Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 7,8,9

The pool at the Marina

The last few days we have basically been getting ready for our flight home on Friday and traveling around the area.It has been pretty cold but is to warm up on the weekend, just when we leave. Rented a car and went down to Prime Outlet Mall. Doing the normal things. So until we depart here near the middle of February, the blog entries will be limited. We did go Total Wine to stock up. For you Loopers who are also looking to stock up they have a huge selection of wine, liquors and beer. They are throughout this area and probably other areas as well.

Sunday - December 5, 2010

The Pelican Gallery

Left Clearwater this morning and journeyed to our winter home at The Club at Treasure Island. Very interesting place as it is a private yacht club which has opened up to Loopers. I suspect like a lot of businesses, they are trying to attract more business and allowing Loopers to stay brings in additional revenue. In any case, the place has a great dining room, a large swimming pool with lap lanes, and a large exercise room. It is about a mile from the beach and is very close to where we normally vacation in the winter. One problem though is they have no facilities to pump out, so that means we will have to go to another marina to get a pump out. Notwithstanding that, it is perfect for us to leave our boat and spend some time in an area where we normally go every winter.

The trip down from Clearwater was interesting and we saw the area from a different perspective - the water. Usually we are driving on the road. Lots of bridges to go under and normally we could fit under most of them. The bridgemasters however are obliging and open on demand. At the Treasure Island Bridge, I was not sure I could make it under without taking out one of my radio attennas, so the bridgemaster said that he would open. However, I had to turn around and take another run while he opened the bridge. In turning around, we again rubbed bottom since we went a little out of the channel. Thank the Lord it was a sand bottom - very forgiving and you could power through it.



Had dinner on the boat and went to bed.

Friday/Saturday - December 3,4, 2010

Well we left Carrabelle at 11 in the morning after meeting with Buddy to discuss the weather on the Gulf for Friday and Friday night. Got out in the Gulf by 12 and started our journey across. Lots of Dolphins jumping around as we traveled. Basically the trip was uneventful. Auto did all the work after I set the track to get to Clearwater. We did travel a little too quickly in that we arrived abotu 30 miles outside of Clearwater by about 4 in the morning. It was dark and not really advisable to enter a harbour which is invested with crab pots in the dark. So we throttled back and basically coasted for about 3 hours until it started getting light again.

There were five boats that traveled together through the night - Navigator, Kim Joe III, Dream Fever, and High Spirits (also Canadians from Ottawa). We were glad we traveled in a group because it can be awfully lonely out there. Every hour we we touched base with one another on Channel 17 which kept us awake and attentive throughout the night. The stars on the Gulf were amazing. Of course you have no lights from cities out there and the sky was a filled with stars.



As it got dark, I took a picture of the sunset and was going to take a picture of the sunrise. Unfortunately at the time of the sunrise, we were dodging so many crab pots, the last thing on my mind was the sunset other than the fact that we were moving directly into the sun which made it difficult to see.

We finally arrived in Clearwater, got ourselves into a slip. We we greeted by a few Q'End which left the day before and traveled during the day since they were a go fast boat and could make the trip in the daylight hours. Once we got in our slip, we went for a big breakfast at the Hilton, staggered back to the boat and went to sleep for about 5 hours. That night we went to dinner with Q'End and Dream Catcher. Dream Catcher caught a crab pot which snapped a propeller shaft and he had to get towed in to port. they was lucky the shaft did not slip out when it snapped because they would have been swimming to port. After dinner, we immediately fell into bed and slept until 8 on Sunday morning.

Thursday - December 2, 2010

Lat 29 49 70 Long 85 19 24, Fuel 206 gal; Eng 585.3

Well we left Port St. Joe this morning at 8:30 for Carrabelle. The weather for the night crossing on Friday night is looking good and there is about a two day window before another cold front moves in to stir up the Gulf. The initial part of the trip was uneventful until we hit this little lake which was quite well channel marked. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing us out of the channel even though it looked like we were in the centre of the channel by reference to the markers ahead of us. Not so, we again rubbed a mud bottom and had to power our way back to the middle of the channel. After that I steered a course for the red markers which counteracted the effect of the wind. I got on the radio and told the 6 boats behind me to be careful to stay in the middle and follow the cruising line. However the first boat to enter the lake got into the same trouble, but got out without any apparent damage. Our boat is a single engine and propeller and rudder are quite well protected by a keel which extends right under the rudder. So the keel rubs on the mud not the propeller. Not so for twin engine boats. Their props hand right down from the boat and can be quite exposed to any touching of the bottom.

We passed through Apalachicola and began following the inter coastal out into the waterway. I was the first boat and was some distance ahead of the rest of the group. As we were going down the channel, a sailboat had gone aground and asked for help to get him off. He said he was barely on the shoal, so it should be easy.Of course the law of the sea says that we have to render assistance. We turned to help him and he through us an old line which when attached to our boat promptly broke. I took a second swing at him and he tossed us another line which we tied to the bow and we attempted to back up and pull him. Well we did pull him a bit but he was buried deeper than the let on. I almost went aground myself doing this and at this point I had had enough. he was not in danger of sinking and I told him to phone Boat US which of course he didn't have. I don't understand why someone would not pay the 100 or so dollars for the security it provides. I gave him the number and went on our way. I heard him later asking Boat US what they charged for a tow and he told them he couldn't afford their charge. I think some other fool came along and pulled him off.

Anyways we reached Carrabelle and settled in at the Moorings Marina where we met Buddy who we first hear about on the Tennessee River as being the man who provides the best weather predictions for the Gulf. A little rough around the edges, but he sat down at the computer, pulled up the NOAA weather site and the weather maps and started explaining the weather patterns for the next few days and later next week. He said tomorrow would be excellent and Saturday also but that it would start to deteriorate after that. He will talk to us tomorrow about any changes but he thinks the weather will remain good, so it will be a go tomorrow afternoon for our 18 trip across the Gulf. A couple of people in go-fast boats are going first think in the morning to arrive in Clearwater in the daylight. We have to leave in the afternoon and travel all night to arrive around 10 or 11 on Saturday. Have to arrive in the daylight because of crab pots all along the coast from Tarpon Springs south. They can make a mess of your propeller.

So we are set to go.

Wednesday - December 1, 2010

Today a cold front moved in and it got colder. Didn't do much today other than go for a walk, do a little shopping and put our proposed route across the Gulf into the chart plotter. Looks like we will move to Carrabelle tomorrow as Friday is looking good for a crossing. All the Loopers met at 4 to discuss plans, with some going to wait for better weather, although I am not sure there can be much better weather than is being called for on Friday. Went to dinner with Q's End and had a great dinner. Home and to bed.

Tuesday - November 30, 2010

We remain in Port St. Joe. Winds really kicked up from the south yesterday at about 25 knts although it was pretty warm. We are on the north wall of the marina and the winds pushed the water up by about a foot and a half during the day.

Went out and got few things at the hardware store and local pharmacy. Managed to finish off my waypoints for the trip across on the paper charts and now have to transfer them to my chartplotter.

I was thinking about leaving on the 1st but while we were talking at the bar, the winds completely changed direction and started coming from the north and the rains came down hard. I think we will wait another day before we move, although it is looking better and better for Friday and Saturday to make our move across.