Phillips Foss, the owner of Destin Sunrise Marine, and I have taken two previous adventure trips together.

               In 2002 we took a 26-foot center console powered by twin Yamaha F225 outboards from Destin to Key West, about 510 miles.

               In 2004 we took a Hurricane deckboat from Alton, Illinois to Destin, a trip of 1,000 miles, down the Mississippi River, the Ohio, the Tennessee and then the Ten Tom Canal.

               In this adventure we were attempting to reprise our first trip but with a smaller boat ( a Cape Horn 24 XS) powered by a single Yamaha F300 V6 Offshore outboard (their brand new model). 

               The third member of our party was John Rigsby of Yamaha.

We had along a RayMarine Night Vision Camera (FLIR)

Raymarine Radar

Iridium Satellite phone

An EPIRB

SPOT personal locater beacon that left electronic breadcrumbs along the way.

               The goal this time was to run to Key West non-stop, even at night. On the previous trip we idled at night in case we hit something and the trip took us 60 hours.  With the night vision camera we hoped to make Key West in 1 day.

               We spent about a month waiting for a weather window to open. Forecasted head seas plagued us plus we couldn’t get our autopilot to work.

               The forecast on our day of departure called for 1-2 foot seas, but when we got out in the Gulf, it was more like 2-3 feet, which killed our fuel economy. Weather forecasting being what it was we continued in hopes it would calm down.

               The auto pilot worked at slow speeds, but failed to work when we went faster. This hurt us because we had to cruise in a perfectly straight line to have enough fuel to make the trip.

After we had cruised only 78 miles we had burned 60 gallons of gas and realized we weren’t going to make it to Key West, so we altered our goal and headed for Naples/Marco Island.

               Another reason for the reduced fuel economy is that we carried 250 gallons of fuel which weighs 6 pounds a gallon, plus we carried a 100 pound life raft, water and food and three people .The excess weight for this particular hull greatly affected its performance (it has a very deep-v hull, which is great for slashing through waves and is very sea worthy but affects mileage since more of the hull is in the water.)

               We decided to run closer to shore since we weren’t heading to Key West. When it got dark we ran slow for a while to  look at the incredible number of stars you can see with no light pollution. It was pitch black with no moon. We were surrounded by about 50 small Atlantic spotted dolphin, 4 feet long maybe. We turned on our night vision camera and could see them.

               We then decided to run using the RayMarine Night Vision camera and it was everything it was cracked up to be. You could see oncoming waves that were larger than standard so you could slow down in time to avoid banging. We could also and any debris in the water. BTW, we didn't see any remenPhillips Foss and I have taken two previous adventure trips together.

               In 2002 we took a 26-foot center console powered by twin Yamaha F225 outboards from Destin to Key West, about 510 miles.

               In 2004 we took a Hurricane deckboat from Alton, Illinois to Destin, a trip of 1,000 miles, down the Mississippi River, the Ohio, the Tennessee and then the Ten Tom Canal.

               In this adventure we tried to reprise our first trip but with a smaller boat ( a Cape Horn 24 XS) powered by a single Yamaha F300 V6 Offshore outboard (their brand new model).

The third member of our party was John Rigsby of Yamaha.

We had along a Raymarine Thermal Night Vision Camera (FLIR)

Raymarine Radar

Iridium 9555 Satellite phone

An EPIRB

SPOT personal locater beacon that left electronic breadcrumbs along the way.

               The goal this time was to run to Key West non-stop, even at night. On the previous trip we idled at night in case we hit something and the trip took us 60 hours.  With the Thermal Night Vision Camera we hoped to make Key West in 1 day. 

               We spent about a month waiting for a weather window to open. Forecasted head seas plagued us plus we couldn’t get our autopilot to work.

               The forecast on our day of departure called for 1-2 foot seas, but when we got out in the Gulf, it was more like 2-3 feet, which killed our fuel economy. Weather forecasting being what it was we continued in hopes it would calm down.

               The auto pilot worked at slow speeds, but failed to work when we went faster. This hurt us because we had to cruise in a perfectly straight line to have enough fuel to make the trip.

After we had cruised only 78 miles we had burned 60 gallons of gas and realized we weren’t going to make it to Key West, so we altered our goal and headed for Naples/Marco Island.

               Another reason for the reduced fuel economy is that we carried 250 gallons of fuel which weighs 6 pounds a gallon, plus we carried a 100 pound life raft, water and food and three people .The excess weight for this particular hull greatly affected its performance (it has a very deep-v hull, which is great for slashing through waves and is very sea worthy but affects mileage since more of the hull is in the water.)

               We decided to run closer to shore since we weren’t heading to Key West. When it got dark we ran slow for a while to  look at the incredible number of stars you can see with no light pollution. It was pitch black with no moon. Suddenly, we were surrounded by about 50 small Atlantic spotted dolphin, 4 feet long maybe. We turned on our night vision camera and could see them clearly.

               We then decided to run using the RayMarine Night Vision camera and it was everything it was cracked up to be. You could see oncoming waves that were larger than standard so you could slow down in time to avoid banging. We could also see any floating debris. BTW we saw no signs of the BP Oil Spill anywhere along our journey.

               About 2:00 in the morning, the wind started howling  and the seas built quickly to 5-6 feet high and it got a little scary. This wind and seas were not forecast  and caught us by surprise.

We decided the prudent thing to do was to head for nearest landfall in case the seas got any bigger, which was the Tampa area. We were occasionally taking on a bit of water since the waves were directly into our face and had to slog though it for about 8 hours. Again our spotted dolphin friends joined us.

               When it became light it was still rocking and we saw a bird circling our boat. It was a cattle egret, which is a land-based bird, that was apparently blown out to sea because we were still 40 miles offshore. He disregarded his fear of humans and landed on our boat and we gave him a towel to stand on since he was sliding around. After about two hours of resting up (he was clearly exhausted) he took off and headed inshore.

               We landed safe and sound in Clearwater and were glad to be on dry land. We ended up running for about 24 hours. The Cape Horn 24 XS handled the horrible conditions very well and we were glad to have such a seaworthy hull under us. The Yamaha never missed a beat. Normally I wouldn't trust my life with a first year engine, but over the years I have learned to trust Yamahas and this one didn't let me down. The RayMarine Night Vision camera and E120 display worked as advertised and I think you'll be seeing this technology on small boats like ours in the future.  Although we didn’t meet our goal we had a heck of an adventure.

I told Phillip our next trip should be Destin to Cancun. His reply….”No comment.” 

Alan Jones