Southwest Florida

Southwest Florida is very nice and there are many places on the water to visit. We stayed in Sarasota 4 nights at Marina Jacks and it was great. The marina was fantastic and we were within walking distance of the town with many shops and restaurants. We went to the Ringling Museum which is truly amazing. This is a great time of year to visit these kind of places because nobody is here.

We left Sarasota on Wednesday and went to the private dock of Bob and Patti in Englewoood, FL. on Knight Island which is only accessible by ferry. They were on a getaway with their yacht club but they let us stay at their house for a relaxing evening. If you remember, Bob and Patti are the couple that stayed with us for 11 days, crossed the Gulf in less than desirable conditions and they still let us use their house. We arrived into their dock pretty easily at high tide but we probably left a little early the next day because we had a more difficult time leaving, but all is good. We only had to go 17 miles to Cabbage Key so we took our time and arrived early in the afternoon.

Cabbage Key is a very small island with a few cottages, a small marina and a bar/restaurant. Supposedly this bar inspired the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". There are dollar bills all over the walls. We put up a dollar bill with our boat name. We left Cabbage Key today around 9:30 and headed for Sanibel Marina on the Southern end of Sanibel Island. This puts us very close to the Causeway which goes from Fort Myers to Sanibel and is very nice.

A friend of mine from Columbus, OH has a home in Fort Myers and some of the guys go there each year in December. This just happened to be the week they visited and they came over to Sanibel today and we had a great time visiting and going to the beach.

We are moving to our December home tomorrow in North Fort Myers and will be there until January when we move to Marathon. Ginny and I are not going home for Christmas which is sad but my sister and our daughter will be visiting us for a long weekend starting on the 15th. My cousin lives near Fort Myers and we have friends from our marina back home that are also here so we should be able to keep busy. I will post every few days but we will not be traveling on the boat.

Ringling Museum

Human Cannonball

Part of the miniatures

An entire circus in miniature that took over 15 years to complete

I can't tell you how amazing this is

Banyan trees

Maybe I have another career after the Loop.

A colorful place near Englewood, FL on the Intracoastal

Brown Eyed Girl at Bob and Patti's Dock

Low Tide

Getting higher

Probably should have waited a little longer - but patience is not my strong suit.

Swing bridge to Boca Grande

Cabbage Key Inn

Every wall and the ceiling is covered with money

Here is our contribution

An original wooden water tower on Cabbage Key

The marina at low tide

Leaving Cabbage Key

Coming into Sanibel Marina

Bob, John, Steve and Mike treated us to lunch - Thank You!

Great hamburgers and onion rings that I am still enjoying if you know what I mean.

Clearwater and Sarasota

I said I would let you know how the other slow boats made out on the crossing. Unfortunately it was not fun for any of them. We met Sid and Evelyn on "Something Special" and Dean and Beth on "Kismet" at the dock when they came in from 26 hours of running. They left Carabelle at 8:00 A.M. and arrived at 10:00 A.M. the next day. They were very exhausted but they made it safe. Sid's dream crossing was calm water, a full moon and some relaxation but what he got was high waves, no moon, no relaxation and he threw up. As of this posting they are doing much better but I am sure the experience will stay with them for a long time. Another sailboat that came across was in 16 foot waves and the Coast Guard had called their kids about them being overdue. Clearwater is a very nice city with a lot of things to do. We went to the beach and also took a trolley to Tarpon Springs to see the sponge capital of the world. We ate at a great Greek restaurant and one of our group had octopus. Ginny and I split lamb chops with a Greek salad and it was wonderful. We also bought a couple of sponges.

We left Clearwater and headed for Sarasota and Marina Jacks. The trip was about 60 miles along the Intracoastal which is very narrow in some places and even when it is not the water depth is seldom over 10 feed deep which keeps you on your toes. When we arrived in Sarasota we helped Gene and Ginny on "FREE TO B" celebrate the crossing of their wake. This means that they have traveled around the entire Eastern half of the North America and are back to where they started. Believe me this is no small feat and there are only about 150 boats a year that complete this journey. The only tangible reward for completing the Loop is a gold flag and a bottle of champagne that they had to buy. The intangible benefits are way too many to list. There was a big parade in Sarasota on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun.

Today Ginny and I went to a Tiki Bar today for a quick beer and were treated to a show of three people in a small overloaded (they were also loaded) overturn. Not to worry as the water in Florida is not very deep so they did not have far to sink. Actually they were rescued quickly so no harm.

We are planning on going to Cabbage Key and Sanibel in the next couple of days before we head for Fort Myers.

Evelyn on Something Special after 26 hours

Beth on Kismet docking right after Something Special

Patty, Bob, Ginny and Craig right before Bob and Patty left us after 11 days

Clearwater Beach

The survivors

Tarpon Springs

Octopus at Mama's

Dean saying goodbye from Clearwater

The bridge in Clearwater that we came under

Ginny and Gene changing their flag from white to Gold

Champagne after the Loop completion

Part of the Winter parade in Sarasota

A fountain across from Marina Jack's

A statue in Five Point Park in Downtown Sarasota

The causeway across Sarasota Bay

Mariana Jacks

This did not turn out well

The Crossing

Every blog about the Great Loop has an entry called "The Crossing".  If you have thought about doing the Loop then you know that at some point you will need to cross the Gulf of Mexico from somewhere in the Panhandle to somewhere in Southwest Florida. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway ends at Carabelle, Florida so that is where most people cross from. The Intracoastal starts again in Tarpon Springs Florida. If you look at a map you will see that it is about 175 miles straight across. Instead of crossing straight you can also go around the "Big Bend" which means you can stay closer to shore and make a few stops. This sounds much easier but because of the weather and shallow waters this is not always true. As a Looper you need to decide the direction and the speed. The direction is either straight across or around the bend. The speed is either slow (7-10MPH) or fast (20-25MPH). As I said in my last post, every boat and every crew is different so there is no right answer. You also will probably want to travel with at least one other boat so you may need to compromise. Ginny and I had not decided what we were going to do until we started traveling with "FREE TO B". Gene and Ginny said they were going straight across and fast which sounded like a good idea to me so we decided to do that also. I was always going to go straight across but I was thinking about going slow (18 hours at night) instead of fast (8 hours all in daylight) because it would cost much more in fuel. If you read my last post about being out on the water in the dark you probably guessed that we would run in the day at speed.

The process is to first get the OK from Buddy, pray that he knows what he is talking about and then cast off the lines. In the late fall and winter there are not many good weather days to make the crossing so you could be in Carabelle for several days, if not weeks, waiting. When we left Panama City on Tuesday we kind of thought that the weather window would be on Thursday or Friday so we thought we would have time to get ready. On Wednesday morning at 6 it was freezing cold but we went to the meeting expecting to go back to bed afterwards - but Buddy said this was the only day in the next week to go and it was marginal. Gene was not very enthusiastic but he agreed to go and if it was rough we would come back. Actually he said that if his wave meter went off we were coming back. When Bob asked him later what his wave meter was he pointed to his lovely wife Ginny and said her. I also have a a wave meter named Ginny so I knew what he was talking about.

We cast off the lines at 7 and headed out. The only boats that were going fast were us and the "Mary Frances IV". We agreed that we would run at 20MPH and we would be in Clearwater by 4:30. I keep saying straight across the Gulf but you don't leave Carabelle and go straight South because you would be in the Gulf Stream where the waves were likely to be higher. Buddy said to go 15 - 20 miles due East and then head Southwest. The waves were rolling swells that seemed to go in all different directions so the boat was moving around quite a bit but not pounding like you would if the waves were closer together. Neither of our "wave meters" went off so we pushed on.

The "Mary Frances" was going to Tarpon Springs which was a little North and East of where we were going so we lost sight of them after about 6 hours. We later heard them talking to Sea Tow about possibly not having enough fuel to make it so Sea Tow came out and followed them into a safe harbor. The reason they were low on fuel was because the waves were steep and you need more power to get up each wave. My Port engine burns more fuel then my Starboard and I was also very low on fuel when we came in. About 2 hours before reaching Clearwater, FL my Starboard engine started acting funny. It would be fine and then would lose power for a few seconds and then come back. This got worse as we went on but I decided to keep going because I did not want to be in the Gulf at dark (see my other posts). We slowed down a little and Gene waited for us as we struggled. As we got the handle on that situation - the crab pot markers started. The four of us were standing on the helm yelling "left - right - straight ahead". The markers are supposed to be laid in a straight line, but Ginny and I looked like drunk drivers trying to get by them. We finally made it into Clearwater about 4:30 P.M - cleaned up the boat, had a drink and went to dinner. It is now the next day and all of the slow boats that went at night are starting to come in so we will see how their ride was.

I won't go on and on about the trip but I will say that is was not our most pleasant experience and I would not want to do it again in my boat - but we are here safe and sound.

Buddy

Saying goodbye at the dock

Leaving Carabelle

We still have a long way to go

I think this picture sums up the trip quite nicely

More Panama City and Carabelle

We ended up staying a third day and night in Panama City because of the weather. It was windy, rainy and cold so Bob and Patty rented a Suburban and we drove to Mexico Beach, Port St. Joe and Apalachicola. Mexico Beach had a long pier that we went on to see the angry Gulf. There were 6 to 8 foot waves so we knew we were not crossing the Gulf anytime soon. We knew we were not going to stop on the boat at Port St. Joe so we drove over and it was a very nice marina with a good restaurant. There were only two Looper boats that I saw. The waitress said that they were expecting many more Loopers in the coming weeks. We had heard from Sid and Evelyn on "Something Special" that there were Loopers at Apalachicola so we drove over and we got to see some people we had not seen since the rendezvous. Most of them were moving on the Carabelle the next day to get ready for the crossing the Gulf.

Gene on "FREE TO B" and myself decided that we would get up real early the next day and travel all the way to Carabelle instead of stopping in Apalachicola. Carabelle was 90 miles away and we were going from Central Time to Eastern Time which meant we were going to lose an hour. We knew we couldn't go at 10MPH and get in before dark so we would need to run fast for part of the trip. We got up at 5 Central Time and looked at the weather and said why not. We both had to pump out and we decided that Bob would stay on the fuel dock to catch the lines. We wanted to get "FREE TO B" first so Bob could just get on our boat after we were done and then leave. The only problem was that we were in the way of "FREE TO B" so we decided to take the "Brown Eyed Girl" out into the harbor and wait for them to get pumped out and then we would take our turn. It was now about 5:30 A.M. and while there were lights on at the fuel dock there were no lights on in the harbor and let me tell you that it was DARK. Ginny was at the helm and I got a flashlight and tried to point it in the water so she could see. I am sure you are all saying what the H are these people thinking. Our number one rule in boating is not to run in the dark and yet here we were in a strange place with a little flashlight leading the way. I guess I woke up at that point and called Gene and said don't leave the dock, we are coming back in to wait for daylight. Anyway we got back in, pumped out and then left a little after 6 when we could at least see the water. We ran at speed long enough to get us into Carabelle about 2:30 in the afternoon eastern time.

Most of the slips in Florida are not nice floating docks that you can easily get in and out of but rather a four wooden posts with a tiny little dock to get on and off of the boat. To make it a little more challenging you have to back in and there is wind and current to consider. Now just for fun the dockmaster sometimes tries to put a 14' 4" boat into a 14' opening. We got about half way in after two tries and the dockmaster said, hey this slip won't work you need to go to slip 186. I thought he was kidding but he wasn't so we got to do it all over again. We finally got docked and met all of the the loopers at happy hour. Happy hours in Carabelle are not social events but rather a gathering of couples talking about how and when to cross the Gulf of Mexico. Every boat and every crew are different and trying to get a consensus is by nature impossible but it is a lot of fun to watch. The only thing that we knew for sure was that "Buddy" was going to host a meeting the next day at 6 AM to let us know if the weather was good enough to cross. The only reason we went to this particular marina was because Buddy was the expert on the Gulf weather. Buddy is also the dockmaster (see above). We all went to dinner and then went to bed early.

Getting a rental car

Mexico Beach - The Redneck Riviera

Nice beach but the weather was not

On the way to Carabelle

A house on Dog Island in Carabelle

This is the opening in the Gulf where the crossing starts

Brown Eyed Girl waiting at dock for Buddy to say go

Happy hour

Bob and Patty enjoying the show

Thank God for dinners with friends