Hobies to Cruising
From Two Perspectives, His and Hers
From Sue & Bob Mimlitch
Written in the spring of 2000 for the North American Hobie Class Association News (NAHCA News)
By way of introduction, we are Hobie sailors from Fleet 23, NAHCA Division 14. We have been sailing Hobies for fifteen years and have been active at the Fleet, Division, and NAHCA levels. We hosted Hobie University in Dallas for eight years and were the coordinators of the 1998 Hobie 14 & 20 Continental Championships at Lake Texoma.
Sue and I started sailing various small boats, but it didn’t really take shape until we started sailing Hobies and met the Hobie crowd. Fast boats, great friends; the Hobie life. These friends invited Sue and I to join them (eleven other couples) on three chartered 42’ catamarans in the British Virgin Islands. We jumped at the chance, but the trip was nine months off, how to prepare? Do our Hobie friends really know anything about operating and docking big boats? We felt that we needed to know something about big boats ourselves, so we took the US Sailing certification courses. We went to the BVI and had a ball. The best vacation ever! To make a long (but fun) story short, this led to sailing a lot of big sailboats in the US, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. We are not the only Hobie sailor learning that sailing big (slow) boats can be fun. In the last year over 15 Hobie couples from the Texas and Oklahoma area have chartered big boats in the Keys, the BVI, and Belize. More trips are being planned. It is catching!
We caught the big boat and cruising bug, but we weren’t ready to give up Hobie racing and our Hobie friends. So here is our plan, race Hobies during hurricane season and cruise the other half of the year. Hobie friends plan to fly in and join us in our different cruising destinations and sail with us for a week or so.
We started our preparations for cruising about five years ago by reading everything that we could get our hands on. Books covered the cruising boat, it’s equipment, provisions, training, and you name it. We set a price range that we felt we could afford and started looking at boats. Well, this is a whole other story; suffice it to say we found our boat; a Caliber 33, already equipped for cruising.
Sue and I recently retired and the adventure has begun. After years of planning and preparation, we cast off on our shakedown cruise. The plan is to sail and motor our way east in the Intracostal Waterway across Texas and Louisiana. Then sail across the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay. Another short trip on the Inter-Costal Waterway to Pensacola, then off shore to Panama City, Apalachicola, and on to Tarpon Springs, and visit my mother near Tampa Bay, then down Florida’s west coast and on to the Dry Tortugas and Key West, up the Keys and then jump off for the Bahamas. This takes us to hurricane season and time to return home and race Hobies.
By the time we finish this shakedown cruise, we hope to have decided where the next adventure will take us. Will it be further down the Bahama chain and on to the Leeward Islands, or across the Gulf of Mexico and down to Belize?
Bob is right. We studied everything we could think of for the trip. If I had to get ready all over again, I would learn knots better. You need to know them in tight situations, and you need to know them quickly.
I also read a lot about provisioning. Worried about it, and decided to do my own thing. Provisioning books said to plan menus and then make your shopping list from that. That is not how I cook. I like to see what I have and then make something out of it. So that is what I did. I bought lots of everything, and then decided what we will have each day. This seems to be working for us. I have lots of frozen chicken breasts, different canned meats, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, wine, soy sauce, spices, and soups. I can work with this.
The Intracoastal Waterway is a series of lakes, bays and other natural waterways, all connected by canals. The Intracoastal stretches from the southern tip of Texas, across the gulf coast, around Florida and up the east coast. Because they are narrow and winding, they provide little opportunity to sail. The Intracoastal is the preferred route across Texas and Louisiana due to the hazards presented by all the offshore oilrigs. Traveling along the Intracoastal waterway reminds me of the days of the wagon trains. We plod along at 5 or 6 knots for hour after hour. The scenery changes slowly. Every evening we try to find some place to bed down (anchor) for the night.
I like watching the scenery. Thought I would do some reading along the way but have not. I don’t want to miss anything. Seems like I am always busy. We share in the steering of the boat. Both of us use the autohelm a fair amount in the straight stretches where there is no traffic. I have learned a good bit about reading the paper charts, working and reading the chart plotter, and understanding what the radar is telling me. Bob was a navigator in the Air Force, so all this come naturally to him. All of it is new to me. A good challenge.
Part of the trip reminded me of Tom Sawyer as we came down the Mississippi, dodging logs, timbers and whole trees. No, we didn’t see any houses floating by; but the great ships passing make you feel like an ant in an elephant herd. Maneuvering among these giants in tight quarters can be a real white knuckle ride.
The towboats with barges are major. These towboats are pushing anywhere from 1 to 6 barges, loaded with coal, fuel, or grain. Maneuvering these barges seems to be quite an art what with the currents, winds, etc. The captains of the towboats are fun to talk to. I am in charge of calling the tows to work out maneuvering, calling bridges to get them to open up for us, and calling the locks to arrange locking through. I enjoy this. One tow driver told me he had a 42’ Island Packet sailboat back in Clearlake, Texas. Small world.
Leaving the eastern tip of Louisiana and heading for Biloxi, Mississippi, we entered an area of the Gulf of Mexico known as the Mississippi Sound. The forecast was for 5 knots from the east switching to the southeast by afternoon. The wind built to 20 knots out of the east northeast. Due to the wind, the waves built to two, then three and then four feet; and the current started to flow. Our course took us directly into the wind, the waves and the current. Our speed over the ground was averaging only 2 to 3 knots, but when hit by a set of steep waves, our speed over ground went to zero. We shortened our plan for the day and put into Gulfport Mississippi to wait for better conditions. We will be here for a couple of days as the winds are currently running 35 knots.
This area is a lot more open than the Intracoastal area in Louisiana. Course we were actually in the Gulf of Mexico. The radar came in handy here, as visibility was very poor. We came into a really nice marina in Gulfport. Glad we did as last night the winds were up to 35 knots or better. It was quite a storm. The Harbormaster here is quite friendly and each morning brings us a newspaper and fresh pastries. Also took me to do laundry and to get groceries. This area is quite pretty and I expect quite popular in the summer.
We are off again tomorrow, 17 Mar for Mobile Bay and Dauphin Island.
We will send up updates from Windancer as the adventure unfolds.
That’s all for now,
Sue & Bob Mimlitch