At the bar by 7:15...

 

We left port this morning at 7:05, we were at the bar by 7:15 (Sandbar, that is).

 

          My plan was to leave Sarasota and travel out into the Gulf. There was a channel directly across from the Marina that appeared to be plenty deep enough to pass. After a glance at our electronic charts I set out for the Gulf, I should have looked closer at the charts. As we approached the gulf and I notice a sign posted in the water that read "sand bar".  Being the cautious sailor that I am I passed wide of the sign toward a green buoy that marks the edge of a channel. About 50 yards from the buoy the water went from 15 feet deep to 10 and I slowed down. Then the depth dropped to 6 feet and I put the boat in neutral. Within 5 feet we slid gently to a stop on a sandbar with less than 2 feet of water, OOPS.

 

    I cut the engines and called U.S. Towboat to have them come out and pull us off . They said it would be 30 to 45 minutes before they could make it so we settled in for the wait. About 10 minutes later a fairly good sized boat cruised by (right next to the sandbar sign) he

rocked us with his wake.

 

 Suddenly we were floating free. The wake was just enough to float us off the sand bar.

 

Later today I read in one of my boating books about grounding your boat. The opening sentence was:

 

"Old salts like to say that any sailor that claims to have never grounded their boat is a damn liar."  

Well, I am not a liar.

 

The rest of the trip went well and we docked at Salty Sam's Marina, just off Sanibel, at 5:00. 

The first swing bridge of this springs trip. Florida bridge tenders monitor channel 9 on the VHF radio (most states use 13).

As you can see, sandbars crop up just about anywhere.

Future swing for my grandkids Kate and Charlie.

 

 

 

    

An easy day down the Florida ICW

 

75 degrees, clear blue skies, a gentle south wind, and a good running ship; it doesn't get much better.

 

We traveled from Tarpon Springs to Sarasota (75 miles) on the ICW today with around 5,000 other boaters. It was a pleasant voyage and we were docked in Sarasota by 4:00. We plan to get down to Sanibel tomorrow (75 miles) but we are going out on the Gulf instead of travelling the ICW.

 

If the waters were slightly crowded today, I can only imagine what they will be like on an Easter weekend Saturday.

 

 

 

Good Morning.

 

Jeff and Skip, salty old sailors.

Butch manning the helm.

We narrowly escaped these pirates.

Sky Bridge in Tampa.

Dinner at Marina Jacks in Sarasota.

A long night...

 

        The area of Florida where the coastline turns from (east/west) to (north/south) is referred to as the "big bend". There are a couple of Marinas along this coastal area, but the approaches are very shallow, and with a draft of 4 1/2 feet, we would need to be sure of a high tide on approach if we chose to dock at them. Our other option is to make the 160 mile run across open Gulf water from Carrabelle ( the last deep water port before the bend) to Tarpon Springs (just north of Tampa Bay). "Whatever It Takes" has a fuel capacity of 300 gallons and burns 1 gallon per mile (max range 300 miles, safe range 200 miles). We cruise at around 10 mph so the trip would take roughly 16 hours.

 

      Our plan was to leave Carrabelle around 3:00 in the afternoon which would allow us to pass by Dog Island and get 30 miles or so into the Gulf open waters before nightfall. If all went well we would arrive at Tarpon Springs Harbor around 7:00 AM the next morning, allowing a daylight dockage.

 

After topping off the fuel, we checked the engine and transmission fluids, filled our fresh water supply, tested the navigation lights, and insured our radar/navigation systems were functioning properly. I filed a float plan with Laura and my Dad with instructions to call the U.S. Coast Guard if they hadn't heard from me by noon the next day. The weather forecast was very good with 1 to 3 foot waves and 5 to 10 mph winds out of the northeast.

 

  There were two times I was uncomfortable on the trip; the first was when the sun set and the world got dark, really dark; the second time was when we spotted a large vessel on the radar and it kept coming at us, even when we changed course (images of pirates on our minds). We never really figured out what the vessel was all about, but we believe it may have been a shrimp boat working to bring in a catch that simply kept him changing course.

 

We had a tailwind throughout the trip and actually arrived at Port Tarpon at 5:30 AM. We had to wait about 5 miles offshore until the sun came out to travel up river to our Marina. We should not need any other night voyages for the rest the Great Loop.

 

 

Carrabelle is at the blue dot on the top of the page. Tarpon Springs is near the bottom. The line is our course.

 

 

 

A nice quiet morning in Carrabelle.

An excited crew member.

Fortunately I was able to stop them before they jumped.

Brian at the wheel when we were out about 25 miles.

Apprehension was growing (level 4)

Apprehension Level 8

This is the moon rising. Look closely to see the water. (LEVEL 10)

Black as pitch outside the windows and Brian catching a cat nap while piloting the ship.

The long awaited sunrise at Tarpon Springs.

Jeff, Ed, Tom, and Brian at Tarpon Springs, the end of their journey.

The new crew, Jeff, Skip, and Butch.

The famous Port of Carrabelle.

We travelled 92 miles today to reach the port of Carrabelle on the Carrabelle River.

 

Carrabelle is the home of the "World's Smallest Police Station".

  The "World's Smallest Police Station" came into being on March 10, 1963. The city had been having problems with tourists making unauthorized long distance phone calls on its police phone. The phone was located in a call box that was bolted to a building at the corner of U.S. 98 and Tallahassee Street. Johnnie Mirabella, St. Joe Telephone's lone Carrabelle employee at the time, first tried moving the call box to another building, but the illegal calls continued.
Mirabella noticed that the policeman would get drenched while answering phone calls when it was raining. So when the telephone company decided to replace its worn out phone booth in front of Burda's Pharmacy with a new one, he decided to solve both problems at once by putting the police phone in the old booth.

 

It has been featured on television shows "Real People", "Ripley's Believe It or Not", "The Today Show", "Johnny Carson". It was featured in the movie "Tate's Hell" which was produced at Florida State University.

 

Tomorrow we leave for the longest and most intimidating voyage we will face on our Great Loop journey.

 

 

Good Morning from Panama City.

 

Awesome French Toast.

Florida agrees with her.

Tom giving lessons on the finer points of operating the ships new Dyson Vac.

Entering Carrabelle, a small old fishing village.

Our neighbors at dock.

Full moon for the long voyage tomorrow night.

Annual LMBND migration.

 

We caught the beginning of the annual migration of the Lake Michigan Bottle Nosed Dolphin (LMBND) run from the warm Florida waters to their summer home in Lake Michigan. There was a pod of 4 dolphins cruising along with us for several miles while we were in the "sunburn canal". We called this stretch of water that because it is protected from the wind, has glass smooth water, and we had blue skies with a blazing sun. Brian, Jeff, and I sat on the bow for over an hour. Now we have farmers tans, raccoon faces, and some very pink skin.

 

  Whatever It Takes is docked in Panama City tonight. We arrived around 3:00 in 20+ MPH winds. 

1/2 way through the "sunburn canal" and Jeff is showing signs of pinkitis. After removing the glasses he definitely had that "raccoon" look.

Tom enjoying the Sunday paper. (while piloting the ship?)

The ships nerd.

Cruising down "sunburn canal".

These guys were having to much fun.

The start of the migration north to lake Michigan.