Home The Adventure The Boat About Us Contact Us

Day 241: Friday, December 23rd: Today's log details what went on in the dark as we completed our trip across the Gulf.  Thankfully, and obviously, we arrived in the Tarpon Springs, FL area just fine, in spite of the rolling seas and chilly temperatures - about 22 hours after we started.  For the details, read on.

This day started at midnight Eastern Standard Time, cruising as before in the middle of nowhere.  That has a profound effect on the comfort of a boat.  The engine goes on "automatic rough," the seas go to forty-footers, the temperature drops, the crew gets hungry and queasy at the same time….

But we were cruising on automatic pilot, one person chilly at the lookout/helm position and the other trying to sleep.  We were doing two-hour watches, and mostly we would watch the billions of stars.  One can never see as many stars on land as on a dark sea at night.  It was perfectly beautiful and very impressive.

A hard freeze was predicted for our environs tonight and it got colder and colder.  When it got to the low 50s in the cabin we started the generator and turned on the two heat pumps for a short while every couple of hours.  That made it cozy in the cabin.

At 12:05AM the half-moon rose among the billions of stars giving us a horizon to look at and that made us feel better about how much we were rolling.  It was a beautiful night to look at.  We pressed on.

About 3:30AM the seas seemed to get worse and they were right on our beam.  We made adjustments to our course trying to find a more comfortable ride.  We were in no danger but we had to constantly hold on with both hands.  The adjustments did little to help.

One of our concerns was the thousands of crab pots along the coast of Florida.  As we grew closer to the coast the risk of hitting an unseen pot got greater.  The pots can be found in water 40 feet deep and less.  Our course and speed were adjusted to arrive at the forty-foot contour at dawn so we could see to dodge the floats marking the pots.

Ruth was driving when we approached 40 feet and the sun was brightening the sky although it had not risen yet.  Perfect timing.  We peeled our eyes and began to see and dodge the pots.  Lola Marie followed in our wake.

As the morning wore on and we approached the sea buoy marking North Anclote Key, the pots became less common and we relaxed a bit.  From here the seas lessened to a moderate chop and the going got easy.  We pulled into Anclote Isles Marina about 10:30AM, tied up, signed in with the harbormaster and went to bed; we needed a nap.  Lola Marie went to another marina in town.

At about 4PM the phone rang.  It was Lola aboard Lola Marie inviting us to join her and Larry for supper at one of the many local Greek restaurants.  We agreed and they picked us up in their rental car.

We went to "Mr. Souvlaki's" recommended by our harbormaster and it was a lot of fun and the food was excellent!  Our waiter took our picture (finally, a picture!):