We're finally in Carrabelle, FL in the Panhandle! After waiting almost 3 weeks for reasonable weather to make the long open water crossing.

We went 170 miles today in a crossing of the open Gulf waters from Clearwater to Carrabelle in 12 hours. The forecast was for waves of 2 to 3 ft close in and 2 to 4 ft in the middle 80 miles. Of course, NOAA was wrong and it was 2 to 3 ft waves on top of 3 ft swells for the first 100 miles or so. Then the last 1/3rd of the crossing was in 2 ft waves on 2 ft swells. So.... it was uncomfortable for the first 8 hours of the trip, but we made the trip in daylight hours, which was great. Many cruisers go overnight for 17 to 20 hours so they leave in daylight and arrive at the other side the next day. However, we were able to run fast enough time to make it all in one 12,5 hour day.

Two great cruising buddies, Bill & Jane Stone, crossed with us, staying on our stern for most of the trip like this. Their boat can go fast with no problems, but Nonchalance will overheat one engine if I run hard in big waves and warm water, We had to slow down 3 times to let my port engine cool off, but we ran on plane half the day and made the time we needed to arrive in daylight with 45 minutes to spare (just in time to get eaten by the sand fleas at the docks, which come out at dusk). Luckily, Kathy closed up our boat quickly and no sand fleas got in. When the Stones were following us in the channel near land at Carrabelle, we saw Bill waving around in the flybridge of his boat and we thought "How nice, he's waving to us", but he was really just trying to keep the many sand fleas from eating him alive when he got into their range. Too bad... both Sarasota and Clearwater Beach are totally bug free. You can leave the boat windows and doors open with the lights on all evening and get zero bugs in the boat. Here, if you don't put up windows or screens, you're chewed up instantly if it's after 4:30 PM.


We saw big pods of dolphins three times in the crossing. This was very interesting, because we have only seen dolphins in the big bays before and not in the Gulf or the Atlantic Ocean. Today, groups of fast swimming, jumping dolphins just swam right to the boat, swam around it briefly and then moved on.


I figured out that taking still pictures of dolphins jumping is much harder than a video, so this picture is actually a very short movie which you can click to see one of the pods catching up with Nonchalance and passing us by. We're running about 16 knots on plane and they're FAST.... this video is NOT speeded up!

Kathy will be flying to Dallas tomorrow because her mother needs care now. We'll stop the cruise and I'll drive home to Illinois with Daisy, leaving the boat in Carrabelle. Either I'll find some cruising help to crew with me for a week or two so I can get Nonchalance back to Columbus, MS, or Kathy can return from Dallas to cruise with me. I have to get the boat out of salt water by June 1st when the hurricane season starts, for insurance reasons.