Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018

While at The Wharf, we were surrounded by very big, expensive boats. Many of them were for sale through local brokers, so they looked extra clean and big and beautiful and expensive! The fairway between the docks was rather small and some of the larger boats stuck out quite a ways. When we left The Wharf, it was quite windy … uh-oh … wind and docking/casting-off do not go well together. The wind direction was going to push us towards the boats across the fairway as we turned out of our slip. We had no choice but to leave because the wind was predicted to remain at a significant level for the next few days. Around noon-ish, the wind died down a little to around 10-12 mph, so we made a break for it. Our main concern was to avoid the other boats while casting off; our secondary concern was to avoid banging into the dock and pilings. We were successful with the main concern and only a little unsuccessful with the secondary concern. Our little grill is attached to the corner of the back railing of the fish cockpit and sticks out just a few inches over the side of the boat. One of those inches was just enough to catch on the piling, twist the grill and break its stand. Not bad except the grill itself came off the stand and fell to the water below – yikes! Due to its cover, it floated on top of the water for about 10 seconds, then did a quick nose dive into the deep blue sea, actually just down to the bottom of our slip, 15 feet under water. So we said so-long to the grill, and the kid cleaning the boat next to us got a good laugh.

We also said so-long to Alabama and have arrived in Florida! New state but same time zone, for now. The Florida panhandle has both central and eastern time zones. Conveniently, the Apalachicola River is the dividing line between the two zones, mostly. The division begins at the Georgia border and follows the river until it gets close to the coastal town of Apalachicola. (I love that name! Ap-a-la-chi-co-la!) Here the dividing line turns to the west so Port St. Joe could remain in the eastern zone, which was more convenient when it was a major shipping and railroad center. (https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/florida/central-time/)

So, we will be in the central time zone (same as home) until we get past Panama City and Mexico Beach and get over to the Port St. Joe and Apalachicola area.

It was fun to see more dolphins along the way. At one point, we could see the mist from them blowing air out of their blowholes in the distance and we followed their progress toward us until we were close enough to actually see them. We are much more excited to see them than they are seeing us, as again they did not stay with us after checking us out. We arrived at Palafox Pier & Yacht Harbor around 3:40pm and met the very helpful and knowledgeable Ron who helped us tie up and gave us a personal tour of the facilities. After a fantastic meal at Jaco’s Bayfront Bar & Grille, right in the marina, we called it an early night.

You may wonder why we are covering so few miles lately since the boat is running fine (knocking on wood!) and the weather has been reasonably good. Our original plan was to be in the Tampa or Fort Meyers area before we drive home for Christmas. Why are we going slower than our usual slow?

A couple of our repair issues put us behind our original schedule and hurricane Michael made a mess in the Florida panhandle this fall. The next 225 miles of our trip require us to move through places that were severely damaged by the hurricane. Many of the marinas from Panama City through St Marks, Florida are closed or barely operating.  The goal is to get past the hurricane damage to Carrabelle, FL which is the Loopers’ last stop on the panhandle. From there, the shallow water in the Florida “Big Bend” area prevents boats from following the shoreline to reach the west coast of FL.

We have two options to get from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs (where boats can re-enter the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway), both requiring good weather so the seas are fairly flat and the tides and winds prevent the shallow water from becoming too shallow.

1: Overnight crossing (17-19 hours), 175 miles, about 60 miles offshore, to arrive in daylight to avoid getting tangled up in crab pots.

2: Multiple days (in the daylight), in 60-80 mile segments, about 20-30 miles offshore, still avoiding crab pots. (Possible route: Carrabelle, to Steinhatchee, to Cedar Key, to Crystal River and finally to Tarpon Springs.)

Loopers typically make this crossing between November and February. Some with experience who make this crossing regularly (snowbirds who do this before and after hurricane season as they travel between FL and anywhere inland on the rivers to the north) have suggested that waiting until January could provide for better weather windows, though that is not a proven fact.  Some boaters are lucky and wait only a couple days or less; others have had to wait as long as two weeks. (We know what waiting 2 weeks is like!)

So, what does all this have to do with us taking our time?  It was very unlikely that we would be able to leave Dog River, move through the panhandle quickly and be in Carrabelle when a crossing weather window appeared.  We also needed to find a good place to keep the boat for 3 weeks while we travel home for the holidays. It turns out finding a marina in Pensacola was our best option, so we poked along the panhandle towards Pensacola, which is where we are now! Pensacola has a lot of interesting history and a great Naval Museum, so we will have plenty to do until we begin our trip home for the holidays. 

Once we return to the boat in early January, we will head east to cover the remaining 200 miles of the panhandle, wait in Carrabelle for a good weather window to cross the Big Bend, then head south along the western coast of Florida (and into warmer temperatures).