Tuesday, October 31 - THE GULF CROSSING! (To Tarpon Springs)

At 4:00 a.m. we awaken, 4:15 the generator is turned on, 4:20 we make a call to "Rambunctious" who is ready with their engines running, and here we are, leaving Carrabelle a little before 4:30 a.m.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - it's a little spooky cruising in pitch black with only radar, chart plotter, and a spotlight (no moon; it set at 2:59 a.m.😞).  Looking at all the beautiful stars, we're glad to have these luxuries, as we think about the early explorers that had only the stars to guide them; crazy!!! 

It takes us one hour to cruise out of the river, cross Apalachicola Bay, go through East Pass, and pass by the last marker which signifies that we are now in the Gulf of Mexico.  Captain Dave sets our heading to 141 degrees to Tarpon Springs, Florida, and engages the autopilot.  It is now time to give the captain a rest; so I manage the cockpit.  Again, it's a little eerie just looking out into complete darkness!  So, I try hard to adjust my eyes to the darkness, and soon I see just a very small ray of light in the sky!  (These photos, of course, aren't all that I took, but it's a sampling of what I was seeing).

About this time Captain Dave awakes from his slumber, and so it is now my time to rest, but first, I must capture the sunrise, seeing as I am so close!

Once I awake from my rest, it's a bright, beautiful, blue day out!  

That is, everywhere I look, I only see blue!💙

Overall, we have a smooth cruising day.  There are a few hours we get rolled with one to two foot waves, but it isn't anything like two days ago when we crossed Apalachicola Bay!  Still, you have to make sure you hold onto the railings everywhere you go and you really can't do much other than be on watch, or read.  We put the boat on plane at 20 mph for approximately four hours and the rest of the time we cruise at 10 mph.  A few times we see dolphins🐬, and once when I was napping, Dave even sees a sea turtle 🐢!!! 

Here the winds are picking up a little bit.  You can see the spray coming off the top of our wake!

At 11:00 a.m. on the navigation screen, you can see where we left from (top left of screen) 

and how far we are; almost half-way!

 Other than "Rambunctious", there aren't any other boats, except around 2:00 p.m., when we see a 25 foot fishing boat about 70 miles off shore (WOW!  We have nothing to complain about when we talk about "getting rolled", if these guys are out there in such a small vessel!!!) 
Our average depth is 50 feet and the deepest water we experience is 90 feet. 

 The water we are cruising in is a balmy 74 degrees!

25 foot fishing boat!

The spray from our port side.

 The water color is just beautiful!!!

LAND HO!!!

 

Zooming in on our navigation screen, we can see there is an actual finish line!!!😂

With about 15 miles to go, we see what many people have told us to watch out for; crab pots!  We didn't have to worry about them when leaving Carrabelle, thank goodness, as there are no crab pots there, only shrimp nets (we've heard that shrimpers and crabbers don't get along!)

Speaking of crab boats, we actually got to see one collecting their goods!

So excited to see channel marker number 1!

A lighthouse greets us to Tarpon Springs!!!

As we head into Tarpon Springs, on the Anclote River, we see that it is DEFINITELY low tide;

this is right off our starboard!!!

 Again, thank goodness for channel markers!

We pull into Tarpon Point Marina at 6:00.  We know that the marina will be closed, but the marina has told us there will be a spot at the gas dock . . . OR MAYBE NOT!  Turns out there was some miscommunication between marina workers, and someone else got our spot.  Thank goodness for Finn, a fellow boater in the marina!  He sees our confused faces, and directs us to a tie-along that he knows will be available for the next few days!  The boat that ties here must be massive; check out those fenders!!!😲

(Fyi, picture taken the next morning 😉)

We have burned approximately 240 gallons of fuel and have traveled 177 miles in 13 1/2 hours!  To give you an idea what this is comparable to, it's like us cruising our boat all the way to LaCrosse and back to Lake City ALL IN ONE DAY!!!  

Finn tells us that the marina has a restaurant that he claims to be one of the best in the town, so we take his advice, and head to have a celebration dinner!🙌

We start before sunrise and end at sunset; it has been a full day, but we are so very thankful that all went well!