See You On The Other Side

Good Bye Apalachicola

It is now Sunday the 25th.  The BIG day.  Don and I got up early and went for a great long bike ride.  What a beautiful morning.  The town is so quaint, from one store to the next.  As we rode our bike the sections became a little more seedy and I was glad to get out of there.  Came back to the boat and prepared the last of the things for the crossing.  After putting the bike back on board Phil and Carolyn wanted to go out for lunch so we dropped by Carolyn's Restaurant for one last time.  Phil needed his oyster fix....  Great lunch again...  We came back to the boat and called Capt. John and sent him an email with all of our info on the crossing so that we would  have someone on land, that if we did not call him back by a certain time and he could not reach us that he would call the Coast Guard.  It is a great precaution and it made me feel better.  Don took a short nap before we were scheduled to leave.  I on the other hand was all wired up so I cleaned the boat.....  Go figure...




Dolphins at Play

Well the time has come it is now 4:30PM and we are ready to go.  Loopy Kiwi took the lead and we followed  Don and Phil had spoke to many fisherman about going out the Government Cut and the water depths and all said it was great.  The info was to as you are approaching the red and green markers in the channel keep to the right of centre and favor the green pass the first set of markers then go down the middle.  It was an absolutely beautiful evening. 



The Cut was fine going through with 4 feet under our hull and waves were 1 to 2 feet.  Sunshine our kitten did not think it was so smooth, she was not well and had been sick and was frothing at the mouth and did not look good and it concerned me.  We tried to give her a 1/4 Gravol but there was so much stuff coming out of her mouth I am not sure if it went down. After we got through the Gulf entrence the water was like glass and she relaxed and laided with Callie under Don's chair.  It was unbelievabaly beautiful with dolphins following us out and playfully jumping in front of our boat.  It looked like it could have been taken from a movie.  My fears of doing the crossing were some what eased but we werer only at hour 1 and had 16+ more to go...  As we moved along the sun was starting to set.  The best one that Don and I have seen.  Behind us we had the sun setting and in front of us we had the full moon. 


Tom Conrad from the AGLCA and his daily blog were dead on.  Hats off to you Tom and we owe you thanks and don't stop your blog.  We all are better off with you incharge....

As the nite progressed the temperature dropped a bit so we would turn on our generator for an hour and then shut it off.  Don insisted that I take and himself a Gravol just in case.  I did not feel queasie but it is better to be save than sorry.  Later I made mac'n cheese for dinner and it was a nice comforting dinner and not too much to eat.  I was quite amazed how the nite progressed so quickly.  It seems the next thing we knew it was 12:30AM and only 10 + hours to go.  Don took the first break after dinner for about 1 hour and fell sound asleep.  I took the second break after Don for about 1 hour and did the same.  The moon was so large and so bright and there were so many stars out.  The Gulf waters were glistening and the spray from the side of the boat looked like diamonds in the water.  Around 5:30AM the moon started to set into the Gulf.  Another once in a life time wonderful sight.  I thought it would be much darker out after it set but it was nice.





It was now approaching 7:00AM and the sun was just starting to come up.  Now as we were approaching Tarpon Springs we had to contend with the crab pots and the glistening sun on the water.  Don said it was easier to cross the gulf than to go through this G-- D-- stuff.  It took us about 2 or more hours of dodging and weaving through and around these pots.  You think that they could make them fluorescent or something.  Well we made it to Tarpon Spring and pulled into Turtle Cove Marina, great choice.

To sum up our crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, some 170+ miles, on the most beautiful nite with a full moon, was a once in a life time experience, BUT only once.  I was blessed to have I think the BEST Captain at the helm.