Stats for November 19, 2018 

Origin:  Carrabelle, Florida

Destination:  Tarpon Springs, Florida

Distance:  172 miles

Speed:  8.7 mph

Time on the Move:  19 hours and 54 minutes

The marina offered free breakfast (FREE!! 2nd time on the loop we’ve had FREE breakfast at a marina!) so we headed there as soon as the whole crew was up (which doesn’t take long in a boat–once one of us is up, we’re pretty much all up!!).  Just as we were finishing up, the crews of Miss Daisy and The Blessing showed up for breakfast, so we had a planning meeting for our crossing.  We decided on the exact path we would take (directly from Dog Island to Anclote Key by Tarpon Springs), we decided on a departure time (5:30 from the Dog Island Inlet), we decided on an order (INNTW would lead the way with AIS, radar, and autopilot, followed by Miss Daisy and then The Blessing), we would not do hourly radio checks but instead check in as needed (we weren’t anticipating needing to check in regarding anything pressing), and we would travel between 8-10 miles per hour.  

Walking back to our boat, we toured around the marina to assess the storm damage from Hurricane Michael.  The Moorings says they are just starting to get back on their feet and making a priority list of what clean up to tackle first.  The pictures they shared on their FB page and I put on our FB page from right after the storm are stunning.

After having the plan set for the day and our tummies filled with breakfast, we headed back to the boat for some last minute chores.  Mike washed the boat (good to get the salt off, but funny because we would just get covered again later that evening–it is a never-ending task!!).  He secured everything in the cockpit–fishing poles, giant net, 34973947293 buckets, shovels, pool noodles, etc.  He double checked that the dinghy was secure in the davits. Mike double checked that the bikes, paddle boards, and lily pad on the front were secure, but then decided to take his bike off for a bike ride to burn off some nervous energy.   He intended to ride for about 15 miles, but somehow ended up on this 2 track that he thought was a loop, but it didn’t loop, so he ended up riding 23 miles and was exhausted when he got back to the boat.  Not exactly what he planned, but he was glad he went, and definitely glad that his tire didn’t go flat until just AFTER he got back to INNTW.  Whew!

I felt the need to do dishes (imagine that!), vacuum, wash the plexi windows (again silly because the salt spray would come right back and the trip would be mostly in the dark, so it’s not like we needed to see out the back doors anyway), and empty the garbages.  I moved our life jackets to the flybridge so they would be handy in case of an emergency.  I sent the float plan to our families and some other looper friends (near and far) so everyone would know our exact route, destination, and timing along with a map and recent picture of our boat.  If we weren’t heard from by early afternoon, they were to contact the Coast Guard (just in case).  I checked, double checked, and triple checked the weather to make sure nothing in the forecast had changed.  Hayley and I walked over to the grocery store and stocked up on a few necessary items for the trip and potentially for Thanksgiving, 3 days later.

Shortly after Mike got back from his bike ride we were ready to head out of the marina to Dog Island to burn off some energy on the beach for a while.  Coming into Carrabelle yesterday, we saw some awesome houses way up on stilts on the beach on Dog Island.  I don’t think I would ever get tired of that view!!  We dropped anchor right next to the island so the kids could kayak over.  Mike dropped me off at the island in the dinghy, but he wanted to check the oil, check the nav lights, clean the strainers, and mess around with a bunch of other stuff before heading out, so he went back to the boat.

Dog Island was similar to Shell Island in that it was pretty remote, but there were a few houses and power lines along Dog Island.  Hayley was equal parts terrified and excited to find REAL LIVE starfish as she was landing her kayak.  That got their exploring off to an exciting start.  They found half a dozen starfish on the bay side of the island before they got tired of watching starfish sit and be stars, and they decided to keep exploring.  We decided that Shell Island has more dogs (at least 2 that we saw) and Dog Island has more shells (millions–everywhere).  This was an interesting observation.  The kids built shell houses again.  Tobin insisted on making sand angels.  They waded out into the water a bit.  We found lots of old rusty wire running down into the water, almost like a tieback for something.  I did a lot of anxious walking up and down the beach, checking weather and communicating with some other loopers who headed out a bit before us headed to Clearwater.  

Before long The Blessing and Miss Daisy showed up near Dog Island and just floated around and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon.  Mike came to pick us up around 4:30 or so.  After we got back to the boat, Mike had to put the dinghy on the swim platform and make sure it was secured down for the overnight trip (again).  Then he put the kids’ kayaks on top of the dinghy and secured everything (again).  I also secured things inside the boat and wrangled 3 kids into dry clothes.  Most of our set up is travel-ready, but just in case things got rougher than intended, I put the items from the kitchen counter into the sink, flushed the toilets and shut the lids (I’m always paranoid stuff is going to fall into the toilet!!).  I tried to make sure everything was picked up for easy walking around the boat in the dark.  

Around 5:30 we headed out of our anchorage to join our buddy boats who were already floating around in the Gulf getting some great pictures of the sunset.  We couldn’t have asked for a better evening to cross.  The water was almost like glass and the sun was setting into hazy clouds that turned into beautiful blue and pink shapes.  There was an air of excitement and anticipation on our boat and on the radio as the boats all communicated a bit to get comfortable with the route, speed, and position.  But outside the boat is was almost magical, and dolphins even came out to send us off.  

The quiet, peace outside the boat was quite different from the celebration that was happening inside our boat.  After the radio communication died down between the boats, we turned the music up and had a dance party to some of the kids’ favorites.  We made frozen pizza for dinner, ate snacks, and watched a movie.  The kids knew that they could stay up as long as they wanted to, as long as they followed directions.  

The sun set quickly and darkness fell around us.  The moon was visible, but it was partially covered by clouds, so it didn’t do much to add light for us.  Soon the excitement of the journey wore off and the kids started getting tired.  Hayley and Tobin went to bed around 9:30.  Colin and I hung out long enough to see a single dolphin swimming along with us in the pitch dark.  We couldn’t see much, but we watched it pop up a few times before swimming away.  I thought it was the coolest thing to have a dolphin next to our boat in the complete darkness as we headed out into the Gulf.  Colin and I got sleepy around 10:30, so I made a plan with Mike that I would get up at 2 and come back up so he could take a turn to rest.  Colin did not want to miss the trip, so he ended up moving his blanket and pillow up to the flybridge and he slept the whole night on the cushions up there.  I was supposed to wake him up when I got up at 2:00, but I couldn’t rouse him and he was so upset later that he slept through the whole night.  I had a little trouble falling asleep, as I was still excited and the engines are pretty loud in our bedroom.  Eventually, though, it was 12:15 and I was awake again.  I tried to go back to sleep, but by 1:00 I was heading up to the flybridge.

Mike said there was some radio chatter with the boats heading to Clearwater because there were 2 of them and they were separated by some distance, so they couldn’t even communicate with each other.  We could barely see their lights on the horizon.  Eventually they caught up to each other and headed a bit further south than our path.  Other than that communication, Mike said there was pretty much nothing going on.  It was so dark out that you couldn’t see much at all.  Our forward navigation light is right under the windshield and the bright white light illuminated the front of our boat, but it made it hard to see beyond, to the water.  All of our instrument lights on the panel were turned down as far as they would go, but they still had a slight glare on the inside of the isenglass up top.  We relied on radar and AIS to “see” for the most part.

Mike slept from about 2:00 until 5:00.  During that time I read lots of reveiws for marinas and anchorages in Florida on Active Captain.  It was pretty much all I could do since we didn’t have data coverage that far out.  As he was heading to bed, the water seemed pretty choppy with waves coming on the beam so we rocked back and forth.  It wasn’t uncomfortable but it was definitely choppier than before and I hoped it wouldn’t get worse.  By the time he woke up, though, the water had calmed down again.  Every few minutes I would look around and look at the radar screen.  Every 15 minutes or so I would get up and walk around to get a better look out the windows and zoom out on the radar to see if there was anything 6-8 miles away showing up.  I never saw a thing and never talked to anyone else.  Thank goodness for Red Bull and XM radio!!

After Mike got up I went back to bed for an hour or so.  When I woke up, the sky was brighter but overcast.  It wasn’t the beautiful sunrise we had hoped for, but with a sunrise like we had the night before, we couldn’t complain.  

The waves got a bit choppier as we got within 30 miles of Tarpon Springs, but they were behind us so we didn’t feel them too much.  We started to see lots of crab pots that we had to dodge.  The floats look like this little round ball and they are dropped in a long line, so you usually have to spot 2 of them and go in between.  If you run one over, the line could get tangled in your prop and cause issues, so we always had 2 sets of eyes searching for them.

We arrived in Tarpon Springs around noon.  There were lots of no wake areas coming into the channel, so it took a while to get back to our marina, but we were thankful to be THERE.  At one point a man yelled at us for going too fast, but we were going as slow as our boat can go.  It wasn’t a great welcome to the city.  Then the dock master wouldn’t answer his radio and seemed very grouchy when we finally got him on the telephone.  The docks were super short so we had to stern in, which we’ve been practicing, but there was quite a bit of wind and current at this location and that didn’t help.  There was a point where I had to stand on the bow and loop a rope around a pile with our long boat hook while also being in the back of the boat, helping Mike know how close our swim platform was from the piles.  It wasn’t easy to be in two places at once and it led to me not doing a good job at either task.  After a few tries we finally got it, but looping that pole sure was a task for me.  By the time we were tied up I was bruised and shaking, but we were set.  Not our best showing at the end there, but we couldn’t have asked for a better crossing!!

Time to explore Tarpon Springs!!  No rest with 3 energetic kids on board!!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments!  While I covered A LOT, I feel like I probably left some stuff out.  Thanks for reading and following along!!