From Florida's West Coast to the Panhandle

Cathy helped us untie from her dock in St. Petersburg at 11:30 Wednesday morning, April 20th, and we were anchored at Anclote Key five hours later.  It was a beautiful, sunny day so we put the dinghy down and went over to the beach to do a little shelling but mostly we just enjoyed the sand and scenery.

This osprey wasn’t about to share his hard-won meal with a seagull!





We had planned to stay at Anclote for a couple of days, but when we saw that Thursday was Bob’s birthday we decided to make tracks for Crystal River to celebrate the 29th anniversary of his 44th birthday (Bob’s reply when we asked how old he was!).  So, eight hours later we were anchored in Kings Bay.

Passing through Crystal River on the way to Kings Bay.





That evening we dinghied over to Bob & Phillis’ house to join them and friend Joe for Bob’s birthday dinner at Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steakhouse in Homosassa.

The canal leading to Bob & Phillis’ house.



Our venue for Bob’s birthday dinner.



Nice bikes!  I want the hot pink one!!!





As you can see, we had front row seats for the band.



Friday morning Todd went over to help Bob move some storage boxes to Joe’s garage and we made plans to get together at Bob and Phillis’ that evening for dinner and games.  Army and Marion, who recently bought a house in Crystal River, were also invited.  Their boat is still in Trinidad but they are in the process of making Crystal River their permanent home.

After everyone had their fill of my enchilada lasagna, we taught the group to play Left Center Right and Drink While You Think before moving on to Mexican Train, a dominoes game, which we only got three rounds into before calling it a night.

Everyone is intently arranging their dominoes, trying to make a workable train.



Bob came by in his Bayliner about 12:30 Saturday afternoon and took Todd for a boat tour of the bay, including a stop at a local gathering spot called The Shallows.  That evening we went back to Bob & Phillis’ for a wonderful smoked pork loin dinner (Bob truly is the grill master!), complete with my homemade scalloped potatoes and Marion’s Caprese salad.  Simply marvelous!  And then we finished our dominoes game, which Bob won by a wide margin – no surprise there!

Todd went back over to help Bob with a few things Easter morning before hauling anchor at noon and heading to Cedar Keys.  The first couple of hours were pretty nice but then the waves started hitting us on the port beam, making for a long final three hours.  Fortunately, the waves were only about two-footers so it was only mildly nauseating!

We anchored south of the channel about three miles east of the Northwest Channel marker/light to make for easier access to the Gulf of Mexico in the dark hours of the early morning and then settled in for a quiet (and early to bed) evening.

A nice sunset from our anchorage at Cedar Keys.



Around midnight a storm rolled through so our sleep was not quite as restful after that, and 4:00 a.m. came very early.  But we got up and were underway an hour later for the 110-mile crossing.  Waves were supposed to be two- to four-footers from the southeast, calming to two in the afternoon.  We briefly debated going on up to Steinhatchee and crossing from there on Tuesday but decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

Well, the waves were probably more like three- to five-footers with the all-too-frequent appearance of six-footers.  The swells were hitting us on the rear quarter, pushing under us and leaving a big trough for us to rock and roll in!  Neither of us got sick but we both felt queasy and took turns lying down in brief intervals throughout the day.

Todd originally laid down on the port side bench seat next to the Captain’s chair but the side-to-side rocking motion following a big swell soon rolled him off, so he moved the bench seat cushion to the flybridge floor and that was our “sick pad” for the day.

The seas did calm slightly in the afternoon, but only slightly.  We were still being pushed through East Pass by swells at 5:00 Monday afternoon on our way to the anchorage at Gap Point on St. George Island.  But we made it across safely and without incident and were very happy to have it behind us.  Needless to say, it was another early-to-bed night!

Our good friend Everett from Springfield, who has actually made the Gulf crossing with Todd twice now, sent us the following e-mail after our last blog update:

As you make the crossing think how different it is from the first one you made and lets see if you can get past Demopolis before the end of the summer.  Reflect and enjoy, think what started the voyage and how all our lives have changed since September 05.  Buddy retired in Florida and spends his time under a palm tree like so many other retiree's.  You are preparing to reenter the work force and Nila is preparing to leave it.  You have seen and done things that most people only dream about, you have friends in places you had never heard of 10 years ago and still have a big chunk of life to be lived.

Travel safely, travel happily.

What a GREAT note, Everett!  Thanks for the wonderful thoughts and memories.

After a leisurely and restful Tuesday morning, we made our way to Apalachicola Marine (formerly Miller Marine) to take on some fuel at the bargain price of $4.23 per gallon and ended up spending the night on the fuel dock.

Tonging for oysters in Apalachicola Bay.





That evening we walked through charming downtown Apalachicola for the first time to meet Hank & Nancy on “Last Laugh,” a very nice 52-foot Defever.  As it turns out, they were at the Defever rendezvous in Sarasota when we were there visiting our many Defever friends but apparently our paths didn’t cross.



This sign was stuck on a piling near Hank & Nancy’s boat.



Todd originally spoke with Hank & Nancy on the VHF last Thursday when they passed by our anchorage at Anclote Key on their way to Cedar Keys to do the crossing.  And he spoke with them again from our anchorage at Gap Point on St. George Island as they were heading to a marina in Scipio Creek.  When we decided to spend the night at Apalachicola Marine, Todd called Hank to make plans to get together for dinner at Papa Joe’s for some authentic Apalachicola oysters.



Apalachicola oysters fresh from the bay.



The Captain managed to consume two dozen of them all by himself!



We left the fuel dock at 9:00 Wednesday morning to anchor in Saul Creek, about five miles north.  Early that afternoon, “Last Laugh” made a pass through Saul Creek on its way to White City for the evening.



Around 4:30 we went for a long dinghy ride and saw some interesting and beautiful scenery.  Having never stayed in Saul Creek before, we are both impressed and highly recommend it, both for its protection and natural beauty.  And as an added bonus, it is a freshwater creek within sight of the Intracoastal!

I think we saw four sunken boats and an abandoned sailboat on our dinghy trip.



These exotic-looking flowers were found in numerous shady locations along the bank.  Aren’t they lovely?





Gorgeous and serene.



We expected some potentially strong storms to pass through overnight but they either dissipated or went north of us.  Thursday morning we had some light rain that passed quickly followed by pleasant temperatures and cloud cover.  While it was cool, the Captain worked his way around the side of the boat in the dinghy cleaning the hull before taking off to go fishing for a while.  When he returned, we took another dinghy ride, this time around the Saul Creek Cut-off and a short distance up the Apalachicola River.

This old ship was on the Saul Creek Cut-off, just off the Intracoastal.



There is a donation box affixed to the side and the web address on the sign is:  http://www.saveourpirates.com/.  Guess someone is hoping to save the “Arabella Nickole” with donations!



We found this little hole in the shoreline near where we were anchored.  The photo looks out on Saul Creek and there is actually a small lake behind us.



Today is Friday, April 29th, and we left Saul Creek about 9:30 a.m. to make our way to Crooked Island, a wonderful barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico southeast of Panama City.  We stopped just outside the Port St. Joe Marina around 12:30, dropped the anchor and dinghied over to the marina to get a few supplies and were back underway by 2:00 p.m.  Three hours later we were anchored at Crooked Island and are looking forward to spending the next several days here.  Thankfully, the Gulf was much calmer today than it was for our crossing!

Passing by White City.

 

Entering Crooked Island from the Gulf.



With all the rain the Midwest has experienced recently, not to mention the severe storms that passed through Tennessee and Alabama two days ago, the Tenn-Tom is raging.  In fact, our friends Mo & Gale on “Blue Heron” are holed up at Three Rivers Lake (Mile 64 on the Tenn-Tom) waiting for it to settle down so they can continue their trip north.  In the meantime, we will leisurely make our way along the Gulf coast between Panama City and Mobile and hope that the spring storms have blown and rained themselves out!