Long Cruise & Lots of Complicated Options

Days on cruise:  241

Distance traveled:  78.1 miles

Travel time:  7 hrs, 36 minutes

Total trip odometer:  5,358 statute miles

A major Great Loop milestone is coming up soon, referred to as the “Gulf Crossing”.  It’s one of the 3-4 biggest challenges Loopers face, and most spend a good bit of time planning for it. There’s a guy, Tom Conrad, who has made the journey a zillion times, and from November to March each year, he posts daily “Tom’s Musings”, summarizing his view of any days that constitute a good, safe, comfortable crossing based on weather data and lots of other inputs. His reputation for calling these weather windows accurately is so great that he’s considered the Looper’s Guru of Gulf Crossings. We’ve been reading his daily winter musings for three years and are impressed.  AND he’s funny!

Not surprisingly then, we’ve been closely following his daily musings since our return to Next To Me almost a week ago as we traveled east along the Florida Panhandle, drawing closer each day to the “jumping off point” for the Gulf crossing.  This morning we read he’s predicting a 3-4 day window of opportunity starting tomorrow (Wednesday) night, so unexpectedly, we decided to pick up our pace and position ourselves for the possibility of doing The Crossing this weekend. Below is the 78-mile journey we made today, starting late, and ending just as it was getting dark at our anchorage in Wetappo Creek. This is the first time it’s been warm enough to anchor out without heat.

At the Great Loop Rendezvous on the Tennessee River in October, Tom was a seminar presenter, and among other things, explained the demographics of Florida using the chart below.

Today’s journey provided us with a smaller number of dolphin sightings, but we did have companions surfing our bow wave a couple of times.  Happily, today was at least 10 degrees warmer, both lows and highs, than we’ve seen since we returned to the boat, though the sky remained grey.

Portions of the trip were in narrower channels that looked sort of like the Midwest and southern rivers,

including some humble abodes,

and two adventurous kayakers willing to travel in alligator country.

Wind and water were calm all day.

Late in the afternoon we entered marsh country, with more trees, but otherwise looking a bit like the Georgia Marsh Country we traveled early last April.

The map below depicts the Gulf Crossing issue. Two alternative blue lines leave the tiny town of Carabelle on the Panhandle: one hugs the shoreline heading east and the other “jumps” across the Gulf.  The shoreline route is  severely shallow, and so tide dependent, that few people take it, as it can take a week, or even two, to link together enough good weather days with tides to complete it. The “jump” route is 170 miles across wide open water from Carabelle to Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida, and those who take this route are 50 miles off-shore at the greatest point. Most Loop boats are slow trawlers than make the journey at 8-10 mph, so need 17 or more hours to complete the journey. This requires an overnight trip, with 11-12 hours of it in the dark.  Fast trawlers, like ours, can do it in about 11 hours total, so can complete the whole trip in daylight hours if all goes well. The challenge is finding one or more “buddy boats” to accompany you, at your speed and schedule. As far as we know, no one makes this trip alone as you want someone close by and in VHF radio contact in the event of any problems while a long way offshore.

So while underway, we spent most of today researching alternatives. Craig and Barbara on “Blue Heron” have a fast trawler and will be ready to make their Gulf Crossing about a week from now.  Stephen and Charlotte on “Jackets II” also have a fast trawler and will be ready to cross in 10 days to two weeks. Unfortunately, we’ll be in Carabelle tomorrow night, and it’s a tiny town with almost nothing to do, so a long wait is not appealing. Further, suitable “weather windows” to make the crossing can be rare in winter months, and one seems to be starting tomorrow for 3-4 days, so our conundrum is whether to make an overnight crossing with other slow boats who are ready now, or wait on our fast boat friends? Ross and Laura on “The Zone”, our Big Sister Ship (a 52-foot Jefferson to our 42-foot Jefferson) are already in Carabelle and poised to make an overnight journey in the next couple of days. So . . . what to do? We’ll keep you posted as plans develop!

Monday on the Gulf ICW

Days on cruise:  240

Distance traveled:  51.9 miles

Travel time:  6 hrs

Total trip odometer: 5,281 statute miles

The “green track” showing today’s course got turned off by mistake so doesn’t show the whole route. We began the day by the bridge in the lower left-hand corner on Santa Rosa Sound, a mile or so wide, but mostly very shallow, with the usual ICW dredged, 10-12 foot deep channel that means you have to stay alert or you’ll quickly find yourself outside the marks in 1-2 feet of water.

A great feature of the day was brilliant sunshine and temps  5-10 degrees warmer than the past few days. We wore sunglasses all day, but forgot to wear sunscreen. Compared to the past few days there were very few dolphins. And all day long we only saw 2-3 other boats, and those were small, local fishing boats. Florida panhandle boaters DON’T cruise this time of year!  We’ve got the ICW to ourselves.

This sailboat is “floating high”, or rather grounded, in water that’s just outside the channel and only a couple feet deep. It’s anchored, so he must have drug his anchor into shallower water. Bummer!

We had lots of trouble finding red and green markers in the distance today, especially the smaller floating kind, and we wondered aloud why “they” used white markers with red or green rings at the bottom, which are so much less visible. Turns out the white part is bird poop!

This is the most interesting water tower we’ve seen.

Finally late in the journey we saw our first dolphins of the day, and Bob was right: as soon as we started singing to them, they left!  We’d been instructed by others, no joke, that this is a method to keep them trailing along. Guess that tells you how badly we both carry a tune!  We also finally saw our first palm trees since last summer; they are few and far between here on the Florida panhandle.

Mid-afternoon we pulled into Baytowne Marina at Sandestin, a residential resort community adjacent to the city of Destin. The usual marina fee is $3.25/foot/night which is awfully high, but they only charge Loopers $2.00/foot/night so we decided to stop and take advantage of the amenities. They have single family homes as well as condos, four 18-hole golf courses, 25 tennis courts, bicycles and golf carts both made available for marina guests, loads of restaurants and shops, and a spectacular adjacent beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

As soon as the boat was secured, we got a couple bikes and took off. The bike trails wound their way through pretty spaces and were flat and safe.

At the end of the trail we locked up the bikes and went for a long walk on the sugar-white beach.  First time we’ve worn flip-flops since our return to the boat; it felt great!

We returned to the boat just in time to catch another lovely sunset. It’s not clear from the photo below, but the boat parked in front of ours on the right side of the photo below is solid BLACK, a most unusual color for a boat!

We had cocktails on the sundeck for the first time, as it’s been too cold until tonight.

Now we’re starting to make plans for our big Gulf crossing, hopefully later this week. More on that topic later, but it’s beginning to dominate our thinking and conversation.

Dinner @ LuLu’s and On To Florida

Days on cruise:  239

Distance traveled:  34.8 miles

Travel time:  4 hrs, 9 mins

Total trip odometer:  5,229 statute miles

Today’s travel was easy, if cold, with only Pensacola Bay to throw up some whitecaps, current and wind; the rest was calm.

Dinner at LuLu’s last night was fun; interesting to see the place we’ve heard so much about, though our waiter told us it was “dead” last night compared to summer when the line at the door for a table is 2+ hours. We’re glad we’re here in winter! There’s live music every night from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but only on weekends in winter months.

The one-man band was good, but not great. The same could be said of their $8 margaritas served in a plastic cup.  Where’s Charlotte when we need her? The “Cheeseburger in Paradise” was also good and more reasonably priced at $10.

There’s lots of outdoor entertainment at LuLu’s, including volleyball, a ropes/climbing structure, a sandy beach, and Corn Hole, a game we recently heard about for the first time from our soon-to-be-son-in-law Justin. Cathryn gave it a try (below) in the dark, windy, cold evening, and found she needs to practice. Merwin and Crystal first introduced us to the Bahamian “Ring Game” (above) last January at Fort Pierce.

LuLu’s sits directly on the Gulf ICW and no doubt has a  great view of the action in warmer months when the windows are thrown wide open.

We  left Homeport Marina and Lulu’s Sunday morning to continue our eastward trek along the Panhandle.

The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Alabama is lined by homes, but more modest ones than in Florida.

It’s also not all big yachts.

All we need is some sunshine!

We must be in Florida; first pink house in many months.

We were right!

Another sign: sugar-white sand dunes.

What’s that? Beside the boat!

We’ve got company!

We were going 9mph, and they had no trouble keeping up.

This pair of bottle-nosed dolphins followed the boat for more than 5 minutes before they tired of surfing in our bow wake.

Cathryn says if Bob sings to them while taking photos, they’ll stay longer.  Bob thinks they’d leave immediately.

It ain't the Tenn-Tom anymore, above.

With both wind and current contributing to the difficulty, Cathryn threaded her way backwards through these pilings to get us into our slip at Santa Rosa Yacht and Boat Club.  The experience sure proved Captain Chris’s saying “make the pilings your friend” come true as she used them to “assist” in the turn.

The photos illustrate that the weather continues to be grey, cloudy and cold.  While warmer than the 37 degrees on our first morning at Dog River Marina, it’s still mid 50s during the day and drops to the low 40s at night. The forecast is for 70 later in the week, with night time lows in the 60s.  We hope so as there are some great anchorages in this stretch, but it’s too cold to go without heat, so we’ll stay in marinas until it warms up. The dockmaster here says Santa Rosa has two seasons: January and Summer! Reminds us of what we were told while in Alaska a couple years ago, which they say also has two seasons:  August and Winter!

Escape From Dog River: Or Back In The Groove

Days on cruise: 238

Distance traveled:  37.0 miles

Travel time:  4 hrs, 24 mins

Total trip odometer:  5,194 statute miles

Thursday’s flights from Seattle to Houston and on to Mobile were uneventful, and at 9:30 pm we were met at the airport by Glen, the project manager from Dog River Marina for our boat repairs while we were back home, and his wife Susan. Mighty nice folks. What a relief to arrive at the boat tired and late at night, and find it had been washed that day, the heat was turned on in preparation for our arrival, and the courtesy car was already reserved for our use Friday.

Re-adjusting to boat movement and noises made for a less than fully restful night, but it was great to wake to longer hours of daylight (one hour longer on each end than in Seattle) and brilliant, glaring even, sunshine! Temp was mid 30s during the night, high 50s in the afternoon, and the locals say it’s colder than normal.

Friday was chore day: checking work done by Dog River Marina, installing a new door latch/lock on a sundeck wing door, laundry, grocery shopping, moving the boat to the fuel dock to fill the tanks and get a pump-out, and finally dinner at the Mobile Yacht Club, courtesy of Dog River Marina, in thanks for our patronage of their services. The folks here have been incredibly friendly and professional, their work was well-priced (or at least exactly in line with what we expected), and they took good care of every need we communicated and some we didn’t.

This morning under cold, gray skies we headed south 20+ miles on Mobile Bay, traveling in the Shipping channel for a while, past the Mid-Bay Lighthouse and numerous barges, container ships and freighters.

After 25 miles on the Bay we turned east to enter the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway which runs from Brownsville, Texas to the Florida Keys. There it becomes known as the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and continues north to Norfolk, Virginia; either way we we’ll refer to it as the ICW.

Early afternoon we pulled into Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, Alabama and parked right next to Jackets II, our friends Charlotte and Stephen, the first Loopers we ever met exactly a year ago in Fort Pierce, Florida. Sadly, they’re still home for the holidays in Jacksonville, so we won’t see them for awhile.

This stop is famous for its’ on-site restaurant “LuLu’s”, owned by Lucy Buffet, sister of Jimmy. We plan to eat dinner there tonight and enjoy some live music, so we’ll report on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we’re re-acquainted with life on the boat and  water, and successfully refreshed our memories about how to drive and navigate. We weren’t so sure at first!

Headed Back to the Loop

Sunrise over Puget Sound, New Years Eve:  not tropical, but sure pretty!

What a wonderful time at home for the holidays! We had a great visit with daughter Adrienne and soon-to-be son-in-law Justin who flew up from Denver for a week. Christmas Day included the two of them, son Ryan, sister Lynn, brother-in-law David, niece Leslie and her kids Sophie (7) and Harrison (5) from New York City, and Adrienne’s childhood best friend Maggie.

Christmas Day was lively, though we missed having Mackenzie, Matt and Jaime with us.

We enjoyed many meals with a couple dozen other relatives and friends, including overnight visitors Beth, Phil and two teenagers for New Years Eve (above and below), our 17th shared NYE celebration.

The night included the traditional Hip-Hop Dance performance by the boys to help us stay awake until REAL midnight (not Looper Midnight, which is only 9pm).

This was a record-breaking year for the Orca Whales in Colvos Passage on Puget Sound. We had 4 sightings of Orca pods on 3 different days, all within a 12-day period. This is by far the highest activity level we’ve seen in such a short period of time in the 8 1/2 years we’ve owned this house.

Now we’re preparing the house for our departure, catching a late afternoon ferry to Seattle to spend tonight at Mackenzie and Matt’s house to catch a cab to the airport tomorrow. The good folks at Dog River Marina will pick us up in Mobile tomorrow night, and we’ll be back on “Next To Me” where the weather is much colder than when we left in mid-November.  It’s cold all along the Florida Panhandle where we expect to travel east 300 miles in the next couple weeks to arrive at Carabelle and stage for The Big Gulf Crossing. We’re glad we made the trip home, and ready to get back to Looper Life.