Port St. Joe to Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Today started at midnight, like all other days, but this was no usual other day. At the stroke of midnight, we were about 2/3 of our journey across the Gulf of Mexico.

Clear night with a full moon

After a quick calculation of our estimated time of arrival, I decided to throttle back a bit and slow down. We don’t want to arrive before daylight so we can see the crab pots and avoid them on the way in. This proved to be a good decision as the first crab pots were spotted nearly 25 miles from the entrance to the Anclote River, which leads up to Tarpon Springs.

The water conditions had improved for this crossing since about 4 pm on Wednesday. By 2 am, the Gulf was glassy smooth which made for a very boring time on watch. We were able to rotate captains with one either resting or sleeping (Nan Ellen) during their off time. Skip kept hourly Lat/Lon (GPS position) notes and fuel consumption notes each hour.

Just beginning to be light

First sign of the ball

This was the uneventful crossing we had hoped for, and the fuel consumption was better than expected, in part due to calm sea conditions and likely some southward moving ocean currents to help us along.

Crab Pot marker - easy to snag one of these!

When we arrived at the Anclote River, we encountered the first of several rude boaters who were coming out of the river at full planning speed in a channel no more than 20 yards wide – barely enough for two boats to pass safely. We got rocked several times and this was the roughest water we encountered on the entire trip across the Gulf! Finally, we came up to the idle zone and it was calm again. We turned into a very narrow and shallow channel leading to the marina (my depth alarm went off several times before we finally pulled into the slip and tied up.

Time for Bloody Mary’s – even me! We had a couple of them before venturing up to the marina office to sign in and get the tour of the clubhouse. The Marina recommended a great Greek restaurant where we went for lunch and we brought leftovers back to the boat.

Skip ordered a rental car from Enterprise and by the time we returned to the boat to pick up his bags, they were there with the rental car. We said our goodbye’s and then decided to go up to the pool and soak a bit before taking showers. When we got to the pool, the water was a bit cold, so we did not stay long. Nan Ellen stretched out on the lounge chair and promptly fell asleep. When she woke up, it was time for a shower and then back to the boat for catch up on e-mails.

We went to dinner at Rusty Bellies. Then it was somewhat early to bed – easy decision there.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

After Skip showed up this morning, we had breakfast on the boat, and then started the final preparations for the trip across the Gulf of Mexico. We took the dingy (Little Waci) off the davits. I ran it down the river to check it out and make sure everything worked OK. Once back at the boat, we hoisted it back in position and secured it for the trip. We made our Float Plan know to the marina, called our friends and Nan Ellen’s mother, and said goodbye to Carrabelle at 12:10 PM.

House at the end of Dog Island before entering the Gulf of Mexico through East Pass

Two fishermen on the sea grass line off Dog Island

Final marker from Carrabelle and the beginning of our trip across open water

The journey from dock to dock is about 180 miles and about 165 of those are across open ocean waters with no protection or anchorages possible. This makes the choice of days and the weather of paramount importance when choosing when to stay or when to go. We expect that we did enough homework to have a good chance at an “unmemorable” crossing. We don’t need any war stories.




Sunset on the Gulf

The trip was calm coming out of the river, but as we neared the inlet between Dog Island and St. Georges Island, the waves started picking up. After the final sea buoy, we were in solid 2 to 3 footers for the next couple of hours. Fortunately, we were directly into them, so the ride was OK. We expected the seas to calm down as we moved south, and they did. By 7 PM, it had calmed to about 1 foot, and by 9PM, it was nearly flat. It stayed this way all night.

Too cloudy to see the "Green Flash"

A Full Moon rising above us

We encountered a few boats on the way including a couple of commercial fishing boats, a couple of Sportfishermen, a small boat like ours, and a sailboat running without it’s sails and without the proper night lights displayed. Thank goodness for radar! We also saw one tug pushing 110 feet of barges toward Mobile AL. AIS (Automatic Identification System) is another wonderful tool for navigation and allowed us to “see” the tug on our Chartplotter long before we could visually see it. The wonders on modern navigation instruments!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We took a quick run across the bridge to 2 Al’s for breakfast – the same place we had dinner the night before.

Today’s major project was to replace the VHF radio that failed us yesterday. Interesting problem since it came on all by itself at 4 AM and woke us up like a fire alarm! It did not respond to turning it off initially, but I finally managed to turn it off – for about 10 minutes. It came back on again all by itself, so I pulled the plug on it. I will send it back to see if it can be fixed, but in the meantime, we need another radio to continue our journey. We were fortunate the C-Quarters marina had one in stock, so I bought it, and a cutting board (to make an adapter to make it fit in the dashboard). One of the marina guys let us use his jig saw to cut the cutting board to fit the radio. I already had a drill on board, so in just a couple of hours, we had the adapter made, the wiring harness soldered and ready to go.

Two masters at work replacing the VHF radio

What a craftsman!

Does green go to purple or is it red to black??????? Get out the book!!!

Another professional installation using a cutting board and a little time and patience

A quick radio check confirmed everything worked, and it was time for happy hour after another check on the weather. We are still good to go for Wednesday night / Thursday morning for our crossing.

While Skip and I worked on the radio project, Nan Ellen took a tour of Carrabelle and all the sights.

Service Members Memorial

Time for lunch?

We went to lunch at the Fisherman's Wife. Nan Ellen had peel and eat shrimp. Skip had an oyster Po-boy, and I had the fisherman's salad...yum.

Looks better than the phone booth we saw on the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway

We decided to go to dinner at the Spring Hill Restaurant in Crawfordville for Stone Crabs. Nan Ellen and I had visited there while on one of our recon trips in January and they had great stone crabs then as well as now. Skip had mullet, and Nan Ellen and I split a fisherman’s platter. Absolutely delicious, and not what you would expect in the middle of nowhere.

Back to the boat and bed as tomorrow will literally be a LONG day.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Moving day! Finally!!! Carrabelle, here we come.

We got up early for showers, stopped by McDonald’s for breakfast, said good bye to the Captain’s Corner, and cast off our lines. The run started out routine, but the wind was predicted from the east at 15 to 20, and this means possible rough water in the direction we were heading.

Cypress trees in the canal

We were in the canal and the river until we reached Apalachicola. We passed what appeared to be eagle nests and a swing railroad bridge before reaching what we hoped to be a lunch stop for more oysters.
  

Eagle nest?

Railroad bridge Apalachicola River

Railroad bridge swings closed for trains

We tried to stop at Boss Oyster Co. for lunch, but there was no suitable place to tie up, so we decided on peanut butter and jelly instead.

Captain Eddie being towed by a Classy Lady

We passed a disabled shrimp boat who had lost power earlier and was blocking the channel. Another shrimper came to his aid and towed him back to the dock. After passing under the bridge, we were into the bay and the east winds and rougher water.

Under the bridge and out into the Apalachicola Bay

I had noticed earlier that the VHF radio had lost its position data, and this is a problem if we need to send a distress call. It gets this information from the GPS and for some reason, had lost it. I had noticed this problem intermittently for the last few days, but could never pin it down. Worse, once we went under the St. Georges Island Bridge, the radio simply quit – no power – no nothing. I pulled out my handheld VHF, but it has very limited range and will not be acceptable as our only radio for the trip across the Gulf of Mexico. It never came back on despite my looking at fuses, checking the wiring harness, and a few choice words thrown at it – they never work anyway!

C Quarters Marina

Our slip - next to the fuel dock and the ice house

When we arrived in Carrabelle at C-Quarters Marina, our good friend Skip Harper literally just pulled in the parking lot. He came to accompany us across the Gulf. They put us on the lay along dock which is the walkway to the fuel dock and the ice house. Shrimpers come here to load their boats with ice and fuel before they start their day on the water. After fueling up the boat, I washed off the salt spray and we decided to go to dinner close by at 2 Al’s across the bridge.

Sign at 2 Al's

Another check of the weather revealed that Wednesday night / Thursday morning would be our best bet for our crossing, so we have an extra day in Carrabelle. We will need it to fix the VHF radio.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

This was another routine day that started with a trip to the showers followed by a trip across the breezeway to the Captain’s Corner for coffee, goodies, and conversation. Today’s goodies include some blueberry mini-muffins we bought at Piggly Wiggly on Saturday, plus someone else brought cookies and cinnamon rolls. I resisted the cinnamon rolls, but caved in for a blueberry mini-muffin and a couple of cookies. You get to meet a number of very interesting folks here in the morning. One of them is a fellow Auxiliarist and Power Squadron member from the Memphis area and one of them is a retired Army Major General (2 star) who lives here and just put his boat in the marina. There are the usual transients like us and a mixture of liveaboards and locals who keep their boats here. The Captain’s Corner is the local spot to solve all the world’s problems, or at least that is the way the conversation goes. Today’s problem was what is the length of the African Queen boat? Some had ventured over to Apalachicola yesterday for the Antique Boat Show where they saw a wooden replica of the African Queen. We will miss this place when we move on to Carrabelle and points south in Florida.

Last morning in the Captain's Corner - 2 Star General on the right standing

Back at the boat, I screwed the navigation light back together to finish the job I started on Saturday, and then it was time to check e-mails, the weather, and watch the news on TV.

Today’s tasks are to move the boat to the fuel dock for a pump out of the holding tank and then back to our berth, and to plot our course on the computer and transfer the course to the Chartplotter in preparation for our Gulf Crossing. We are still planning to move to Carrabelle on Monday to stage for the crossing on Tuesday afternoon and night / Wednesday morning. It should take about 22 hours to make the crossing by my calculations.

Saturday, April 20

The day started out cold and windy with the passage of a major cold front that dropped the temperature about thirty degrees from Friday’s highs. We had to break out the long pants and jackets. 

Getting ready to repair the water leak.

Nan Ellen decided to do laundry, so we stripped the bed to change sheets and discovered one corner of the mattress was wet. This can only mean one thing – we have a leak allowing water to enter from above. In the area where the water had come in, the only hull opening is the rail mounts and the starboard navigation (green) light. When I pulled the cover to check the navigation light, I noticed the base was cracked and loose. Ha-Ha, the culprit had been found! When I unscrewed it from the deck, it came up in 4 pieces – not a good sign. We pulled the wet mattress up in the cockpit where it could dry out for the day while I sealed up the leak. I did not have any clear silicone sealer on board, so we would need to make another trip to the Ace Hardware to pick some up. It is convenient to have these resources so close!

Port St. Joe Farmers Market

Fresh Produce and Breads - Best corn we have had this year!

They have a Farmers Market twice a month in Port St. Joe, so we hopped on the bikes (with my backpack for carrying stuff) and pedaled over to the Farmer’s Market. We picked up several items including fresh white corn, carrot jam, and banana bread. We took a look at the vendor selling goat meat and goat products, but did not purchase anything from him. We then visited another antiques store, but did not buy anything. Next stop was the Ace Hardware for the silicone sealer, then back to the boat.

 

Goat anyone? He has EVERYTHING goat!

Once back at the boat, I first used super glue to piece the base back together, and then the silicone sealer to seal up the hull opening that had allowed the water to enter the cabin. It was necessary to drill two new mounting holes to ensure that it would stay secured to the deck and not allow water to enter; I let the whole thing dry overnight before finishing screwing it all together on Sunday. 

Some reassembly required to finish repairing the leak -even if only temporary.

It was time for dinner, and we had seen that the Piggly-Wiggly will steam their fresh shrimp while you wait, so we decided to try them. They use a mixture of Old Bay and other seasonings, so we bought a pound and brought them back for dinner along with the fresh corn purchased at the Farmers Market earlier. The peel and eat shrimp was OK, but not great. The corn was GREAT!

After dinner, I took a look at the weather again. It looks like a suitable window may open on Tuesday night – Wednesday morning. We will make a decision on Monday morning to go to Carrabelle to be in position for a crossing on Tuesday afternoon and night.

I took care of some Auxiliary business and responded to a couple of e-mails before it was time for bed.

Friday, April 19

Friday started out as a stormy and rainy day. It was a good day to stay on the boat, update the Blog, and generally catch up on e-mails. We made a quick run to Piggly-Wiggly for some fresh white corn and a few other grocery items. For dinner, we had leftover chicken I had grilled a couple of days earlier along with the corn. We watched coverage of the Boston Marathon Bomber on TV and called it an early night.