Saturday, January 22, 2022

“The Crossing” to Clearwater

 November 15th through November 19th


I hardly slept Sunday night in Carrabelle.  I was so worried about “The Crossing” that I played it over and over in my mind.  Who would help us if we had engine trouble?  What if one of us fell overboard?  How would Louie do on a 24-hour nonstop trip?  What if the weather changed and it was so rough that all we could do was stay inside the pilothouse and point ourselves toward Clearwater?  What if we couldn’t go below to get food or use the head? Could the Coast Guard or Tow Boat/US hear us on Channel 16 or would we have to rely on other boaters to relay our call for help?  Oh brother… 

 

What a waste of a good night’s sleep!!  We traveled with 2 other boats, Barefoot Shoes and Falkor, and not one of us had even one minor problem.  We left at 10 a.m. on Monday and expected to arrive in Clearwater 24 hours later if all went well.  It actually took us less than 23 hours.  We ended up being the lead boat because we had both radar and autopilot and the other boats had one or the other, but not both.

 

It was a calm, sunny day when we left the marina.  Oyster fishermen were out and the water was smooth.  The dolphins and flying fish kept us company.  We radioed our travel companion boats occasionally, but Roger and I just enjoyed the beautiful day.  Roger had put in our waypoints on the chartplotter and it was as simple as letting the auotpilot take us from Point A to Point B, albeit 190 statute miles.  We had to watch the instruments to adjust course back to the sailing line when the motion drifted us off.  We had to keep an eye out for other boats, but the navigation itself was pretty easy.  

 

We had our XM Satellite radio on and heard that the Space Shuttle Atlantis was going to launch around 2:30 p.m.  Sure enough, we looked to the east of us, and we saw the shuttle’s vapor trail after listening to the countdown on the radio.   If you look at the picture in the Trip Photos section, you will see a dolphin in the bottom left side of the photo and the shuttle’s vapor trail on the right (it’s pretty faint, but you can see it).  Wow, at that moment, we thought “what an amazing world we live in!”  It doesn’t get much better than this!

 

We watched the sunset and maintained our 2-hour watches.  When one of us drove the boat, the other rested or read until it got dark.  If we went downstairs, we put on our lifejackets and called up to the other person when we got there, and then again before we left the cabin to go back up on deck.  I had the 6-8 p.m. watch and that was the scariest part of the entire trip for me.  Roger was resting on the seats behind me, but I was a nervous wreck!  The sun had just set and I could only see the stars in the sky, zillions of them.  But there was no definitive horizon to help me keep a perspective, not to mention that I couldn’t see anything in the water.  I would just have to trust that we wouldn’t hit anything that didn’t show up on the radar.  Even though there was practically no wind, the seas were still 1-2 feet and they were abeam of us, so we rocked back and forth, back and forth.  I had to adjust or I would go crazy.  Roger didn’t even think about it; with all of his seagoing experience, this was nothing to him!  I finally relaxed and my next watch was better.  We both slept a little when it was our time.  Roger listened to Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett.  On my 2-4 a.m. watch, I drank a little Diet Mountain Dew and put on my iPod.  I listened to Andrea Bocelli and Bon Jovi.  I had a hard time keeping myself from singing out loud!!  So I just danced standing up instead and that made my shift go by really quickly.  I admit it was magical.  I felt great!

 

In fact, I let Roger sleep an extra 1 hr. and 15 minutes.  When he woke up, he was really upset that I’d let him sleep, because I’d messed up the schedule.  I didn’t understand why he was so cranky about getting a little extra sleep, until the edge of daylight came.  He had planned the shifts to time it so that he would be able to take the last shift, rested, because the closer we got to Clearwater, there were a million crab pots in the water.  He had to hand-steer for the last 2 hours to dodge the crab pots.  Sooooo…….for future reference, I’ll follow the captain’s orders (but only when it comes to boat issues!).

 

On Tuesday morning, we saw the sunrise and the buildings of Clearwater Beach in front of us.  What a welcome sight!  What a feeling of accomplishment!  We were so thrilled to be in Clearwater, that none us got more than an hour’s nap that afternoon!  Everyone came to our boat and Rae & Steve brought some grilled mackerel that Steve had caught during the crossing.  Then we went to Frenchy’s Beachside Café and had a celebration dinner.  

 

On Wednesday morning, both of our travel companion boats left and we stayed at the Clearwater Municipal Marina.  It’s a great location, just a little commercialized for our liking.  But we paid for a month’s dockage and will look around to see where we would like to go next.  I was finally able to get my hair cut and colored in the afternoon and lucked out to find a nice hair salon.  I felt so much better.  That afternoon, Roger and I enjoyed a glass of wine on our top deck and lamented how much we missed Rae & Steve from Barefoot Shoes.  It was such a strange feeling --  we had pushed hard to catch up with them after we got back from Indy in October.  And we traveled with them and were so comfortable with them.  But we were anxious to stop the wanderlust for a while.  Knowing that we will stay put for a month or two and that is what we’d been working toward, we became a little sad when they left us.  Cruising around and exploring new areas is on hold for us until after the holidays.  It’s just another adjustment, that’s all.  

 

On Thursday, our son Heath who lives in Tampa and is in the Coast Guard, came to see us.  He was in shock that we were actually here in Florida after talking about this for so, so long!!  It was great to catch up with him and we will have Thanksgiving dinner at his apartment.  No, Heath is not cooking.  I guess I’ll have to do that!  It looks like one of Heath’s friends will join us for dinner, as well as our friends that left us behind, Rae & Steve.  By then, Roger will have been back to Indianapolis for a meeting on Monday and driven his car back to Clearwater.  In the meantime, we rented a car for me so that I will be mobile while he is away.  You know, there is a ton of grocery shopping I need to do for Thanksgiving dinner. Heath has a big appetite and wants leftovers for sure!

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P.S.  About Louie & the Crossing…..he waited 24 hours to take care of business.  He would not use the piddle pads in the cockpit, most likely because the engine noise was too much for him.  He was such a good dog on this crossing, but he almost broke my arm when we got to the marina and I took him off the boat.  The vet on Falkor had told us that dogs could hold it for up to 48 hours.  I hope he never has to experience anything like that again.

 

P.S.S.  About “The Crossing”……it was the best weather window anyone could have asked for at this time of year.   We had pushed so hard to take advantage of the weather window!  We prepared for the trip as best we could.  We had reliable companion boats with us.  We did it!!!  But you ask, would I ever do it again???????  NOPE, NO WAY, NO HOW, NEVER AGAIN!!!!  No more inland rivers ---- no more Gulf overnight crossings.  Except that Roger tells me that he wants to go to the Bahamas next winter, and we’ll have to do an overnight and cross the Gulf Stream.  That guy of mine, he likes to keep life interesting, doesn’t he?  Let’s hope I still have it in me by then!




















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