Crossing The Gulf

Day 66 - Friday, November 11
2011 miles

I mentioned in the last post that we were waiting in Carabelle for a good day to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Dunedin.  I also mentioned that it might be until Friday before we got our weather window and that is just what happened.

  The ride from Panama City to Carabelle last Sunday was interesting.  There was a lot of traffic on the intracoastal as a steady stream of pleasure craft were headed in the opposite direction.  We saw several half-submerged, abandoned boats on the banks and for a while, we were dodging debris again.
Carabelle is a very small town with a decent size marina. It was a little too small to spend 4 1/2 days in.
We were assigned a spot on a long wall between two boats so another parallel parking job was required. The marina is associated with a hotel that offered a free breakfast every morning and that included boaters.  We like free, and ate there 3 times!

The marina did not have a courtesy car as there was a grocery store, hardware store, and restaurant across the street.  So we hired a taxi service on Monday to drive us the 22 miles to Apalachicola.  Apalach, as the locals call it, is a quaint fishing town with trendy shops and lots of restaurants.  It claims to be the oyster capital, and one eatery boasted they can prepare them 17 different ways.  None of us on True North had ever tried oysters, so we discussed getting one order as an appetizer to share. That "when in Rome" philosophy.   But we all had the slimy stereotype in our heads and couldn't bring ourselves to do it!   In hindsight, we should have stayed several days in Apalachicola before moving on to Carrabelle.  As a Gold Looper (they have completed the Loop and crossed their wake) said - The docks in Apalach are not very good, but the town is great.  Better dockage in Carabelle but not much of a town.  True North is very self-contained so we don't need great marinas with lots of amenities.  Friendly, helpful people are better than a swimming pool for us!

On Tuesday, my sister Sue arrived, having driven our car from Michigan for us.  She not only delivered our car, but she brought our mail and homemade cookies from Mike and Greg's Mom and Karen's Mom.

We celebrated Sue's arrival by washing the boat because . . . well . . . you know . . . it had been several days since it was done.   I think I can safely say that True North is the cleanest boat on the Loop.  We also did some re-caulking.

Our buddy boat, Lucky Ducks, got into Carrabelle on Tuesday.  (they did stop in Apalachicola).
Jim and Terri invited us for Election Night Tacos and to watch the results - fortunately, the two boats are politically like-minded.  We realized that one benefit of being on the boat, doing the Loop, was we watch very little TV.  This meant we were spared the endless barrage of political ads during commercial breaks.  You have to be thankful for the little things . . .

It was our turn to act as hosts, and the Dawson's joined us on Wednesday night for Mike's grilled mozzarella chicken and Blue Fairways sundaes.

Thursday afternoon, the laid-back Loopers (which included Lucky Ducks) left at 3:00 for their overnight Gulf crossing.  These are the boats that travel at 10 mph or less.
We prepared for our Friday daytime crossing.  We had been contacted by another go-fast boat that was also leaving on Friday and wanted to travel with us.   Having our boats on Lake Michigan and being used to running in open water (not seeing land), we were probably less apprehensive about the 8 hour trip than other Loopers.  But there is safety in numbers.  Plus it is just nice knowing there is someone else out there within radio contact, even in broad daylight.

So Friday morning True North left Carrabelle at 6 am, with Karine and Riverdance.  It was still dark and Mike held the spotlight while Greg maneuvered us out of the channel.  Just before 7 am, as we entered the Gulf of Mexico, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise.  Did you catch that?  WE ENTERED THE GULF OF MEXICO!!!!
Since coming off the inland rivers into Mobile Bay, we have been traveling on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, so this was our first time in the Gulf.  Another woo-hoo moment for us.  Karen was kind enough to let Sue experience this as she drove our car to Dunedin and Sue was aboard for the crossing.  We cruised at about 26 mph.    Eddy, the Looper weather guru called it right - the waves were less than 1 ft and we had a smooth crossing.  Our crossing had to be timed so we would not enter the marina in Dunedin at low tide.
About an hour out from Tarpon Springs, where we entered the intracoastal on the west side of Florida, we started encountering crab pots in the water.  They are marked by floating balls, about the size of a large softball.  This meant all four of us were on the look-out, scanning the water.  They were everywhere -  on the right and left, so it was like splitting the uprights - going in-between them.
I couldn't get a picture of them as I was too busy looking for them.

It took us about an hour to get from Tarpon Springs to our marina in Dunedin because we were back to our 10 mph while on the intracoastal.  We needed to have a drawbridge raised and Karen,  Jeff and Julie (Mike and Greg's brother and wife who live in Tarpon) were waving to us from land after going under it.  It got better when we pulled up to the fuel dock for a pump-out and our son Matt was standing there waiting for us.  We have not seen him since August.
We enjoyed a great mini family reunion over a wonderful dinner at Jeff and Julie's.  We chose a marina in Dunedin to spend the month of November because of the close proximity to Jeff's.   Mid-December will find us spending time further down the west coast until we head to Marathon in the Keys on January 1.
With the boat safely in Florida, (you have to be thankful for the BIG things . . . ) and the first leg of the Loop complete, Greg, Karen (and Sue) fly back to Ludington on Monday.  Mike and I will remain on the boat until the first week of December and then return to Ludington for a much-needed grandkids fix, early Christmas celebration, meetings and appointments. We'll be back on True North on December 17.

I said today that now that we are in Florida, it feels like the adventure is over until we resume the Loop by heading up the eastern seaboard.  We have wintered in The Sunshine State for several years now, and enjoy it immensely, but it is nothing to write a blog about.  It's just daily life in Florida.
Mike disagrees with me and said he feels living on a boat on the water will be different enough from RV living that it will still be an adventure.  I think this will be my last post for a while, unless he is right (and he usually is) and something really extraordinary comes along!

It is a little early, but wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving.

We saw at least 4 boats like this between Panama City and Carrabelle

The Moorings Marina in Carabelle.  True North is not visible in this picture

This was the spot we had to fit into

The marina office posted this helpful information daily-

Winds and tides

This shows the "rake" or "tongs" used to harvest oysters in Apalachiacola

We didn't have oysters, but a good meal nonetheless 

A memorial honoring all branches of the military in Carrabelle

Sue, an Army veteran

Sue and Becky

Just before sunrise

There it is!

Our view for most of the Gulf crossing

Greg and Sue at the helm

Blurry, but it is Karen, Jeff and Julie greeting us

The best welcome - Matt!

Pensacola to Panama City

Day 60 - Saturday, November 5
1741 miles

We decided to stay another day in Pensacola so Wednesday we we took an Uber ride to the Pensacola Naval Station to watch the Blue Angels practice and visit the Naval Aviation Museum.  We sat in yellow camp chairs just back from the runway with hundreds of others.  On Tuesday we watched the planes from the boat as they circled over us while coming into Pensacola Bay, but this time we got a narrated, up close view.  And the narrator had a good sense of humor along with good information.  We learned it is the 70th anniversary of the Blue Angels.  And when the planes fly in a formation there is 18 inches of separation between a wing and another cockpit.  Probably the lasting memory of the practice session was the "sneaky pass".  Appropriately named because as we were told to watch a maneuver out in front of us, one of the planes zoomed (and I mean zoomed) directly over us coming from behind.  The noise was enough to rattle our eardrums and to say we were startled is an understatement!

After the show we walked into the museum, along with those hundreds of other spectators.  The museum was free and was large enough that we didn't feel crowded.  Most of the people went to the Blue Angels section as the pilots came to sign autographs.  We did not and so found ourselves the only ones in a little theater showing a documentary on WWII Treasures in Lake Michigan.  Having grown up on that beautiful shore, and never hearing anything about World War II being remotely connected to Lake Michigan, we had to check it out.  The short version is: the Navy needed to train pilots to land on aircraft carriers, but all of the vessels were engaged in the war.  A cruise ship based in Chicago called the See And Bee was refitted with a flat top, renamed the Wolverine and thousands of pilots that flew in the Pacific theater, taking off and landing on carriers, learned how to do so on the waters of Lake Michigan.

A separate building called Hanger One had displays about NASA, the Coast Guard, naval aviation during the Vietnam War and a Marine One helicopter.  With more planes outside, the entire museum complex had a very large representation of naval aircraft.

Staying an extra day also gave us the opportunity to watch and hear the Trump rally being held across the marina from us.  We were on the backside of the amphitheater so weren't able to see the stage but could hear the speeches and see the crowd.  The red, white and blue fireworks show at the end was terrific.  We gave it several blasts of our boat horn.
Here is another bit of trivia that will only come in handy in a game of Trivial Pursuit -
There are 5 things that define a large city: the presence of a symphony, ballet company, art museum, a full-time theater and an opera company.  Pensacola is the only city between Mobile and Tampa to have all 5.  We were told this by a waiter who is a ballet dancer.

I voted for Palafox Marina in Pensacola as our easiest and quickest docking.  A sea wall in front blocked the wind so we slid right into our slip.  The dock master was there and was expert with the ropes.  We were tied up and hooked up in record time.  He carried in his pocket a card with all the info we would need - wifi password and gate code - and said we didn't need to pay until we left.  That saved me a walk to the office.  You have to be thankful for the little things . . .

Thursday we traveled with Lucky Ducks to Baytown Marina at the Sandestin resort near Destin, Florida.   It was a 6 hour trip as there were only a few open spaces in the intracoastal that we could run fast.  Otherwise we were back to the 10 mph that has become our "groove".

We had hoped to cross the Gulf to Dunedin (near Tarpon Springs) on Friday, but the winds and waves didn't cooperate.  So Friday we moved farther along the Panhandle to Panama City.  We could run a little bit at the beginning of the trip in the Choctawhatchee Bay (with a name like that, we know we are not in Kansas anymore, Toto) but when we entered the West Bay Creek part of the intracoastal, we felt like we were back on the rivers.  It was that narrow and sparsely populated.
But it is much more fun looking for dolphins since we entered salt water than we had looking for debris in the Mississippi.  Flipper loves playing in our wake and we love watching him!

True North passed 4 other Looper boats on her way to Panama City.  And there were 3 Looper boats in front of us.  We docked at St. Andrews Marina in the historic district.  Walking distance to a grocery store, numerous restaurants and bars, and a nice park that is getting ready for Christmas.  We will leave here on Sunday to go to Carrabelle.  Every Looper, when crossing the Gulf, leaves from either Apalachicola or Carrabelle.  And boats don't go until Eddy's Weather Wag says it is OK.  Eddy is a Looper who monitors 3 different weather sites and we signed up for his daily email updates on the "weather window" needed to cross.  (Eddy was one of the 3 boats in front of us and is in our marina.)  Go-Fast boats (Looper terminology, of which we are one) can cross in daylight hours.  We think it will take us 6-7 hours.  A large percentage of Loop boats are trawlers that can only travel 7-8 mph and they do an overnight crossing - 25 hours.  So the weather window has to take in account conditions at the start, middle, and end of the trip.    Unfortunately, as of today, it may be next Friday before the wind and waves will allow us to feel comfortable crossing.  We don't need the waves to be under 2 ft, as many boats do, but we also don't want to pound big waves for 6 hours.  Mike is also monitoring several weather sites and he and Greg will ultimately make the call on go or no go.

Entrance to Naval Air Station

The wave started at our end

Upside down

A sculpture at the museum

Every inch of space, floor to ceiling, is used to display planes

Museum entrance

Every good city has an Irish bar and Pensacola is no exception 

The Trump rally was under the arch.  Police boats patrolled the waters

An aerial view of Palafox Marina

We were on the outside wall. The amphitheater was to the left, 

just outside the picture.

Flipper playing in our wake

Sometimes we had 3 on each side!

Happy, Happy, Happy

This is the Joyce Ann from Holland, MI

The guy is doing the Loop solo

The intracoastal before Panama City

A benefit of Florida marinas

Fresh from this boat

A funky restaurant at St. Andrews Marina

Just The Cook

Famous for hamburgers where the bun is a sliced and grilled fresh donut!

A rare four headed palm tree

The only one of its kind know in the world

Picture is fuzzy but I think you can still see the tree

Mobile Bay to Florida

Day 56 - Tuesday, November 1
1627  miles

When we left our anchorage on Friday morning, we had 40 miles to downtown Mobile.  The last 5 miles were a no wake zone, which extended into the entire trip through downtown to Mobile Bay.  I had thought that the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Mississippi River were industrial, but Mobile steps it up a notch.  Large international ocean going vessels were moored to docks where they were either being loaded or unloaded.

True North entered Mobile Bay at 3:00, where we were greeted by pelicans, shrimp boats, sea gulls and dolphins.  We were as excited as little kids.  We had to keep our speed down due to all the shrimp boats and small pleasure craft so it took us a while to go the 7 miles to Dog River Marina on the west side of Mobile Bay.
We tied up on a corner dock right by the marina office which gave us a front-row seat to the busy basin.  Shrimp boats and small fishing boats were coming and going, but our most enjoyable activity was watching the fish jump and pelicans literally nose-dive in the water to grab one.
How many pelicans can fit atop a pole?  In the case of the pole near our boat, only one, as we saw a tussle over that turf with no winner.  Both pelicans fell off.  While traveling in  the Bay, we rarely saw a  post that didn't have one or more birds perched on it.
Dinner was at the Mobile Yacht Club, a short walk from the boat.  Very good food and a personable chef who came out to check on our food and answered all our questions on how he prepares certain dishes.  The big questions for us from up north - just what are grits?  I order them every chance I get but never really knew what they are.  (ground corn).

There was a West Marine store at Dog River Marina so Mike was able to get the charts we need for the Gulf/Florida portion of our trip.  The dock master was very knowledgeable of the panhandle area and spent time with Mike going over the charts and even gave us a helpful one for free.

With the Michigan/Michigan State game on Saturday, we waited as long as we could to leave
the marina so we could watch it.  For the first time, we left the TV and satellite on while traveling, and crossed Mobile Bay at our slow pace.  Karen watched in the salon area while Mike and Greg listened to the game on Sirius radio on the flybridge.

 Fairhope, Alabama had been suggested to us as a stop so we went less than 20 miles to the east side of Mobile Bay to Eastern Shore Marina.  We went through our shallowest entrance channel (under 5 ft) which always makes Mike nervous, but made it to a tight fuel dock for fuel and a pump-out, which was do-it-yourself, but they still charged $10. But under the "thankful for the little things" category, we received a free night of dockage because we purchased more than 100 gallons of fuel.   It was our first time under a roof at a dock, but we had plenty of clearance for our antennas.
One person described Fairhope as a "touristy town".  After staying in marinas all along the rivers that were more "boatyards" and being on anchor, Karen and I were perfectly fine with touristy.  We live in a tourist town, so that was not a negative to us.

Downtown Fairhope is a little gem.  I could have stayed a week to explore every nook and cranny.  Much of the architecture was New Orleans flavored.  There was even a small section called the French Quarter that was very reminiscent of our visit to NOLA in 2013.  It would take a week just to eat at all the cafes, and browse all the upscale clothing stores and art galleries.
And we didn't find a single tacky t-shirt shop!
We used the marina courtesy car 4 times in 2 days.  Saturday night we had pizza at Cousin Vinny's in Daphne, an equally cute town (much smaller) that is less than 7 miles from Fairhope. On Sunday Mike and I went in town for an early breakfast.  That afternoon we walked around Fairhope,  picked up more groceries, (we eat really well when traveling on the boat!) and celebrated making it to salt water by cooking steaks on the community grill at the marina.  The grill was also being used by other boaters for hot dogs and a shrimp boil.  We found out the guy cooking the hot dogs owned the restaurant where we had breakfast!

Monday morning True North got an oil change by the staff of Eastern Shore.  The process took most of the day, so Karen and I made a last trip into town to purchase post cards from a store that was closed on Sunday and walked around town some more.  We learned a piece of trivia in the coffee shop.  William Groom, who authored the book Forrest Gump is from Fairhope and the character was loosely based on a local citizen.  (can you imagine the guessing game that ignited!)

We wanted to leave Eastern Shore Marina at high tide due to the shallow channel and the oil change was taking longer than anticipated.  We were within a half hour of not being able to get out but the crew finished up and we took off for The Wharf Marina at Orange Beach, Alabama at 3:30.  The workers put a smile on Mike and Greg's faces that lasted the rest of the day when they mentioned how clean the engine room on the boat was.  (it's a guy thing).

"Hello speed.  Good-bye good fuel mileage."  Out of the channel, True North flexed her muscles as she was finally able to run at her normal speed.  And we used the auto pilot for the first time since we left Lake Michigan.  We had to rein her back in when we entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at 5:15.  We were back to our 10 mph until we reached The Wharf.

The marina was in front of an entertainment complex with the same name and the complex was jammed packed with trick or treaters enjoying "Trunk or Treat".  It was fun to see all the the costumes  as we walked to dinner.  When you are retired and on a boat, it is easy to forget that it was Halloween.  Although we could have been Gilligan, the Skipper, Mary Ann and Ginger!

Mornings are very peaceful and today (Tuesday) was no exception.  We left Orange Beach at 10:15 local time.  Did you hear the big hooray all the way back home when we crossed over into Florida at 11:15?  WE DID IT.  WE MADE IT TO FLORIDA ON A BOAT!

Our destination today was Pensacola.  The city must have heard of the welcome we got in Mobile Bay, and was determined not to be outdone.  Not only did we have dolphins playing in our wake, we were treated to an air show by the Blue Angels who were practicing for a weekend performance.
So cool!  By the time we got docked and fixed lunch, we didn't have enough time for an Uber ride to the National Naval Aviation Museum.  We walked a few block to downtown Pensacola which is filled with historic buildings and trying hard to repurpose them with shops and restaurants to be a desired destination spot.  The elements are there to work with: a green space plaza, a minor league baseball park (Blue Wahoos Stadium), and an amphitheater all within walking distance.  A guy walking past the boat just said Donald Trump is going to be at the amphitheater on Wednesday night.  They are expecting over 5,000 people and there will be fireworks.  We can see the venue perfectly from the flybridge.

Weather is starting to play an important part in our travel decisions so I'm not sure where the next update will come from.  We plan to go to Panama City on Wednesday, but a wavy Gulf may prevent that.  Stay tuned . . .

Entering Mobile

This ship is from Norway

This one from China

Downtown Mobile

A shipbuilding facility in Mobile.  They look like stealth ships

A shrimp boat in Mobile Bay.  Enlarge the picture to see the birds that surround the boats

Part of the welcoming committee

Dog River Marina

We were docked behind the boat on the left

Entrance to Eastern Marina in Fairhope

Our breakfast spot.  Mike is in the orange shirt

Downtown Fairhope

Enlarge this map

Dog River is on the left and Fairhope on the right within Mobile Bay

Pensacola is on far right

Entering the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway

We passed LuLu's restaurant.  It is owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister Lucy

The Wharf complex at night

Same view the next morning

It's not the same as the "Welcome to Florida - The Sunshine State" sign you see when arriving by car

The Blue Angels

Now that is better than a welcome sign!

A unique outdoor eating square in downtown Pensacola

There were 4 of these Airstream food trucks