Leaving Carrabelle, The Gulf Crossing...Finally!
January 7, 2023
This past week after our failed attempt to cross the Gulf of Mexico, the information for a safe crossing pointed to Saturday night/Sunday morning. More boats were making their way to Carrabelle and by Friday night, there were 15 boats wanting to cross the Gulf. Those interested gathered Friday evening to discuss preferred speed, when they wanted to arrive on the west coast, and radar capability. There were 3 groups with ours being 3 boats wanting to go about 10 MPH. The goal was to leave at 3pm Saturday.
I did my last nature walk Saturday morning before leaving. My plan was to return to a wooded area near the water where I had seen a bald eagle and its nearby nest. I was hoping not only to see the eagle but also other birds. Luckily, I got to see the Bald Eagle near the nest (Eagle top of pine on left and nest in a lower pine at top of tree) and 3 different types of woodpeckers( Red bellied, Red headed, and Downy).
So Danny and I got everything together upstairs making it possible to take turns operating the boat while the other one rested on the upstairs sofa. I figured I could remember when I used to moonlight in the ER after working all day and Danny could have the mindset that we were flying to Europe, as he never sleeps to make it through the 18-20 hour trip. Our 3 boat group, Bama Breeze (Rusty and Darlene), Limitless (Rich and Sherry), and us left close to 3pm and headed out.
On the way out, we passed Dog Island where there are few houses and then R2 (Red 2) starting point.
Our boat 3rd in line, dolphins splashing between us and Limitless, Limitless in front of us, and Bama Breeze the speck out in front. We had a clear view of the sun setting in the west. A short time later, it was dark and Danny and I thought we saw a lighted boat coming from the east. It was actually the full moon rising from the water. It truly looked like the Gulf was blowing a big orange bubble. Pictures just don't capture it and it was beautiful! On the maps there were noted 3 fish towers in the Gulf. They were quite large structures much taller than any of our boats and if it had not been for the full moon, we would have never seen them. The towers appeared dark black to our starboard side with no lights, bells, or anything. I tried googling fish towers in the Gulf of Mexico and came up with nothing. No one on the other 2 boats knew anything about them either. This was very odd not to mention not being illuminated.
Sunset
Moonrise
Danny trying hard to stay awake!
While we each laid down for an hour or so, neither of us slept. As the light this morning broke the horizon, we could see some structures in the far distance. Our cruising was quite good until 3am when we got a little chop on the water. The item stressed to Loopers doing the crossing is the frequent finding of crab pots as you approach the land. Some people report them as far out as 15-20 miles off shore. Of course, we are not new to crab pots from our boating in the Chesapeake Bay. The stressful time is looking for the crab pots so they don't get caught in the prop(this could make the boat have problems moving through the water). The sun rising can be blinding as we were told it would be and certainly affected our ability to see the crab pots. The other 2 boats wanted to slow down because of the rising sun. They were both going to Tarpon Springs and we were going further south to Clearwater Beach. The lead boat asked us to move to the front prior to sunrise so we could look for crab pots as our headlight was stronger and we were familiar with crab pots. I would radio to the boats behind us when we saw one and gave them position. I will always remember Rusty saying, that's it? That's a crabpot? God, we could have easily missed one of those. We endured and arrived into Clearwater Beach at 10:46am, almost 20 hours later.
Danny models his crossing T-shirt!
When we approached into the inlet, it was very shallow and later found out in the marina, we should not have gone that way despite the electronics telling us otherwise. After cleaning the boat, we showered, got something to eat, Danny watched the Cowboys (although he didn't finish the game), and bedtime. Danny said he didn't want to make that trip again, I told him next time if we do the Loop again, we will take the "Big Bend Route" and we will get to see 3 more small towns. Our arrival at Clearwater Beach lasted less than 24 hours. But we had time enough to walk and see the beach. Found a nice little breakfast place, Caffeinated Bakery and enjoyed it. A retired couple started the business about 6 months prior to COVID. I didn't ask where they were from originally but the wife told me she works 4 days a week, he 3 days although they were both there when we were there.
TOTAL MILES TRAVELLED 995.3 miles
TOTAL DAYS 57
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