“Crossing The Gulf of Mexico” – November 23, 2010
November 21-23. We spent one more day in Apalachicola then left November 22 heading for Carrabelle. Looking at the weather window and conferring with different sources, we decided to move to Carrabelle today and leave from there tomorrow, November 23rd, for a ‘direct’ crossing to Tarpon Springs (24 hours non-stop) instead of the ‘Rim Route’ (closer to shore and at least 3 stops taking a good three days–i.e. shallow water and lots and lots of crab pots – often hidden). We arrived at C-Quarters Marina, Carrabelle at noon on the 22nd. Between this marina and The Moorings Marina we talked with several boats that plan to do the crossing tomorrow. ”All” had different ideas and plans for their routes. After attending a meeting to discuss all this, I walked away confused as ever and decided to do go back to my original plan several months ago which was Captain Alan Lloyd’s direct crossing. Basically that involves leaving the East pass at Carrabelle and having a direct route to Buoy R2 off of Anclote River leading up to Tarpon Springs. We also discussed this with Kim at C-Quarters Marina and she agreed that this is the best route to take. Although the waves will be larger, the waters will be deeper (i.e. no crab pots) and the interval between waves will be greater, i.e. less choppy. What makes this crossing risky especially in this type of boat (slow moving) is that we will be many miles off shore (a good 40 miles). That also means we will have no radio or phone contact with land but we will have VHF radio contacts with other boats. We will be traveling with “Tony M” and a friend of his, Don, will be helping us with the crossing and, hopefully, staying “awake”. — Let’s hope the Gulf Gods are with us.
P.S. – It is 1:22pm November 23 and a wonderful thing just happened. We are leaving for the Gulf Crossing and after fueling up we went to pump out but the pump out at the C-Quarters Marina broke (that’s the bad news). The good news is we went to the Moorings Marina next door to pump out and who would just happen to be there to help us was none other than “BUDDY“. Who is Buddy? He is famous for knowing WHEN and HOW to cross the Gulf. He talked to us about our crossing and suggested a change in one buoy and tweeked our approach. The change is due to the weather moving faster than anticipated which changes the currents somehow. – Talk about luck!! It is the season to be giving Thanks!! Thanks Buddy!!
Apalachicola Historic Cemetery
Dubbed "World's Smallest Police Station" – Carrabelle, Florida
Comments are closed.