Across the Gulf

We hated to leave Clearwater early but we had a weather window that was very narrow and we jumped on it.  In hind sight, it was a very good decision. There aren't too many pictures due to the fact that it has rained or been foggy most of the last 5 days.  The last crossing, however, was just as magical and different as our other recent days at sea.  We covered over 130 miles in about 24 hours. For the most part, it was great sailing.  We had a patch of fog for a few hours but it was miles from anything or anyone so not too big a worry.  We decided originally to go to Carabelle since we assumed weather was going to hit sooner than later.  Once we reached the cut from the gulf, we were so far ahead of schedule that we decided to go on to Apalachicola.  That part of the run is where we ran out of luck. The fog started in weakly at first then within moments it was zero visibility.  Of course, this had to happen as we approached the section of the channel that is shallow on one side and lined with oyster shells on the other with a bridge to negotiate.  It was a nerve wrecking challenge.  The second part of other than great luck was the choice of marina.  The one we stayed at on our way out on this trip was tough to get into and out of due to strong current so we tried Scipio Creek, again.  This time we learned our lesson, stick with the city marina and save our money.

This is one of three tunny tunas that we caught in the gulf.  We weren't sure how tasty it would be so we only kept the one.  We only kill what we can eat.  It was a bit gamy but I've looked up some other recipes so if we look forward to catching another one someday.

We were able to run with the spinnaker for several hours.  When the wind switch to behind us, David rigged it to run as a traditional symmetrical spinnaker rather than a cruising one.

There has been a lot of rain in the area of the panhandle and we saw many rapidly running creeks joining the river and ditch.

Getting into and out of the boat during a rain storm turns everything to a soggy mess.  We had things all over trying to keep the mold and mildew down.

This nice area looked to be river living at its best.