The Crossing

Today was the day. This would be our longest travel day, approximately 22 hours underway. We would be running mostly at night, and across the open ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Why were we going to do this at night? It is crab season at our destination, Tarpon Springs, and so the coastal waters will be full of crab pots. These are marked with small floats, about the size of a volleyball, which are tied to each crab pot by rope. We don't want to hit any of these things because of the danger of fouling our prop in the rope. Our slower boat speed meant that the crossing could not be done during daylight only, and we needed to arrive at Tarpon Springs when we can see the floats in good light. An overnight crossing therefore has to be carefully timed, so that we would arrive after 10:00 in the morning to avoid the glare of the sunrise over the water. Using our course, distance and boat speed, this meant we had to be at the red R2 marker off Dog island at 17:00 to start "the crossing". Since we would not leave the dock to travel to the R2 marker until 13:00, we could sleep in. So of course we didn't. We were up at the usual time, well before sunrise.

Sunrise in Apalachicola. Shortly after sunrise we started hearing shotguns. The town was beside a large swamp, and it appeared to be duck season. Reminded us of weekends at Kilmarnock lock station on the Rideau. Early morning, when we stayed there in the fall, we would hear shotguns.

We went for dinner the night before and saw this store with an amusing name.

Breakfast from the drive-through. This small store front opened just for breakfast and there was a steady stream of cars stopping by to pick up their coffee and biscuit sandwich.

Hemingway cat. Rich said these things are all over Florida, they have 6 toes.

Christmas tree in Florida.

Louise's toe is getting better. I think.

There was a group of brightly painted houseboats beside the marina. Interesting neighbourhood.

Self-explanatory.

First order of business was checking the weather. I went through all my weather and wind apps to make sure our window was still open. I then put the finishing touches on our float plan and sent it to my sister Ruth so someone would know where we are going just in case. I then entered all our waypoints into the GPS, and set up our course for the night. Louise made some sandwiches for us to eat while we were underway through the night, and I also spent some time in the engine room checking as many things as I could think of. Then we went through the boat and secured everything in case we ran into any rocky conditions.

Rich and I then compared notes, weather, routing, tides, wave heights, and we came to the same conclusion - conditions were very good for the crossing and we were GO!

Our route from Apalachicola to the start of the overnight run at the R2 marker outside Dog island. We had to follow a narrow dredged channel through the bay. Although the area is really large, it is also really shallow, and the recent hurricanes have caused shoaling, so we had to be careful to follow the marked channel. This trip took us about 3 hours.

This is our straight-line run across the Gulf of Mexico. The route was 131 nautical miles, and we would be doing pretty much all of it at night. The pink triangle we cross through is a rocket capsule recovery area. We had to do a couple of jogs to avoid fish traps, artificial reefs, and oyster farms.

We then set in to wait.

Waiting sucks. We were nervous about the crossing, which made it worse. It was a bit like game day, you are nervous about how you will play until you start the game. Rich and I took his scooters over to the marina down the road to see if we could get some local info. Someone had posted about an obstruction in the channel on the way out of the harbour, and we wanted to see if we could get some intel from some locals. No luck, so back to the boat. We triple-checked everything again, and made sure all was secure to get underway, then set in for more waiting.

Just before we unplugged, Louise made a lot of coffee and stored it in all our Yeti containers to keep warm. Our first cups were good, but by the end of the night we were drinking cold coffee.

Our original plan was to stay on the dock until 13:30 then depart for our jump-off point, but the marina manager contacted Louise to tell us they had a disabled boat coming in and that we would have to leave by 12:00. So we untied the lines, and moved over to the municipal face-dock to wait some more. As we were waiting, the final boat of our crossing flotilla arrived, so we were now all together and good to go. 

13:42 

We untied the lines and set off on our journey. A convoy of 8 boats all left together to cross the Gulf of Mexico. We started with a 3 hour tour (!) from Apalachicola to the R2 marker on the outside channel of the ICW near Dog island. We were apprehensive on the departure, as someone had posted on the looper forum of an obstruction in the channel near the R6 marker at Apalachicola. We could not confirm the account, but decided to follow the advice and stick to the right of the channel. Our first white-knuckle moment happened, as it was really shallow, but no issues and so on we went. Initially, we were third in line, but at the first turn, the crew of Stulie, who was in the lead, requested that an AIS-broadcasting boat take the lead. So, we passed Jewel and Stulie and became the lead boat of the flotilla.

Our fleet of boats setting out on the crossing. We were initially in a group of 8 leaving the marina, but some of the boats were travelling in other groups.

16:40

We arrived at the R2 buoy, about 20 minutes early, and immediately set off on our direct-line course over the Gulf. As we were approaching the marker, we could see a fleet of other looper boats arriving from Carrabelle. On the GPS we could see lots of AIS traces, more than 20, of looper boats all taking advantage of the weather window to do the crossing. 

In the GPS route we were using, we had plotted waypoints at one-hour intervals. This would give us something to do as we went, would break up the trip into smaller pieces, and would give us an easy was to communicate our whereabouts to Ruth, who was our float-plan holder. So, we started the route and the countdown. 16:48 to our destination, 15.1 km to waypoint 1 (I am used to km so keep our GPS distance settings on km).

Most looper boats these days have AIS. Here, each boat-shaped icon is a looper boat transmitting on AIS. There would be over 20 boats crossing this night, grouped into several convoys. We all leave from the same place, so follow a very similar track across.

Our Gulf fleet just before sunset. We were now in the BIG water.

17:39

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico. We did not see the green flash, but it was still pretty spectacular to see the sun set over the horizon on the ocean. It got really dark pretty fast after that, and so we began our crossing in the pitch-black. It was like driving in a coal-mine, you could see the edge of the boat, and that was it. The stars came out, and we began our study of the constellations rising and falling. Up until this point, we were all travelling in a line, fairly close to each other. I got on the VHF to ask the other boats to spread out a bit as we would lose our depth-perception in the dark. We all had radar, which we could use to track each other and maintain distance. Everyone checked the nav lights on each other's boats, and let each other know that we could see them. All night long, we would hold our formation, spread from each other by about 1 to 2 km. Just like the Blue Angels!

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico. Time to go dark.

18:08

Rich on Jewel suggested that we check in by radio at regular intervals so we could keep track of each other. We were in the lead, so Louise and I went through a roll call on the VHF to check in with each boat in our group. Jewel, Thyme Away, Stulie, Silver Linings, Lizzie Lynn and Glorious Dei. For the rest of the night, Louise and I ran through the list at the top of the hour, checking in with each boat to make sure everyone was A-OK. Between this and our waypoint-tracking, this really helped us. It kept everyone awake, it kept everyone watching everyone else, and it helped to pass the time. We found ourselves looking forward to waypoint checks and roll call. Seemed like the hours passed faster this way.

18:52

We passed our second waypoint, and texted Ruth that we had done so. Shortly after this time, we don't know exactly when, our Starlink stopped working. We got a message that we were too far from land and the service was now suspended. We had no cell service either, so now had no non-VHF way to update anyone on land about our status. We have been in "dead zones" before, but this time it was a little unsettling as we had hoped to be able to update Ruth about our progress, and we were in the middle of the freakin ocean, so were a bit uneasy about being out of communication. Also, kind of annoying, since we had no internet, the thing upon which we have been accustomed to provide instant knowledge, and so no Netflix to pass the time.

Eevee kept wandering around the boat, she was not used to having hoomans moving about in the dark during cat hours, and she kept flopping under our feet. Had to pay close attention to where she was, and pay attention to slide our feet so we didn't step on her.

19:40

We hit something! 

All of a sudden, the boat shuddered and then the engine exhaust became REALLY LOUD. At the same time, the whole boat vibrated. You could feel the thudding through our feet, like the boat was bouncing! The first thing through my head was that the engine was coming apart. It only lasted about 5 or 10 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. When it was happening, I checked the engine gauges to see how the Big Cat was doing. During the "event", the needles never moved, not even the tach. Then, as quickly as it started, the noise and vibration stopped. The engine sounded normal, there were no vibrations, no warning lights. I went around the boat and checked all the bilges, and we were still high and dry. The boat continued to run as if nothing had ever happened. My eyes were glued to the needles for several minutes, but they stayed locked to their normal position. The Big Cat just purred along. Holy shite. 

Louise thought we might have gotten a line in our prop, so she put on a life jacket and headset and went outside to check our decks and lines. Everything was fine, everything was secured. We have no idea what we hit. Our best guess, given the duration and the fact that it just seemed to put a big load on the engine, was that it was biological - we had chopped up some big weeds or a dolphin or something. But things were not the same for us after this. Both of us were now on full adrenaline rush, I am sure our eyes were as big as saucers. Although we had planned to take shifts driving the boat and sleeping, we now both agreed that we would both stay awake for the rest of the trip in case something else unexpected happened. Even if we wanted to, neither one of us could sleep after what we heard and felt during those 5 seconds, so we might as well roll with it and keep going. Luckily we had some practice staying awake overnight doing security shifts at the RYC. I had visions of walking the RYC docks at midnight, checking lines, boats and stars. But, I digress.

02:08

Moonrise. The crescent moon came up over the horizon. It was spectacular, looked like some kind of light show as it rose, red and cup-shaped over the horizon. As the moon continued to rise over the rest of the night, it slowly brightened to the point that we could see a bit of the water, and eventually even some of the waves ahead of the boat. 

Moonrise over the Gulf. Initially it looked like some kind of big building, then resolved into the crescent moon. At the start of the crossing, someone got on the radio to tell us that moonrise would be at 01:26. Well, this time came and went. We found ourselves looking at the time and wishing for the moon to come out so we could maybe see something besides pitch black. When the moon finally made its appearance, it was worth the wait.

Louise and I were both running on adrenaline, cold coffee and determination at this point. I was afraid I would fall asleep sitting at the helm, so I walked around the boat, and spent a lot of time standing at the front looking at the water in the moonlight. Louise used flash to take this photo, in reality the boat was black, black, black.

04:13

Our GPS displays an ETA estimate that is constantly updated. It was now showing that we would arrive a bit too early to our destination. Not good, as an early arrival would make the crab pots difficult to see in the sun's glare. I got on the VHF to consult with Rich, and he had also noticed the same thing, so we reduced our RPM's slightly, and warned the rest of the group on VHF that we were doing so. Our ETA now showed us back on schedule and in the green.

05:04

Rocket launch! This weird orange fire-ball appeared on the horizon. Looked like some kind of flare-up or explosion. Rich got on the radio and told us it was a rocket launch! We watched it climb up, and the first stage separated before it disappeared over the horizon. Was amazing to watch in real life, it rose REALLY FAST and was super-bright. SO COOL! When it rolled, it kind of looked like it would overfly us, but of course rockets launch to the east, so this was just an illusion. Later, Angela of Lizzie Lynn got on the radio to tell everyone that it was a Space-X launch.

Space-X rocket launch!

Louise managed to also get a video of the launch.

07:02

Sunrise. For about 45 minutes, we watched a weird-looking cloud slowly brighten and change colours. As it got brighter, we realized that it was not a cloud, but the contrails left from the rocket launch. The shape and colour changes made for an almost religious experience. Then, at 07:02 the sun came up over the horizon. We had now watched a sunset and a sunrise over the ocean, with no land in sight. Other than the contrails, there was not a cloud in the sky, and the water was mirror smooth at this point. Shortly after sunrise, the wind picked up a bit, and we ran into small waves for the rest of the trip. A little choppy, but no big deal.

Sunrise rocket contrail. It doesn't get better than that.

More rocket contrails after sunrise.

Angela of Lizzie Lynn shot this video of the sunrise, which she sped up to create this effect.

As soon as it got bright enough to see, we moved to the flybridge to get a better view. Since the sun was now up, this meant we were close enough to land that we would now start seeing crab pots, and the flybridge would be the best vantage point for that. We have not driven from the flybridge in quite a while due to weather (cold) so this was nice to be able to feel the wind in our hair. It was a bit chilly at first so we had to wear hoodies, but by the time we were near the marina we were able to switch to T-shirts.

08:08

Our devices started working. Starlink and cell service came back to life, like we had returned to civilization from the wilderness. All of a sudden, Louise got a bunch of texts and emails, so she texted Ruth and a few other people that we were still floating and on schedule.

10:02

We passed the R4 marker off the coast of Tarpon Springs, ending our first-ever overnight crossing of the ocean. Our original plan was to use the entrance near the G1 marker at the south of Anclote island, but the sun was directly in our eyes on this route so we swung north and went to plan B by going around the north side of the island. Now we had to run the crab-pot minefield. They were everywhere. Each crab-pot was marked with a small ball, and they were all painted different colours. They were tricky to see in the morning sun. The boats of our group formed up into a line, close to each other, each one following the next boat as we zig-zagged our way through the channel towards the marina. Everyone was tired and sleep deprived by this time, and we were all running on raw nerves. Make it stop!

Approaching the R2 marker, Rich got on the radio to tell me to take it on the other side than where I was headed. He had watched a commercial boat go on that side, and figured we should use local knowledge to get the nav markers right. Really glad he did that and told us, as my brain was full of cobwebs and I was making mistakes at this point. This was the great thing about crossing in a group - we looked after each other.

11:05 

We pulled into Anclote Village marina with Jewel, Stulie and Thyme Away (the other boats in our group had gone to other marinas). We congratulated each other on a successful crossing, then we all went to bed to get some much-needed sleep. At this point, Louise and I had been awake for 29 hours. Melanie had cooked some lunch, but I was too tired and went right to sleep. Louise went over to Jewel to get something to eat before she too crashed. We all got several hours of much needed sleep. What an adventure!

The crews each woke from their beauty sleep around 4 in the afternoon, and looked for a place to have dinner together. Turned out this area had been damaged by hurricane Helene, and nothing was open nearby. Rich suggested we order pizza. YES! We got some pizzas delivered and invited all the crews to the flybridge of iFloat to celebrate our crossing. 

A toast to the Can-Am crews!

We all swapped stories about our crossing experiences while we ate our pizza and sipped our beverages. We had the bond of passing a shared challenge, and what a freakin awesome experience to have had as that challenge. 

But we all agreed that we never want to do it again.

Boat name of the day:

Jewel, Thyme Away, Stulie, Silver Linings, Lizzie Lynn, Glorious Dei and iFloat

Staging for the crossing

Our first day out, we got off the dock as soon as it was bright enough to see, which was about 20 minutes before sunrise. Some other boats had the same idea, so we formed a convoy with Jewel, Thyme Away, Flying Colours and Stulie. We all left the Wharf at Orange Beach together to stage in Apalachicola and then cross the Gulf of Mexico.

The first part of the trip was through a well protected part of the ICW and was really easy. We even had some dolphins swimming around and following our boats. They were easy to see in front of us, but we could not get any photos as each time I saw some, Louise did not have her camera ready. We continued on through narrow portions of the ICW on a ride very much like doing the Rideau canal back home. Then we got to Pensacola.

Along the way we passed a spectacular beach, bright white sand dunes. It was at the edge of an Air Force installation of some kind. They had a bunch of unmarked buildings with strange-looking antennas and a big observation tower of some kind. Later in the day, Stulie and Jewel reported some loud "booms" so we thought that the jets were flying super-sonic nearby.

This area opened out into a large bay about 10 km wide. Winds were from the north, and since we were at the south end of the bay, we got to enjoy the fruits of the fetch. We had 1 - 2 foot waves on the beam making for a very rough ride. We were rolling pretty good, and had to hold on if we needed to move around, and especially if we didn't want to move around. About half way across the bay, I saw a bunch of dolphins headed towards our boat. Louise saw them also, and tried to go out to the stern to get some photos. At the same time she moved, we got hit by a larger wave and the boat rolled more than usual. Louise tripped over a bucket that we store our shoes in at the same time the boat was doing this hard roll. Well, she landed pretty hard on the deck. I was worried she had broken something, but she was intact except for her toe. She was wearing sandals and smacked her toe pretty good in the fall. 

Louise had to put ice on her toe while we were underway. This had the added benefit of preventing her from injuring anything else if she scrambled to get dolphin photos. Chris on Stulie radioed later that they saw dolphins swimming towards us, but told us they were far away so Louise didn't need to rush to see them. lol.

She sat down and got some ice on her foot, and after a while the pain subsided, but she smacked it pretty good. Initially we were afraid she had broken it, but upon closer inspection she just bruised it really good.

A bad case of Dolphin Toe.

Keep the ice on that toe.

Eventually we came to another group of dolphins, this time they even surfed in our wake. Louise managed to get her phone set up to record a video of them, and thought she got them doing several "hops" in our stern wake. She was pretty pissed when she went to look at the video and found that she had the phone on the wrong setting and had just taken a single photo of empty ocean. So, these dolphins are like Big Foot or Sasquatch or Mr. Snuffleupagus. Every time you try to take their photo they disappear.

The wind was blowing pretty hard when we got to the marina. They gave us all instructions to come to the gas dock to get directions to our slip (we were a group of 4 boats). We were first in and the wind was something else when we got there. We got directions to the slip, and then had to play tricks to get off the gas dock. The wind was blowing perpendicular to the gas dock, and pinning us to the dock, so I had to ease the boat forward over the end of the dock and use a piling as a lever. The pile held the midships of the boat in place while the wind blew the bow over enough so I could then reverse out of the gas dock. I got on the radio to warn the other boats not to go to the gas dock unless they needed gas.

When we got to our slip, we found a small, short slip at the end of a fairway, with the wind blowing directly behind us. Backing into the slip was impossible for us in these conditions, so I went in bow first, again using a piling to hold us in place. It took us about 40 minutes to get the boat tied up as the wind was directly on our beam, and we did not fit into the slip. After some vector analysis, we finally got set in. The dock hand apologized for the tie up, but we thought he had done a great job to get us set.

There was a strong wind blowing perpendicular to our boat, and we were in a short slip. Had to use lots of leverage to hold us in place. To add to the fun, it was cold! There were frost warnings in the morning, and the temperature was about 12 degrees C when we arrived. Brrrrrr.

It was so cold our dink experienced shrinkage.

It turned out that everyone else had also difficulty docking and we were all stressed out after getting set in, so we went for dinner at a Mexican place nearby. We have found that these restaurants are super-tasty and super-cheap.

The next morning Mike came over to help us out of the slip. The wind had subsided a lot, but was still there and we were at the end of a fairway so did not have a lot of maneuvering room. Once we untied, Mike walked our bow out, making sure our anchor did not hit the pilings, while the wind blew our stern over to the side. As soon as our bow was clear, we were able to turn into the wind and get out of the fairway between the docks. Worked really well, and we were on our way.

The ride started out smooth, but then got pretty sporty when we came out of the lee in the bay. We rode for about 1 1/2 hours in 2 foot waves on our beam. In this kind of sea, you cannot move around without holding onto something, so we do not move unless we REALLY need to. We keep Eevee's litter box under the helm, and from time-to-time she uses it when we are underway. Well, today she used it and missed. So, during the roughest part of the passage I was standing in cat pee. I could not wipe it up, as it was a bit too rough to move around and I also had to handle the boat manually (the autopilot does not work well in heavy waves). We were pretty happy when we made it to different section of the bay and got calmer conditions. I could set the autopilot and clean up the mess. Ah, glamorous boating life! Eventually we entered a canal section that was narrow and protected, so the rest of the trip was nice and smooth.

Eevee's litter box is under the helm. After she missed the box, I had to stand in cat pee until conditions smoothed out enough to clean it up.

The wind held our looper flag perpendicular to the boat. The wind was strong enough that the flag was more-or-less straight all the time.

Mike from Thyme Away seems to know people from everywhere. He had a friend who flew a Canadian flag as we passed. The guy had a really nice house.

When we got to the marina in Ocean City, they again told us to tie to the gas dock for instructions before going to our slip. They offered us a captain to help if we wanted it - like a valet services for boats. The winds had calmed a lot by that time, so we declined and had no issue getting into the slip. We had to go in bow first again, as the docks were very high and we would only be able to get off at the front of the boat.

After getting set up, Louise called ahead to our next marina and found out they did not have fuel available, so we decided to get filled up as this would be our last chance before the crossing. This required us to untie and trundle over to the gas dock, fuel up and go back to our slip. Extra docking practice.

We had dinner with Rich and Melanie, and after dinner the crew of Stulie came over for dessert. We had a great time visiting with them and swapping looper stories. They told us they had a game of the top-three questions that loopers ask. Number one was "what's that noise?"

The last day's travel was fairly long, but very pleasant. There was no wind, and we had no waves either. The only drama that happened was when Thyme Away had a problem with his steering. After working the wheel a bit, the problem seemed to resolve, so hopefully just an air bubble in the system. 

Louise spent some time on the bow trying to get dolphin photos. When no dolphins showed up, she took a selfie instead. When we are outside and underway on the ocean, we wear life jackets and use our headsets to keep track of each other. 

Any spray we got on the boat dries to form salt deposits. When you walk outside, if you brush up against anything, you get salt on your clothes. Very much like what happens in winter if you happen to brush your coat against your car. Here you can see the salt encrusted on the windshield.

Just as we were about to get to the end of our journey to Apalachicola, we managed to get a short video of a dolphin in front of the boat. We have seen them surfing our stern wake, but have never managed to get a photo or video of it. We cannot see the bow from the lower helm, so don't know if they have been in our bow wave or not.

During the trip we time-warped again when we crossed into the eastern time zone, so we "lost" and hour on the voyage. After getting tied up, I cleaned out the lazarette and bilge. When it rains, both areas take water. Very annoying, as I have not been able to figure out where the water is coming in from. With the bilges dry, it was time to program our route into the GPS and get set.

We were tied to a face-dock beside an old ice house. The "marina" here is just a dock with space for 3 or 4 boats with electrical outlets. No other services, and it was really expensive!

During the trip we were passed by Lizzie Lynn, who had a friend at Apalachicola willing to loan us their car. So the girls went out to do some last minute provisioning. Rich and I got some chores done, then we all went to dinner with the crews of Thyme Away and Stulie. 

Tomorrow we will cross the Gulf of Mexico. Fingers Crossed. 

Stay tuned!

Boat name of the day: Quitcha Bitchin'

Have a plan not a schedule

On a boat, always have a plan, never have a schedule. Schedules are dangerous. Living on a boat you are at Nature's mercy, and you don't want to go against Mother Nature - she can get nasty. If the weather is bad, you need to stay put. Some places you can only enter or exit at certain times because of tides. When you have a schedule, you sometimes go or stay when you shouldn't.

We have a weather window for the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico coming up that we don't want to miss. We need to manage the weather conditions on the ICW to make it to our jump-off point near Carrabelle in time for the window.

Well, now was the time to plan. We were on the south coast of the United States, about to travel along the Florida panhandle. We can do this trip on the intracoastal waterway (ICW) as far as Carrabelle in a semi-protected environment. The ICW is a series of barrier islands about 1 to 3 miles offshore that offer a travel route that is separated from the main ocean swells. The Army Corps of Engineers has constructed a series of canals between these islands and the shore, and so it is possible to travel in somewhat protected conditions. You are still subject to winds, but don't get the big ocean waves.

After Carrabelle, in order to continue south, it is necessary to cross the Gulf of Mexico. There are two ways to do this, you can cross direct from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs, a straight-line distance of about 129 nautical miles (239 km). In our boat, this means an overnight crossing. The alternative is to "go around", which allows you to travel closer to the shore. There is one open-water crossing required for this route, but it is short enough to be able to do it during the day. Whichever route you choose, it is necessary to use a weather window to go across, since you have to travel in the open ocean. Our boats are not built for the really big water, and neither are we, and so we need calmer conditions to cross safely.

The hurricanes that went through Florida earlier this fall damaged some of the ports along the "go around" route, which means that if we decided to take that route, we would have a series of longer crossings, requiring a series of weather windows to do. This route would also require anchoring in some exposed areas, because many marinas are still not open yet. The AGLCA website provides a weather window "service" to help loopers find a weather window. Usually this service lists conditions for both crossings, but this year they are only posting weather information for the straight-run crossing. 

So, we decided to plan for the "straight-run". On the 17th of November, the AGLCA website posted a possible crossing window opening up on the 25th or 26th, giving us 9 days to make it to the jump-off point to take advantage of it. 

So, now we had a schedule. :(

The first task was to plan our run to the jump-off point, as we were not going to be the only loopers looking to take advantage of the window. Everyone would be concentrating in marinas near the jump-off point, so we had to start now to make reservations. To add to the fun, bad weather was forecast for the next 4 days, which would mean that we would be hunkered down for a few days, making for long travel days instead of short hops once we get moving. Just to be clear however, we are not going to try to push our luck to make this window. If we miss it there will be other windows, so we really don't have a schedule, but it would be nice to get into this window as there have not been many this season with all the hurricane activity.

During our transit to the jump-off point we will be planning our crossing. This has to be timed so that we reach an offshore navigation buoy off Tarpon Springs around 10:00 in the morning. This timing is important since this is a crabbing area, and we need the light to be able to spot the crab pot buoys so we don't foul our propeller. It is important not to arrive too early, as you don't want the sun in your eyes when you run this gauntlet. Given our boat speed, we will leave in the later afternoon the day before, travel through the night, arrive at the buoy in the morning, transit the crab pot minefield, and get set in a slip or anchorage for the night. We will likely be travelling in a convoy of other looper boats since others will be using the same weather window. We are happy about this, as there is safety in numbers. We will be filing a float-plan with some relatives so that they will know where to send search-and-rescue if we become seriously overdue.

OK, with the background info out of the way, our first task was to rough-out our trip to Carrabelle. We had to take into account weather and tides to come up with something workable. We also tried to keep the various hops as short as possible, so that we did not get into grind mode. With our plan roughed out,  Melanie and Louise set about organizing reservations for the various marinas we were planning to stay at. 

Back on iFloat, Louise had gotten some take-out key lime pie at Lulu's the night before, and had left it on the laundry rack overnight. When she opened it in the morning, she found ants. You may remember that we first found ants on the boat at Aqua Yacht marina on Pickwick lake. Well, we put out some ant traps around the galley, but after two weeks we still were finding ants every day. Those ant traps had been purchased at a dollar store, so this time we went to Home depot to get some more. These new traps we set out when we got to Dog River in Mobile. It has only been a couple of days with the new traps, so we will see but it is now obvious that we have an ant colony somewhere on the boat.

Louise removed the pie from the boat and set it on the dock near iFloat intending to drop it in the garbage on her way to the shower. When she lifted up the bag she found a cockroach underneath. This had come from the dock and not from the boat, but we need to stay vigilant.

With all this done, we untied the lines and trundled 5 km down the ICW to our next marina, where we had made a longer-term reservation. About a week ago we had some Amazon stuff sent to this marina, and needed to stop here to pick it up. There was some heavy-duty rain and wind coming in a day or two, and although expensive, this would be a good place to stay and hide out from the rain. This place was in a high-end resort, and the prices of everything reflected that. There was a small shopping mall nearby with high end stores, yacht brokerages, even a skating rink. We wandered around for a bit, then went out to dinner with some looper friends of Jewel's. Steve and Donna, the crew of L'Attitude Adjustment, had buddy boated with Jewel from New York to Blind River and they had a nice reunion together. Steve had lots of interesting stories about loop experiences.

And, they loaned us their car!

Christmas lights at the mall here.

Selfie on the ferris wheel.

Santa fish!

The next morning the first thing to do was check the weather, and surprise surprise, our weather window for the crossing had closed. Not so nice, but the forecast was still a week out and likely to change. We decided to stick with our plan in case the window re-opened. After breakfast with the crew of Jewel, we set off to pick up our new water maker. We wanted to have the ability to make our own water when we are in the Bahamas, so we are not tied to a location, nor limited in how much water we use. With that done, we drove along the island to look at the beaches at Orange beach. Conditions were pretty gnarley, and the beaches were closed, but Louise took a walk along the beach to check it out. 

Nice beach and huge resorts, but the conditions were not nice this day.

Another view of the beach. After the heavy rain we had the day before, a cold front came through with high winds. Big waves and breezy.

We then went to Pensacola, with the intent to visit the Naval museum on the airbase there. Unfortunately, we could not do this as the base required ID in order to enter. We only had our driver's licenses with us, and since we were not U.S. citizens, they required our passports. Easy come easy go.

Plan B was to drive to Fairhope, as other loopers had told us that this was a nice town to visit. When we got there, all we found was a bunch of high-end clothing shops in the downtown area, not quite our thing. We walked around for a bit, then headed back to the boat.

Rich needed to stop at Hone Depot to pick up some things for his boat, and when we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a big restaurant called Lambert's Cafe. The portions were huge, and they have people coming around giving you extra food, including rolls. When they give you a roll, they throw it to you! I had ordered milk to drink, which came in a huge mug. When the roll-throwing guy came by, he made a point of my drinking the milk.

This is the entrance to Lambert's. Restaurants here like lots of old stuff as decor. Each one has its own special spin on the old times.

The roll-throwing guy made sure I drank my milk. He noticed I was not using the straw, so helped me to drink the milk the right way. This will help me to grow up to have healthy teeth and bones!

The drinks at Lambert's were quart-sized!

This heron hung around the boats on our dock. Each night when we came back to the boat, he would scare the crap out of us. He would sit very still, so he was hard to see, then all of a sudden fly away while emitting a squawk that was positively prehistoric. Was like being in Jurassic Park.

The next day we had heavy rain all day, so Rich and I took care of various chores and projects in the bilges, while Louise and Melanie went for a drive so Melanie could visit a chiropractor - the closest one that would take her at short notice was in Pensacola, an hour drive away. We went out for supper with Steve and Donna of l'Attitude Adjustment and Evan and Mike of Strummin' Along. After dinner, we went to Flora-Bama, which is a huge complex of bars on the Florida-Alabama state line. We watched a show done by a guy who sang songs and told raunchy jokes in-between. He picked on Melanie and Louise as part of the show. After the show we got to meet him.

Flora-Bama is a complex of inter-connected bars on the beach at the Florida-Alabama border.

Big Earl with all the ladies. Louise, Evan, Melanie, Donna

The ladies got to go onstage to meet Big Earl. He does a musical/comedy show, and has been working here for 30 years. Steve and Donna knew him, so the ladies got to meet him after the show.

They had strung clotheslines in front of one of the stages here and it was full of bras. Each one signed, I assume by the donor and recipient.

There was a wall of license plates outside. Each had been cut up to extract some letters or numbers, which were placed on a few of the walls with secret messages.

Our last day at Orange beach was spent doing chores and generally getting ready for our trip up the panhandle. We used the car the last time to get some provisions, and Rich and Melanie got their Amazon stuff from the marina. We also met with Mike and Pam from Thyme Away to co-ordinate for our early morning departure the next day. We have three or four long travel days to reach Carrabelle in time for our Gulf crossing window. Stay tuned!

Boat name of the day: Sir Reel