Gulf Crossing - Piece of Cake - Now on West Coast!

First of all, I just saw an ant crawl into my laptop.  Right down the top edge of the CTRL key.  What is it doing in there? 

10/13  We last left you in Carrabelle, the departure point for Loopers crossing the Gulf.

We took the easier, but longer option.  So instead of taking the direct SE line from Panhandle to Clearwater (170 miles), we did an easterly 85 mile trip to Steinhatchee (pleasant stop, nice sunset dinner at Roy’s), and then a 147 mile SSE trip mile trip to Clearwater the next morning.  

We started each day at close to sunrise -  second day started with just enough misty fog to be really beautiful as we headed out the channel to the Gulf.   

Jim and Charlie doing their morning chores

We kept Sea Fever running at the upper end of its comfortable running speed (18-19 mph) and therefore made it to our destinations by afternoon.  We had done our research on winds (strength and direction) and waves – and consequently had two near perfect days of cruising, with seas sometimes almost mirror smooth, ranging up to short periods of one to two foot waves.

In retrospect, we had enough daylight to do the straight line from Carrabelle to Clearwater, but we were a little less confident that we would have such easy seas - would have been farther from land for many miles.  And, since we are ahead of the seasonal pack of other Loopers, we didn't have a buddy boat to cross over together…and the Captain said no to going it alone.

All in all, it was nowhere near the challenge it could have been – not that we were disappointed by this.  And we were certainly happy to pull into Clearwater, knowing that all of the real obstacles of the Loop were now behind us.  

The only bad news of the day is that we burned about 20 gallons of fuel per hour.While filling our tanks in Clearwater, it occurred to Jim that this might be the last time, after 14 years, that we fill this boat with fuel.  We will not miss seeing the fuel pump's dials spinning like runaway slot machines (with only a chance of losing).   After all, we only have the 150 mile run down to Ft. Myers and then the 150 miles crossing the state until we cross our wake in Stuart in mid-November.  We are bringing Emily and Drew out for that momentous event, since they were there at (Emily) or near (Drew) the beginning of this adventure.  

The scene to the right is pretty much what we saw for the whole day - lots of boaters like "blue water sailing"…but we prefer inland boating where there is more to look at.  But, it was an interesting change of pace - now, back to shore for us.

We couldn't even attract any dolphins at our speed - they definitely prefer 9-10 knots!

We spent a couple nights in the Clearwater Beach area – but were underwhelmed by the Hiltons and Hooters and very crowded beach and pier (with Johnny Depp lookalike pirates posing for pictures) – beautiful beach, but too much culture shock after our semi-isolated experience.     

Yesterday we had a very leisurely 15 mile cruise through the area beach communities – lots of boaters and a variety of residential styles.   We had the very good fortune to be invited to dock at the Madeira Beach home of Al and Charlie, fellow Loopers we met last year on their boat, Always 5 O’Clock.

After spending quite a few nights together in quite a few dockages from Chicago to Alabama, we entertained them at Sugar Magnolia last fall – and we stayed with them in their primary residence nearby in January.  But we had not seen their lovely beach house.  An offshoot of the ICW took us to the dock behind their house.  Go out their front door for two blocks and you are on the beach. 

Last night Al cooked an incredible crab boil – much like what some of you might know as low country boil, but with crab.  Simple good food, deliciously prepared. 

Tonight, the four of us re-connected with Ray and Arlene from gARfF5 and had an "early-bird special" dinner at a local restaurant - when in Rome….




10/15  And that’s mostly what we’ve been doing, with the addition of quite a bit of unexpected EMSTAR work.  Tonight we were invited to the neighborhood Wednesday Sunset Potluck – on the beach.  Another right place/right time event for us – as we fell into the local version of Last Thursday at Manuel’s – with the additional treats of a sunset and beach.  Nice people, perfect weather, and a lot of tips about how to spend our next week. 

We are more or less in a holding pattern, as we have friends flying into Tampa on Friday, and again next Wednesday.  But after all of our moving around, a holding pattern is a very pleasant place to be.  And Al and Charlie are extremely hospitable in allowing us to stay docked at their home for most of the week while we do laundry, errands, provisioning for the next leg, catch up on business, etc.

We are getting closer and closer to the end of our Loop.  Being the statisticians that we are, Debi has started compiling interesting facts from our long journey.  One that surprised Jim is that we have had over 120 friends and family aboard, over the years, on both For Play and Sea Fever - and about 100 of you have spent one or more nights with us.   

More of you will be joining us over the next few weeks, including the ending celebration…..

…lots of memories!

     Debi and Jim