Toolin' Around Tarpon

Waiting for the Fishing Boat to Arrive

A Brown Pelican Roosting on Our Boat Piling

We settled in at the Tarpon City Municipal Marina because it was within walking distance of the sponge docks and most of what we wanted to see. In the morning, we cleaned the boat from top to bottom. Hopefully, we won't be kicking up that much salt spray for awhile. We took a walk through the tourist area and went to the sponge museum where

Capt. Larry at Spongeoram

we viewed an old movie about sponge fishing. The movie was undoubtedly made during the heyday of sponge fishing and probably bore little similarity with present day activities. Still it was entertaining and the museum was informative. Afterwards, we walked through the shopping district where Jane visited a number of interesting shops and boutiques.

At the Sponge Dock

This is a First!

We returned to the boat and waited for company to arrive. Right after we arrived the previous day, we got a call from Kevin & Pam Vogel. Kevin & Pam are the parents of Capt. Larry's nephew's wife, Janelle Blue-Duress (or something like that), and it just so happened that they were visiting kinfolk in Clearwater. Since they had a car, we invited them to come anspid visit us. We were excited to have our first visitors on the trip. They arrived around mid-afternoon and we enjoyed some drinks and snacks on the boat before

The Vogels on Bavarian Cream

Flaming the Cheese!

heading out to Hella's Original Greek Restaurant (Jane wanted to eat there because it was ORIGINAL, but aren't they all). Anyway, we got to Hella's and feasted on fried cheese and hummus, gyro platters, spinach pie, and Greek lasagna all washed down with Greek beer. It was the best meal of our trip so far. Afterward we stumbled through the shopping district and stopped at a Greek bakery for pastry desserts. Kevin & Pam left and we crashed for the evening. We enjoyed seeing them, but know that we will run into them again when we get up north.

Great Greek Food

Sooooooo many dessert choices!

The Greeks Know Capt. Larry!

Jane at the nature preserve

The next day we got the bikes down, packed a picnic lunch, and road an extensive bike trail to the Anclote River Nature Preserve. We ate our lunch in the preserve then headed back to the boat. We were hoping some mail would arrive so we could leave the next morning, but we will have to wait and hope it is delivered tomorrow.

Our Big Day!

Heading for the Inlet

We had worried, fretted, stewed and sweated the arrival of the time where we would do the 170 mile crossing in open water on the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the time we would be about 50 miles offshore, and the crossing would take about 10 hours. Jane was a wreck! Fortunately there appeared to be a really good weather window which started on Saturday, but would even improve more on Sunday. So Sunday was our day. We spent Saturday afternoon going over the boat, securing anything that would fly around in rough seas, and reassuring each other that we could do this.

Cruising on the Gulf of Mexico

Keeping Warm on the Cool Gulf

We didn't expect to make the crossing with the change to daylight savings time. So we lost an hour meaning we would arrive in Tarpon Springs later than we had originally anticipated. We set out at 0745, and headed for the inlet. The sunrise occurred on our way to the inlet. We had the boat on plane, the autopilot on, and headed out. Conditions could not have been better for the crossing- waves <1 foot, winds <5 knots, sunny skies, and fairly warm temperatures. In fact, things went so well that the trip turned out to be a little boring.

Dolphins Running with the Boat

Jane and R4- the End of the Crossing

We both read books, listened to music, and talked until we hit the R4 marker at Anclote Key and made our way into Tarpon Springs. We arrived at the marina to find it closed, but another looper was there to help us tie up. Exhausted, we showered, at a light supper, drank some rum, and went to bed.

Carefree in Carrabelle

Tug Pulling a Dredge Li

Oystermen Working Their Beds

We left Apalachicola after a big storm rolled through the area. The water was choppy and the winds started out to be fairly strong, but the biggest hazard was the shallow channel across Apalachicola Bay. We were following a tug and were glad we were. The channel has the tendency to shoal and there is a dredge that likely continuously works the channel. The tug knew how to proceed through the channel which at one point got down to 2.3 feet below our props. Both the tug and us were churning up all kinds of mud! Once we got in deeper water, we passed the tug, got up on plane, and hightailed it all the way to Carrabelle.

Happy Hour on Bavarian Cream

Lining Up for the Parade

WWII Hardware, Well Preserved

Jane Shows Her Confederate Roots

Carrabelle is a really quaint town and one we would like to come back to. We got to the Moorings Marina and berthed the boat and hosted happy hour with two other looper couples who were setting out for Steinhatchee the next day. They wanted us to join them, but our only goal from Carrabelle was to cross the gulf as quickly as possible. The following day we went to the Camp Gordon Johnston Memorial parade. Carrabelle was the training site for the WWII Normandy Invasion (D-Day Landings), and they probably brought out all of the WWII veterans they could find. Anyway, it was a very moving and nice experience. After the parade we went shopping to provision the boat and turned in early for our gulf crossing the next morning.

Provisioning with Ginger Cookies on Dr. Carl's Recommendation for Sea Sickness

Spending Time in Apalach!

We got settled in a Scipio Creek Marina which is slightly off the beaten path of the intracoastal waterway. We had only planned on staying a couple of days, then moving on to Carabelle to stage for our crossing, but a helldacious storm went through on our second night and we felt that conditions would be a little rough to move on. The good news came from Ellena who called and told us our inverter had been delivered and she would bring it to us the next day.

Jane and Our Lifesaver!

Ellena delivered the inverter and ran us around for some errands before we took her to lunch at the Owl Cafe. If you visit Apalach, try the Owl Cafe. The food is exceptional. Jane and Ellena dropped Capt. Larry off at the boat and then went shopping while he installed the inverter. No sooner had they returned when the weather started to turn really nasty. Ellena left and we battened down the hatches and prepared for a big blow.

At the Gorrie Museum

Learning About Refrigeration

The next day we decided to stay in Apalach rather than chance it on the gulf, so we went on a walking tour
and took in three museums. The best was the John Gorrie Ice Museum which focused on the first ice and refrigeration machine that was created by Dr. Gorrie. We also toured the Rayney House, the Gibson Inn,and went to the Ormond House which is a restored antebellum mansion with botanical gardens and a Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial.There were also a lot of shops and tourist traps that kept calling Jane's name. We had a really nice time, but will be happy to move on.

At the Gibson Inn

At the Viet Nam Vet's Memorial

Onward to Apalachicola!

We made two visits to Apalachicola. One was by car with some other loopers in the Port St. Joe Marina. The other was by boat. Our looper friends had a car and wanted to show us around Apalachicola. So the day after we landed in PSJ, we had a road trip and got to see most of the landmarks, the marina that was recommended, and feast on some of the famous Apalachicola oysters and seafood. It was a great break. We ate at Boss Oyster's Oyster Republic, and the food could not have been better.

Lady Loopers as Boss Oyster

Is this like the Conch Republic?

We spent one more day in PSJ, reprovisioned the boat, bought some boat stuff, took a bike ride and chatted with fellow transients. The weather for our gulf crossing was not looking good until the end of the week, so we thought about staying put. However, a storm front was going to move through the area in two days, so if we wanted to not be stranded in PSJ, we would have to move on the next day. Conditions were very windy the following day, but we were running mostly in protected waters all the way to Apalachicola, so it didn't really bother us.

Riding another "ditch" to Apalach

Isolated but beautiful

We crossed the very shallow Lake Wimico with no problems and entered the Apalachicola River. We passed an eagle's rookery, turned through a bend, and found a mature bald eagle diving on a flock of common coots in the water. Every time the eagle dove, the flock would scatter and it apparently could not focus on a single bird and would come up empty. We drove the boat very close to the coots and our presence did not seem to phase the eagle which was apparently fixated with the chance at an easy meal.
 

An eagle's rookery

Tora! Tora! Tora!

 

 

 

We Make Port St. Joe

Cutting Up with the Vernons

After an emotional departure from our Harbor Host friends, Carl & Greg Vernon, we left Panama City and headed toward Port St. Joe. The long term forecasts for a gulf crossing didn't look very promising for the next 5-7 days, but we decided that it was time to move on and explore new surroundings. Although it is somewhat off the beaten path, we had been to PSJ and PSJ Marina on two previous occasions with fellow loopers. The town is small, quaint, and easy to get around. Plus it has a Piggly Wiggly to which Jane could wear her "I Dig the Pig" tee-shirt Capt. Larry bought her before the one we regularly shopped at in Springfield, LA closed its doors. Talk about hog heaven!

Ellena & Jane

Ellena & Roy Getting Happy!

Hmmmmm! Tom's Dogs with Secret Sauce!

We left the Vernons' early and had good weather for the short 5-hour run to PSJ. But the forecast was for weather conditions to start to deteriorate around mid-afternoon, so to give us a little cushion, we put Bavarian Cream up on plane across the large East Bay. The eastern section of this body has some really skinny water, and although the channel is well marked, it was Capt. Larry's first test of navigating through a fairly narrow channel. Following the advice to look fore and aft to make sure one was in the channel, he hesitated when a couple of the buoys were considerably out of the straight line presented on the chart. Figuring that some tow had knocked the buoys off station, he started to proceed on the charted course, when he recalled a warning to always follow the lateral ATONs. He quickly put the boat back in the channel, passed the lateral marker on the proper side, and avoided running aground- at least for another day!

We entered Wetappo Creek and a man-made cut which provided some very scenic cruising, and leisurely followed this to the Gulf County Canal leading us out into St. Joseph Bay. By the time we arrived at the bay the wind had picked up to 15-20 kts. with gusts to 25 kts. Ugh! The short, open water ride to PSJ Marina was miserable. We knew the marina had some tight turning spaces and worried that it would be difficult to dock in the wind. When we called the marina to find out where they wanted us and get some help, they said that fellow loopers were waiting for us on the transient dock. Seems that Roy Short of Royel was following our progress and telephoned everyone to let them know we were arriving! We had 3 men to help us with the lines and Jane was playing her role as the "distressed damsel," and telling them all how wonderful they were. She could really get used to this! Anyway, thank you Roy!


We secured the boat, met our fellow loopers, and had happy hour on one of their boats.

Our first beautiful sunset!

Doing the ice detail

Cruising to Panama City

Some really fine properties along the GIWW

We left Gulf Shores, AL and headed via the GIWW (Gulf Intercoastal Waterway) for familiar surroundings at Fort Walton Beach, FL. The GIWW in this part of the gulf is basically a sound or lagoon type of water way that runs between gulf-side barrier islands and the mainland. Commercial tow traffic frequents this waterway, so it is maintained at a project depth of 12 feet, but shallower depths of up to 7 feet were frequently seen mid-channel. Get outside the channel and chances are you will run aground. An the channel is relatively narrow, particularly if one has to pass the wide commercial tows. Our first run in the GIWW found us facing or passing several tows on the edge of the channel. You never really know whether to just watch you depth meter decrease or watch the traffic. And one has to pay attention to changes in the marked channel or you will quickly be aground. Even though we didn't encounter any problems, Jane was still on pins and needles the entire time. We arrived at the Florida State line and started to enter Perdido Bay when we ran across another Mardi Gras boat parade.

Shoals can pop up anywhere

Watching the parade from the helm,

Welcome to Florida!

Capt. Larry forgot to watch the markers and soon started catching hell from fellow boaters when he entered a no-wake zone throwing a rather large wake. Fortunately, there were no law enforcement officers around, or we may have received a fine. We also didn't catch any beads, so it was a double bummer. We crossed the rather large Perdido and Pensacola Bays in 2-3 foot seas and was happy to settle into the calmer waters of Santa Rosa Sound, which we followed to the Navarre Bridge. From there to Fort Walton Beach we passed landmarks that we regularly see from the road when we travel to our home, but it was a totally different experience to see them from the water. We tied up in a marina on Okaloosa Island about one-half mile from our house. It was a long day. We ate at a mexican restaurant on the island and went to bed around 8:30 p.m. We never realized how exhausting cruising on a boat can be!

Throw me somethin', Mista!

Capt. Larry & Bill at the helm

We had planned to stay in Fort Walton around 3 days. The next day we walked to the house and picked up "Ol' Blue," our semi-retired mini-van and went the the air force base to re-provision. Jane's friend, Ellena, from Panama City Beach dropped by in the afternoon and we grilled some pork chops for supper. We did some laundry and final yard work at the house the next day and then closed it down until we return. Our last day in FWB, we awoke to fogbound conditions which lasted until noon. We invited our neighbor, Bill, onboard for a spaghetti dinner and gave him the grand tour of the boat. We will miss seeing him, but promised that we would bring the boat back and take him out fishing.

The weather forecast called for a cold front to move through the area that night, so we were pretty sure that we would not be fogbound when we attempted to make our way to Panama City the next day. While we were correct in our assumptions, we found 15-20 knot wind, small craft advisories (incidently, there is no

Pretty scenery in the "ditch"

official definition as to what a small craft is!) and 3 foot seas across Choctawhatchee Bay. Conditions were forecast to improve throughout the day, so we started out. After about an hour, when we hit the Mid-Bay Bridge, the seas settled down and we were able to bring the boat up on plane and run to the "ditch," or as the

A tight squeeze!

tow captains refer to it, the "canyon". This part of the GIWW is a man-made cut from Choctawhatchee Bay to West Bay in Bay County. While the water way has plenty of depth, the horizontal clearance can be a little tight when tows are encountered. And we encountered several. We met one at a bridge, hailed him, and while waiting for him to clear the bridge, almost ran aground.

We finally arrived at Panama City and made our way to the home of AGLCA Harbor Hosts Carl & Greg Vernon. We had previously met the Vernons at AGLCA Mini-Rendezvous in Port St. Joe, FL. There are not enough adjectives to describe their generosity and hospitality. We no sooner got the boat tied up in their spare slip when the party began. Soon other loopers from Bay Point Marina started arriving and happy hour extended itself until dinner time. After a great dinner, we said goodnight and retired to the boat where we crashed for the evening. If this is typical of the hospitality, camaraderie, and fun times we have heard described by other loopers, we are in for a great trip.

Bavarian Cream snug in her slip

Discussing boat business

AGLCA "LL" Club