The end of the red line shows that we are in Tarpon Springs (for December 5-8)(Printed with permission from Raven Cove Publishing Co.)
1. Crossing the Gulf
2. Sunset anchorage near Pensacola
3. Back yard and dock belonging to Carl and Greg, Panama City
4. Carl, Roy, and Charlie doing some male bonding at Carl's home dock, Panama City
5. A Thanksgiving Feast in Greg and Carl's home (center) with Roy, Elvie, Linda and Charlie
6. Downtown Apalachicola
7. Great place to eat oysters at Papa Joe's, Scipio Creek Marina, Apalachicola
8 Charlie sliding his raw oysters down at Papa Joe's
9. Linda's Christmas corner above her galley sinkThis blog entry begins with today, goes back to two weeks ago and ends with today.
It is bright and sunny on this Friday afternoon of December 5, 2008. The temperature is 74 degrees; the winds are at 5-10 knots and are coming out of the northeast, and the waves are 2 ft or less. Charlie and I have the big blue sky and the vast amount of ocean water all around us. 1*
It is bright and sunny on this Friday afternoon of December 5, 2008. The temperature is 74 degrees; the winds are at 5-10 knots and are coming out of the northeast, and the waves are 2 ft or less. Charlie and I have the big blue sky and the vast amount of ocean water all around us. 1*
We are in the Gulf of Mexico about 13 miles off shore, about 20 miles north of Tarpon Springs, Florida where we will stay at their city marina for two or three days.
Ahead of us is another boat named ‘Golf Cart’ who we have the pleasure of traveling with for the past two days. “Golf Cart” is a 35 ft Nordhaven trawler. The owners are Bruce and Susan who will finally finish their Great Loop and arrive home in Naples in just a few days; having been on and off the loop for five years! They cruised on the loop for several months, left their boat somewhere along their way and came back home for a few months then back to the boat again to travel the next leg of their trip. Charlie and I have met several people who do this. We have also met several couples traveling on the Great Loop (we would guess 1 out of every 6) who sold everything and are living aboard their boats for an unspecified amount of time!
The color of the water today is now more of a beautiful blue green color than we have seen as we head more south; and it is more transparent here compared to the cloudy, blue grey color of the northern Florida Panhandle waters. We now need to wash down the boat more frequently due to the salt deposits forming on everything on the outside of the boat. The only excitement on the water today so far has been a few sea turtles we saw just floating in the water by our boat and the commercial crab boats tending to their hundreds of pots. We have been dodging these small red or white domed pots all day.
Two Weeks Ago: The Florida Panhandle
When we left the Tombigbee River in Alabama at Mobile Bay, we looper boats had different schedules with the holidays coming so we all split up as we left the bay. Not saying good-by, but see you later. We enjoyed the city of Fairhope where Linda got a short hair cut and we picked up our mail.
We left our marina in Fairhope on November 23 with our friends we had met in the past few days on the river - Roy and Elvie and their boat ‘Roy El.’ They had about the same game plan as us at the time. Since they had traveled the area before, we followed them for the next four days into Florida’s protective Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and the area commonly known as the Panhandle. The day after Thanksgiving, we said good-by to Roy and Elvie in Panama City. We had an absolutely wonderful time while with them. More about our wonderful Thanksgiving a bit later.
Back to entering the Florida’s Panhandle. I remember taking a nap just after we left the Mobile Bay. We had noticed the water there had been a brownish blue and the sandy shorelines a tan color. Then we were heading towards Pensacola on the ICW. I woke up and noticed the sand was white and the waters much more blue! And then we saw the sign welcoming us to Florida.* Another leg of the trip had just begun! Highlights included our first sightings of dolphins swimming in the wake of our boat and we passed a colorful and famous restaurant on the water named Lu Lu’s which is owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister. We could have pulled up to their dock to eat but it just didn’t work out. We anchored out and rafted to ‘RoyEl‘ our first night near Pensacola and took in a beautiful sunset. 2*
The ICW runs inside many white sandy barrier islands and is quite attractive with numerous other islands. There are lots of woods with oaks and pines with Spanish moss draped over everything and scrubby palmetto palms. Not the tropical look you’ll typically see further south but unspoiled of commercialism and distinctly pretty in its own way. The land here looks sparsely populated from our boat view. We frequently saw the diving pelicans feeding on fish and enjoyed several sightings of dolphins.
We spent the next night with Roy El at the free city dock in Ft. Walton Beach. Ate a great seafood lunch here and retired early after walking around and had supper on the boat. It rained hard that night. There was once a Colonel Walton who commanded the Confederates who lived here in the 1860’s and they named the town after him. The word ‘Fort’ was added in the late 1800’s and the word ‘Beach’ was added just 20 years ago as a tourist attraction. My main memory here will have to be me walking under a palm tree and felt something wet on my face and neck. A bird had done his business on me!
It was now two days before Thanksgiving. Roy and Elvie had been invited to their boater friend’s home (Carl and Greg) for the holiday in Panama City and were heading there next. Their friends have a private dock right on a bayou there. Guess who got to stay also and enjoy three lovely nights of being guests for a cocktail party, free dockage and a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings? 3,4,5*** We felt so wanted and comfortable and will never forget the hospitality of those lovely folks. We were delighted to get a call from our daughters and son-in-law and we spoke to my mother. All of them had a place to go for their turkey dinner and we felt like all was right in the world. We said good-by to everyone on Friday to keep going on our own. The next stop was Apalachicola.
One week ago: Apalachicola
According to the town’s tourist pamphlet, Apalachicola is known as a favorite stop by many as a small town of old Florida; a town with all the charm of a laid back fishing village and beautiful homes from the past. Entering the harbor there at near dusk, we felt a warm glow coming on as we observed a small village on the water with a gentle dose of Christmas lights. We could barely make out the gathering of people who seemed to be around a big tree with lights on it also. It was definitely a feeling of Christmas for us; not being around any seasonal displays or shopping malls. The next day we visited the village in daylight. 6*
In the early 1800’s Apalachicola was a major cotton exporting port, a lumber port at the turn-of-the-century with the cypress tree logging, a sponge industry and now seafood is the main business of the town specializing in oysters for those seeking one of the best places in the world to eat them. We did our part eating plenty of them, much to Charlie’s absolute delight. 7,8**
The Apalachicola River and Bay basin is part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System which covers approximately 21,794 square miles in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Within Florida, the watershed extends about 2,400 miles, containing the state’s largest forested flood plain, with more reptilian and amphibian species than in any other area north of Mexico. (This information was taken from a poster of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection displayed in the marina’s store)
There is an adventure to share from Apalachicola!
From Charlie: We had made arrangements with the harbormaster at the new city docks to spend the night. The price and location were right. After calling the city dock master we decided to tie up at the city docks ($25) at the pier; he assured us our 4 foot draft would be no problem out on the pier. We got in, tied up, electric, and noticed 4 foot depth and it was high tide! We would be on bottom at low tide! After scouting around I found another city dock on the outside (14' depth) near the bridge without electric. We spent the night there and moved to Scipio Creek Marina the next morning. It seems to be quite nice (restaurant and ships store) but about 1/2 mile from downtown; we'll live with that. Not as nice or hospitable as the Thanksgiving resort, but acceptable! We'll stay here a few days and move over to Carrabelle for crossing around Wednesday, if the weather clears as forecasted.
That night, after we got our docking problem cured, we met a single handing commercial fisherman from Panama City (Dan). He is a tug captain by trade, but fishes in his off time. He had just come in with a load of grouper and kept a few black/white snapper. He cleaned the snapper and had a local restaurant do the cooking for all of us. It was delicious. Another gentleman, Al King, had also befriended Dan, so the 4 of us ate together for about 2 hours. Quite a conversation, politics and all. When we got back to the boats, Dan took off for Panama City at about 10:30 PM. He phoned us the next morning to see if we got in to Scipio Creek and to let us know he made it to Panama City and got his grouper turned in. Quite an evening! By Charlie.
Three Days Ago: The Gulf Crossing
By the time we finished the Panhandle and the ICW we had traveled nine days, close to 250 miles east and a bit south to a town called Carrabelle. There we entered what is known as Florida’s big bend: the curved part of the state that goes south. This is the time when everyone plans their trip to cross the Gulf. “The Crossing” is one of the most talked about and planned parts of the entire trip. Your imagination can make this a fearful thing if you let it. The smart thing is to study the weather very carefully with other boaters and go for it based on the best information you can get.
It was December 2 and we were preparing to do our ‘crossing’ over the next day with four other buddy boats from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee.
Everyone traveling via boat in this part of the Gulf has to make their “crossing” one of two ways. Either you do the “elbow” which means taking several days visiting the sleepy little towns along the way, hugging the shoreline about 20-40 miles out where the minimum depth is about 1 ft for every mile OR make crossing the Gulf a direct, 24 hour cruise during all day and all night to go from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs, about 181 miles. Either way, you try to travel with at least one “buddy boat.”
Freedom’s Turn made her “big bend” journey successfully on Wednesday, December 3 from 7 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. with the boats “Highlander, Golden Lilly, Baby Grand and Golf Cart. Approximately 235 miles. Longer distance but all in daylight.
The day was predicted to be not perfect but one of the best two days in the week to go. The 2-4 ft waves with a 10 knot wind out of the southwest did not appear to be a big problem. So we went for it.
But the waves increased to 3-4’s with a 5 footer every so often and the winds increased to 15-20 knots from 10-15 hitting us directly on the bow. The length of the trip ( 6 hours of the bigger waves) was really the endurance test. We made it safely but not without some major stowing away of many items that would have been flying all over if left in their normal places. Charlie and I stayed put at the upper helm and kept looking out at the horizon, not wanting to read or write and only ate bananas and pbj sandwiches and lots of crystallized ginger candy to settle the stomach. We kept alert by talking to the other boats frequently on the radio. Whenever Charlie or I would go down below, we took our CB radios in case we needed to check in with each other. We drank very little because it was an ordeal to get to the cabin and to the head! But we made our crossing! I guess this was another one of those highlights of the trip that we had signed up for!
Yesterday, Freedom’s Turn and Golf Cart finished our day at Crystal River where we stayed at Twin Rivers Marina. We pulled in just before dark with about 90 miles under our belt coming from Steinhatchee. After a quick cocktail with Golf Cart, we cooked us some dinner and went to bed; but first managing to stay awake watching C S I.
We decided to leave again today and head for a reserved slip at the Tarpon Springs Marina, about 70 miles further south. We had read and heard about the manatees at Crystal River but only saw one (Charlie did see one stick its nose up out of the water to get air and then submerge) as we entered and left the channel.
We haven been traveling south in the Gulf of Mexico for the past three days along the western coast of Florida and are heading to St. Pete Beach in a week. That is where our good friends Demetri and Val live and have found us a slip in their marina for Freedom’s Turn to stay a few weeks while we take our trip back to Okemos for the holidays. It has been over a year since we last visited with Demetri and Val at our home port of Duncan Bay in Cheboygan, MI. Charlie and I look forward to seeing them and sure do appreciate them for finding us the slip!
From Charlie: This blog needs an ending so we will end it with today arriving in Tarpon Springs. First one more story about today. Let’s go back to the part at the beginning of this blog entry about the bright sunny day with no commotion except the crabbing boats and all the crab pots bobbing in our path. Weaving in and out of crab pots is not a fun way to navigate. Basically a crab pot is a mesh box on the bottom of the ocean (typically in 10-20 foot depth) connected to a small float (6-8 inches diameter) on the surface by a ¼ inch line. If there is a lot of slack in the line, it tends to float near the surface, and can extend quite a ways from the float. Needless to say we snagged one shortly after our traveling companions also caught one on their propeller. This necessitated me going under the boat to get the crab pot line off the prop. Only about 15 minutes, but quite an ordeal in the 60 degree water!
We’ll sign off now for the upcoming holidays. Charlie and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2009. 9*
Ahead of us is another boat named ‘Golf Cart’ who we have the pleasure of traveling with for the past two days. “Golf Cart” is a 35 ft Nordhaven trawler. The owners are Bruce and Susan who will finally finish their Great Loop and arrive home in Naples in just a few days; having been on and off the loop for five years! They cruised on the loop for several months, left their boat somewhere along their way and came back home for a few months then back to the boat again to travel the next leg of their trip. Charlie and I have met several people who do this. We have also met several couples traveling on the Great Loop (we would guess 1 out of every 6) who sold everything and are living aboard their boats for an unspecified amount of time!
The color of the water today is now more of a beautiful blue green color than we have seen as we head more south; and it is more transparent here compared to the cloudy, blue grey color of the northern Florida Panhandle waters. We now need to wash down the boat more frequently due to the salt deposits forming on everything on the outside of the boat. The only excitement on the water today so far has been a few sea turtles we saw just floating in the water by our boat and the commercial crab boats tending to their hundreds of pots. We have been dodging these small red or white domed pots all day.
Two Weeks Ago: The Florida Panhandle
When we left the Tombigbee River in Alabama at Mobile Bay, we looper boats had different schedules with the holidays coming so we all split up as we left the bay. Not saying good-by, but see you later. We enjoyed the city of Fairhope where Linda got a short hair cut and we picked up our mail.
We left our marina in Fairhope on November 23 with our friends we had met in the past few days on the river - Roy and Elvie and their boat ‘Roy El.’ They had about the same game plan as us at the time. Since they had traveled the area before, we followed them for the next four days into Florida’s protective Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and the area commonly known as the Panhandle. The day after Thanksgiving, we said good-by to Roy and Elvie in Panama City. We had an absolutely wonderful time while with them. More about our wonderful Thanksgiving a bit later.
Back to entering the Florida’s Panhandle. I remember taking a nap just after we left the Mobile Bay. We had noticed the water there had been a brownish blue and the sandy shorelines a tan color. Then we were heading towards Pensacola on the ICW. I woke up and noticed the sand was white and the waters much more blue! And then we saw the sign welcoming us to Florida.* Another leg of the trip had just begun! Highlights included our first sightings of dolphins swimming in the wake of our boat and we passed a colorful and famous restaurant on the water named Lu Lu’s which is owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister. We could have pulled up to their dock to eat but it just didn’t work out. We anchored out and rafted to ‘RoyEl‘ our first night near Pensacola and took in a beautiful sunset. 2*
The ICW runs inside many white sandy barrier islands and is quite attractive with numerous other islands. There are lots of woods with oaks and pines with Spanish moss draped over everything and scrubby palmetto palms. Not the tropical look you’ll typically see further south but unspoiled of commercialism and distinctly pretty in its own way. The land here looks sparsely populated from our boat view. We frequently saw the diving pelicans feeding on fish and enjoyed several sightings of dolphins.
We spent the next night with Roy El at the free city dock in Ft. Walton Beach. Ate a great seafood lunch here and retired early after walking around and had supper on the boat. It rained hard that night. There was once a Colonel Walton who commanded the Confederates who lived here in the 1860’s and they named the town after him. The word ‘Fort’ was added in the late 1800’s and the word ‘Beach’ was added just 20 years ago as a tourist attraction. My main memory here will have to be me walking under a palm tree and felt something wet on my face and neck. A bird had done his business on me!
It was now two days before Thanksgiving. Roy and Elvie had been invited to their boater friend’s home (Carl and Greg) for the holiday in Panama City and were heading there next. Their friends have a private dock right on a bayou there. Guess who got to stay also and enjoy three lovely nights of being guests for a cocktail party, free dockage and a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings? 3,4,5*** We felt so wanted and comfortable and will never forget the hospitality of those lovely folks. We were delighted to get a call from our daughters and son-in-law and we spoke to my mother. All of them had a place to go for their turkey dinner and we felt like all was right in the world. We said good-by to everyone on Friday to keep going on our own. The next stop was Apalachicola.
One week ago: Apalachicola
According to the town’s tourist pamphlet, Apalachicola is known as a favorite stop by many as a small town of old Florida; a town with all the charm of a laid back fishing village and beautiful homes from the past. Entering the harbor there at near dusk, we felt a warm glow coming on as we observed a small village on the water with a gentle dose of Christmas lights. We could barely make out the gathering of people who seemed to be around a big tree with lights on it also. It was definitely a feeling of Christmas for us; not being around any seasonal displays or shopping malls. The next day we visited the village in daylight. 6*
In the early 1800’s Apalachicola was a major cotton exporting port, a lumber port at the turn-of-the-century with the cypress tree logging, a sponge industry and now seafood is the main business of the town specializing in oysters for those seeking one of the best places in the world to eat them. We did our part eating plenty of them, much to Charlie’s absolute delight. 7,8**
The Apalachicola River and Bay basin is part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System which covers approximately 21,794 square miles in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Within Florida, the watershed extends about 2,400 miles, containing the state’s largest forested flood plain, with more reptilian and amphibian species than in any other area north of Mexico. (This information was taken from a poster of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection displayed in the marina’s store)
There is an adventure to share from Apalachicola!
From Charlie: We had made arrangements with the harbormaster at the new city docks to spend the night. The price and location were right. After calling the city dock master we decided to tie up at the city docks ($25) at the pier; he assured us our 4 foot draft would be no problem out on the pier. We got in, tied up, electric, and noticed 4 foot depth and it was high tide! We would be on bottom at low tide! After scouting around I found another city dock on the outside (14' depth) near the bridge without electric. We spent the night there and moved to Scipio Creek Marina the next morning. It seems to be quite nice (restaurant and ships store) but about 1/2 mile from downtown; we'll live with that. Not as nice or hospitable as the Thanksgiving resort, but acceptable! We'll stay here a few days and move over to Carrabelle for crossing around Wednesday, if the weather clears as forecasted.
That night, after we got our docking problem cured, we met a single handing commercial fisherman from Panama City (Dan). He is a tug captain by trade, but fishes in his off time. He had just come in with a load of grouper and kept a few black/white snapper. He cleaned the snapper and had a local restaurant do the cooking for all of us. It was delicious. Another gentleman, Al King, had also befriended Dan, so the 4 of us ate together for about 2 hours. Quite a conversation, politics and all. When we got back to the boats, Dan took off for Panama City at about 10:30 PM. He phoned us the next morning to see if we got in to Scipio Creek and to let us know he made it to Panama City and got his grouper turned in. Quite an evening! By Charlie.
Three Days Ago: The Gulf Crossing
By the time we finished the Panhandle and the ICW we had traveled nine days, close to 250 miles east and a bit south to a town called Carrabelle. There we entered what is known as Florida’s big bend: the curved part of the state that goes south. This is the time when everyone plans their trip to cross the Gulf. “The Crossing” is one of the most talked about and planned parts of the entire trip. Your imagination can make this a fearful thing if you let it. The smart thing is to study the weather very carefully with other boaters and go for it based on the best information you can get.
It was December 2 and we were preparing to do our ‘crossing’ over the next day with four other buddy boats from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee.
Everyone traveling via boat in this part of the Gulf has to make their “crossing” one of two ways. Either you do the “elbow” which means taking several days visiting the sleepy little towns along the way, hugging the shoreline about 20-40 miles out where the minimum depth is about 1 ft for every mile OR make crossing the Gulf a direct, 24 hour cruise during all day and all night to go from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs, about 181 miles. Either way, you try to travel with at least one “buddy boat.”
Freedom’s Turn made her “big bend” journey successfully on Wednesday, December 3 from 7 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. with the boats “Highlander, Golden Lilly, Baby Grand and Golf Cart. Approximately 235 miles. Longer distance but all in daylight.
The day was predicted to be not perfect but one of the best two days in the week to go. The 2-4 ft waves with a 10 knot wind out of the southwest did not appear to be a big problem. So we went for it.
But the waves increased to 3-4’s with a 5 footer every so often and the winds increased to 15-20 knots from 10-15 hitting us directly on the bow. The length of the trip ( 6 hours of the bigger waves) was really the endurance test. We made it safely but not without some major stowing away of many items that would have been flying all over if left in their normal places. Charlie and I stayed put at the upper helm and kept looking out at the horizon, not wanting to read or write and only ate bananas and pbj sandwiches and lots of crystallized ginger candy to settle the stomach. We kept alert by talking to the other boats frequently on the radio. Whenever Charlie or I would go down below, we took our CB radios in case we needed to check in with each other. We drank very little because it was an ordeal to get to the cabin and to the head! But we made our crossing! I guess this was another one of those highlights of the trip that we had signed up for!
Yesterday, Freedom’s Turn and Golf Cart finished our day at Crystal River where we stayed at Twin Rivers Marina. We pulled in just before dark with about 90 miles under our belt coming from Steinhatchee. After a quick cocktail with Golf Cart, we cooked us some dinner and went to bed; but first managing to stay awake watching C S I.
We decided to leave again today and head for a reserved slip at the Tarpon Springs Marina, about 70 miles further south. We had read and heard about the manatees at Crystal River but only saw one (Charlie did see one stick its nose up out of the water to get air and then submerge) as we entered and left the channel.
We haven been traveling south in the Gulf of Mexico for the past three days along the western coast of Florida and are heading to St. Pete Beach in a week. That is where our good friends Demetri and Val live and have found us a slip in their marina for Freedom’s Turn to stay a few weeks while we take our trip back to Okemos for the holidays. It has been over a year since we last visited with Demetri and Val at our home port of Duncan Bay in Cheboygan, MI. Charlie and I look forward to seeing them and sure do appreciate them for finding us the slip!
From Charlie: This blog needs an ending so we will end it with today arriving in Tarpon Springs. First one more story about today. Let’s go back to the part at the beginning of this blog entry about the bright sunny day with no commotion except the crabbing boats and all the crab pots bobbing in our path. Weaving in and out of crab pots is not a fun way to navigate. Basically a crab pot is a mesh box on the bottom of the ocean (typically in 10-20 foot depth) connected to a small float (6-8 inches diameter) on the surface by a ¼ inch line. If there is a lot of slack in the line, it tends to float near the surface, and can extend quite a ways from the float. Needless to say we snagged one shortly after our traveling companions also caught one on their propeller. This necessitated me going under the boat to get the crab pot line off the prop. Only about 15 minutes, but quite an ordeal in the 60 degree water!
We’ll sign off now for the upcoming holidays. Charlie and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2009. 9*
We'll get to blogging again in January.
Love to all,
Linda and Charlie
Love to all,
Linda and Charlie
