Spring Gulf Coast Cruise on a Dragonfly 32

[DragonflyBob]

Here’s the trip account of our second two week Gulf coast cruising trip on our Dragonfly 32 Supreme trimaran so thought again this might be helpful for those interested in real world trimaran experiences. The trip started and ended on Lake Pontchartrain.

For this trip and based on the last similar trip we did last November, we for sure wanted to try to avoid the feeling of being on a schedule. We did want to include a 120-200 mile offshore leg but for the rest of the trip we wanted to limit daily mileage to no more than 30-60 miles.

Loading wise, we were again carrying about 400-500 lbs over the recommended sailing weight on the boat but were still over 1,500 lbs below the boat’s maximum payload capacity. In addition to our personal gear and basic food/provisioning, we were carrying two inflatable paddleboards and gear, a Honda 2200CI generator and fuel, a Grillmate BBQ grill and spare propane bottles, 4 gallons of spare diesel, 8 gallons of spare drinking water, a Takacat 11’ inflatable dinghy, and a Torqeedo motor and extra battery. We also had a 12V Engel freezer that lived in the aft cabin. Our power setup was a 55aH engine battery, three (3) 60aH Victron Super Cycle AGM’s for the house batteries, and a new Interstate Battery 70aH AGM for the windlass and bowthruster battery. Power was maintained either by shore power when in a marina, engine alternator (the stock on the engine), and/or the 150 watts of solar panels on the boat.

Day 1 – We leave Mandeville, LA headed for Gulfport, MS, about 70 miles total. This is typically a 10 hour trip whether sailing or under power. We sailed from Mandeville to Slidell, LA (about 15 miles) but were delayed 3 hours waiting on a railroad bridge opening. By that time, the breeze had died to 5-6 knots generally behind us so the rest of the leg was a nice motor over to Gulfport’s municipal marina on a beautiful afternoon.

Day 2 - Gulfport to Horn Island (27 miles). Another beautiful day where we started out sailing upwind in 6-8 knots which build to 8-10 knots. It backed down the last 5 miles so I dropped sails and motored the rest of the way. A lovely afternoon, we paddle boarded to the beach and had a nice beach walk along with our toy poodle Leo followed by an equally lovely evening grilling meat and veggies and enjoying the solitude. At this point, we decided to leave the island the next morning and undertake crossing the upper Gulf to Port St. Joe, FL. The weather forecast looked good for a light to medium air leg of about 140 miles that would take us 18-22 hours.

Day 3 - Horn Island departure but ended up at The Wharf (Gulf Shores, AL) - We woke up to 8-10 knots from the south-southeast so the day promised a close reach to perhaps a fetch beat towards Port St. Joe but Mr. Murphy had other plans. As we were raising our anchor, the rope rode (probably due to my inattention) back fed into the windlass gypsy and jammed the windlass resulting in a blown windlass fuse. While it took about an hour to clear the windlass, we did not have a spare fuse. We got underway and decided to change our plans and sail to The Wharf marina in Gulf Shores. We figured we could find a fuse that would work but fortunately while underway heading to Dauphin Island, I found a source for the fuse online with stock in Texas so I reached out to them and they were able to ship a replacement and two spares overnight. While our plans changed we were feeling pretty good. The breeze built to 10-12 knots as we beat across the bottom of Mobile Bay and when we were about 6 miles from entering the ICW, a seam on our jib started to split. We immediately furled it and took the main down to motor the rest of the way. Luck was with us again as the marina is only 30 miles from Schurr Sails in Pensacola and I was able to get in touch with loft owner Hunter Riddle to arrange repair of the sail. We arrived at The Wharf around 4:30 and again it’s a bit pricey (about $180 a night for us) but it’s also a really first class facility with lots of restaurants and shops.

Day 4 - The Wharf. This day was spent getting a rental car and getting the damaged jib to Pensacola. By early afternoon the loft had the repair done so we headed back over and picked up the sail and then had dinner at Pensacola Yacht Club before heading back. The other good news was the fuses were delivered and our windlass was back in operation.

Day 5 - The Wharf to Pensacola (29 miles). After returning the rental car, we left The Wharf and had a 4.5 hour motor in the ICW to our anchorage close to Pensacola Pass where we would spend the night. We inflated the Takacat dinghy and went to the beach for a couple of hours before getting back to the boat for dinner and sunset.

Day 6 – Pensacola to Port St. Joe (120 miles). This would be our long leg of the trip and we anticipated a lot of light air beating but we were in no hurry. Stuff happens in three’s so windlass fuse followed by sail repair followed by this morning the rope portion of the anchor rode breaking as we retrieved the anchor. A bit of excitement but we held on to the anchor end of the break and manually pulled the anchor back on to the boat. I believe we might have damaged the rope during the previous jam, thankful it did not part while we were anchored. I had a spare anchor and rode so we got underway. For the first 3-4 hours coming out of Pensacola, it was glorious upwind sailing in 10-15 knots pretty much on the rhumb line on starboard tack to our destination but by mid-day, it had dropped to 4-6 knots with leftover chop. We motor sailed most of the afternoon but by late afternoon, the seas had settled, the wind had built and was steady at 6-10 knots. We shut the engine off and we were again fetch beating to close reaching at 6-8 knots towards Port St. Joe. This lasted most of the night until about 4am and then the wind backed into the east and we had to sail more distance. We dropped sails about 15 miles from Port St. Joe around 6:30a and motored the rest of the way for a 9am arrival to the Point South Marina. This is a super nice facility and wonderful staff. We spent the day resting up, replaced the anchor rode, and gave the boat a good washing and inspection.

Day 7 – Port St. Joe to Eagle Harbor (St. Joseph Bay peninsula, 5 miles). We topped off fuel early and motored over to Eagle Harbor across St. Joseph Bay and anchored in beautiful clear water about 300 yards from the shore. Spent the day exploring part of the state park via our dinghy and some beach hiking. Wrapped up with grilling on the boat and enjoying a beautiful sunset.

Day 8 – Eagle Harbor to Port St. Joe to Shell Beach (47 miles) – After coffee and breakfast we pulled anchor and returned to South Point Marina in Port St. Joe to top off water and fuel. We then departed for a 42 mile sail along the beach to St. Andrews Bay (i.e. Panama City area). Breeze was 12-18 knots from the south so a broad reach at 9-11 knots, super fun! The entry into St. Andrews Bay was impressive as the tide was going out against the wind but no worries and we made it to our anchorage at Shell Beach near Tyndall AFB by mid afternoon. The swell in the Gulf this day was exceptionally big with 4-6 foot waves. The boat just loved it.

Day 9 – Shell Beach to Destin (42 miles) – Almost a carbon copy of the previous day in terms of wind strength, sea state. and sailing direction (i.e. fun!). We arrived mid afternoon to Destin Harbor and were treated to the Blessing of the Fleet festivities after having an early dinner at Harbor Docks restaurant. The weather was forecast to be stormy and rainy starting early AM the next day and through early afternoon so we planned to stay put.

Day 10 – Destin Harbor. We woke early to a strong thunderstorm cell passing through with 35-40 knot gust bands but no worries on anchor. A bit noisy with the rain and wind but it settled into light rain through the morning that cleared by early afternoon that gave the boat a good rinse from the previous two days of sailing. We met Don and Karlene Wigston for dinner at Harbor Docks again. Don is the Dragonfly dealer in the US. One good thing we had learned at this point was that we had used our Honda generator the previous night and this night to power a Frigidaire window unit AC that we set up in a custom companionway hatch mount. The Honda generator has a .9 gallon tank and powering the AC, it ran both nights not running out of fuel. And this was powering a 5,000 BTU unit with the thermostat set at 68-70 degrees. This works out to less than $.50 an hour for AC in the boat. At the speed setting the generator was running, it was very quiet. We set it up on one of the floats so no worries about CO fumes.

Day 11 – Destin to The Wharf Marina (67 miles) – The weather the previous day brought a weak cold front into the area so as we came out of Destin Pass, we were treated to about 3 hours of glorious reaching with main and Code Zero in 10-13 knots of breeze. Late morning it started to fizzle and by noon about 10 miles from Pensacola Pass we dropped sails and started motoring. This was a Saturday and we entered the ICW just after lunch. It was nuts with the volume of powerboats running at full speed in the channel. To make it worse, there was a Poker Run that was happening out of The Wharf and while I have nothing against high speed powerboats, at least half of that crew were behaving like idiots blowing past us on both sides at 60+ mph 50-100 feet away. We arrived at The Wharf around 4p and as we approached the dock I realized I had no bowthruster but no worries, it was not really needed. Enjoyed a late dinner with anticipation to leave early the next morning to get back to Gulfport ahead of another round of bad weather coming in. We were kind of bummed because we hoped to go from The Wharf and spend our last two nights on the barrier islands before heading back into Lake Pontchartrain.

Day 12 – The Wharf to Gulfport (75 miles) – Non-eventful motoring start out the ICW to Mobile Bay. We put sails up and sailed through Dauphin Island bridge broad reaching. Breeze at this point build to 12-18 knots and we hoped to broad reach at 10+ knots the rest of the way to Gulfport but as the afternoon progressed, the breeze backed to the ESE so essentially dead downwind. We jibed back and forth for a while working our way west through Mississippi Sound but finally took down the mainsail and winged out the jib with the boat’s barber hauler trims. Doing this, we motorsailed at 160 degrees TWD to the boat with the engine at 2/3rd throttle making 8-11 knots. This got us to Gulfport at a reasonable hour.

Day 13 - Gulfport – We awoke around 3am with the wind shifting to the south and blowing 25-30 knots straight down the harbor followed by periodic torrential rain and lightning for the rest of the morning. Cleared up in the afternoon so we spent that time drying the boat out and I fixed the bowthruster (bad ground).

Day 14 – Gulfport – We took another rest day as the wind was due west on the nose for the trip back and there was still a pretty strong thunderstorm chance. I got a nice paddleboard workout in the afternoon.

Day 15 – Gulfport to New Orleans (66 miles) – The trip home started nice with a northwest breeze of 8-12 knots that allowed us to beam/close reach almost to the railroad swing bridge at the entrance of the Rigolets. The breeze dropped and went on the nose so we motored through until we got into the lake. We sailed 60% of the final 18 miles to our home marina before the wind died and we started the trusty Yanmar.

We learned a lot and enjoyed gaining more experience with this wonderful boat. Hope you enjoyed our trip journal.

[Antsjh]

Bob, great writeup! Thanks for taking the time to put it together and make it really comprehensive. Cool you got to experience some bigger seas in your tri…how was it in those conditions? Can you make any comparisons to a monohull?

[DragonflyBob]

Originally Posted by Antsjh

Bob, great writeup! Thanks for taking the time to put it together and make it really comprehensive. Cool you got to experience some bigger seas in your tri…how was it in those conditions? Can you make any comparisons to a monohull?

For sure the motion of our Dragonfly 32 upwind and downwind in the swell and chop we see in the Gulf is a smoother and more comfortable ride than any monohull I can think of. The boat has a dinghy like feel and response on the helm so the autopilot does not have to work hard and the boat tacks and jibes as easy and probably quicker than a monohull. The diagonal stability of the boat is impressive given the 27’ beam and the floats being one foot longer than the center hull. For two days we broad reached in 1m-2m swell in 12-20 knots of wind and just every once in a while we’d get a big quarter wave trying to push the stern but the boat corrected very quickly. Any rolling motion is practically non-existent so the boat feels very safe to move around on even in that sea state. The only real motion your body feels is the change in fore and aft pitch surfing up and down swell or going upwind into the waves. The fine entry of both the floats and the center hull combined with sensible loading (i.e. try to keep weight out of the ends of the boat) will minimize that pitching motion.