We crossed!!

We crossed the Gulf safely!! YEAH!!

Saturday morning dawned cloudy but calm. We were all ready. I made sandwiches. Kermit cleaned the windows and assembled all the charts we would need. I walked the dog and drained him out as well as I could considering he would not be able to "rest" for about 24 hours.

At 10am we all gathered in the marine office with Buddy to review the weather. Buddy has been doing this a few years and has seen many loopers cross the Gulf safely. The winds were projected to be calm. A front around New Orleans was heading our way but we could beat it if we left before noon.

leaving Carrabelle

Back to our boats for final preparation. Kermit had adjusted the auto pilot for night viewing so he had to scramble to fix it back to regular daytime viewing. Ooops.

We left at 11:30am. One September pulled out first then Queen Anne's Revenge and two other boats, Jim N I, and another boat whose name I missed. We were in fourth position.

Like ducks in a row

We left the Carrabelle FL harbor and found the markers out to the Gulf. The boat was dancing all over. Kermit had trouble controlling it... until he realized that the port engine was in neutral. No, we are not nervous at all!!! The boat ran quite a bit better after that.

The sky is very cloudy and it is damp and chilly. But no rain or winds so it is a good day to travel.

We are bringing up the rear



A quick look back at Carrabelle

 The land falls away. This house was stuck on the end of the land right at the edge of the Gulf. I wonder how this how handles hurricanes...

 This is what it looks like. No land anywhere in sight. See the big front in the west? We need to stay in front of that front.

 This is what we did the entire time. Kermit drove most of the time with me spelling him so he could nap. It is boring.

One September in the lead.

These are the three boats in front of us. One boat was behind us.

 Then the sun went down around 5:30pm.

 The Christmas lights came on.

 And it got dark.

No more pictures because we didn't want to hurt our night vision. I listened to a bunch of podcasts, we had the XM radio on for a while, and took turns sleeping. Rusty slept almost all the time. Occasionally he would jump on the couch and sleep with us, with his head on our feet. It was cozy. And damp. Very damp. We had blankets and pillows. It was very comfortable, considering we were in clothes, outdoors and awake most of the night.

It was foggy from about 8pm until about 2am. It is kind of wierd to travel in the fog. Not wierd. Downright scary actually. We couldn't see anything. We couldn't see other boats, the sky, or even the front of the boat. So we sat, talked, listened to podcasts and the radio, ate a little, and alternated sleeping as if it we could see. The GPS was split screen with our path marked showing autopilot on one side and radar on the right side showing the five boats as little blips. We stayed about 1/4 of a mile apart.

Each hour Hank on Queen Anne's Revenge called roll call. Each boat answered that all was well. It passed the time.

The fog cleared about 2am revealing so many stars. It felt like Orien would just reach out of the sky and pluck us away. The Dipper (not sure which on) looked like a huge question mark, making us wonder about life in general.

We started to see a bit of light in the Eastern sky at about 5 or 5:30am.

We traveled East South East at about 10mph until we got about 60 miles to the Anclote turn when we would turn due East. We went fast to run as far as we could before that front caught us. Then we slowed down a bit every few hours until sunrise when we were traveling about 6 mph. We needed to slow down because within 30 miles of shore you start seeing crab pots. We couldn't get into the marina until about 10am anyway due to low tide. So we slowed down, finally at a little better than idle for the last few hours.

Kermit took a final nap for the last two hours while I drove. 

 The lighthouse at Tarpon Springs.

We arrived at about 8am to warm sunny skies. Low tide was coming out so current were flowing out of the river, making it very low at the marina. We were told not to come in until at least 11am. We tied up to the local ramp (looking like a giant) to let Rusty off to go to the bathroom. He felt so much better!

 

We got to the dock around 11:30, tied up, and took a deep breath. We made it. It was a good experience. I would do it again. We went slowly, traveled with friends, and enjoyed the experience. We are safe!! Ready for the next round.