And the waiting begins!

We are leaving Port St. Joe Marina this morning.  It is cold, cloudy and sprinkling but still much better than the past couple of days.  We arrived here on Saturday thinking we would just spend one night and then the wind started.  It blew and blew and blew!  When the wind blows in this part of the USA, not only does it make the waves high but it also brings in higher tides.  The water actually blows into the bays.  Needless to say Ken had a 3 a.m. outing to readjust the fenders and the lines to accommodate for a much higher than expected tide.  The water was up to the dock and by mid morning I needed help climbing up and off the boat.  Mother Nature - she is one strong lady!!!  We enjoyed Port St. Joe.  It is a charming seaside town with several excellent restaurants, a grocery store two blocks away and a marina that brings the morning paper and on Sundays.......muffins.  Life is good!  By yesterday afternoon, we could tell the weather was improving.  God sent a rainbow to tell us it was OK to leave this morning.

We are back on the water!  There is a 5 mile canal that takes us back to the ICW.

Our destination for today is Apalachicola, FL.  Weather permitting we will move over to Carabelle, FL, the jumping off point for the gulf crossing.  And then we wait and wait and wait depending on how long it takes the seas to flatten out and the wind to calm down.  We have plotted the crossing a multitude of ways and yesterday when we realized that the Admiral (moi) was giving the Captain the miles to Tarpon Springs in Nautical Miles thinking it was Statute miles we were destined to run out of gas before we reached the other side.  I recognized my error thankfully so we once again began to rethink our crossing. 

20BUCK$ can get up and run 30 mph allowing us to make the crossing during the daylight which is our goal, but it leaves us too shy on fuel if we do Carabelle to Tarpon Springs in one leg.  We will make it in two hops - Carabelle to Steinhatchee, a tiny fishing village on the west coast of FL, and then Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs.  The down side is that means we have to wait for two weather windows.  That’s OK as this is the part of our trip where we must be patient!!!!!!  The Captain, Admiral and 20BUCK$ will all be better off if we exercise caution, patience and choose our crossing day wisely!

So we will say a prayer for winds less than 10 mph and seas with wave heights less than 2 feet and until that time we will enjoy cruising to Apalachicola and on to Carabelle.  The pictures above are from the Port St. Joe area for you to enjoy! 

Loving every minute - Pat