Overnight to Tarpon Springs

Days 200-201 |  Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs  |  20.6 Hours  |  150 Miles  

A favorable weather window finally opened up for a Thursday night crossing of the Gulf of Mexico to Tarpon Springs. To time our arrival properly, we needed to depart Carrabelle at 2:00 in the afternoon. That meant a lot of waiting around in the morning. In one sense, that was good as a low tide took all the water out of the marina. We woke up to a "---" reading on our depth gauge. A peek outside confirmed that we were sitting in mud. A few boat chores were checked off the list and then we went for a walk on this beautiful, but chilly, morning. Our view from the Carrabelle Riverwalk was that of a flat Carrabelle River. We liked the absence of wind and waves and knew this would make for a calm night on the water. Mature palm trees lined the streets and served as welcome signs to Florida. If only it were a bit warmer.

At 2:00 the tide had come in, we brought our docklines onboard, and were off. A total of 14 boats would make the crossing, divided into three groups based on boat speed and/or destination. Crossroads led the group to Tarpon Springs and Miss Utah was our safety monitor at the end of our line. We exited the GICW at East Pass, just past Dog Island and we were in the Gulf. At 3:07 we made a turn to Tarpon Springs at marker R2, 131 miles to go until the next day marker. It was a sunny afternoon and the Gulf was calm. Everyone followed in a nice line behind us. We were treated to an amazing sunset, and had lasagna for supper. All was good.

Shortly after sunset we lost all cellular service. I opened my iTunes library, hit "shuffle," and began what turned into 12 hours of eclectic music selections that kept us going through the night. We switched off on shifts at the helm, trying to swap every two hours. The hourly group radio check-ins usually woke the one trying to sleep, so neither Barry nor I got more than several naps. The sky was pitch black with a new moon. The stars were amazing and we easily identified Orion. Around 9:00 the wind began to pick up and stirred the wave activity as well. The waves were not tall (only rarely over 3 feet), were not particularly close together (3-4 second period), but they were on our beam when following the shortest-distance course. We tacked down the Gulf, trying to keep rocking to a minimum. On only three occasions did our bell ring, signifying a pretty good pitch/roll.

Truth is the crossing conditions were really no different than normal conditions we see at home in the Chesapeake Bay. As the sun came up through the windshield, the wind and waves began to calm. We then encountered another nemesis we are all too familiar with at home -- crab pots. For the final four hours we successfully dodged crab pots. We reached marker R4 at 9:00 in the morning and were docked in Tarpon Springs along with Miss Utah around 11:00. We cleaned and straightened Crossroads inside and out. Barry rinsed the thick salt spray accumulation from the exterior. Showers were followed by a little visiting and naps before we piled in Miss Utah’s dinghy and went over to Dimitri's on the Water for dinner. We ate on the deck overlooking the river and had front row seats for the Christmas Boat Parade. Everyone was fading fast after a long two days, so we returned to our boats and called it a night by 9:00.

We will explore Tarpon Springs tomorrow and do more weather forecasting. We have one more day of open water cruising to get to our final destination of the year in Bradenton. There is a large weather system heading this way, making our wind and wave forecasts less than ideal. As it looks right now, we'll get to know Tarpon Springs pretty well before we can leave next week.