USCG on radio: All stations. All stations. All stations. This is United States Coast Guard Sector Key West Florida. United States Coast Guard Sector Key West Florida.

VO: The second hurricane in just 10 days was aiming straight for my boat in the marina near Tampa.

BR: I don't like the looks of this man.

Jim: Yeah, no, this is gonna be really bad.

VO: Hurricane Helene had already clobbered the marina.

And now this.

Weather Channel Lady: Threatening storm surge along the West Coast in the Tampa, Sarasota area, 10 to 15 foot.

VO: As I talk to my friend and boat neighbor Jim, both of us are hundreds of miles away from our sailboats.

BR: As of right now, the center of the track is right over the marina.

Jim: If it's anywhere near us, we're f----d.

VO: I decide to try and move my vessel.

Jim does not.

One of us will lose our sailboat in the next two days.

BR: I'm, uh, lying down in the cabin with autohelm on for a minute, trying not to throw up again.

VO: This is the story of what happened to me and my sailboat Jacie Sails during Hurricane Milton.

We've almost got used to hurricane season after 12 years of having our boat in Florida, but this year was something else entirely. Hurricane Helene destroyed the little yacht club across the parking lot from my boat and took out our marina store, power, the fuel dock and the transient dock. The bars and restaurants on the waterfront were totaled.

If we'd gotten one more foot of storm surge, all our boats probably would be stacked up in Harbor Master Denis's Yard. So when I saw the forecast track for what was to be category five Hurricane Milton heading directly for the marina, I decided I needed to do something. Because when I say sailboat, I'm not talking about a 12 foot dinghy with a Sail attached.

I'm talking about our floating second home.

Admiral: During Covid. We stayed aboard the boat for about six weeks,

VO: Me and Tanya, who I may refer to as The Admiral, had a lot of good times aboard Jacie Sails.

Admiral: We've sailed all over the southwest coast of Florida.

VO: We sailed to Cuba in 2017.

Admiral: Now that was something,

VO: And I sailed around Florida to Miami in 2019 to launch season one of this podcast.

Admiral: Remind me why you're doing this again,

VO: Which normally has a very different tone than this episode.

How Not To Sail.

Screwing up is part of Cruising. Let me show you how.

The premise of the show involves all the sailing mistakes I supposedly make and how you can avoid them. But I think the last decade and 10,000 sailing miles, most of them solo, proved that I actually have decent skills and often make the right decisions.

And when I saw the second hurricane in a fortnight bearing down on our beloved floating adventure palace, I figured we had dodged the bullet longer than we had any right to expect. As I told my friend Jim, that Sunday morning,

BR: I am, uh, getting on a plane at 2:00 PM to go to Tampa to do a 32 hour nonstop to Key West.

Jim: Okay. Well, good for you.

VO: Jim. Seems a little taken aback by my plan to motor Sail Jacie Sails directly to Key West, 200 miles away.

Jim: Well, you're more ballsy than me because I was planning to come home and ride it out in the marina.

BR: I think my plan's a lot less ballsy than trying to stay aboard.

Jim: Yeah, you wouldn't do that?

BR: S--t, no!

VO: But this is not about extreme sports or anything like that. This is about what I think is the best move given what we've just been through with Helene. And that Milton looks even worse for the marina with a hundred miles of uncertainty to either side. And I've made this trip to the keys several times, including nonstop.

Jim wishes me luck and I promise to share my location track with him.

BR: If I don't have a senior moment,

Jim: Well please do. And I think you're gonna have a hell of an adventure.

VO: Our friend Captain Bob. Bitchin says the difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude.

BR: All right. Phase one complete. We made it to Tampa,

VO: And despite a bumpy flight, which should have tipped me off to the rough weather below, I feel good to be taking decisive action.

BR: All right, now to the boat.

VO: At Gulfport Marina, just outside of St. Pete, I find things to be as messed up After Hurricane Helene as I was expecting, including a 35 foot motor vessel which has come off its lift.

BR: There is, uh, still a Sea Ray up, up the dock that is blocking the dock. So they have a ladder on each side of the swim platform of it.

Power is out.

VO: No power means a number of potential problems. One which I don't realize at the time is my battery charging system has been operating with one arm tied behind. Its back to Mango, a metaphor, and my main thought is that the dehumidifier has been off for 10 days during the wet season

BR: and the winner is uh, okay. I do not detect any, uh, mold, so that's good. Alright. And the temperature is, uh, quite nice.

VO: Thankfully the cabin is in a sauna like it would be in August, but it's plenty breezy outside.

BR: That is not the hurricane yet, but it's a different system that caused some turbulence on the way down.

Gonna have about 20, 25 knots. Getting outta here. It says,

VO: I'm optimistic that since the wind is from the east, maybe the waves won't be too bad after all. I'll be only a few miles from shore this evening and the wind will be blowing offshore instead of blowing the waves all the way from Texas or Mexico or something.

Yeah. You feel that foreshadowing too?

There's one thing you might not think of if you don't own an ocean going sailboat.

BR: How much fuel do I have?

Half tank. Okay.

VO: My nine ton sailing vessel does indeed have a three cylinder Yanmar diesel engine that I rely on, not only to get me in and out of marinas, but also when the wind is too light, too heavy blowing from the direction I'm trying to Sail toward, or when I need to make all speed possible like now.

BR: I think that'll get me at least a Venice. If I need to fuel up again, that might be a thing or Or Marco Island. I think I may be able to Sail without the motor a fair amount. 'cause we're supposed to have 20, 25 knots. I think I mentioned that. I'll stop.

VO: One thing I've never been quite clear on is the exact capacity of the fuel tank or how much diesel the engine consumes per hour.

I think the tank holds about 32 gallons, and my rule of thumb is a gallon per hour. Under normal circumstances, the Crow's Nest Marina in Venice Inlet is usually a 10 hour sale from Gulfport. I figure I can top off the fuel there.

BR: Okay, let's see what we got.

Love that sound. Do not love that sound. That would be the fan belt squeaking. Do not love that one.

VO: The fan belt doesn't appear to be too loose. And I don't wanna overtighten it either. It's been squealing intermittently since I cleaned and repainted the engine.

BR: I forgot about that. That was the thing on my punch list.

I'll just let that run for a little bit and hope that that squealing goes away and that the belt doesn't come off. What could possibly go wrong?

VO: Ahoy there, Bradford here. And while we're waiting to see how this star crossed cruise turned out, I just wanted to thank all our listeners and especially our esteemed Patreon crew, including our newest members, Dave of the Dumbing It Down With Dave Podcast and my fellow Georgian Steve, uh, whose last name I need to ask him how to pronounce. And Tal, who just leveled up from Boatswain to Sailing Master.

I really appreciate it, and your support means more than ever right about now.

And if you weren't already painfully aware, you can join the Patreon crew and help keep How Not To Sail afloat for as little as $3 a month. Just look for the Patreon links at How Not To Sail dot com, or you can find me at Patreon.com/hownottosail.

Where you can also see some of the extra perks you get for being a patron. Believe me, How Not To Sail ain't going anywhere, no matter what happens with this story. But the work is probably gonna keep getting more challenging.

So I very much appreciate your support. And if you're not into the Patreon thing but want to help, you can find a few ways to do that, most of them free. At HowNotToSail.com/help.

Spoiler alert, telling your friends about the podcast is one of them.

But meanwhile, I believe we were just leaving my damaged marina in a stiff breeze.

BR: Alright, I'm outta here.

VO: At 7:00 PM just a couple of hours. After arriving from the airport, I'm motoring out of the marina past the completely destroyed Boca Ciega Yacht Club basin to starboard in a badly damaged Coast Guard auxiliary building to port.

A dolphin escorts me out between markers one and two into Boca, Ciega Bay. And like an idiot, I take this as a good sign.

When I get out into the Gulf at Pass-a-Grill and turn left toward the south, I try to put up some sails and ditch the engine. But I run into a couple of problems.

The first problem is we're too over-canvassed with anything flying other than just the stays'l, a little handkerchief of a sail just forward of the mast.

So I need the engine to help keep us stable and running at maximum speed.

The other problem is the batteries are kind of low. And I need battery to run the chart plotter that I'm gonna be staring at the next couple of days. And the autohelm, which is a really big deal for a solo sailor.

So I have to run the engine.

Of course, there's also a problem with running the engine, and that's the exhaust. On my last cruise, I realized we might have a problem with the new canvas we added over the cockpit.

BR: Probably just getting a little, uh, diesel exhaust particles outta my nose

VO: In order to stop sucking in diesel exhaust fumes, I unzip and stow away the connector piece between the dodger in front of me and the bimini over my head.

Which means that when it rains, I'll get wet.

At least I have my foul weather jacket and overalls. But these will become a problem in themselves trapping in heat and making me sweat precious water when I have to exert myself, which in the bucking swaying seas coming down past long boat key will be often.

BR: It's actually one in the morning. I haven't felt like making any audio up to now because since I got out in the Gulf for the last five, six hours, the wind has averaged about 28 knots and uh, it's a little lumpy.

VO: I'm staying only two or three miles off shore. But there's still enough fetch for the wind to make a mess of the seas.

BR: I came in a little closer to Longboat Key after I swung out wide to clear Eggmont Shoals north of here, and was hoping to get in some smoother water in the Lee of the land.

VO: I do not. Get into smoother water as far as I can tell.

BR: If I fall all over the cockpit--if I get back closer to the helm here--I had autohelm on,

still do, you can probably hear some of the wind.

VO: And besides the wind or. Keen eared listeners will no doubt detect something else.

BR: You can probably hear the uh, fan belt is still shrieking 'cause I am motor sailing. I just have the stale up, the little one in front of the mast, which is plenty for, uh, this much wind. I am, uh, feeling a little green and I am going to, uh, probably tuck in at Venice and I think maybe I can tie up. To the fuel dock because I need fuel. I need lots of fuel.

VO: It's taking longer than I thought to get to Venice. The wind and waves are coming from my left side, but from ahead of me. We are pitching for and aft and at times the waves are grinding us down to the speed of a moderate jog.

But even though I'm nauseated and tired, and even though I'm flirting with what the bufort scale would call a four seven near Gale, I imagine, I'll just tie up to the fuel dock at Crow's Nest Marina. Before Dawn, sleep for a couple of hours without pitching. Rolling and yawing. Fill the tank up with diesel, grab some snacks and water from the marina store and set off on the final leg.

Which I've been thinking will take maybe 24 hours.

BR: I'm just gonna motor Sail straight from there to Key West. Uh, hopefully

Admiral: It didn't seem to me that you were moving fast enough. And the storm was coming in.

VO: In the next episode, a shortage of fuel after the previous hurricane

BR: I just spent three hours driving around to find diesel

VO: causes a series of failures.

Admiral: I texted you what is taking so long, you've got to get out of Venice,

VO: Which will not end well for me, or Jacie Sails.

BM2 Anthony Diggle: You're thinking about the storm and you're thinking about fuel. And thinking about, am I gonna have enough wind? You have all these different variables and none of them were going in your favor.

VO: So make sure you're subscribed to the podcast 'cause we'll finally have the answer to that tagline I've been using for 65 episodes.

BR: What could possibly go wrong?

VO: Ahoy,, there, Bradford here again. And before I get to anything else I need to remind everybody about our Atlanta How Not To Sail Meetup this Saturday the ninth at 57th Fighter Group on Claremont Road right next to the Peachtree DeKalb Airport or DeKalb Peachtree. It's open to all How Not To Sail listeners, and of course we'll have some special swag for our patrons, but also something for everybody.

We'll probably be in the patio and bar area toward the back where we can watch some planes and get all judgy about their landings, just like at the marina. You can check the show notes at HowNotToSail.com/65 for the exact address, website, phone number, et cetera for 57th Fighter Group.

I want to thank our, uh, newest members of the Patreon Crew, Able Seaman Dave, and Bo'sun Steve. And Tal, who just leveled up to Sailing Master. We already did a midroll ad, so I won't belabor the point here other than to say, you can go to HowNotToSail.com/patreon if you'd like to support How Not To Sail.

And if you're not feeling the Patreon thing, I've got a list of some things you can do to help the show, many of which cost nothing at HowNotToSail.com/help.

Speaking of appreciation, I want to take a minute to thank the awesome folks who serve in the United States Coast Guard. It is they who have given me the confidence to sail around South Florida this last decade.

We'll be hearing from a couple of the crew probably in the next episode, unless this is a three parter, I'm not sure yet. But meanwhile, a special thanks to Anthony, Ethan, Billy Gianna, Riley, and Nicholas. I'm going a little formal here in the, uh, informal here in the outro, but I've thanked them with their full names and ranks in the show notes, and I am super grateful.

And if you're thinking, gee, isn't Bradford being a little laissez-faire about losing his boat or trying to find his boat, or something like that, let me just say that A, we're gonna get to that part of the story. And B, wherever Jacie Sails is now is in a pretty remote bit of ocean. And the possible area is a good thousand, if not a couple thousand square miles.

I've got more at HowNotToSail.com. You can't miss it, so if you haven't checked it out, please do and share as widely as you wanna. It'd be very helpful. I. Uh, I hope to find her at some point in some place, in some condition, but I don't know what that's gonna be. I absolutely plan to continue my sailing misadventures and of course, continue How Not To Sail. It's just that I'm not sure at the moment exactly what the sailing picture looks like.

Finally, just a couple of housekeeping items, new stuff and whatnot. If you're a patron who is at the Annapolis meetup while I was out looking for my vessel a couple of weeks ago, please email me your mailing address at Bradford at HowNotToSail.com so I can send you your T-shirt.

Uh, also, I believe I've got all the podcast episodes now on the YouTube channel. Most of them just have a static image with the audio, but a few of them have either full video or little Easter eggs in them. And going forward, all episodes should automatically port to YouTube. So if you're one of those folks who listens to the podcast on YouTube, you can now binge to your heart's content.

Uh, in another social media department, How Not. To Sail now has a Mastodon account or channel or whatever you call it. So I'll put the link in the show notes at HowNotToSail.com slash six five, and there should also be a little icon at the bottom of each webpage.

And finally, for any of my fellow nerds who use an RSS reader to check out the news and blogs and such, you can follow How Not, To Sail that way as well. And I have more info at HowNotToSail.com slash rss. And there's also a little RSS link at the bottom of each page next to Mastodon and Twitter and all that jazz.

Okay! So with that, I'm going to bid you a do until next episode. I'm gonna have blog posts and news at How Not To Sail dot com before then, but meanwhile, try not to lose your boat if you have one.

And I'll see you next time on:

How Not. To Sail. Screwing up is part of cruising. Let me show you how!