Wednesday & Thursday, November 30 through December 1, 2011

UFFDA!!!!!  Those are two days and a night that I won't soon forget and I surely don't want to repeat!

We got up at 6:45 to get ready to leave, and though it was still dark, the shrimp boats were already heading out for the day.
Joe went over the available weather information from several sources and we pretty much decided that we were going to wait for a few days to make the Gulf crossing; the forecast conditions seemed too iffy to us and Joe's experience on Lake Michigan was that when the waves are big it's a really unpleasant experience.
So we relaxed over our coffee.

Then Muddy Waters cruised by at 8:30 on her way to make the crossing (Muddy Waters has stabilizers, Paradise does not).  Joe haled Michael on the marine radio and they chatted for a few minutes about the pros and cons of going vs waiting.  After they left, we discussed it and decided to try it because it would be a week before conditions were forecast to improve.  You can see the water on the GIWW looked calm and we were hoping that was somehow a good sign for us.

By 9 AM we were heading out.  This was one of several groups of oyster fisherman out along the GIWW.

They use big rakes in pairs to gather and scoop the oysters up into their boats.  The piles in the boats are oysters they've already harvested.

Yum, wish we could have gotten some of those!






Notice how calm the water is?

We didn't leave the GIWW from Apalachicola; instead we went east about 20 miles to Carrabelle and entered the Gulf there as all of the other Loopers had done, hoping that the waves would be lower closer to the Florida coastline.



These are the first buoys as we enter the Gulf at noon on Thursday.  See how calm the water looks? 

Look Ma, no hands!  Our auto-pilot quit working on Lake Michigan when Joe and John brought Paradise back to Minnesota in May.  That wasn't much of a problem, because the river boating that we did doesn't allow for its use--too many turns and logs and other boats.

But Joe decided to try it once more, AND IT WORKED!!  I can't tell you how thankful we were to have auto-pilot in the next 24 hours.

Love the amazing colors of the water and sky against the white and the wood in this photo.   I took it through the windshield; that red dot near the front of the boat is a reflection of a light inside the pilothouse.  If it weren't for that red dot and the windshield wiper, this would have been a pretty cool photo. 
See those nice friendly swells and the cute little whitecaps?

This was taken after sunset, while there was still some light.  You can sort of see the swells that we now experienced.  But they were kind of fun, like being on a gentle rocking horse.  Paradise took them in stride.





Inside the pilothouse, we switched from the white overhead lights to the red lights to facilitate night vision.

Here you can see our paper charts, Joe's laptop with our navigation software that also shows the charts, and the GPS that the laptop is connected to so we always know our position in relation to the charts.




The auto-pilot was so great, we just had to keep watch on the laptop and the radar to make sure that we were staying on our pre-determined course and that there were no boats or other obstacles in our path.  Without the auto-pilot, it would have been impossible to steer while sitting down; the wind and waves were blowing and pushing us all around and trying to stay on course would have been an aerobic activity.
The sky was completely clouded over and it was pitch black outside; from the radar and marine radio conversations we knew there were other boats within a few miles of us--but we couldn't see a thing, not even the waves. 
At some point during the early evening, the waves and swells that had been 1-2 feet grew to 2-3 feet.  We weren't worried because we felt that we had secured everything adequately and Joe said compared to Lake Michigan last spring, it was a piece of cake.
Then the waves got to be 3-4 feet and things started shifting and rattling inside the cabinets.  I had a headache so I laid down for about an hour and then took the helm so Joe could rest a bit.  We both knew that he was going to do the majority of driving during the night; he tried to get some rest, but there was so much noise that he finally gave up trying to sleep and instead started trying to stop all the rattling.  After a while, Joe took the wheel again and I tried to continue with the noise abatement program, without much success, although I was able to stop the barstools from escaping their bungee cord by turning them upside down and re-connecting the bungee cord by completely encircling the legs instead of just going through them.
In the middle of the night things really started getting dicey.  I don't know how high the waves got but stuff started flying around in the galley and the salon and our tempered glass-topped computer desk fell over.  Fortunately, it wasn't damaged and the monitor and printer had been nestled onto our bed before we left Apalachicola.  I took the wheel so Joe could try to control the situation and he had a really hard time walking around because the boat was being tossed around so much.
Joe turned the desk upside down on a settee cushion and shoved it over by the salon table which he had lashed to the stair railing earlier.  He also tried to secure the hard drive, keyboard and mouse.
After he took over the wheel he told me he didn't want me walking around the boat at all until the waves settled down.  We only had 7 or 8 hours left to go until we reached Clearwater--I hoped I wouldn't need to go down to the bathroom.
We gritted our teeth, and although we were both already exhausted, we tried to make light of the situation by imagining what it must have been like for sailors centuries ago who didn't have depth finders and auto-pilot and navigation software and marine radio and weather forcasts on the internet.

About 3:45 I took the wheel and I could just barely make out the horizon even though sunrise wasn't for another 3 hours. 
About 5:45 we could start seeing the waves, but they were still pretty significant.

A little before 7 am, the Clearwater skyline came into view.  Now we had to dodge crab pots that are everywhere.  You don't want those tangled up in your props!  Fortunately, we made it through without hitting any.

We cruised into the safety of Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW), through Clearwater and north a couple of miles to Dunedin.  The Dunedin marina, where we hope to stay for a month, won't have a spot for us until Monday so we're anchored out across the channel from it, not far from Caladesi Island.
We were both exhausted, but I managed to send texts to our daughters and I called my brother Bill to let them all know we'd arrived safely.
Joe started restoring order in the salon while I immediately went to bed, then he came down.

 The carnage in the salon that Joe had to contend with...

The barstools made it safely through.

We piled up the stuff that had been flying around if we couldn't shove it into a cabinet.  When I opened the refrigerator this afternoon, everything on the bottom shelf of the door fell out onto the floor.

All my utensils and the knives had flown onto the floor during the night.  About 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of onion powder got spilled making the galley pretty fragrant.

 We had shoved things into the sink to try and keep them contained, then stuffed rags in to try to keep it all quiet.

Fortunately all my flours and other dry ingredients didn't fly off the top shelf, although some tipped over.

After we both had a (much too short) nap, I took a shower and we went out to soak up some warm Florida sunshine.  Joe said he felt like a zombie from the lack of sleep and he dozed off during happy hour on the aft deck.









When it started getting too cool to sit outside, I went down and slept for another hour, then came up to clean up the kitchen, check emails, and update the blog.  Joe crashed at 5:30 and hasn't been heard from since.
Tomorrow we'll dinghy into the marina where Bill and Eileen will pick us up.  We'll do lunch and get a few groceries and see how Dunedin has changed in the nearly 2 years since we were last there.  Dunedin is where we plan to establish residency so we'll need to get Florida drivers licenses and register to vote in the near future.
Time for me to catch up on my sleep.

 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I didn't take any photos today because I forgot the camera when we went into town.

Yesterday, Joe went over the information available about the best time to do our crossing of the Gulf and it looked like Thursday would have the most favorable wind and waves.  Since we had a whole day, we planned to spend several hours in Apalachicola today exploring this interesting little fishing village.  We took the dinghy across the channel, tied up at the dinghy dock and prepared to start our explorations.  Before we ever got started, we happened to run into (not literally!) Michael Samway (m/v Muddy Waters, a 48' Kadey Krogen North Sea).  When Loopers get together in Apalachicola, they talk about when they will make the Gulf crossing and our conversation was no exception.  It turns out that there are a dozen or more boats that are going tomorrow, including Muddy Waters.  Most are leaving from Carrabelle and a few are leaving from Apalachicola.  We figured they must know something we don't and, after getting the bare essentials in town (a pint of oysters, a pound of scallops, a gallon of milk), we headed back to Paradise to start getting ready to leave tomorrow.  We didn't get to see the town at all.  =0/

After we got back to Paradise, Joe reviewed all the most current information and decided that we will go for it tomorrow.  The next window of opportunity is several days away and we're ready to settle down for a while in Dunedin.  Even if we won't be able to actually see any of the other boats, we may be able to pick them up on our radar or hale them with our marine radio so we won't feel so alone out there.

While I got bread dough started so we could have sandwiches tomorrow (I've finally nailed down a bread recipe that makes both of us happy), Joe made sure that everything was secure up on the flybridge (and he found bird doodoo all over up there--grrrrr), screwed down the chest of drawers in the salon, and strapped down the flatscreen TV in our stateroom.  I found a bungee cord to hold our bar stools in place by the breakfast bar, started stashing loose stuff into cabinets and the settee, and got the bread dough kneaded and rising.

Tomorrow morning we'll take care of last minute stuff like the salon table, the PC monitor and printer,  and anything else still loose and waiting to get thrown around
My brother, Bill, went to the municipal marina in Dunedin to see if we could get a transient slip there for the month of December.  The manager talked to Joe and said he can put us into a 43' slip that's wide enough for us; the price is right so we'll try it but we're not sure if it will work out because Paradise is 50' long and the dinghy off the back adds another 5' or so.  Also, there's only a "catwalk" on one side of the slip with posts on the other side.  We're not sure what a catwalk is, but it doesn't sound very wide.

 Seven weeks ago today, we waved goodbye to our daughters and cruised out of Stillwater.  Since then, we've stayed in marinas 9 nights, tied up at free docks 2 nights, and anchored out 37 nights.  We've enjoyed the privacy of anchoring out, but I'm hoping that the slip in Dunedin will work because I'm looking forward to being able to start the coffeemaker, the washer & dryer, and the vacuum cleaner without having to run the generator.

Also, all of our daughters are coming to Dunedin to spend Christmas with us and it sure would be a lot more convenient to be in a slip when we have company.

There won't be any internet connections out on the Gulf so the soonest I'll be posting an update will be on Thursday.

Ciao!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Today started out at 53 degrees with rain and we were on our way at 9:15 central time.





The wind was much weaker than yesterday and it had changed direction, so it wasn't much of a factor today--just the temperature and the rain.  We both went from shorts, T-shirts, and sandals just a few days ago to long pants, 3 layers on top, and shoes & socks today. 

Even the birds we saw this morning were hunkered down and waiting out the rain.

cormorants

vultures

Eventually we left the rain behind and we saw blue sky and sun; the temp got up to about 61 degrees.

For nearly all day the GIWW was like a canal so it was easy cruising, but there were a few logs floating here and there that we had to avoid.

We came upon this wreck, probably from one of last year's hurricanes.

The red lettering on what's left of the cabin says "no trespassing".

We left the Central time zone and reached Apalachicola at 4 pm Eastern. 

This is the waterfront of the town and we're anchored right across the channel.  There's a dinghy dock (at the left side of the photo) where we can tie up and walk into town.

The wind picked up tonight, it's raining again and the temp is going down to the low 40s, but the next few days are supposed to be at least partly sunny with highs in the low 60s. 
It looks like now we can't cross the Gulf until Thursday because of the winds and waves so we'll have all of tomorrow to go into town and explore; Apalachicola is a major oyster harvesting area, so we'll be looking for a place to buy fresh oysters (YAY!), and there's a maritime museum, parks, historic downtown, plus we need some groceries and supplies--lots to do and see tomorrow. 
On Wednesday we'll catch up on laundry and make sure that everything on Paradise is stowed away and secured for our expected crossing on Thursday.
My brother, John, has business that requires him to be out of town on Thursday so Joe and I will be making the Gulf crossing by ourselves.  We've talked to several other couples who have done the crossing multiple times and they've all done it with just the two of them.  If they can do it, so can we!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

We had planned to leave early today and make it to Apalachicola, a distance of 60+ miles.  But it was windy with gusts up to 40 mph...and we had our coffee...and we read the Sunday paper...and we hemmed...and we hawed about wanting to leave our nice comfy anchorage with its good internet connection to go out and battle the wind when it was already so late that we couldn't make it to Apalachicola today.  But there's rain in tomorrow's forecast and I suggested that perhaps doing one short day of just wind and a second short day of both wind and rain would be better than doing one long day of both wind and rain.
So we decided to leave today but it was nearly 11:00 before we got going.
We didn't really need fuel, but we did need water and a pumpout, so we decided to get all three at a place that has diesel for $3.70 a gallon, which is probably 50 cents a gallon less than we can expect to pay for it when we get to Florida.  We topped off the fuel tanks, got water, and got rid of our garbage, but the pumpout station wasn't working so we'll have to wait till we get to Apalachicola for that.
Although it was certainly windy, once we got going the cruising conditions weren't as bad as we had feared and we made about 20 miles today.

I was holding the camera horizontally in this photo and you can see how much we were listing to port because of the wind--it was like that the whole time we were out today.  We didn't see any other boats at all today, just birds and an occasional dolphin.
About 2 pm we anchored just off the channel by Farmdale Bayou.  We had to dodge our first crabpot doing it.  We'll probably see a lot more of those when we get to the Tarpon Springs area.
About 8 pm it started raining and it poured for about an hour, but things have quieted down now.
The National Weather Service is predicting rain for tomorrow morning with clearing in the afternoon. The strong winds will continue, but we only have about 40 miles to go tomorrow so hopefully it won't be too bad.  When we get to Apalachicola we'll get a pumpout, then find a good anchorage for the next few days until we make the Gulf crossing.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

We had so much fun today!
The skies were mostly cloudy when we woke up and it was a bit windy and chilly, but by 9 or so  it was beginning to look promising with the sun and blue sky peeking through.

While we were having coffee, this interesting homemade sailboat passed us. It appears to be made out of plywood; we couldn't tell if the dark areas on the side are solar panels or windows, but since solar panels are usually horizontal, we decided that perhaps these are windows.








As I mentioned yesterday, there was a lighted boat parade planned for tonight, so I sent an email to the local Looper "Harbor Hosts" to ask their advice on the best place to watch the parade.  Harbor Hosts are folks who volunteer to offer some or all of the following: "...navigational aid, transportation, advice on restaurants, sights, marinas, repair facilities, etc, local history and interesting side trips, perhaps even a hot meal or glass of wine while swapping Looper yarns."

Panama City's Harbor Hosts are Greg & Carl Vernon and they go out of their way to offer all of the above assistance plus warm Southern Hospitality to Loopers; on Thanksgiving they hosted 28 Loopers for dinner at their home.  We hadn't heard about it because I didn't know enough to sign up for the Looper notifications (I'm sure signed up now!!!) and we weren't in contact with any other Loopers that we've met along the way.  But when we saw Ken & Pat (m/v 20 Buck$) at Bayou Joe's yesterday, they told us about it and said that it was a really great time.
Rather than just giving us the information we requested, Greg and Carl's response was to invite us to their home since we missed the Thanksgiving gathering.  They gave us the option of either going by dinghy directly to their home on the waterfront, or, if we preferred to take our dinghy to the Panama City marina, they would pick us up there.  The wind started blowing harder almost immediately after we got off the phone with the Vernons, and we debated about what we should do, but we thought it would be more fun to take the dinghy to a part of the town that we hadn't seen before.  By the time we were ready to leave the water looked like it was getting pretty rough, but Joe put on a water-resistant jacket and pants and I put on a mostly-water-proof jacket and off we went.  Well, about 30 yards from Paradise I started getting sprayed with water over the starboard bow, and it turned out to be a lot longer to Greg & Carl's than we thought.  As we entered the middle of the channel I was getting full-body sprays every few seconds, I was spitting out salt-water over the port side and my eyes were burning from the salt water.  By the time we entered their bayou I was completely soaked from head to toe and Joe was mostly wet, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  I love riding in the dinghy!!! 
Fortunately, our camera and the long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt that I brought all stayed dry in our tote bag that was stowed on the floor on the port side behind me and next to the steering console.  When we got to their house, Carl and Greg immediately made us feel welcome by giving us hugs, offering to dry our clothes, and bringing refreshments.  We had a great afternoon and also met Loopers Roy and Elvie Short (m/v RoyEl) who were staying with Greg and Carl for a few days.  During my conversations with Greg and Elvie, we discovered that both the Vernons and the Shorts are friends with Ken and Brenda Bloomfield (m/v Tellico Lady--a sister ship to Paradise) and Jim and Sharon Angel (m/v Blue Angel).  Joe and I have followed the blog of and/or exchanged emails with both the Bloomfields and the Angels since last year.  It's such fun to make these connections!  Blue Angel is currently at Caladesi State Park, near Dunedin, so we're hoping to finally get to meet Jim and Sharon in the next week or so.

We reluctantly left the Vernons and the Shorts, got in the dinghy and made our way back towards the Panama City marina to watch the boat parade.  When we got there we found that we had plenty of time before the parade started, so Joe fueled up the dinghy and I went in search of a place for us to watch the parade.  I walked over by the water and saw a bench that two folks were sitting on, but there was plenty of room for at least one more person, so I approached to ask their permission to sit next to them.  Before I could even open my mouth, the nice lady urged me to sit down next to her.  Pretty soon, Joe came over and he joined us on the bench.  They introduced themselves as Jim and Florence Fortier and we chatted for a while about the parade and boats, and they said that they're sailboaters.  During the course of the conversation I mentioned where we had been this afternoon and how much fun we had and it turned out that Jim and Florence are friends of the Vernons.  Panama City has a population of 37,000, what are the chances that this coincidence would occur?!


While we waited for the parade, we caught the moon and a planet and the last of the light.

 There were 11 boats in the parade and we had a great time, except when the "Betsy Ann" went by with people throwing candy into the crowd on shore. Some men on the boat were throwing candy as hard as they could and one piece hit Jim Fortier right in the eye; Florence said that Jim just had cataract surgery three weeks ago.  Hopefully, he'll be all right, but it certainly is worrisome.  I think just about all the municipalities in Minnesota have forbidden people in parades from throwing candy for that very reason.

 

 Next was a police boat...








 ...then a cruiser with a Santa in back

 then a fire department boat

...a sailboat celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the Panama City lighted boat parade, complete with "Happy Anniversary, Baby" by the Little River Band...

I couldn't tell if this boat, Island Dancer, is a private boat or an excursion boat.

I think this was my favorite because it looked so elegant.  The Governor Stone is a wooden schooner built in 1877 and is the last known survivor of a class of vessels once numbering in the thousands.  In 1991, the boat was designated a national historic landmark and is registered as a Florida antique vessel.

You can find more information about this fascinating ship at this website:
http://www.governorstone.org/about.htm

When this United States Air Force boat came by, everyone cheered.  Tyndale Air Force Base is just a few miles south of Panama City, so perhaps the boat came from there. 

Here's the St. Andrews Ferry boat that we saw yesterday at Bayou Joe's.

 And bringing up the rear was another privately owned cruiser.

As we left the marina in our dinghy, we were relieved to see that the water had calmed down considerably.

It only took a few minutes to get back to Paradise.
As soon as we were aboard, I headed into the shower to wash off all of the salt that I had accumulated earlier, and Joe followed soon after.









I'm so glad we stayed in Panama city for the boat parade.
Tomorrow we'll leave for Apalachicola with a stop on the way for fuel, a pumpout, and water.