Hudson, FL

Tuesday 11/29/11 to Wednesday 12/1/11

We were in Apalachicola with eight other Loopers and awoke to a rainy and cold day on Tuesday. The initial thought was to stay another day. First one boat decided to go to Carrabelle and all of a sudden there were four going.  We along with Southern Belle and Duddon Pilot decided to wait another day.  As we were paying for the extra day Mary got a call from friends from our marina in Mackinaw City who were already in Carrabelle and Buddy was now saying that there would be a window on Wednesday.  We left at around 10:30 am with Southern Belle and Duddin Pilot and headed to Carrabelle.  

Leaving Apalachocila

Oyster fishermen using two big rakes to harvest the oysters, sure looks like a hard job.

The docks in Florida are a little different than what John and I are used to coming from Michigan.  The pier that you would tie your boat too is very short and there for it is best to stern in, backing your boat into a slip.  This was the type of dock that we came into in Carrabelle.  We tried to back the boat into the slip but with the current and wind conditions it was not to be.  Buddy the dock master said all Mainships are wider than stated and moved us to another slip, which we decided to just pull in forward as usual.  Once we were in  and we were paying for the night,they told us  that the first slip would not have worked for us as it was not wide enough in the first place.  From now on I think we will tell them that we are 16 feet wide. 

Given all the difficulties we were glad to be tied, even though it was very difficult to get off the boat with the very short finger pier. 

We were told that the harbor master, Buddy who is quite the expert in giving advice regarding safe days for crossing the Gulf would hold a meeting at 6 am on Wednesday.  We had a brief meeting / happy hour with the other Loopers, 11 boats in all that were planning on crossing in the next day or so and then all headed out to a local restaurant for dinner together.  Kerm is very anxious  to get home and offered to buy everyone the first round of drinks  once we  across the Gulf.

We all met with Buddy at 6:00 am and his advice was to leave ASAP as he didn't see another weather window for quite awhile. His suggested that the best  route was to head east and follow the coast at about 30 miles off shore as opposed to a direct open water crossing.  He felt that would offer some protection from the winds and be deep enough to miss the crab pots.  

There were 2 to 4 waves  predicted, we had heard  lots of speculation on the actual size of the waves.  Some have said they were as high as 8 foot.  Being from the Great Lakes all we can say is if we were in 8 footers, they’re not like a Lake Michigan 8 footer.  Regardless of the size there was a lot of rocking and rolling, nothing that we ever felt threatened just very  uncomfortable.

Two boats stayed in Apalachicola and left from there on Wednesday, fueled up in Carrabelle and did the open crossing to Clearwater.  One of the boats had a delivery captain aboard as a mate who has made the crossing many times before.  He said it was the worst one he had ever experienced.

Everyone was out of the marina by 8:00 am and our flotilla split into three groups. The fast plaining ones, the ten knot ones and then the 7 knot ones.  We were in the slow group and our main problem was the crab pots.  All groups encountered a small field of them in the morning.  We then encountered what I was later told was the "snow crab field" well into the night.  We were over 30 miles off shore and in 30 - 40 feet of water.  Southern Belle has fixed spot lights and was in the lead we were in the rear and by the time we would get to where they had identified a pot we were not quite sure where it might be.   So we got out our hand held light and Mary held it outside of the eisenglass, panning the water for over three hours.  For every pot Southern Belle spotted we saw 4 or 5 more.

The ONE neat thing of the trip was all the  dolphins we saw. 

Southern Belle's home port was Hudson so we stayed a bit closer to shore than the other two groups who went on to Clearwater so I'm not sure if they also ran through the field.   One thing Peter, from Dudden Pilot mentioned was a theory that those of us with single screws have a better chance of running over a float and it just being pushed aside of our deeper and lower props than a boat with twins.  This seems to make some sense, but it was still spooky running through them, especially at night.  

We had left Carrabelle at 7:30 am and were tied to a dock by 4:50 am Wednesday.  We were thankful for Kerm’s expert local advice and guidance in getting us through the channel and into the marina.

We had a quick celebratory drink aboard Duddon Pilot, John stuck to ginger ale and were in bed before 6:00 am.

Wednesday morning / afternoon we awoke to a bright, cool and sunny day.  We looked over and who should we find but the Fast John and Mary from Mackinaw City tied up a couple of slips away.  They were concerned about their fuel supply and decided not to go all the way to Clearwater.  They had arrived at 4:30 pm as opposed to our 4:50 am.   We do miss the speed of an express cruiser at times. Though I heard John say he used over 200 gallons of fuel while we were around 40 gallons.

The other John & Mary's boat in Hudson.

Mary made a great bacon and egg breakfast, which we ate around noon.  John then washed all the salt off the outside of the boat while Mary cleaned and put the inside of the boat back together as things had gotten moved around a bit.  John cleaned the shower sump and thought it was about time for lunch, looked at his watch and realized it was after four.  I guess that’s what happens when you get around noon.  Neither one of can remember the last time we were up all night, must be a sign of getting old.

 

The fast John and Mary had everyone over to their boat for a crossing your wake happy hour and we then all piled into Kerm’s pick up truck and went to their favorite restaurant, Inn on the Gulf for dinner.  Kerm had told us that “when God eats, he goes there and has the stuffed grouper” I’m not sure if God has ever been there but the grouper was excellent.

Everyone at Kerm & Chris's  wake crossing celebration, and yes Kerm did buy the first round.

We plan to move to Clearwater beach on Saturday and will be leaving the boat in the area while we go home for holiday's returning on New Year's Day.  We have reservations for a month in Key Largo beginning January 23rd.  We will then move up to Lake Worth and look for another weather window to cross over to the Abacos in the Bahamas.

John & Mary