Happy Holidays from LeeLoo!

Friday-Sunday, December 12-20 - We have enjoyed the last week in Tarpon Springs after our long Gulf crossing.  There is much to see in Tarpon Springs.  The Sponge Docks area in Greektown, where they harvest sponges daily, is a couple of blocks away.  It's the main reason tourists come to Tarpon Springs.  Of course, we enjoyed a Greek dinner, complete with a delicious Greek salad!  We can't forget Rusty Bellies Seafood Restaurant which is also a block away - wonderful happy hour margaritas and seafood!

                                          Dinner with fellow Loopers at Rusty Bellies.

One night we had a rousing game of Jenga at the Tiki Bar at our marina!  We divided into girls vs. boys teams and the men were victorious for both games.  As you can see below, the Jenga tower got pretty high in the end!

                                                 A night of Jenga!

During our first couple of days in Tarpon Springs, we rode the Jolley Trolley to Dunedin to look at Marker 1 Marina where we will move to in January, and then on to Clearwater Beach to look at the marina there.  It's nice to have a visual of where we will be going in the next couple of months.  While riding the Jolley Trolley was fun and convenient, we decided to rent a car for two weeks.   This allowed us to re-provision LeeLoo and to do some Christmas shopping!  

We are very happy with our slip at Turtle Cove Marina.  We feel safe and secure as we ride up and down on the floating docks as the tide comes in and out. The marina stores most of its boat in big buildings on storage racks.  Dockhands are constantly taking boats down and putting boats back into their assigned storage area. The dockhands work hard and are very friendly.

                                             Storage racks for the boats.

                                       The view from LeeLoo's stern!  Beautiful!

                                     LeeLoo tied securely at Turtle Cove Marina.

Our weather has been lovely with mostly temperatures in the low 80's.  We did have a couple of "cold" days in the high 60 and low 70's.  All you northerners will not feel sorry for us!  But, we are back in the 80's starting tomorrow!

We plan to drive to Atlanta on Wednesday to spend Christmas with Carey's dad, Carey's sister and her family.. Our sons and their families are also joining us in Atlanta!  Should be a Christmas to remember!  We plan to return to Tarpon Springs on December 29 or 30th.  Christmas Eve will be spent in Tarpon Springs and then we will move LeeLoo to Dunedin for a month!  Our adventure continues, but at a much slower pace!

We would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and a safe, happy and healthy 2016!  



                              

The Gulf Crossing - A Success!

Wednesday and Thursday, December 9 and 10 - The weather, wind and water reports forecasted favorable conditions for a smooth crossing from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs.  We left our dock at The Moorings at 2 p.m. and met up with other Looper boats at marker R2 which is close to Dog Island.  In total, we traveled with 7 other Looper boats and kept our speed at about 8 miles an hour.

                                       Spectacular Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

Captain Carey took the lead in radioing the other Looper boats on the top of each hour.  He did a roll call to make sure everyone was awake.  Lila from Blue Haven even gave poetry readings over the radio every two hours to help pass the time.  We slept in shifts as best we could so one of us was always awake to watch the radar.

As night approached and darkness fell, we had to keep lights inside LeeLoo to a minimum so we could keep our night vision.  The waves did pick up a bit and LeeLoo was rocking and rolling for a while. It felt strange not to be able to see the waves that we were heading in to.  The stars were amazing in the middle of the Gulf, but there was no moon to be seen.  It was comforting to see the lights of other Looper boats in our flotilla.  As morning arrived we were still in once piece and almost to Tarpon Springs!  The Dolphins greeted us as we cruised along.  We did have to watch for crab pots so we didn't get tangled in their lines.  But, even the crab pot sightings weren't as plentiful as we thought they would be.

Darkness was upon us - we turned down the brightness on the instruments to allow us the best night vision.

We arrived in Tarpon Springs after a 20 hour crossing, safe and sound!  We took an hour nap to refresh ourselves, then last night joined other Looper friends to toast to a successful crossing!  We are staying at Turtle Cove Marina for at least a week, maybe more.  Turtle Cove Marina has floating docks and we are securely tied to a finger pier that is as long as Leeloo.  No short finger piers here!  It will be 81 degrees and sunny here today!  There are a lot of restaurants and shopping close by.  What's not to like? 

 

And Now A Word From Captain Cook About The Crossing

Aside from docking a boat, driving one is easy; it's a lot like driving a car.  To turn to port (left), you turn the steering wheel to the left.  To turn to starboard (right), you turn the steering wheel to the right.  If the boat is not equipped with an autopilot, hand steering the boat can be tiresome, especially of the water is rough.  You just hang on and do the best you can. In Lake Michigan if the water is rough you have the option of changing directions slightly to change the angle at which the waves impact the boat.  You will still get were you are going though it may take a bit longer.  In Florida, changing direction is not always possible if you are in a channel with shallow water on both sides of the boat.  Here you just rock and roll with waves until you get where you are going.  Not fun!

If the boat has an autopilot, you have two additional options to steer the boat.  One is called "locked heading".  You simply engage the autopilot and the boat holds the course you are presently traveling.  This is useful when you have a long straight course to travel, like when we were on the rivers.  When the river bends, as rivers will do, you can change course by turning a knob on the autopilot control left or right (port or starboard) and the boat will follow the new course.  The lazy person's way to steer a boat.  Even better, if you have an autopilot remote (sort of a remote control for a remote control), you can set on the bow of the boat in the sun and watch the world go by; all you have to do is tweak the autopilot remote left or right every now and again.

                                                       LeeLoo's Autopilot

The "locked heading" option works well as long as there are no contrary winds or currents or tides to deal with.  If you have these forces at play, the boat will steer the course you lock into the autopilot, but the boat will not end up where you want to be (over a long distance of course).

The final option is called "track".  Here you tell the autopilot to navigate the boat to a specific waypoint (latitude and longitude).  And the autopilot, working in concert with the GPS, will adjust for winds and currents and tides such that you will end up exactly where you want to be.  We will use the "track" option when we cross the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow.

It is exactly 170 miles (dock to dock) between Carrebelle and Tarpon Springs.  You first navigate down the Carrebelle River and across the bay to East Pass.  This is a natural pass between Dog Island and St George Island.  Just outside East Pass is buoy "R2".  This is the "entrance" buoy for East Pass and, for us, it's the start of the Gulf crossing.  The destination is buoy "R2" just offshore of Tarpon Springs.  The distance between buoys is exactly 155 miles.

Timing wise the goal is to arrive at buoy "R2" off of Tarpon Springs at 10:00 in the morning.  You want to arrive in daylight so that you can see the crab pots.  You also want to arrive long enough after sun rise such that the sun is not directly in your eyes.   

To arrive at your departure time from "R2" off of Carrabelle, you divide 155 miles by the speed you plan to make.  That gives you the number of hours it will take to make the crossing.  Then you work backwards on the clock to determine your departure time.  For a speed of 9 miles per hour -- the speed we hope to make -- the crossing will take 17 hours.  So, to arrive at 10:00 am the following morning, we have to leave "R2" at 5:00 pm the day before.  Then you add on an hour and a half at each end to get to R2 and to get from R2 to Tarpon Springs to get the total length of the trip, 20 hours total.

The next question you might ask is, "How will Nancy stay awake for 20 straight hours?  Ha!  We'll let you know how it went after we make the crossing.   One more thing, we will be crossing with seven other boats and we will be in radio contact every hour.  That should help.

Destination - Carrabelle!

Tuesday, December 1 - We said good-bye to Port St. Joe as we cruised towards Apalachicola.  Another beautiful Florida day!  We passed many commercial oyster boats along the way. 

                                              Commercial Oyster and Shrimp Boats

As we cruised towards Apalachicola, we saw a few Dolphins, Bald Eagles, Pelicans and Egrets!  We love seeing the Dolphins.  Sometimes they stay with the boat for a while and sometimes they make an appearance, then swim on.  Another beautiful part of nature we are seeing is Spanish Moss.  

                                                          Spanish Moss

We arrived in Apalachicola and docked at the Apalachicola Marina, a very small marina the consisted of mainly a fuel dock and 4 slips inside the fuel dock.  The marina was very rustic to say the least, but at least we were tied to a dock since the weather turned rainy and windy while we were there.  In spite of it being a small marina, it was a busy place.  Apparently, Apalachicola Marina provides all of the fuel for the local commercial oyster and shrimp boats.  The boats were docking and taking on fuel several times a day.  Apalachicola is known for their fresh oysters!   

                            Local Commercial Oyster Boat Heading to the Fuel Dock

                       Apalachicola Marina - Far Different From Reefpoint, our Homeport!

The height of the tide in this brackish water changed dramatically, so depending on the tide, it was either hard or easy to get off LeeLoo!   It did not stop us from getting to the dock, but it did prove to be a challenge a few times.

The town of Apalachicola was a bigger town than we had been to in a while.  There were a lot of small touristy stores and a lot of restaurants featuring oysters.  It was nice to have a bigger town to explore.

Thursday through Tuesday, December 3-8 - Destination - Carrabelle.  After spending a night of rocking and rolling on the boat due to the wind, we woke up thinking we would have to spend another couple of nights in Apalachicola.  The wind and wave forecast for the bay did not look promising.  We had at least 4 hours of cruising to get to Carrabelle.  Captain Carey consulted with a couple of the locals for their knowledge and learned that while it was not advisable to go out on the "big" water due to the waves, the route we were taking was more protected and we should be ok.  So, with the help of the dockhand, we untied LeeLoo and set out.  As the locals promised, the trip was not too bad.  In fact, it improved as time went on.  We had a safe cruise to Carrabelle!

We docked at the Moorings in Carrabelle and faced one more challenge.  The finger pier we were to dock against was very short.  It was a challenge to dock LeeLoo, but with the help of the dockhand, we were able to successfully get tied off.  What we learned:  Captain Carey's job is to drive LeeLoo straight the slip while the dockhand secures LeeLoo's bow to the dock. Meanwhile Nancy has to capture the pilings on either side of the stern with lines to secure LeeLoo.  Now, you all know that Nancy is rather short, so this will be a challenge!  As we go deeper into Florida, we have heard that a lot of slips are like this.  We have now converted our Bollard Capture Devices into Piling Capture Devices; Nancy can throw it over the piling as we go by.  There is always a new boating skill to learn!

          LeeLoo docked at the Moorings in  Carrabelle - Notice the Short Finger Pier!

                LeeLoo docked at the Moorings - Notice the Pilings (Posts)

                                                    Piling Capture Device

Carrabelle is a nice little town along the Carrabelle River along a bay which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  There are a few stores including a local IGA grocery store, a pharmacy and believe it or not, 2 hardware stores!  The town also boasts of having the World's Smallest Police Station.

                                                    Christmas in Florida

                               View from the Shore Overlooking Carrabelle River

                                                  Out on a Dinghy Ride

There are also several good restaurants featuring the local seafood.  The importance of arriving in Carrabelle is that we are getting ready to do our big Gulf crossing as soon as a weather window allows.  When we first arrived, we were the only Looper boat here, then every day since more boats have arrived.  We are planning on embarking on our overnight crossing on Wednesday evening and will arrive in Tarpon Springs, Florida on Thursday morning.    


 

Moving Down the Panhandle

Saturday, November 28 - We woke up to a beautiful day at the Harborwalk in Destin, Florida!  The wind and waves settled down enough for us to leave.  Our destination was Panama City where we would meet up with the other Loopers we traveling with.

                                                  View from Harborwalk.

Our cruise to Panama City was dramatically different than when we were last on the water.  We no longer pounded into the waves as we headed eatst.  The water was nice and calm. We traveled through Chotawhatchee Bay into West Bay.  To  our delight, we started seeing dolphins!  Carey saw the first dolphin and told Nancy.  Nancy looked out the port (left) side door and screamed!  A dolphin had just jumped out of the water just as she looked outside and it scared her half to death!  He was big!  Once things calmed down, we enjoyed watching the dolphins as they swam beside our boat.  They get very close to the boat as we cruise - probably as close as 5 feet away. Sometimes they came in pairs, sometimes alone.   They kept up their speed to match the speed we were traveling.

Flipper entertaining us!  Notice the deep blue water!  No more muddy river water.

We went from West Bay into a canal section which was uneventful, but beautiful with white sandy dunes along the side.


We finally pulled into Panama City Marina around 2:30 p.m. after a good cruising day!  Once we got there, we met up with Mazel Tug and found out that they (along with several) were getting ready to leave on the Gulf crossing.  The window of opportunity was to arrive on Monday with the weather window closing on Wednesday.  Our plan was to slowly make our way to Carabelle and then make the Gulf crossing.  There were several harbor towns we wanted to visit along the way before getting to Carabelle, so we decided to stick to our original plan and not rush.  There will be another weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico.

Since we decided to slow down and not rush, we spent a second night in Panama City.  Sunday night we got together for docktails at St. Andrew's Marina, another Panama City marina.  Ralph and Linda from Mazel Tug had rented a car and graciously drove us to join in the fun.  The talk at docktails was of the crossing!  There were at least 4 boats planning on leaving directly from Panama City to do the crossing.  Fortunately, we met several new Loopers who were taking their time and planning to do a later crossing.  We will stay in touch with them as we get closer to Caribelle and start to plan our crossing.  Carey is excited about crossing overnight, Nancy not so much!

                                               Panama City Marina.

Monday, November 30 - After spending 2 days in Panama City, we left and cruised to Port St. Joe City Marina.  This marina is small, but there's a restaurant on site, it has nice bathrooms, clean docks, and is walkable to a grocery store and a CVS Pharmacy!  Very nice. Tomorrow we plan to move on to Apalachicola for 2 nights.  Hope we see more dolphins tomorrow!

                                           LeeLoo at Port St. Joe City Marina

Crossing Denied! Thanksgiving in Destin, FL

Tuesday, November 24 -  Our destination today was the free dock in Fort Walton Beach.  There is no power available, but there is water and a free pumpout.  All you have to do is call the municipal office to ask permission to spend the night,  The office calls the police and asks them to look out for you.  Free or not, the city dock was not all that great because we were exposed to wakes from passing boats, plus the changing tides.  The incoming tide caused a lot of movement in the boat throughout the night even though we were securely tied to the dock.  Also, there was a derelict boat (no hatch cover) in the slip next to us.  Apparently a homeless couple spent the night on the boat - and it was a very cold night (30's)!  A positive was that we were able to walk to the Publix to buy some food and also we found a nice local pub for dinner.   

              Another beautiful sunset - this one from the Fort Walton Beach free dock.

Wednesday, November 25 - We left at 7:30 a.m. (along with Mazel Tug) because our destination, Panama City, was approximately 65 miles away.  It was our plan to arrive in Panama City and spend Thanksgiving there.  The first 30 miles of the cruise involved crossing Chotawhatchee Bay, which runs from west to east.  Unfortunately, over the last several days the strong wind was from the east and that caused large waves to build.  Down here, the term "rough" is used to describe these conditions.  In Lake Michigan, the waves would be described as 3 to 5 feet.  We were cruising directly into the waves so the ride was pitching up and down and not rolling, which is more comfortable than rolling.  Nevertheless, almost every wave was breaking over the bow and it was very uncomfortable.  After an hour of this, we radioed Mazel Tug and told them that we were turning back.  Because Mazel Tug is a slightly larger boat and because they were on a travel schedule, they decided to push on.

                     Views from inside LeeLoo's pilot house as we crash into the waves.

Once we turned around, we pulled into the town of Destin and tried to find a marina only to find out that none of the marinas answered their phone or their radio.  We were finally able to contact Harborwalk and discuss the possibility of a transient slip there. They said they would call us back and let us know.  Now all this time, we are out on the bay in the rough water.

Because of the uncertainty of where we would tie up, we decided to go back to Fort Walton Beach only to find that we couldn't stay a second night at the city dock.  Fort Walton Beach has an ordinance that allows only one night per boat.  Nancy pleaded our case and asked for an additional night.  Shortly after Nancy got off the phone with Fort Walton Beach Municipal Office, we received a call from Shannon at Harborwalk who said they were able to find a slip for us.  We turned around yet again and headed back to Harborwalk.  

Harborwalk isn't really a marina, it is more like Navy Pier.  No showers or laundry facilities are available.  They only have 2 transient slips available - we were lucky to get one!  Harborwalk caters to the tourists wishing to shop, eat, take harbor boating tours, and arrange for commercial fishing charters.  We are docked directly beside Margaritaville and the music is non-stop!  Quite an experience.

Thursday, November 26 - So, here we sit on Thanksgiving - it is quite beautiful at Harborwalk with a high of 75 degrees and sunny skys.  The stern of our boat faces a beautiful sandy white beach.

Our view from LeeLoo's stern while docked at Harborview - a beautiful white sandy beach!

Yet another spectacular sunset from LeeLoo's stern overlooking the beach - we never tire of the sunsets.


We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  With luck, the wind will die down and we will be able to leave for Panama City on Saturday.    

Florida at Last!

Thursday and Friday, November 19 and November 20 - We left Turner Marine Service with a repaired LeeLoo!  Unfortunately, once we were out on Mobile Bay, the water was very rough again.  Before we left Turner, we "battened down the hatches" so to speak, so we were in pretty good shape even in rough conditions.  It was not an easy cruise across Mobile Bay because we had to stay in the channel.  But once we entered the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway), conditions settled down and it felt like we were back on the rivers!  A highlight of the cruise was stopping at LuLu's, a well-known restaurant that is owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister, LuLu.  There was a courtesy dock along the ICW, so we docked LeeLoo and enjoyed the ambiance of LuLu's!  

                                        

                                  LeeLoo docked at courtesy dock alongside LuLu's.

After a great lunch at LuLu's, we cruised to The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach, Alabama.  Now this was a marina!  There was shopping and even a movie theater!  We treated ourselves to a movie - a luxury we haven't had in the last couple of months!

Saturday-Monday, November 21-23 - We left Orange Beach on Saturday, continuing down the ICW.  We were very excited to see a Bald Eagle fishing for his breakfast.  It was a beautiful Bald Eagle and he came very close to our boat.  But, what thrilled us more was seeing lots of Dolphins!  We have been told that we will continue to see Dolphins, but seeing them for the first time was really awesome!

The scenery along the ICW really looks like the "South"!  We started seeing sandy banks and palm trees.  Then we saw the sign welcoming us to Florida! 

                                          Welcome to Florida Sign.

                                            Sandy Beaches along the Shoreline.

                             Even the homes along the ICW look like Florida homes!

As we neared Pensacola, we passed a several tows pushing barges.  We did pass a tow boat that was not pushing a load - it was such a pretty tow boat, so we are including pictures of it.

                                             Tow boat along the ICW.

We arrived in Pensacola and stayed at Palifox Pier Marina which is in downtown Pensacola.  Finally, we were at a marina where we could walk to restaurants and shopping.  We even found a grocery store that was similar to Whole Foods that was about 1.25 miles away. 

                                          LeeLoo docked at Palifox Marina.

The temperature was a high of 72 on Saturday!  On Sunday, a big weather front moved in and the temperature dropped in the low 50's - and it was in the 30's Sunday night!  Brrr . . . we aren't used to cold weather!  By Monday, the wind had died down and we were back in the low 60's.  The weather forecast will continue to get warmer every day.  We heard about all the snow in the midwest and are glad we aren't there!

                                        Sunset from Palifox Pier Marina - beautiful!

A highlight of our visit to Pensacola was meeting up with Nancy's brother and sister-in-law, Charles and Carol.  Charles and Carol live in the nearby town of Milton.  They picked us up for breakfast at a local restaurant, then took us on a driving tour of Pensacola.  It was great to see them!
 
On Monday, Carey took a taxi to the National Naval Aviation Museum and Nancy stayed behind and took a walking tour of Historic Pensacola.  Unfortunately, Historic Pensacola is closed on Monday so it was not possible to go inside all the old homes.  But, it was a beautiful day to walk around.

                                        Old church in Historic Pensacola.

Tomorrow we plan to cruise to Fort Walton Beach where we will try to tie up to a free dock. After that we head to Panama City for Thanksgiving.   We will once again be traveling with Mazel Tug.