The first three days on the gulf turned in to one very long day. When we looked at the forecast, nov 25 and 26 showed some wind and lighter seas and the 27 and 28 would be bit roughter and getting better the father south we could get. The weather man was very wrong. Mobile Bay was rough and we thought it would get better as we got on the gulf. Nope it did not and by that time it was too late to get back to the marina before dark.
We started towing both kyaks behind the boat. About half way out of the bay one had rolled over and was filling with water. We got both of them on the deck of the boat and they stayed there till we got to Caye Caulker. Around middle of the first day I had some sandwiches for both of us that would be last real meal for 4 days. After we got out of the channel, going in the the bay, we set sail, reeling down both sails. Some time after that I started to get sick and lost everything. I tried to eat or drink. For the next 3 days I was able to drink about 1 can of giner ale, nothing more. Dave did fair a bit better and snacked on raisins, water, and few other things. I spent most of my time face down on the floor of the boat. I only got up if I had to help Dave.
As we got into the 2nd day, the wind and waves kept building. As best as we could tell, 20' plus sea wind to about 35knots and higher gusts. Water was coming it to the boat from every where. The fore desk would flood with 3 plus inches of water and soaked every thing i had. Luckily my laptop and phone faired pretty good. The camera button does not work any more. One of my flash lights along with mouse, small inverter, 12 plug for my phone are junk now.
Most of the time the boat was healed over about 20-30 degrees. 40 was not uncommon and a few times we got around 45 deg. Somewhere during this time we saw that one of the small 1/8" flag lines going to the top of the mast had fowled in the the main sail and we could not bring the sail down. Also another line was in the jib so it would not come down. That one we did get loose later. With the wind and waves there was no way to get up and cut the main sail down. Sometime in the middle of the 2nd night one of the jib lines broke and we had to get a new line to put on it. Things stayed this way for the next day or so, losing a 2nd jib line on the 3rd night. During this whole time we may have gotten a few hours total of sleep each. Had the weather foercast been near what it actually was, Dave and I would have waited 4 days before leaving Mobile.
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