Day 28 SLEEP, oh what beautiful sleep

Sleep came easy last night after the long trip from Carabelle.  The first photo shows Lucky Us happily moored in her slip.

Even the Admiral admits to sleeping in until 7:30 am, which is way late for her. Last night we took our electric scooters and toured the old downtown area, which is very nicely restored. We went to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. There was a Publix grocery store in the next block, and amongst other necessities, I got a half gallon of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.

   Today we launched the dingy and headed over to Clearwater Beach, which is on the barrier island about 1.5  miles to the west. There is another city run marina there with a "free" dingy dock.  The marina is right at the intersection where the bridge from the mainland hits the main road along the barrier island. The sides of the marina that line these two roads are lined with jet ski, fishing, dolphin tour, para-sail, dinner boats, etc. The businesses rent one or two boat slips and set up a sign, table, etc.  We had lunch on the second floor of "Crabby Bill's" restaurant that overlooks all of this activity. Both of us had some variation of Mahi Mahi for lunch while we enjoyed watching the many boats, jet skis, etc coming and going.

     After lunch, we walked across the street to a beautiful white sand beach about 100 yards wide. They have (clearly labelled) crosswalks between the intersections, and it is truly amazing that all traffic stops as you approach the crosswalk.  Wow, if this was Texas, they would speed up.

 The water was in the mid 80s (F) and felt great. Sorry about the graphic image of our toes in the sand, but...

After a few minutes of sitting in the sun, we headed back to the dingy.

We took a longer, more scenic route back to Lucky Us to check out more of the area. We left the dingy in the water tied to the other side of the finger pier along our slip. The marina is not very crowded so they were most cooperative about the dingy.  We plan more adventures on the dingy tomorrow!

At this point, I headed for a nap in the air conditioned comfort of the master stateroom while the Admiral checked out the local birds.
We have been adopted by a friendly Brown Pelican. It seems that most of the local "wildlife" have been trained to expect food, but these guys are not getting any handouts from us... 

The last photo is that of a Great (White) Egret that roams the area as if it owned everything.
     So far, we are really enjoying this part of Florida. Tomorrow, the adventure continues...

Days 26-27 Straight Shot! 24 hours, 186 miles

     Well, the waiting/guessing game is over. We reviewed endless weather information, including bouy weather data, and we made our decision. We chose the straight shot, over-night trip from Carrabelle to Clearwater, Florida. Now, in all honesty, if you know the Admiral, you would know that her vote would be for the biggest challenge. Right?
      We left Carabelle at 10:45 am in light 5 mph winds from the SE. The forecast was for 8-10 mph winds in the afternoon and falling to 4 mph overnight. Instead, around 5:00 pm the winds went up to 10-15 mph.  We had a visitor after dinner. This juvenile Brown Booby (wing span about 30 inches) flew round and round the boat trying to find a place to land but never did.

At the time we were 60+ miles from the nearest land so this was a treat to watch a majestic bird soaring around Lucky Us. There is also a video posted at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3rtTUOjB3Q


The visit by the Brown Booby was just before sunset, which is when our "luck" was about to change...

The sunset was a pretty sight, but as it turned out "red sky at night was not a sailor's delight". Sure enough, the winds abruptly rose to 20 mph with gusts near 30. This is pretty much the story for the rest of the night although we did see some clear patches with stars. We wore our auto-inflate life vests all night and used straps from the vests to hook on to a safety (or jack) line from the captains chair across the fly bridge and down the ladder to the aft salon door. The seas were 2 to 3 feet for most of the night with one occassionally "taller" wave. So, instead of alternating watches and sleep, we kept each other company. The autopilot and radar were a real blessing although we only passed three boats in the dark.   ...and dark it was with no moon and lots of clouds. For the night time portion our plan was to slow down  from our normal cruising speed of 8+ mph to less than 6.  Anywhere along the Gulf Coast, night time travel near shore is complicated by an abundance of floating markers for crab traps, and thus we wanted to do the last portion of the trip in daylight. As the weather happened, this was fortuitously a good plan.  In the morning we were greated to a "non" sunrise -

However, after 165 miles on a straight shot course of 143 degrees, the weather cleared, and the wind went back down under 10 mph as we approached Clearwater. Obviously, the town was excited to see us, and they sent out this shark full of greeters to wave hello.

We docked at the marina, had a quick lunch and took a three hour nap. Not a very relaxing time on our first over night trip, but we felt safe the entire time. It is just hard work "hanging on" and moving about the boat. Now, we begin an extended stay in Clearwater.

Day 25 -weather starting to get back to normal (?).

     Still enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Carabelle.  Most of the people doing the Great Loop come through here in the late Fall, but it must be big business since most of the local business people that we have met are aware of the "Loopers". The Admiral spent several hours working on a new footboard for the bed in the master stateroom. She also cut the memory foam at the forwward end of the mattress to conform to the corners where the mattress meets the hull. Fortunately, she finished her project at 2:00 pm just in time for us to try it out with a nap. I spent my time moving fuel around and polishing  (filtering) it in the process.  We plan to buy about 250 galllons before we depart for Clearwater so I was filling the starboard aft fuel tank. The other three tanks each now have about 25 gallons remaining in them. By moving fuel around and polishing or filtering it, we can remove bacteria, water and sludge from the fuel and more permanently from the fuel tanks. When we are travelling, the rocking/rolling motion tends to stir up the sediment in the bottom of the tanks. Clean fuel is a big priority, especially as we embark on the long trip to Clearwater. Incidentally, we still have not chosen our route.  Most of the e-mail comments that I have received are guessing that we will take the 3 day route along the shore of the bend, but we are still leaving the overnight straight shot to Clearwater open as an option. So, keep guessing...
     We continue to have dinner out, and tonight was our second time at the "Fisherman's Wife".  The Admiral had broiled grouper, and I had the Fisherman's Salad with broiled grouper, scallops and shrimp.  Wow, we are sure suffering.

Day 24 staying in Carabelle while T.S. Andrea passes

Tropical storm Andrea made landfall about 4:00 pm today about 150 miles south of us.  Most of the rain was on the east and south sides of the storm.  The only real effect here was some on/off rain and an extra high high tide this afternoon.  We are now on the backside of the storm so the winds are out of the North but only 10-15 mph here.  It looks like we will be here until Saturday or Sunday. So, you will just have to wait to find out which route we are going to take.  The first picture is of the house bank of 12 volt batteries.

There are a total of 5 large batteries with  about 500 amp hours, which is a lot. We need this capacity to run the boat at night when at anchor, e.g. lights, TV, head, fans, etc.  We also use it duing the day with an inverter to convert 12 volt into 115 volt for the refridgerator. We have 3 other battery banks, including one with three batteries to start the main diesel engines. The other 2 banks are to start the generator and run the anchor windlass. So, part of my day was spent checking the water level in some 11 batteries.  Boring - yes, but necessary on a regular basis.

The other "routine" maintenance was to clean out the raw water strainers that provide cool sea water to cool the three diesels, heat pumps, and raw water wash down to provide high pressure water to clean the anchor and its chain as they are being retrieved. Altogether there are 5 strainers with wire baskets to catch the larger stones, algae, etc. The raw water for each strainer enters the hull though a seacock, which is essentially a large (1 1/2 inch diamerter) ball valve. The second picture shows 2 of the strainers (round top with light colored center), one seacock (with an arm to open/close the valve). Also, you can see one of the propellor shafts where it exits the hull through a stuffing box that allows the shaft to turn but keeps the water out.  All of the 5 seacocks, the 2 propellor shafts and two rudder shafts exit the boat below the water line, and  if any of them were to "break", it would mean big trouble.  Just one 1 1/2 inch hole in the bottom would allow over 2,100 gallons of water per hour to enter the boat, and we have 9 holes that size or larger. To put that in perspective our swimming pool back in Bryan only held 16,000 gallons... So, yes it was not a very exciting day, but these and many other systems on the boat need some tender loving care on a regular basis.

    We had dinner out again tonight at a different restaurant. Both of us had a Grouper Salad. The grouper (salt water fish) was broiled and an excellent topping for the salad. I eat a lot of Chicken Caesar and Taco Salads so this was a wonderful change/treat for me.

The next picture shows a view across the harbor over the bow of Lucky Us.  The harbor looks wide, but the shiny areas to the left of the burgee are actually tidal flats that are about to be dry land as the tide goes down. 

      I will close with one humorous note about the town of Carabelle as seen in the final picture.

The city actually advertises that they have the "World's Smallest Police Station".  We actually visited it and took this photo as proof...

Day 23 arrived in Carabelle -decision time!

Howdy! We arrived in Carabelle, FL about 3:20 pm after 59.9 miles of generally great weather. Docking was something of a challenge...  Our slip is perpendicular to the channel, and the wind was blowing 10-15 mph perpendicular to the dock in one direction and the outgoing tide was perpendicular to the dock in the opposite direction.  Once I figured out that the two opposing forces effectively cancelled each other out in this case then docking was relatively simple.  We had to dock stern first since there is only a 6 foot long finger pier on one side. The bow of Lucky Us is over 7 feet above the water and that makes it impossible to get off there.

We went under a number of  fixed bridges with about 60 feet of clearance and went through this swinging railroad bridge.

We have seen quite a few ospreys along the waterway, but this is the first nest that we have seen on a channel marker, and it came complete with an osprey in residence.

Birds on channel markers are fun to see close up, but the "deposits" that they leave behind can obscure the color/number on the marker... As for me, I'll take the close up views any day even if I have to guess at the number on the channel marker. We did have a few drops of rain, but the weather was so good that I was able to finish a "boat project" that I had begun yesterday. Yes, that really is the Captain using an electric sander to remove varnish from the cap rail on the flying bridge.

I am afraid that the Sun had gotten ahead of me and had badly damaged the varnish. I did not get this repaired before we started, but I figured "no problem". I'll just do it while we are underway... Actually, all I had to do was to start the generator and run an extension cord. You will note the black/blue straps around my back as they are part of my automatic inflating life vest. Better safe than sorry (?).

     ...and now for the rest of the story. I mentioned "decision time" in the title of today's post.  We have come 848 miles since we left our home in League City, Texas.  Except for the first 25 miles from League City to Galveston, we have been in the Gulf Intrscoastal Waterway the whole time. However, the waterway ends here at Carabelle and does not start again until about 200 miles south of here near Clearwater, FL. We have two choices:
     1. Go straight across the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater. At our normal cruising speed of about 8 mph, this requires about 25 hours and would mean an overnight crossing.
     2. Follow the coast line of Florida around the bend between the panhandle and the main part of Florida (aka the "armpit").  This is a distance of about 260 miles with only about 3 relatively safe harbors or rivers in which we could spend the nights.  Thus, the distance is a little longer, but we could make the trip in 3 or 4 days with no overnight crossing.
   Our dilemma is which one to choose as each has its own plusses and minuses... I am going to leave you hanging as to which one we are going to choose. Waiting is the key word since there is a new Tropical Storm (Andrea) in the Gulf of Mexico, and it is predicted to reach Florida near Tampa sometime late Friday or early Saturday. We will have to wait until the storm has passed and the seas calm before we can start either of the two options above.  So, stay tuned...

Day 22 short (but nice) trip to Port St. Joe, FL

Left Panama City at 9:00 am, and arrived at Port St. Joe Marina at ??? The time zone change to Eastern Daylight Time runs along the Georgia-Alabama boarder, which means that it cuts across the Florida panhandle. We are docked for the night at Port St. Joe Marina, and depending upon which cell tower is being used, we arrived either at 2:10 CDT or 3:10 EDT.  Anyway, we had an uneventual trip of 45.7 miles in scattered clouds and light SW

winds. The first picture shows a typical view of an old meander (bend) in a river that was cut off to straighten the waterway. After leaving Panama City we went through a long bay before the waterway turned into a combination of ditch and old stream channels. So far in Florida, we have been in many long bays with deep water (30 to 40 feet) that are quite different from the similarly located bays in Texas, which are usually very shallow (a few feet). The shallow Texas bays are off limits to Lucky Us with our 4 foot draft. However, so far in Florida, our "road" is often miles wide with lots of deep water. Thus, if we had stayed for a period of time we could have gone to different locations way off the waterway every night for several weeks (or more). This freedom to wander has "some" appeal as future longer term cruising grounds for us...

...and yet another dolphin picture. I suppose that the dolphins frolicking in the clear water will become "old hat" but for now it is still very exciting.
     We are off to Radio Shack for an ethernet cable and then out to dinner for Mexican food. I know that sounds strange when we are travelling through areas where the seafood is fresh (and cheap), but we do crave a little variety. The original downtown is a short 3 block walk from the marina with 2 of the three blocks being only about 100 feet long.

We are docked along a long pier so docking was easy with no slip to back into with 10 to 15 mph winds out in the Gulf. The last photo is of the marina office, store and restaurant/bar along with a fuel dock. Since we actually started on the Great Loop in Mobile Bay, the accomodations have been great.  There is just not that much pleasure boat traffic west of New Orleans, and as a result, the marinas are fewer and further between.

This marina is actually on the Gulf of Mexico, but it was only about a half mile from the side channel that brought us to the Gulf from the Intracoastal Waterway, which is 5 miles inland here.
     Tomorrow is another short day continuing to head east to Carabelle, FL where we will take at least one day off to rest. The plan of 3 or 4 travel days followed by one or more days of rest still sounds like a good one.

Day 21 onward to Panama City, FL

 The anchorage 10 miles east of Destin, FL was great.  The only problem was that the wid died completely overnight, and we slept a little restlessly without the AC running.  Not bad enough, however, to force one of us to get up and start the generator...

We were greated with a beautiful sunrise! You can see how smooth the water was, and the anchor rope was just hanging down completely loose.  We were in about 7 feet of water with 60 feet of chain followed by 30 feet of rope.  All of the chain was just lying in the mud and the rope was slack - really no wind or current at all. We started out at 7:00 am with about 50 miles to go to Panama City.  We had about 30 miles in the "ditch" or man-made waterway with 10 miles of beautiful bays on either end of the trip.

The glassy water continued for most of the trip, which meant that the ditch with tall pine trees on both sides was quite warm. The dredge spoil on either side was often quite sandy with very little vegetation due to the rapid erosion (see off white area on right bank).

When we exited the ditch, we still had prefectly smooth water in the first bay that we passed through. Fortunately, the breeze finally picked up to a gentle 7 knot SSW wind, and the last hour and a half were really pleasant. The fluffy white clouds in all of the pictures show how beautiful the sky was for all of our trip.

The absolute highlight of today's trip was the dolphin that frolicked in our bow wave. We were going from a bay and entering the ditch (totally manmade waterway) when we saw these dolphins rushing toward us. Attracting dolphin is not new to us since they like to ride in our bow wave, but what was unusual was the clarity of the water.  When this happens in the "muddy" water of the Texas coast, you can only see the dolphin when they break the surface. In the much clearer waters east of the Mississippi delta, we could easily see the dolphin underwater as well. Hope that you enjoy the video!

   Otherwise, we arrived in Panama City and were safely docked by 1:45 pm.  The city marina is right downtown and next to the city hall and the exhibition center.  The adjacent old downtown has been nicely restored, and we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant there.  We left before it started, but on Monday nights at 7:00 pm, this restaurant hosts the "Life, Love, Learn and Beer" Bible (?) Study Group for a local church...

   Tomorrow, the adventure continues.