So we haven’t crossed the Gulf of Mexico on Dragonfly (and probably won’t), but I did it twice aboard Sun Spirit, an Island Spirit 40 sailing catamaran owned by a friend, Perry Phillips. You may recognize the name from an earlier post—we saw Sun Spirit at its new home in Demopolis, AL, on our Fall 2023 trip down the Tombigbee Waterway. Blog link: Demopolis, AL, Dec 9, 2023
My initial trip across the Gulf was after Perry bought the boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands in April 2014, and I spent two weeks aboard on the delivery from St. Thomas, USVI to Mobile, AL, with a stop in Key West, FL. The first leg was a pleasant eight-day, 1,200-mile tradewind run in perfect weather up the Old Bahama Channel, passing Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba to port. The 580-mile voyage across the Gulf from Key West to Mobile was more challenging, with frequent headwinds, bigger seas, and multiple engine issues, although Perry quickly responded to every breakdown with ingenuity and skill and got us going again. Fortunately, we were able to keep moving under sail power while engine repairs were happening. Despite these challenges, this voyage was memorable because of an amazing encounter—a large pod of spotted dolphins swam alongside our vessel for about half an hour, dazzling us with their beauty and grace (see video clip).
The second passage aboard Sun Spirit was a 670-mile, five-day voyage in January 2019 from Mobile to Miami, where Perry planned to live and work for the winter and spring. We timed our departure perfectly after a cold front came through Mobile, and had a steady northwest wind at our backs with following seas for the entire run. There were no engine troubles on this voyage, but twice we fouled a propellor on crab pot lines in Florida Bay (between the Everglades and Keys) while transiting at dusk. It is illegal to place traps in the navigation channel, but fisherman do it anyway. Both instances required sending someone over the side with a knife to clear the snag. We also had good luck fishing and enjoyed a couple of outstanding grilled tuna dinners.
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| (L to R: Gerry Shimek, Perry Phillips, Tony Green, Owen Hays) |
I’m posting this to document the completion of the Gulf portion of the Great Loop route, mainly because we likely won’t take Dragonfly back to Carabelle in the panhandle and then head down the west coast of Florida. There's no rule that says the Loop must be completed on a single vessel, and switching boats for part of the trip is not unheard of. And while many Loopers do a single overnight passage on part of the Gulf, few cross the entire body of water in one shot, adding a little uniqueness to our Loop.
We’re not too upset about missing the ports of western Florida, as we’ve been there before, and we’ll avoid the time and expense of a trailer trip down to Florida and back, and avoid cruising in a region where dockage is scarce and 3-4x the cost of what we’re used to. We were looking forward to seeing Florida’s Big Bend region, especially Steinhatchee and Crystal River, and we may get there someday. Many Loopers miss these towns, and nobody stops at every possible place on the Loop anyways. That’s one reason why so many choose to go around again, and maybe we will too.
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