Day 63

The Encore…….. Today would be one of the most interesting days yet. We started the day out with rain, of course. We only had our bikes, so we spent most of the day in the boat. Ken and Becky opened their home to us and we went inside to watch a little TV. At about 6pm, it decided that it was going to clear up enough for us to ride our bikes to the little strip mall down the street. We wanted to pick up some milk so that we could make some diner with what we had left in our almost bare cupboard. We actually found a Chinese restaurant that was open and decided to eat there. We were the only ones there at first, but after awhile a stream of people came and picked up take out orders as we dined. We then decided to go to CVS pharmacy and get the milk. While in the store Grant had an idea. We were going to pick out $5.00 gifts for each other. So we were running and ducking around the store, trying to not let each other see what we were getting. Grant got Tabbie a chess board (which she had never played) and Tabbie got Grant a nose hair clipper. (He asked for one, so she though it was a good gift) Then they went home and played chess, which Tabbie beat Grant on. They settled in for the night at about midnight, eager to get ready for the next two days. They had to clean the boat and pack for Monday.

At about 4am, they wake up to the boat cleats squeaking from the tensed ropes. Grant goes outside to check on the rope. At about this exact time, Hurricane force winds came whipping through the canal. The boat starts rocking violently back and forth. Things in the cabin start falling off shelves, and the TV. Crashes to the floor. Grant comes in and yells, “We got to get off the boat”. It was like straight out of a movie. Tabbie quick grabs, the wallets, cell phones, her jewelry, and digital camera and stuffs it all in her purse. We then make our way to front of the boat, which is where the dock is. Each time we get on and off the boat, we have to climb to the front of the boat, pull a rope that brings us closer to the corner of the dock and then “JUMP” off. Tabbie got off first as Grant pulled with all his might and brought the boat as close to the dock as possible. The ropes on the boat at this time were ones that Ken had provided us. Needless to say that they were old and weathered and couldn’t endure the violent rocking of the boat. The one tied to the dock was at about maximum capacity and kept stretching itself. The bow of the boat was about 8-10 feet from the dock at this time. Tabbie was going to have to pull the front in, against the Gail force winds, close enough so that Grant could jump. However, the wind was so strong that it kept pulling away and giving Tabbie rope burns on her palms. Finally she got it close enough for him to try. He climbed over the railing and was going to jump when another burst of wind came through and pushed the boat back out. Grant went flying from the boat, but managed to hang on the railing. He was holding on while his body and legs were thrashing against the outside of the boat. He managed to pull himself back up and Tabbie tried again and pulled it close enough for his to successfully jump. Grant then ran up to the house and went to the front to ring the doorbell to wake up Ken. It was amazing the difference in the wind. Up at the house, you could barely tell that a storm was occurring. All of the houses protected each other from the wind and the noise. Once Ken was up, we ran back down to the boat to try and secure the ropes. Grant climbs back onto the boat and tossed Tabbie some of our rope, which we secured to the cleats and the pylons. The boat continued to rock forcefully, and we were afraid that it would not make it through the night, however, after we had put the additional lines on, there was not much that we could do. We went back up to the house were Marina made us a bed to sleep that night and Becky gave us some dry clothes. We watched the weather channel for a while that night and continued to keep our eye on the boat. It was taking all the wind on the side of the boat, which was causing it to pull tensely on the ropes. While standing on the dock Tabbie could feel the plank boards being lifted up and down as the boat pulled on the ropes. We were worried that it might break free and crash into the pylons, and then the boats next to us, but miraculously the boat held. And at 8am in the morning, the storm subsided. Tabbie went back down to the boat while Grant slept in a little. She picked up the boat, and put some things away. We didn’t quite dare pick up the TV. Yet. Tabbie thought that she had heard the glass shatter and the casing had cracked itself and broke off completely. Grant spent the morning, re-securing the ropes and cleaning up on the outside of the boat. At about 10am, Becky came out and invited us to come up for breakfast. We were still shaken from the whole incident. We decided that day to start looking for an apartment as soon as we could. It was our first dangerous storm in the boat and hopefully our last. Ken informed us that day that the winds that we experienced were worse than the ones that came through with the hurricanes. The weather channel reported the gusts to be as strong as 50-60 miles per hour, but it seemed much more dangerous than that. All around us, we had damage. Tarps and canvas covers were ripped off boats, screened in porches were torn and shades were scattered. Branches and fruit from trees was everywhere. Thank goodness we were not out in the bay somewhere on the hook, we would not have know what to do. Especially since we don’t have a dingy. It was fortunate that we were near land and a dock. We were lucky to not be hurt. It would be an interesting start to our stay here in Florida.

Day 62

We woke up early to threatening weather, and decided to wait it out. We thought we could make Clearwater today, but due to the weather we will be lucky to make Tarpon Springs. Grant kept the weather tuned in on the VHF, and we waited for our chance. It was a good thing we waited, because at about 9:30 there was severe weather about 10 miles south of us with winds up to 50 mph! That would have been very bad if we were at sea in those conditions. Waves as high as 10 feet! (We had 5-7 foot waves yesterday). We got the residual of the storm to the north and were a bit concerned about the anchor holding. The winds were about 25 mph, and gusty. Grant started the engines to warm them up incase the anchor let loose so we could at least be under power and try to keep the boat from hitting anything. Worse case scenario was a beach not too far from us we could put the boat on without too much damage… Fortunately the anchor held, and we weathered the storm. About 11:00 the national weather service lifted the severe thunderstorm warning for the area, and we waited an additional 30 minutes for the dark clouds to pass. The weather was still gloomy, and there was a 70% chance of showers the rest of the day, so we figured we would get wet whatever we decided, so off we go!!

We stayed as close to shore as we could, and the sea was not all that bad. We ended up traveling the whole day with clouds threatening rain, but somehow we were able to avoid all of it! Lucky day – did I mention we saw more dolphins today?? I hope to see dolphin’s everyday I travel on the gulf, as I believe them to be a sign of safe travel. About 5:00 we had a decision to make – go to Tarpon Springs or keep on to Clearwater. According to our ETA on the GPS, we wouldn’t be able to get to Tarpon Springs until just after dark, and we were only going to be able to anchor there, so it would have been difficult to find a good anchorage at night. Clearwater was about two hours past Tarpon Springs, but we were able to get a slip at the local city marina. We decided to test our luck and travel at night to go on to Clearwater. About 6:30 we lost all sunshine, and were in the dark the rest of the way. The most difficult part of traveling at night was finding the crab traps, and avoiding them! We kept the spotlight on the water in front of the boat, and it seemed to do the trick. Traveling at night ended up being quite peaceful, and the winds calmed down, so we made good time. It was also comforting because we were able to see the lights form the city and knew exactly where shore was. It is funny, because you learn to determine where on the chart you are approximately by judging the lights on the shoreline, and matching them up with cities/islands along the way. Not too much different than flying and trying to match up the cities/freeways up on the maps to what you see below…

We arrived in Clearwater about 9:00, and tied up to the dock to settle in for some much needed rest. Today was almost as long as our crossing two days earlier, and nearly as tiring. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we had spoken with Ken and Becky (friends in St. Petersburg) and they invited us to a party tomorrow night if we make it in time.

Day 61

We woke up early to threatening weather, and decided to wait it out. We thought we could make Clearwater today, but due to the weather we will be lucky to make Tarpon Springs. Grant kept the weather tuned in on the VHF, and we waited for our chance. It was a good thing we waited, because at about 9:30 there was severe weather about 10 miles south of us with winds up to 50 mph! That would have been very bad if we were at sea in those conditions. Waves as high as 10 feet! (We had 5-7 foot waves yesterday). We got the residual of the storm to the north and were a bit concerned about the anchor holding. The winds were about 25 mph, and gusty. Grant started the engines to warm them up incase the anchor let loose so we could at least be under power and try to keep the boat from hitting anything. Worse case scenario was a beach not too far from us we could put the boat on without too much damage… Fortunately the anchor held, and we weathered the storm. About 11:00 the national weather service lifted the severe thunderstorm warning for the area, and we waited an additional 30 minutes for the dark clouds to pass. The weather was still gloomy, and there was a 70% chance of showers the rest of the day, so we figured we would get wet whatever we decided, so off we go!!

We stayed as close to shore as we could, and the sea was not all that bad. We ended up traveling the whole day with clouds threatening rain, but somehow we were able to avoid all of it! Lucky day – did I mention we saw more dolphins today?? I hope to see dolphin’s everyday I travel on the gulf, as I believe them to be a sign of safe travel. About 5:00 we had a decision to make – go to Tarpon Springs or keep on to Clearwater. According to our ETA on the GPS, we wouldn’t be able to get to Tarpon Springs until just after dark, and we were only going to be able to anchor there, so it would have been difficult to find a good anchorage at night. Clearwater was about two hours past Tarpon Springs, but we were able to get a slip at the local city marina. We decided to test our luck and travel at night to go on to Clearwater. About 6:30 we lost all sunshine, and were in the dark the rest of the way. The most difficult part of traveling at night was finding the crab traps, and avoiding them! We kept the spotlight on the water in front of the boat, and it seemed to do the trick. Traveling at night ended up being quite peaceful, and the winds calmed down, so we made good time. It was also comforting because we were able to see the lights form the city and knew exactly where shore was. It is funny, because you learn to determine where on the chart you are approximately by judging the lights on the shoreline, and matching them up with cities/islands along the way. Not too much different than flying and trying to match up the cities/freeways up on the maps to what you see below…

We arrived in Clearwater about 9:00, and tied up to the dock to settle in for some much needed rest. Today was almost as long as our crossing two days earlier, and nearly as tiring. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we had spoken with Ken and Becky (friends in St. Petersburg) and they invited us to a party tomorrow night if we make it in time.

Day 60

We were more exhausted than we thought, and overslept the alarm, and didn’t get moving until 9:00. Because of this, we would not be able to make the 100 miles to Tarpon Springs, and would have to settle spending a night on the hook in Cedar Key. Grant got the boat fueled up and spoke with the dock master on the best anchorages for the night. We had a nice day for cruising; the sea wasn’t as rough since we were only 20 miles offshore at any given time during the day. Cedar Key was on about a 60-mile trip so we were able to get there around 3:00 in the afternoon. It is very shallow around the key and we had to carefully navigate through the channel that was not the easiest to see. Markers were few and far between until we got in closer, and we had to watch the depth sounder very closely. Once in we anchored about 200 feet from the main dock for Cedar Key. This was one of the places that Grant wanted to stop, but unfortunately since we did not have a dinghy, we could not go into town. We were warned that the city dock was very dangerous, and that every boat that tried to tie up got damaged in some way due to the tides in the area. Well, we made it here, but can’t stop!!

Grant found a new feature on the GPS called an anchor alarm. We left the GPS on overnight, and if the boat moved out of a defined diameter (100 ft) the alarm would go off to wake us up. That gave us some added comfort to rest easy.

Day 59

Today is the big day! We have made as many preparations as we could for the crossing, and now it is time to test our luck and ability… We left about an hour before sunrise since we knew the bay after taking the boat out the other day to test the repairs. We wanted to get across Apalachicola bay and hit the gulf at sunrise to give us the most time to cross incase our cruising speed was slower due to large waves in the open water. No engine hesitation all the way out to the gulf, which was a good sign. Traveling in the dark in open water is quite a challenge, but thankfully for the GPS we were able to keep it straight for the waypoint and not worry about running into shallow waters. The toughest part was not being able to see the waves coming at us so we could maneuver appropriately.

We got to the cut to the gulf right when the sun was coming up and watched a beautiful sunrise (our first on the trip!!). Well, time to plug in the coordinates to the waypoint on the other side of the world (90 miles) and hope the GPS doesn’t lead us astray!! About an hour and a half out into the gulf we left the sight of land, and of course the engine hesitates a little. Well, we are close enough we can still turn back, but we decide to ride it out for an hour and see if it happens again. It will be 9 hours before we will be able to see land again!!

Although this was the best-forecasted day to make the crossing, the sea was still a little rough, and to quote one of the few Seinfield episodes I have seen “The Sea was angry that day, my friend!” Ok, not so angry, but a bit perturbed! The wind was from the southwest, so we were taking the waves on the starboard bow, and about every 15 minutes we hit a big one and the boat would come crashing down and spray would come all the way over the fly bridge. All Grant was thinking about was it was going to be a pain to clean all the salt off the chrome and seats! During this time, Tabbie decided she wasn’t feeling so well, in fact, she was huddled up in a ball in the center of the lower cabin breathing very softly! She claims it was the sickest she has ever felt, but fortunately she did not loose her stomach!! All Tabbie could think about was how Grant was going to fall off of the fly bridge into the gulf and she would be too sick to notice that he was gone. She was sure that something bad was going to happen. She even put all of her jewelry and valuables in plastic bags and zipped them into her cargo pants for safekeeping. Then she wore a life vest all day, even inside the cabin. She wasn’t taking any chances. Unfortunately for us, we forgot to prepare one thing prior to leaving – lunches! Richard from West Marine in Mobile even told us to do so because he said we wouldn’t be able to make a sandwich due to the rocking of the boat, and he was right! Grant resorted to eating a slice of bread every hour to keep his concentration up and settled for the bottled water we fortunately had. Tabbie, tried to make a peanut butter sandwich, and couldn’t because the boat was rocking so much she kept ripping the bread when trying to spread the peanut butter!! About 1:00 Grant started honking the horn dramatically to get Tabbie’s attention because about a dozen dolphins were making a B-line for the boat!! They came directly at us from the front and were jumping like crazy!! Unfortunately the waves were too much for Tabbie to crawl up on the bow, but you could see them playing on off our bow from the fly bridge, and they would jump completely out of the water!! Hopefully they will be good luck for the rest of the day!

At about 4:00 we could see land again, and the waters had calmed down since we were only 15 miles off shore. Easy trip to the channel, assuming the GPS is taking us to the right place. Sure enough at about 5:30 we hit the channel, and the GPS was accurate to within a few feet… And who do we hear on the radio when get to the channel – Angel of course! He had left for Carrabelle from Apalachicola while we were getting repairs, and he got stuck in Carrabelle until today! It was nice to hear a familiar voice. We got to the marina at 6:00, which coincidently was right at sunset, so it was a good thing we left before sunrise to make it to the marina!

Phil from Angel came over to help us tie up and we decided to go to dinner with him at the local hot spot. The restaurant came to pick us up and we enjoyed a nice celebration meal after making the crossing without any hardship! Phil ended up also making a bit of a crossing himself, however he was north of us and went on 75 miles to our 110 for the day.

Back to the boat and to bed because we are going to try for Tarpon Springs in the morning to beat the cold front coming into the area, otherwise it may be 3-4 days before we can leave and that may make us miss the flight for next Monday…

Day 58

Almost two months on the water. And we are so close. We got some really good news today. The contact that Grant had in St Petersburg called us back today and informed us that we could tie up to his dock! This is perfect because we were stressing out about finding a good marina close to Tampa. Everything we were finding was full, expensive, or too far north or south. What a blessing! This decreases the stress level a little bit…

Some really bad news, Grant got the bill for the repairs and it was a bit excessive. The marina charged him $100 for lifting the boat 5 ft. out of the water for ½ hour, and $75 for allowing the mechanic to do work on the premises!! Man, the marnia is making out on this one, the mechanic who worked on the boat for 3.5 hours made less than the marina for their 15 minutes of work!!

We are still preparing to leave tomorrow. We will be getting up very early and leaving before it even gets light. We have about an hour’s trip to get to the gulf, so we want to make it there by daylight. We are still only going to Steinhatche. We don’t want to chance the motor causing us problems…

Day 57

Another nice day today. We took the boat out to test the “fixes”. Only bad news, about 2 miles out, it hesitated again. The mechanic was positive that he fixed the problem, so we figured it was just some air left in the line from when he was fixing it. It didn’t choke and die like it was doing before, so at least that is a good sign. Grant wasn’t too worried about it, just a small concern.

After we came back, we walked into town, but found that everything was closed down. A lot of these shops just open and close as they please, and around the holidays, they are closed more than open. The town was also fairly dirty. Not clean like Panama City was. Panama City was almost pristine. It seems like this town has a lot of industry, which tends to make it dirtier. It is the Oyster capitol of the world, and also has a large shrimping industry as well. We were looking for a malt shop, but found that also closed, so we settled for an ice cream cookie sandwich from the local gas station. It was a lazy afternoon and we spent the rest of the day playing cards, having a Tetris competition on Grants phone and making our weekly phone calls. Tomorrow we prepare for leaving on Tuesday. That still seems like our best day. It will be about 20 degrees the next few days and then a warm up. We can’t wait. This cold weather is getting to us….