We're back on the boat in Carrabelle, FL today. Kathy got things set up for better care in Dallas and Daisy and I went home toIllinois to finish taxes and do Spring cleanup at home. We will refuel and reprovision tomorrow and then start cruising towards Mobile on Friday, May 1st.

Good to be back, and looking forward to cruising. Thanks to friends and family that offered to crew for me if Kathy couldn't leave Dallas, but we're set to go. Of course, you can always come along for fun if you want.

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.

Still staying in Clearwater Beach, FL!

We were going to cross to Carrabelle, FL yesterday but when we went out into the gulf the waves were 3 to 4 ft. and I could not keep the boat up on plane going fast without overheating my port engine. We needed to go fast all day to make the 150 mile crossing during daylight hours, so we came back in.

Then we had an excellent opportunity to cross that night with only 2 ft waves all across the gulf. You can run fast or slow all night and arrive the next morning, which is the way most boats cross. However, when we talked about the weather up in the Florida panhandle, where we were going, it was going to be awful... just severe thunderstorms for 4 straight days, so we'd be stuck there instead of here, and on the boat in severe thunderstorms instead of beautiful Clearwater Beach. So we stayed.

If we get a chance to cross in the next week, we will, but if not, we may leave the boat here until May. We haven't decided yet. Oh, well.... that's boating!

Grrrr! I hate the wind!

It has been blowing strong for 2 solid weeks. Currently it's blowing a gale here (34MPH+) with gusts to 47MPH at the boat in the Clearwater Beach Marina.

It makes for great surf though. There are solid 5 ft. waves coming in here and the Spring Breaker crowd is enjoying playing in the surf. This was taken from a fishing pier at the beach. There are miles and miles of beach like this here and it's very popular.

The waves in the open waters of the gulf are currently 8 ft. There may be a small window of 2 to 3 ft. waves Monday or Monday night for us to cross the gulf, but that's still uncertain. We'll just wait and see.

Still waiting at Clearwater Beach, FL for gulf waves to calm down. It currently looks bad through next week with 6 to 8 ft waves in the gulf. I went fishing off the boat at the dock yesterday and caught about 6 fish.

This one is a nice sheepshead, which we had for dinner. It was delicious. They're about tops on the "good eating" list, owing to their shellfish diet. They have lots of strong, sharp teeth and eat oysters and barnacles by chewing at the shells until they get inside to eat the shellfish.












Jane Stone helped me catch it by holding the rod and keeping it on the hook while I ran to get my landing net. The Stones brought over barbecue so we could share the fish and still have enough to eat. Worked out fine, but I wish I could have caught another.




This one is a ladyfish, which is usually a night feeder (see the big eyes?). They fight hard and jump and shake their head when caught, but I threw it back unharmed because they're not good to eat. I also caught another ladyfish, a small bluestriped grunt and a small sand perch, all too little to eat, but fun. Unfortunately, I also caught another bigger ladyfish that broke the line off when it snagged it on a piling.

We'll be here at Clearwater Beach quite a while, just enjoying the nice location while waiting for the waves to settle down.

We're in Clearwater Beach, Fl waiting for the gulf waves to settle down so we can cross the 150 miles to Carrabelle, FL in the Panhandle. So far, it looks good for Thursday 3/19.

We came up here from Sarasota on a beautiful 80 degree day. Almost every day for the past 3 weeks in Sarasota has been a beautiful warm, sunny day. This is a great time of year to be here. We were joined by out friends, the Bill & Jane Stone. This is their boat "Loose Stones" behind us after a bridge opening on the way here. They'll be making the gulf crossing with us too, as our boats can both cruise at 16 knots. We have shuffled each other's cars so we both have cars here at Clearwater Beach. Tomorrow, we'll preposition cars to Carrabelle so we'll have them in the Panhandle.

More dolphin pictures! This guy always jumped and turned over so he splashed upside down. He stayed with us for quite a while.










We took the ICW waterway instead of the open gulf and it always has beautiful homes and interesting views.








At some places the barrier island separating the ICW and the gulf gets very narrow, so there's just one road and you can see across to the gulf from the ICW.








I was watching the fishing boats come in at our docks today and it's interesting to see the big pelicans watch the fish cleaning stations, hoping somebody will feed them.







Sometimes they get really pushy! The guy cleaning fish told people not to try to touch it because they'll bite. They don't feed the pelicans even though they beg, probably because it'll attract more and make them more aggressive. The big brown pelicans are beautiful fliers, frequently sailing on still wings about 3 inches above the water, riding the "ground effect" to spot fish near the surface.

Visitors!

My sister, Beth, and her two friends, Barbara and Kathy were in Florida at Kathy's house and drover over to see us today. Barbara was Beth's very good friend (Barb Early) way back in high school in Des Moines Iowa. They stopped at the Sarasota Botanical Gardens before coming here, and Bath just loves all things botanical.

It was a beautiful day, so we went out for a cruise in the harbors and ICW for a couple hours. This is Marina Jacks Marina, seen coming back in. The dolphins cooperated nicely by surfing our wake in one of the wider bays once and surfing and jumping for Beth and her friends on the way back.



Then we went to Mortons, a local high end version of Whole Foods, and got stone crab claws and a couple nice salads to eat on the aft deck during sunset. Overall, a very nice day, and nice to have Beth visit, and of course, Daisy recognized her as "one of the pack" instantly.


Tomorrow, our cruising buddies, Bill & Jane Stone are coming to Sarasota or Longboat Key. We plan to do the Gulf crossing with them next week from Clearwater to Carabelle.