the Keys, we were 'approached' by the US Border Patrol and Homeland Security team on the water.  A speedboat manned by 4 armed officers came up behind us on the port side.  I was in the galley frying some onions to eat with the steaks we were about to put on the grill.  Richard called me up and I was asked "Where are you headed?"  Key West, I replied.  "Where are you coming from?"  Bear, Delaware, I replied.  This brought some oohs and aahs from the crew on the speedboat.  "What was your last port of call?  Ft. Lauderdale, I responded.  With all of the answers satisfactorily answered, he said "dinner smells great" and they were off.






Key West Limo Ride

Night life in Key West consisted of retracing the steps of Ernest Hemmingway and Jimmy Buffet.  We were in Margaritaville and we made sure that Key West lived up to its name.













A note from Key West

When we were in Key West, there was a neighbor on the dock, Scotty.  He was a hairdresser living on a sailboat at the marina living his dream.  He was king of Karaoke in Sarasota, he said.  Very friendly and glad to meet us.  Richard was headed off to get some beer and Scotty insisted that he take his cooler.  Then we couldn't return it.  It was a permanent gift.  We wanted to pitch it, but Richard made it into a keepsake that will live with us forever.  Note dates, destinations and the route traveled. 

Back in Punta Gorda

We got into Punta Gorda last night at 8:30 PM.  So much for having an easy day back.  We left Ft. Myers at 8:30 and I decided that it would be more fun to be in the Gulf that in the ICW for the remainder of the trip.  As a result, we had to go south for over an hour to clear Sanibel Island.  It was past noon when we got back the same lattitude that we started the morning at.  Then we had nice weather and a great sail up to Boca Grande.  We didn't pass through the inlet until 4:30 PM and right at that point it was mile 1500 on the trip odometer.

I will collect all of the pictures and post them over the course of the weekend.

Playmobil finally at home in Punta Gorda

Ft. Myers

We stopped in Marco Island this morning I decided that Marco to PGI was too much of a push. We decided to make for Ft Myers. We are in Ft. Myers now. Tomorrow to PGI.

Marco Island

We left Key West yesterday but made a wrong turn when trying to find the channel North. This cost us a few hours but we cleared the northernmost portion of the Channel around 5 PM. 13 hours later we are about an hour from the inlet to Marco Island. We will stay here for a day before the final run to Punta Gorda tomorrow.