Cruising Florida’s West Coast to the Florida Keys in an Open 17‘ Trimaran —
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly Part I of II By Bruce Matlack Cover: Bruce and Mac off Anna Maria Island at the beginning of their trip. Photo by Marty Noble
A
llen Parducci, who led me to buy one of these wonderful trimarans—the Windrider 17—sight unseen, inspired the title for this recent sailing adventure. He wrote me from his fall residence in France to let me know that he wanted a full report on my trip to Key West on my Windrider 17, Further. He wanted the whole story—the good, as well as the bad and the ugly. The name of my boat, Further, was a simple answer to anyone I met along the way who may have asked how far I was headed. I’d simply point to the name on the stern, Further. Nobody asked—there were no people. I and three other Windrider enthusiasts decided to make a run from Key West to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas last October in these 17-foot open boats. Home base was to be at Dan’s waterfront place on Stock Island adjacent to Key West. Joe would trailer down from Tampa, while Mac and I would sail the 250 miles from my place on Anna Maria Island, on the south end of Tampa Bay, and meet the other two at Key West. I’ll cover this adventure in two parts. This month will be the trip to Little Shark River on the southwest corner of the Florida peninsula. Next month, I’ll cover the trip from there to Key West and Fort Jefferson via the Marquesas Keys. My First Mistakes Having roughly paced off the total sailing distance with my fingers on a Florida road atlas, I came up with roughly 190 miles, although the thickness of my finger could add a dozen miles. It turned out to be 250 nautical miles instead. 54
February 2010
SOUTHWINDS
So mistake #1 was to use a map instead of a chart to measure distance. Mistake #2 was leaving a day and a half late, losing valuable time and favorable winds. My plan was to sail in a weather window with favorable winds, especially in a boat that has no centerboard, as going to windward is more difficult and not as efficient as many other boats. My original planned departure date had me leaving with favorable winds predicted all the way down to the Keys. I had originally planned this as a solo sail to Key West, but Mac joined with his Windrider at the 11th hour. My boat was named Further (after Ken Kesey’s famous bus of the ’60s). Mac’s unnamed trimaran should have been named “Westsail 32” for all the stuff, gadgets and gear he had onboard. I had not met Mac, who’s from upstate New York, before, but I welcomed the prospect of someone sailing with me on the trip. But my departure date was put off a couple days, making my weather window smaller. We finally headed south with a strong east-northeast wind and glassy, protected, picture-perfect water, making it into Stump Pass at Englewood for our first night—a good run of around 50 miles. Just inside the pass, we quickly set up tents on deck before sunset, but no-see-ums made life more difficult. Huge fish and dolphins thrashed around all www.southwindsmagazine.com