Gulf Crossing

The railroad bridge was open for us to pass.

Appalachicola.

How the bridge pivots.

It’s falling in!

The bridge.

The pivoting railroad bridge.

Looper at the Tap Room in Apalachicola - so fun!

Us, Rusty and Darleen on Bama Breeze, Marco and Karen on Navigator, Glen and Tia on Child of the Sun and

Mitch and Judi on Mobilehome.

A railroad bridge that pivots for boats to get through. 

An old John boat on the the banks of the ICW on the

way to Apalachicola.

Jeff and Malcom from Stay Cool.

Appalachicola - fun place!

High Five Dive Bar.

Full moon.

The Tap Room at Appalachicola.

The Bowery at Appalachicola.

Cruising into Appalachicola.

Jeff and I.

Another picture of the setting sun with Old Glory flying.

Nebo, an app shows logs your journey and allows you to see other loopers on their journeys. 

Just a few waves. 

The water got a bit rough. 

Full moon!

You can see Orion’s Belt.

Sun is coming up!

Cruising while the sun sets -

 fairly smooth water.

                                          Setting sun.

                                 Navionics & dash lights.

                                         Rising moon.

       Our flotilla - Boomerang, The Mistress, Chao Chee Bai, 

              Stay Cool, Witness, Mobile Home and N2H2O.

               Radar - you can see The Mistress behind us.

                                            Crab pot.

                            Full moon lighting up the sky.

                          Full moon rising over the gulf. 
   The little engine that could - did!  We made it on the gulf crossing!  There were seven loopers crossing in our group and we were first!  After us came Mistress (Tony from Lake of the Ozarks), Chao Chee Bai (Jon and Renee - they're from the UK, but have lived in Singapore for the past 30 years), Stay Cool (Malcom and Rachel from Canada), Witness (Seth and Jen and their kids Mason and Madeleine from Portland), Mobile Home (Doug and Judi from Indianapolis, IN) and N2H20 (Keith and Becky - we don't know them - just met them).  

   We left Carrabelle at 3pm on Saturday to meet at the inlet at 4pm.  Then, we all headed out for Tarpon Springs.  When we left, it was fairly calm, sunny, warm, with very little wind.  We were all excited and some (me) were a little nervous.  Our flotilla was lined up and we were ready.  We had discussed our plan, had our routes lined out, our radio set to duo channel mode, (to monitor channel 68 to communicate any issues to each other, and on channel 16, which is the coast guard channel).  Of course, we had our life jackets handy in case we had an “man overboard” or pulled a Jack and Rose incident! Everything was stowed away on the boat (to avoid flying objects) - we were loaded for bear - or sharks in this case!

  We saw the full moon coming up from the east as the sun set in the west.  The moon shed some light on the seas, or it would have been pitch black, minus the stars.  Even with the full moon, we could still see Orion's Belt in the big, dark sky.  As the sun was setting, the sky grew to a deep red-orange color until the sun was no longer visible.  But in the east, there was still some blue visible above the water with a slight pink hue above the blue and then you could start to see the big, gray-white moon slowly creeping up to the sky. With the moon in the sky, it helped as it cast a light across the water.  

   As the night went on, the waves picked up a bit.  We had approximately 2-3 foot waves for a bout 4 hours.  We were never really worried; the waves were hitting us right in the bow, so we just rocked from end to end mostly - not side to side. Jeff sat at the helm for most of the entire 20 hours.  Me? I took a nap - even with the waves and occasional rollers - just rocked me to sleep I guess!

   As we were getting closer to our destination and as land started to come into view, so did the crab pots! They can be hazardous to boat motors; if you’re not careful, the lines can get entangled in your prop!  So, we were both on the lookout for crab pots and then notified our flotilla.  

  We all finally arrived to the first bouy of the entrance of the marked channel, we all said goodbyes, safe travels and congratulations on making the crossing. Some went to anchor out, some went to Clearwater and we went to Tarpon Springs, (as did Chao Chee Bai).  But I bet most went to have a beer and for sure to take a nap!

  We felt exhilarated, accomplished and exhausted!  But boy, it was something and I can’t believe we did it - but I’m so thankful we did! I miss some of the loopers we were with - we spent a lot of time together and really enjoyed their company. Im hoping we meet again somewhere downstream.