Weather...or NOT!

As I mentioned in my last post, we have only a little less than 100 miles more to move on inland waterways in the panhandle of Florida (down to Carrabelle or Apalachicola) before we hop across the northeast corner of the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater, Florida.  The gulf crossing is the largest single stretch of “big water” most Loopers will make on the Loop.  Although it is only 150 or so miles (across the north east corner of the gulf), it is fairly intimidating, as conditions on the Gulf of Mexico in winter seem to change on the weather gods’ whim.

We holed up in Panama City waiting for the weather to break and for sea conditions to calm (way) down.  Monday the seas were 5-7 feet and building, as the winds Tuesday peaked (seas were reportedly 11 feet!) following the weather front that just passed over Sunday night and Monday morning.  It rained fairly consistently for those two days.  We (and every Looper around this corner of the gulf) are looking ahead for good sea conditions three or four days out, so we can move down into position and be ready to cross the minute things are calm…because they don’t stay calm for long.

Planning for the crossing is interesting.  Daylight right now lasts from about 6:00 AM to 4:40 PM (approx. 10-1/2 hours).  Boats that can only go say 10 knots will take 15 hours, so they must leave in the dark, and time their cruise to arrive mid-afternoon.  Once Around likes to cruise at that speed, and probably will if conditions are excellent (big IF), but is very capable of doing 15 or 16 knots, shortening or eliminating nighttime exposure.   Being beaten up by rough seas is not fun in the daytime, and I imagine it would be much worse if you couldn’t see the waves coming!  That decision will probably be made at the last moment, or even as we go.

Our good friends on Jolly Tolly showed up at Bay Point Tuesday afternoon in 30 knot winds.  We were listening on the VHF as they approached and heard Ron ask if he could get a pump out.  He was told yes, but he had better check out the wind conditions first and make his choice:  pump out dock or his slip.  Now you will recall his wife Jan is “The Pump-out Queen”, so Carrie and I were 99% sure they would stop at that dock first.  We ran over to that side of the marina just in time to see that they were headed directly for their slip, where we had just come from.  Shows how bad conditions were for Jan to pass on a pump out!  We ran back and Ron brought Jolly Tolly expertly into the slip.  Even though there were whitecaps in the marina, I still am amazed Jan passed that pump-out dock.

Jan on the bow of Jolly Tolly as Ron pulls her in

We had a great evening with them and the rest of the Loopers from Grianan, Boreas and Brandy IV.  Much of the talk was about…what else…the weather.  We are all rather obsessed with it right now.

At 6:30 the next morning we learned several boats were leaving Carrabelle to make their crossing.  We pray for their safety, as conditions are not ideal.  We decided to move a little further down the panhandle to Port St. Joe.  It was a beautiful day to cruise, if a bit nippy. 

Following Jolly Tolly on the ICW

Jolly Tolly turning into Port St. Joe Harbor

The dolphins provided quite a show.  We had a couple dolphin cruise along with us for nearly a half hour.  I think the Admiral got some better shots this time.  Captain Ron told her on the radio that he had heard that if you sing to them, the dolphin will stick around.  Carrie bought that, hook, line and sinker.  It was kind of fun to hear her singing loudly at the dolphin.  But, do you think they appreciated “God Bless America”?  It was a priceless moment!

We’re going to hang out here at Port St. Joe for one or two or ??? days, watching the weather and hoping for a good day to cross soon.  When we think we see one we’ll move down to Carrabelle to be ready.  Meanwhile, this place is supposed to have some great seafood restaurants…so off we go.

 

Panama City, Florida (Not Panama)

If I had a nickel for every time someone came up to Once Around, saw the “Sacramento, CA” hailing port, and asked me if I’d brought her through the Panama Canal, I would be rich.  Maybe now I’ll just say, yeah, I brought her through Panama…

We were the only Looper boat to pull into Shalimar Yacht Basin on Thanksgiving.  In fact, we were the only sign of life in the entire place.  We knew they would be closed so had gotten our slip assignment from “Vito” the day before.  Shalimar is very well protected, and the cold and brisk north east wind we had in our face all morning, was nowhere to be found.  It was actually warm and sunny.

Carrie whipped up a mini-feast for Thanksgiving.  We had Turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberries, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts (brussel sprouts???) and pumpkin pie for desert.  She remarked how strange it felt to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner in a galley where only two steps got you from one end to the other.  About the only thing we missed (besides the kids and grandkids) was football, as the cable TV on A dock seemed to be on the fritz, and the one air TV channel we received seemed to be stuck in a “Charlie Brown (Peanuts) Thanksgiving” time.  No matter, we had a quiet, but wonderful evening.

Friday we left early (never did meet Vito), because we had a fairly long cruise day ahead of us.  As we pulled out into Choctawhatchee Bay, which would consume the first 30 miles or so, we almost immediately heard from Something Special over the VHF radio.  Sid had left the other two boats he had been with behind and knew we were planning to travel on Friday.  We met up about an hour later, and Something Special followed us the rest of the way to Panama City, Florida.  Our mileage that day was 72 miles, one of the top ten longest cruise days since we started in May.

On the Bay we came up behind a slow sailboat...

...no...could it possibly be???

Of course!  Lolligag again!  They may lolligag, but they keep getting ahead of us!

We are really enjoying being back in the salt water and its’ marine life.  We had many dolphin sightings, some very close to the boat.  I’m not sure if Carrie’s camera finger was quick enough to catch them, but the dolphin show was pretty impressive on occasion.

She swears there were dolphins here a second ago...

...you'll have to settle for the house of the day...

When we got to St. Andrews Bay at Panama City, Something Special headed north to the Panama City Marina and we headed south to Bay Pointe Marina.  Greg and Kate from Grianan met us on the docks.  They had first gone to the City Marina and had moved over to Bay Pointe the day we arrived.  Without going into great detail, they led me to believe I made the right choice. 

Some of the boats in Bay Pointe

Lots of them are pretty serious sport fisherman

And then this guy...you suppose he ever gets his wife to go boating???

I wonder why not???

After topping off our fuel, we went to our assigned slip and I was beat from the long cruise.  But, the Admiral wanted to wash the boat.  So, we washed the boat.  Finishing about dark, we showered and headed for Grianan for cocktails with the crews from Boreas and Spirit of Whitby.  There was some comedy stage show playing at the marina at 6:00 PM, but we managed to cocktail right past it.  After leaving the party, Carrie and I had a quick salad at the marina pub, relaxed for an hour or so listening to a live country singer playing in the bar, and crashed.

Saturday morning became “laundry morning” as it had piled up this week.  I have been catching up on my route planning.  It looks like (keep your fingers crossed) the Gulf might calm down enough for us to cross around Wednesday.  We will be keeping a close eye on the weather reports, and if this forecast holds, Monday or Tuesday we will move down the panhandle another 60 or 80 miles to Apalachicola or Carrabelle, both good jumping off points to cross from.  We will cross to either Tarpon Springs or Clearwater, Florida.   Our crossing will be about 140-150 miles.  The Gulf can get cranky in a hurry, so we want to be sure and catch a calm window.

We received some great news and some crummy news from other Loopers yesterday. 

First, on the happy side, Jolly Tolly has entered Mobile Bay and could catch up with us here in a few days.  It would be great to cross the Gulf with Captain Ron and Jan (The Pump-out Queen).  Our boats are happy at similar cruising speeds and capable of much faster comparable top speeds, if needed.  Besides that they’ve done this crossing before, although that was not one of the highlights of their Loop, to say the least.  Mostly it will be great to see them again.  It’s been three months since we cruised with them on Lake Michigan.

On the downer side of things, two boats I mentioned (awhile back) that we hoped to see soon, Algonquin and Abreojos, are both down with mechanical problems.  I haven’t yet confirmed this, but ironically I think they both may be at Aqua Marina.  That is above the Tenn-Tom, some 400 miles above Mobile Bay.  It’s getting cold and probably lonely up there, and we wish them both good luck with their repairs and safe cruising coming down the waterway.  Remember guys, boating is fun!

Well, the laundry is about done.  So I better get moving.  I’m not sure what the Admiral’s plans are today, but you can bet it’s not sitting here on the computer!



Thank You, God

First of all, I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family, friends and fellow Loopers near and far.  As always, we have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  Thanks for our family, especially our kids and grandkids.  Thanks for our friends, our co-workers, our health, our work, and our countless other blessings.  In my Thanksgiving prayer as always I will remember all of those.

But today, besides being Thanksgiving Day, Carrie and I celebrate our wedding  anniversary.  We weren’t married on Thanksgiving Day in 1984, but whenever the 24th falls on the holiday, like this year, I am reminded of what I truly am most thankful for.

Actually, we did get married once on Thanksgiving Day.  In 1994, on the tenth anniversary of our civil marriage we renewed our vows and were married (in the Catholic Church).  That was a pretty cool Thanksgiving.  We didn’t want to make a huge deal of it, so we asked our friend Monsignor K. to marry us early, prior to the eight o’clock mass.  Only immediate family and our closest friends (who stood up for us) were there.  In true Monsignor K. fashion, the ceremony was quick.  We hoped to just duck out quietly before the churchgoers arrived and head home for a traditional Thanksgiving Day of parades, football and turkey with the kids and our good friends.  No such luck.

Afterward, as we walked down the aisle to the back of the church, an old Irish character named Norm Montgomery appeared.  Uh-oh, Norm was an old friend of my late fathers and he was about as quiet and subtle as a herd of dairy cows.  He was also one of the funniest characters you would ever meet.  As we approached the rear of the church, Norm jumped up from his knees, clasped his hands over his chest as if having a heart attack and bellowed, “By God an Irishman sure needs to get up early to beat an Italian.  There I was all proud of meeself for getting’ ta mass bright and early this fine Thanksgiving mornin’, and you’ve already been up long enough ta get yourself married!”  All the parishioners filing in were smiling and congratulating us.  So much for being quiet and discreet.

One anniversary many years ago we were vacationing in a tropical paradise somewhere.  The vacation was supposed to be our anniversary gift to each other, but, I somehow managed to sneak a “bauble” (Carrie’s term for jewelry) under her pillow the first night as a surprise.  Subtle, huh?  Anyway, when we went to bed that night she discovered it and without missing a beat squealed, “Look what the Jewelry Bunny brought for me!” 

This year we agreed our Loop adventure was our gift to each other and would cover any and all gift obligations this year, birthday, anniversary, etc.  But, her trip to San Francisco last weekend gave me (excuse me, gave the Jewelry Bunny) a golden opportunity to strike again.  Besides, she’s overdue for a bauble.  If you go back and read my earlier post (August), “Never Sufficiently Adorned”, you will understand.  You didn’t really think I believed I was going to get off with a mere trip to the beauty salon…did you? 

So, today marks 27 years since the prettiest and nicest girl in the universe and I said, “I do”.  When I look at her I still see the same young twenty something beauty that I fell head over heels with back then.  But now, I know how much more I value her sweet gentleness, her love of and devotion to family (and to me), and her outrageous sense of humor.  She makes me smile and laugh every day.  I cannot imagine a life without her.

There is a scene near the end of the movie, “Animal House”, during the wild bedlam of the parade.  During the mayhem, a beautiful and scantily clad coed is suddenly flung through the window of a home and onto the lap of a thirteen year old boy who had been sitting on his bed and sneakily “reading” a Playboy magazine.  The boy gets a huge smile on his face, raises his eyes upward to the heavens and shouts, “THANK YOU, GOD!!!”

Well, today (just as from the moment we met), I feel just like that thirteen year old boy.  I am not exactly sure how she landed in my lap…but…

…THANK YOU, GOD!!!

27 years and counting...