GIVING THANKS FOR THE SUN...AND SO MUCH MORE!

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26 

Hallelujah - the clouds have parted and sun is shining!  While most Looper folks have elected to stay put and have their Thanksgiving here in Appalach (what the locals call it), we are going on to Carabelle to get staged for our Gulf crossing. The weather window looks like it will open up on Friday and we want to be in there to take advantage of it when the time is right.  Moving now will put us about 25 miles closer to our jumping off point.

We were just about to get off the boat when a knock came on the hull.  It was an Appalach Policeman who told us he was also the harbormaster.  Staying on the city dock was supposed to be $30/night.  He asked when we were leaving and when we said we were leaving this morning he told us not to worry about it.  We thanked him, told him we enjoyed his city and assured him we got to know the local merchants and food/drink purveyors very well during our visit there.  Karen, John, Alice and Chris came down to help us off the dock.  

Here comes the "help"

Tears were shed (by Karen and I anyhow) and we were off.  Got out the channel, rolled out the genoa and sailed all the way to Carabelle.  Nice ride!  Got in to the Moorings Marina about 2:30.   Met a bunch of Loopers that we had never met before at that marina and went over C-Quarters Marina down the road to check it out and met even more folks there.  They were planning a Thanksgiving potluck and the place has a nice vibe so we decided that we will move there tomorrow and join in on the fun.   Spent the night cleaning up and planning for the crossing, and 4 loads of laundry too!

A TURKEY DAY LIKE NO OTHER, NOVEMBER 27

Woke up and went to the breakfast that this marina provides as part of your slip fee.  I started making the dressing for the potluck and once we got it in the oven we moved over to the other marina.  That was easier said than done. These slips have 4 posts and one tiny little dock.  The river we are on has about a 3 foot tide and quite a bit of current that comes along with that.  Factor in the wind and it was interesting not only getting out of the one slip but into the other.  John did a great job as always and we were just happy to be done with it.  

1:00 was potluck time and we had a feast!  What started out as a concept yesterday sure blossomed into a whole lot of everything including baked ham and turkey, fried turkey, gravy, potatoes, dressing, salads, sweet potatoes, cranberries, green beans - the works!  

Enjoyed getting to know some new folks and having such a wonderful meal.  We are thankful for so much, our safe journey thus far, our wonderful family and friends, our wonderful little cat and crew mate Molly.  It's always good to sit back and take stock of ones' blessings!

Back to the boat and another knock on the hull.  This time it is Rick and Sherrie from Amada.  We hadn't seen them since Mobile.  Chatted with them a bit and now we are getting ready for sea. 

We plan to leave tomorrow morning to do our 150-mile crossing from Carabelle to Dunedin, just south of Tarpon Springs.  I tried to mark it with post-its on this map. Carabelle is on the right hand side of the top post-it and our destination is on the right hand side of the bottom one.  I should have drawn arrows or something, sorry!

We will be about 40 miles offshore and estimate it will take anywhere from 22 to 30 hours to make the trip.  The reason we have to make this big hop is it is very shallow across what they call the Big Bend of Florida (see all that blue area on the chart above).  Many of the powerboats and trawlers are taking a shorter hop to Steinahatchie and getting back into the ICW there.  Our first good opportunity to do that is much further South will be at Dunedin.  We would like to make the crossing with another sailboat of similar size and speed, or just another sailboat period.  We know of 2 ketches (ketch is a 2 masted sailboat, main mast forward, mizzen or littler mast back) going in the morning and perhaps we'll be able to sail with them. There will be a few other powerboats going too but most are waiting until Saturday when the winds drop off almost completely.  We need to try to time our departure right as we do not want to arrive near the coast in the dark.  Want to arrive in day light so we can see our approach and all of the reported crab pots that dot the coast in that area.

We will see what the morning brings.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!