Adventures of Boreas: Days 152 and 153 – Carrabelle to Clearwater

I will begin by saying we have crossed the Gulf of Mexico – we are safely in Clearwater at the Clearwater Beach Municipal Marina – YEAH! Now, the rest of the story…

The Loopers at The Moorings in Carrabelle had a meeting in the morning to discuss the possibility of crossing today. Feelings were generally positive to slightly apprehensive. Some thought Monday was the better day to start for an overnight crossing and others thought Tuesday looked better. Due to their boat speed, Brandy IV thought they should depart around 10:00am, while we were looking more at a 2:00pm to 3:00pm departure. So Brandy IV headed out to see what the Gulf looked like past Dog Island. They called back to those of us on the dock to say they were coming back – there were 2-3 foot waves on the beam and they were rocking and rolling in a very uncomfortable way. You could almost hear everyone at the dock sigh in disappointment. Fred however was undeterred. The wind was suppose to settle down as the day went on and he thought we might still be able to start later in the afternoon.

About 1:00pm, Grianan decided to head out and see how the Gulf looked. Their plan was either to continue on or if the waves were unbearable, to anchor behind Dog Island and then head off on Tuesday. Last Chance decided that Grianan had the right idea, so they headed out as well. The group on shore waited anxiously for Grianan’s report. When the report finally came, it was that the waves were not perfect, but that they were continuing on, relying on the forecast predictions that the wind and waves would both calm down as they continued southeast. After much thought (and many changes of opinion), we finally decided to go, so at 2:45pm three more boats left the dock – Boreas, Jolly Tolly and Once Around.

As we left the protection of Dog Island and Apalachicola Bay, the waves were indeed a bit higher than we would have liked (around 2 to 3 feet), but they were also in quite a confused state because we were so close to the island. We figured it would get better as the waves and swell got more organized. Our plan was to run hard for an hour or two and get closer to Grianan and Last Chance. Unfortunately the waves were such that running hard put salt spray up on the front window and made it difficult to see. So we elected to keep our normal pace and try to catch them later in the evening.

Shortly after the sun set, the waves began to diminish and we were cruising in 1 to 2 footers. The moon was at about three-quarters, so we had lots of moonlight to see by. We were not making any progress on catching Grianan, so we decided to fall back a bit and connect up with Jolly Tolly and Once Around. Although the moon and stars were incredible to see we felt very small and lonely. We both felt much better when we saw the running lights on Jolly Tolly and Once Around. At about 2:30am, the wind and waves increased and we were back to 2 to 3 foot waves. This was predicted on the models we had been viewing and we knew that if the models held true, we would be in this increased velocity for about two hours. Amazingly enough, the models were right on and around 4:30am, the waves did begin to subside and we had waves of 2 foot and less for the remainder of the trip.

To avoid the crab pots we heard so much about, we stayed offshore quite far and only headed into Clearwater when the sun was up. There was still quite a reflection from the sun on the water, so we “tacked” back and forth across the reflection so that we could find the crab pots and avoid them. The whole group was thrilled when all five boats were safely tied up in their slips – we all counted this as a very good crossing.

As we traveled, we took our position and course information every hour. Fred charted this data and found that due to wind and wave conditions our actual course was slightly more west than what we had planned, in fact we almost ran the perfect “rhumb” line (versus our plan of heading east for 15-20 miles and then heading southeast). We basically we ran about 40 miles off shore for the entire trip.

Fred and I napped for an hour or so and then walked the three blocks to Clearwater Beach. What a beautiful beach – tons of white sand and a great place to walk. We are very happy to finally be on the west coast of Florida.

Miles: 166.3 Bridges: 1 Locks: 0