Ken and Pat's Great Loop!: Apalachicola to Steinhatchee!

Today is the day we make the much thought about “Gulf Crossing!” The weather has not been real cooperative lately, and today was the first decent weather window in site. However, they were still talking 2’ to 4’ seas, and some wind.

We decided to get up early and decide if we’d go.

The rest of the group had moved to Carabelle, and was leaving from there. They are doing the slow overnight to Clearwater. We decided against that, and decided to do it in two runs: Apalachicola to Steinhatchee, then Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs. When we awoke, this is what we saw. You know the saying: Red Sky At Night - Sailors Delight. Red Sky In The Morning - Sailors Take Warning!

Pat was a little nervous. She said: “You drive the boat - I’m crawling into a fetal position and seeking shelter in the salon!”

What you see is a down sleeping bag we bought at the Goodwill store in Port St Joe for $10.00. We had been thinking about what could go wrong on the crossing. We have heard many stories of rough weather, big waves, seasickness, and dinghys being lost or damaged. The dinghy we carry tipped up on the back has a 15 horse 2 stroke outboard. The motor weighs 85 lbs. With that hanging on the dinghy, we figured it may be a problem if we get into very rough water. So - I ran the gas out of it, we wrapped it in a large plastic trash bag, put it in the sleeping bag, and tucked it between the couch and the table leg. Shouldn’t go anywhere there. Had you guessing - didn’t I!

We had done a final check on Weather Underground, read Marvs Daily Virtual Bouy Reports, checked the AGLCA site, and looked at Windfinder. Everything pointed to an OK, not great day. Looked like it could be a little choppy. We decided to go for it, with the understanding that when we hit East Pass and entered the Gulf, about 30 miles from the marina we were staying at, if it looked too rough, we would turn back and go into Carabelle. The pic to the left is what we saw just out of east pass. Looked like a GREAT day! We ran up to about 30 MPH, and made some miles.

About an hour of running, it started to get a little choppy. We were taking some spray over the hard top. Seems some of those pesky 4 footers were finding us. And these were not “rollers” or swells. The water was getting to be confused and a tight chop. Then we heard a “bang!” Something fell! Turns out one of the stand offs on the dinghy had lost a nut, and one arm fell. Lucky we didn’t have the motor on! We slowed down, and Pat took the helm while I donned my life jacket, and went out onto the swim platform to fix it. I had a good assortment of fasteners on board, and got the bracket bolted back together. We tried to get back up and running, but it was now too rough. We put it down to 15 MPH, and slugged through it for about an hour. After about an hour of slow running, it calmed down, and off we went at 30 MPH for the rest of the run.