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…
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…
posted by Grant & Tabbie | 1:25 PM
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