Mother's Day, 2010

Herb, Norm, Joe, and John


The boat "Carol Jean" looks as tired and worn out as Carol Jean feels some days.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. You know who you are. I missed my children and grandchildren especially today, but I spoke to all of my children and my mother on the phone. That's the best we can do this year.

We abandoned our anchorage this morning at 6:30 A.M. We knew we had a long day ahead if we wanted to reach Dog River Marina in Mobile, AL. Along the way, we saw booms on beaches and laid next to entrances to harbors and bays, ready to be stretched across the openings in the event that the oil spill gets that close.We heard commercial boat captains on the radio complaining that people are canceling their charter reservations. Apparently, they have to cancel at least 30 days in advance to get back their deposit. No one knows for sure if the boats will be able to go out fishing in the next couple of weeks, so they are canceling. The charter captains are losing a lot of business. We also heard a couple of captains saying that BP is opening an office locally to hire captains to help with the clean up. What a mess!

We made it to Dog River Marina at 4:45 P.M. Another 10 hour day on the water. Herb and Joe are both planning on leaving tomorrow. Joe is going on to visit other friends and family, and Herb is going home. It's been a pleasure spending time with both of them. I'm certain that Norm is grateful for all of their help.

We are both having work done to our boats while we are here. We expect that it will take 2 to 3 weeks. Sue will be here around the 19th. It will be great to have a female person to hang out with.

Saturday, May 8,2010

We left Sun Harbor Marina in Panama City at 8:00 A.M. The people at this marina were extremely nice. We enjoyed our short time here and would go back again when we pass through the area. It was really windy and overcast. The water was pretty choppy and we thought for sure it would rain. We thought wrong. We passed a tow named "Miss Nicole" that was loaded with booms, we suspect for working on the oil spill clean up. The Chocktawhatchee Bay was cluttered with sailboats and even some wind surfers. It was so windy, we are grateful that we opted to run inside instead of in the Gulf.

Across from Fort Walton Beach, we spotted a small houseboat named "Savannah Girl". This made us think of Denny Shelton because his boat is a larger houseboat named "EHS Savannah". If boats had babies, the smaller boat could have been "EHS Savannah's" baby boat. Why does my mind think this way?

We quit for the day at 5:45 P.M. by anchoring at Navarre Park (just like on the way south). We blew around all night, but the anchor held us strong. We were all tired after the long day.

Friday, May 7,2010

After leaving Appalachicola at 8:00 A.M., we had a very comfortable day of cruising. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. We had long stretches of scenery that looked like humans had never been there before. Then there were stretches of huge homes and boat docks. All in all, it was a pleasant, enjoyable ride. We stopped for the day in Panama City at the Sun Harbor Marina. The people there were most helpful and kind. Sun Harbor has pump out, gas, diesel, laundry, showers, ship store, bar/restaurant, and clean docks. All for $1 a foot. What a deal.

Norm had an issue with his generator today. It overheated and when he took it apart, it turned out to be the impeller. So, he had a spare and fixed it along the way. It's always something.

Tomorrow we have another decision to make. That is whether to run in the Intracoastal, or to run in the open Gulf water. Either way, we are told it's a two day run from here to Mobile. We'll let you know what we decide to do tomorrow.

We Made it This Far

We decided that if we were going to cross the Gulf, Wednesday was the day to do it. We fueled up and headed away from Tarpon Springs around 11:30 A.M. When we got to the open water, the waves were 2 to 4 feet high. We were rocking and rolling. The weather was overcast and 85 degrees. As the night went on, the seas calmed and ended up being 1 to 2 feet waves. Once it was dark, the fog rolled in. It was so foggy, we could hardly see Norm's light on his boat right in front of us. Thank God for radar. We only saw a total of three boats on the radar, and two of those were when we were approaching the more shallow water at Carabelle.

During the course of the night, we had a mullet "fly" onto our boat. By the time we found it, it was dead. We also had a bird trying to stand on our spotlight while we were in the middle of the Gulf. He would fly to Norm's boat and land for awhile and then come to our boat and try to perch on the spotlight. He would slide off and go back to Norm's boat. I can't imagine how tired his little wings must have been.

We decided to keep going to Appalachicola before stopping to sleep. (We tried to take turns sleeping while the other one drove through the night, but neither one of us got much sleep that way.) We ended up at the Appalachicola Municipal Dock arriving at 10:45 A.M. This dock is nice and according to our cruising guide, it's $20 a night. Not bad. We are glad to be able to rest and get ready for tomorrow's cruise. So far, the oil spill has not reached the areas we are cruising. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

Anxious to get across the Gulf

Certainly, you have all heard about the BP Oil spill in the Gulf. We not only have to wait for our weather window to cross, but we now have to worry about the spill. Because of the winds and waves, it is not contained. We have to be sure that we won't come in contact with this spill because the oil would ruin engines and generators, etc. We even heard talk that if the wind and waves push it northeast, they could close the waterway into Mobile. We are hearing that the situation would remain until after hurricane season. That would mean we wouldn't make it to Kentucky Dam Marina at all. But, we are not going to borrow trouble. Our current plan is to leave here tomorrow around noon and cross. It looks like the best weather. It would be nice to have the smooth crossing like before, but that was unusually smooth and this will be slightly less smooth. Instead of 0 to 1 foot waves, it is forecast to be 2 to 3 foot waves diminishing to 1 to 2 foot waves. Our other option is to return to North Fort Myers in the safety of the Caloosahatchee River for the summer (and hurricane season).

Tomorrow morning we will listen to the updated weather forecast and make our final decision. We have Norm, Herb, Joe, and John all putting their heads together making this decision.

Tarpon Springs here we come

We left our anchorage at 8:00 A.M. We only traveled 26 miles to Tarpon Springs. We arrived at 12:15 and are staying at The Landings of Tarpon Springs. We are at the end of the navigable part of the Anclote River right in the downtown area of Tarpon Springs. This is a Greek town with lots of Greek restaurants, gift shops, bakeries, and a sponge museum. We all had Gyros for lunch.

It's hot and humid, but there is a breeze. They are calling for thunderstorms tomorrow. Time will tell. We are staying put until we find our weather window to make the Gulf crossing. At least it's a place where we can walk around and see things. We may even take the dinghy out tomorrow and explore if the weather is decent enough.

May 1, 2010

We were supposed to get rain last night. That's why we went to a marina instead of anchoring out. However, it was nice all night long. We left Venice at 8:00 A.M., not as early as we had planned, but just in time. There was a fishing tournament there that started at 9:00. As we were leaving, we saw the first half dozen or so boats arriving. That could have been ugly. It would have been like going the wrong way on a one way street. The weather was warm (85) and sunny and 15 mile an hour winds. Tampa Bay had some 1 to 4 foot waves pushing us the way they wanted to go at times. But, we prevailed. The scenery was gorgeous. There are so many very expensive homes to dream about. We saw dolphins again and we saw the Sunshine Skyway Bridge today as well. It's a really long and attractive bridge.

We stopped at 5:15 P.M. and anchored just south of the Welch Causeway Bridge. There are also about 10 other boats anchored here. We were hot and tired, so we had a nice cold salad for dinner and are chillin' out. Perhaps tomorrow we will make Tarpon Springs. Every day is a new adventure.