We're in Sarasota! Beautiful, warm, Sarasota.

We cruised down here today 3 to 5 miles out in the Gulf instead of following the ICW today because the waves were less than 1 ft. in the Gulf and the ICW has lots of go-slow places and low bridges where we have to wait for opening times. We also ran the ICW from Tampa Bay down to Sarasota, so we saw both today.

Temps in the 70s let us pilot from the flybridge before we got to the Tampa Bay shipping channel. Not much to see off the bow, but I enjoy the really open views.








The view astern was Loose Stones, who came with us through the Gulf to Sarasota. Nonchalance really does stir up the water underway, leaving big standing waves at 10 MPH. I like the view.







The beautiful buildings and condo's along the shore are nice when we're in close enough to see them...










And coming into Sarasota is always nice.














Here's our view from the aft deck for the next week, with sunsets looking through the little park across the way into the bay beyond. Dolphins frequent the marina here and swim under the docks and boats.

We're in Clearwater Beach after cruising 185 miles across the Gulf all night in nice 1 ft waves most of the way and then a 2-3 ft chop for about 30 miles near Clearwater Beach. We left at 4 PM and arrived at 9 AM the next morning, which lets us maneuver the marked channels and get past the crab trap floats near shore during daylight hours. I couldn't expect better crossing conditions than we had last night.

Now the boat's washed, the dog's walked, we had a nap and we're here in beautiful Clearwater Beach. It's the kind of Florida I picture when I think "Florida".... georgeous palm trees, warm weather in winter, clear saltwater, and almost no bugs at all. This is the view from our bow at the beach marina.






When we left Apalachicols last evening, the dolphins came and surfed out wake and jumped merrily as if to see us off before sunset and our overnight cruise. Click this 15 second video and you can see two of them just having a great old time in our wake. The green can in the water is one of the last channel markers exiting "Government Cut" at Apalachicola.

There wasn't much of a sunset last night out on the Gulf, but we did get this nice pink glow just as one of the boats crossing the other way was coming in towards Apalachicola.








There wasn't much of a sunrise either, but we were sure glad to see it.













Tomorrow, we're cruising to my favorite marina: Marina Jack's in Sarasota. We'll be there for a week before we go to Marco Island.




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We're in Apalachicola, FL getting ready to make a 185 mile crossing of the open waters of the Gulf.



We cruised here yesterday from Panama City in calm waters. The dolphins picked us up a few times but didn't jump very much. I got this short video of a nice jump when I increased our speed to make a big wake, which they enjoy more. Click on it to see the 4 second video.

A lot of the day was spent "running the ditch" in the ICW which is a dug channel through miles of sandy barrier island type terrain. Some people call this a poor man's grand canyon due to the 20 ft high walls of crevasse eroded sand.



"Loose Stones" followed us most of the day but turned off to go to Port St. Jo Marina for the night while we went on to Apalachicola. They'll catch up to us today and we'll make the crossing together.







We did pass by the shipbuilding facilities East of Panamma City. I don't know how they get the huge ships out of here through the ICW to the Gulf after they're completed.








When we got to Apalachicola, the town square was full of people for their annual "Santa Claus Comes to Town" event and all the stores were decorated for Christmas. We wandered around until dusk, when I took this picture. There was a line that had to be an hour long to take your kids to sit on Santa's lap. The Santa still did appear quite jovial for the kids though. I just don't know how long he'll last.

We're on a nice, new, long dock by the local shrimp boat fleet here. The wave and wind forecast for crossing the Gulf tonight is excellent. We'll probably leave about 4:30 PM and go at 9.3 knots overnight to arrive at Clearwater Beach about 9 AM. This will be our first all night overnight crossing, so it should be interesting. Leaving at 4:30, we should be out in the open waters past all the crab traps by sunset, running on radar and being watchful all night, to arrive after dawn so we have daylight to see crab traps as we get closer to shore at Clearwater. It's nice to travel with Loose Stones as a buddy boat. One or two other boats may catch up with us from Carabelle, FL on their way to Clearwater.

We're in Sandestin, Fl at a fancy golf resort. The marina is full of big, expensive boats that make us look small by comparison. This is a self=contained golf and "something for the kids to do" resort where they have a huge "mall" full of entertainment venues and high priced shops, all oriented towards the wives and kids as far as I can tell.

We love this dock though, because it's exactly at the height of our decks and we can just step right off the boat on to the dock. We don't have to set out our "seastairs" like most marinas.








Tonight we're going to the BBQ restaurant here with the Stones, and tomorrow, we're going on to Panama City, FL.

We cruised to Florida on the ICW today and we're anchored next to an uninhabited beach on the Gulf at Perdido Key just before Pensacola.

It was great fun for us to see the dolphins jumping our wake again. They picked us up in all the bays of the ICW and surfed the wake happily, making small jumps frequently. Once we were picked up by 2 adults and a baby dolphin. The adults jumped and the baby just surfed.




At the anchorage, we're rafted together with Loose Stones again so we're swinging on one anchor. We had to use their anchor because it has about 50 ft. of heavy chain before the anchor. Ours is an all rope anchor rode so we couldn't get it to hold in the soft mud and I didn't want to get out our Fortress anchoe for mud. . The anchorage is on the inside of the barrier islands that form the ICW here. The low lying key is just visible as a line behind the boats and the Gulf is just beyond it.

We dinghied in to the inside of the key and walked across the dunes to the Gulf shore beach. It had been cloudy when we were cruising today, but by the time we got to the beach, it was a beautiful and sunny. This is one of those sugar sand beaches and there are no roads to get here, so only people from boats get to this beach.

We had literally miles of beach all to ourselves. There were a few footprints above the high tide line, but not many. Of course, the dogs loved it. Both dogs are getting old and both were "dog tired" by the time we walked a long way out and back on the beach and then dinghied back to the anchorage.

Of course, Kathy added to her shell collection with these finds from the beach.













We'll go on to Sandestin tomorrow on our way to Apalachicola, FL. It currently looks like we may be able to make the long overnight passage across the Gulf on Saturday.

We're in salt water, almost in Florida! We're staying at the Homeport Marina which has a very popular restaurant in the ICW named Lulu's, owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister, Lulu. We ate dinner there last night and it was very good, especially the onion rings. The oft discussed "LA Caviar" (Lower Alabama caviar is just black eyed peas and condiments), was just OK but the grilled fish and fried oysters were great.

Last night, we anchored in Bates Lake, which is 54 miles up the Black Warrior River from Mobile. While we were there, another Hatteras Owner's Forum members, Bill and Kathleen Root in their Hatteras 43DC "Tucandu", came and anchored nearby. I got this nice picture in the morning fog.

Yesterday we went down the rivers to Mobile and across 25 miles of Mobile Bay to the ICW. There was fog in the morning again, but it burned off by 8:30. We passed by the Boise paper plant in Alabama, where Tom Drouin previously had arranged a factory tour. We have passed it before, but never had time to stop there.

In Mobile, we passed this superfast Navy tri-hull ship, just completing construction.











We also were passed by this huge conatiner freighter coming into port.










And we saw this large freighter from Hong Kong delivering huge new gantry cranes to the port of Mobile. The cranes are just bolted to the deck of the ship. They're going to need a bigger crane to get these big cranes off the ship.




Out in Mobile Bay, it was warm and sunny enough to go enjoy the ride from the flybridge. It's nice to be out in the wide open spaces and salt water, compared to the rivers, watching for debris in the floods, and it's getting warmer as we go South.





We decided to laze around here in this area instead of going on to Apalachicola, FL for a good weather window to cross the Gulf to Clearwater Tuesday night. We'll probably start cruising again Monday and will just wait for the next crossing window.

We're at "Old Lock #1" in the Black Warrior River in Alabama. It's 100 miles north of Mobile.

Last night, we anchored at Bashi Creek and rafted together to save space because the creek is quite narrow. I put out a bow and a stern anchor to keep from swinging into the side of the creek and Loose Stones tied up to Nonchalance. It makes it easy to share dinner and share dinghy duties for the 2 dogs. This picture is taken from the middle of the river looking into Bashi Creek where we're anchored, with Jane and Kathy happily waving goodbye to us and the dogs going across in the dinghy. (Jane Stone says the best part of rafting up is that the girls don't have to help dinghy the dogs into shore).

Of course, the guys kind of like to do the dinghies and the dogs love it. We intended to take the dinghy to a little boat ramp there, but the floods here deposited 4 to 6 inches of slimy silt on the boat ramp, making walking up the 30 foot ramp impossible, so we opted to dinghy across the river to a nice sand beach. The dogs (both named Daisy) thought that was wonderful. The Stone's Daisy is a yellow lab and she instantly went into the water. Bill had to keep her on a leash so she wouldn't step off the steep incline into deep water and the current of the flood.

Today, we cruised down the river towards Mobile. There was much less debris in the water than yesterday and the water was calm with less current, about 1.5 knots. We rafted together at this anchorage too. We'll need an early start tomorrow morning for a rather long trip to Mobile, so I hope the fog isn't too heavy or burns off quickly.

Cruising again!

We left Columbus, MS today and are now anchored in Sumter Landing, halfway to Demopolis, AL.

It was a very nice day on the rivers, aside from a heavy fog for the first hour this morning. After we got to the Columbus lock through dense fog, it cleared and we came out of the lock into nice sunny weather. Then, 15 minutes later, we saw this fog bank downriver and when we got there, it was so thick that we couldn't see in front of the boat at all. I ran the boat at idle speed and steered purely by the radar, with Kathy standing on the bow looking for logs in the water due to recent floods. After another 30 minutes, it was gone and it stayed sunny all day.

Sumter Landing is an excelent anchorage. There were 5 boats anchored there, including us and our cruising friends the Stones on "Loose Stones". To make space in the anchorage, we rafted up together and only put out our one anchor, so both boats swung together.



There's a nice boat ramp to land the dinghy so we can walk our dogs in the park. Bill Stone got out his dinghy and we took both dogs together. This is Bill and their dog, also named Daisy. Of course, the dogs enjoyed the park and the ride in the dinghy.

We'll be in Demopolis tomorrow, in the marina if there is space and anchored in the creek there if the marina is full.

Stuck again! Hurricane IDA turned out to be just a tropical storm by the time it hit Mobile, but it threw so much rain inland that the rivers we'll take to Mobile are all going into flood with high current and floating logs and even whole trees running with the flood. Not a pleasant place to cruise. We'll stay here in Columbus a while longer and watch the flood forecasts.

We're back on the boat again, ready to go cruising.... but we're staying in Columbus, MS to see what Hurricane IDA will do in the Gulf of Mexico before we go there. There are lots of boats going south these days, including any Great Loop Route cruisers, so everybody is trying to find a spot to hole up. We're lucky to have a great covered slip at this nice marina, and our car here. At the first stop downriver, there are no dock spaces left and the boats are "rafted" at the docks 2 or 3 deep by tying boats up against boats already at the dock.

The whole hurricane season went by with almost nothing, and now when we want to go, a hurricane pops up. Ah, well.... that's boating! We'll stay here and I can get a few more fix-it things done and we'll drive around to see the area some.