Blue Moon Sails Away: Across the Gulf of Mexico

We have crossed the gulf from various spots to and from the panhandle and some are better than others as far as equipment working and comfort. While this crossing started out a bit challenging but ok it didn't stay that way. We left with strong winds of 15-20 knots, well within our comfort zone and sail plan. We were running pretty much before the wind so we had the boom tied off to one side (prevented) and the jib poled to the other side using our spinnaker pole. This is a great way to go long distances but does reduce your ability to make quick changes. We left Panama City with the forecast of the winds easing to 10-15 kts. all the way across the gulf with the waves dying off to 2-4 feet around midnight. What we got was quite different. The winds continued to build all night as did the waves. Before things did calm down, we were seeing steady wind a bit over 25 kts with gusts as high as 33 kts. This converts to almost 40 mph and the waves were in the 8 to 10 foot range. In the middle of the trip, the waves were coming at us from different quarters making it like being in a washing machine. While we never feared for our lives, it did make the ol' fun meters peg out in the negative zone for both of us. The queasy feeling didn't leave until long after we were at anchor. During the trip, we did start to reevaluate our long term cruising goals, such as, do we really want to do this for days at a time? Oh, to add to the lack of joy, our autopilot quit on us about 70 miles (12 hours) offshore. Since both of us were feeling punk, we were laying on the cushions in the cockpit taking turns looking around for other boats then laying back down. When the autohelm gave out, we had to take turns keeping the boat on track, usually for no more than an hour at a time. As things started to calm down, we were better able to stay for longer periods. Since we have been completely spoiled by the "third crew member" there was a relearning curve of maintaining our heading with the confused seas. We were so glad to finally get the hook down and have things settle down. The cabin looked a wreck as things were tossed around. Fortunately only soft things like blankets and pillows and changes of clothes. It looked sort of like my cedar chest had exploded. After getting things all sorted out, we had a nice soup supper after toasting our safe arrival with a bottle of bubbly. Sitting here the day after, we did an after-action analysis and think our only real mistake was trusting the forecast. If we had instead reduced sail before dark, we would not have been faced with having to go on a tossing deck in the dark to undo all our preventers and take the pole down so we could reconfigure our sails. One huge plus were the two new LED spreader lights we installed. They made the foredeck much safer to work on and I was able to work things from the cockpit since I could see what needed to be done. While we're not in a big hurry to experience it all again, we know that Blue Moon and we can take it. Of course, being able to find a safe anchorage and "think about that tomorrow" was a nice thing too.