December 7-8, 2009

December 7, 2009

Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

We are now in the warm part of Florida. But let me tell you the story of our crossing even though I don’t think I have the words to adequately describe our adventure.

As we were planning to cross the Gulf of Mexico, another boat, Noah Genda (Tom & Dianne) came to see us and decided to go with us. What a relief to have company on this long journey across BIG water over night. We made our plans and travel path and then left Carrabelle Marina at 3:15 pm. I took a picture of Grateful at Carrabelle before the crossing.

After checking with local mariners and computer information regarding the weather on the gulf, we were assured that this was a good time to cross. If we didn’t cross at this time we would probably have to wait for another week. The decision was made to go.

Our path took us along the shoreline north of Dog Island with the idea that we would travel closer to land to have protection from the wind. But at some point we had to shoot for Tarpon Springs. As soon as we angled from Marker “26” to marker “2”, we were in for a ride. Apparently the gulf “kicked up” over night and we were right in the middle of it. We had 5-6 hours of 3-5 foot waves combined with the rolling waves smacking us on our port side. With the pitch black of the night with only our GPS for guidance, we felt like we were hurtling through space. Mark’s claustrophobia kicked in and soon he appeared with our “sea-sickness wristbands”. Neither one of us could afford to be sick. Mark also opted not to eat – as I ate a bowl of goulash. Around 2:30 AM the seas smoothed out a bit with just rolling following seas.

As time neared dawn, we opted to stay 25-30 miles offshore to avoid crab pots. The floats for these crab pots are difficult to see and we needed to wait until daylight to approach seashore. Getting the crab pot lines wrapped around the props and shafts can really ruin a day. Unfortunately, dawn was delayed by fog! So we continued off shore.

Finally between 7:30-8:00 the fog began to lift and we began to make our way toward Tarpon Springs dodging the crab pots along the way. We knew we were nearing land and the markers we needed to enter the mouth of the Anclote River to go to Tarpon Springs, but the fog had not lifted from this area. Again, thank goodness for electronics as we knew which direction to go and where the markers were.

After 21 hours we were both so ready for this trip to be done, but we needed to travel further up the Anclote River to Tarpon Springs. The fog thinned and we were able to enjoy the trawlers loaded with sponges along the river and close to town – Tarpon Springs is the sponge capital of the world. We had reservations in the Municipal Marina, but we were shocked when we were asked to back into a space hardly wider than Grateful. Mark did a great job. We were tied down and Porter and I had taken a walk, when both of us crashed. Mark napped and I snoozed. That evening came and we discovered that with high tide we were NOT able to get off the boat. We had backed into a space with a dock off our stern and a “finger” dock on our starboard side that didn’t quite reach our side door. During low tide we were able to manage disembarking, but we could not reach the dock during high tides. THE THINGS WE ARE LEARNING!!!! We made the decision to move across the river to another marina in order to be able to get on and off the boat. Much better and the marina had a terrific restaurant.

Some of you may have wondered how our dog, Porter, did for this long journey. He has figured out that when we are underway, he stays on the sofa and doesn’t eat or drink. That is what he did for the entire crossing. He is an amazing traveler and we are so lucky to have such a sweet, smart dog.

We are expecting crew members, Tom & Lyn, on December 10^th and then we will be off for new adventures.