Captain's log:11-19-10 thru 11-23--25-10 (day 66-69) "The Crossing"

      Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

         Did someone send out the Coastguard?   We made it! The reason I ask is, guess who boarded our boat welcoming us to southern Florida. We were fatigued to beyond "cranky" and sure enough they spot our Minnesota registration and on come the blue lights . Their first question: "Do you have weapons on board?". Good question because I , of course, wouldn't use one but Dorene might have. (She has spent some time with "Pistol Pattie" you know).   I actually didn't mind because except for the drugs (just kidding)I knew I was almost compliant. Actually I was inland compliant but needed flares for off shore. No fines just get em before we leave port again.
     OK, now for the actual crossing.... for those in a hurry here it is...We started the engines and 23 1/2 hours later we shut them off.



        For those interested in a bit more description and a few pictures read on:

Ready and waiting in Carrabelle.
      After much discussion with the other boaters (no lack of opinions) I decided two captains had nearly the same plan as me so I would follow the slower boat to keep up. (boaters and Chiropractors both very independant and hard to get a consensus) When It was finally time to go, the boat I was going to follow ran aground and had to wait for high tide to get started. Omen? Oh well, followed the second boat whose route I liked better anyway.

Here is 30 Below giving the lead to Rambler heading out of the channel.

Rambler and Seamoore heading out to the gulf. Our view for the next 24 hours.

Hey !  Wait a minute didn't you guys say you were going to slow down to our speed?  They eventually did and we kept up all night.    Now you might want to notice how smooth the water is.... That is just the gulf having a little laugh. We were still behind the barrier island, Dog Island.
     Now you'll notice on the next pictures....oh ya there aren't any. That's bcause of two reasons. The spray would have ruined the camera and we were just too darned distracted by the "Big" water. At least big  by our standards. Ya right ! 2-4 foot seas . Who is measuring these things anyway? The Jolly Green Giant.
     To make things worse we had to run for 2 hours with the swells to our starboard beam. Now to prove that this was not just my imagination I'll have Moka the sea dog make a comment here... Oh that's right she was too busy tossing her cookies to say anything.  Now here is where you are going to be glad I didn't have pictures. Ever try to clean up puke that won't sit still?  Even Dorene who is usually pretty good at this kinda stuff just handed me the rag and looked the other way. Is that a new shade of make-up you are wearing?
       Meanwhile, I'm loving the fact that the boat is actually handling the waves as it was built to do. Nice high bow. Could be a little higher. Had some coffee and a pasta salad.  Not bragging here, just don't get sick, I am the "Chemo Warrior" (that one's for you Drew). My turn is coming. Did I mention I am afraid of the dark?   For some reason I thought maybe I could do an overnight passage all in the daylight.

This is the view from the back of our boat as we sailed away from the sunset.

This is the view at the exact same time from the front of our boat. Did I mention it was getting dark? In a short while that flag you see on the front of our boat was no longer to be seen. It's either the definition of stupidity or faith. Flying into the darkness expecting that nothing will get in your way. And  yes 9.1 mph seems like flying when all you hear is the splashing and all you feel is the up and down.       
      The swells did finally settle down after a couple hours but there were definitely some serious second thoughts about our sanity when dogs are puking and we only have 21 and a half hours of this to go.
      The highlights of the night: -Large sea turtle, I at first thought was a military mine, but it didn't explode
                                             - Dolphins jumping near our bow. It was dark,...I think they were dolphins...
                                                ya had to be dolphins...settle down imagination.
                                             -The nearly full bright red moon rising...imagination settle down it has to be
                                               the moon . Yeah ! some light.
                                             -Venus!! incredible. almost as bright as the moon. Sorry pictures in the dark
                                               don't work well on our camera. You will just have to do a crossing of your
                                               own to see this one.

         
     Waves and long shutter speeds don't mix. That's the moon but the black is a good representation of how dark it was. With that said here comes the best part!!

   
    SUNRISE and DAYLIGHT again! Isn't that beautiful? No wait that isn't the sunrise that's the light at the end of the tunnel. And if you look real close you can see the boats we were following all night and Venus but she was much dimmer by this time. Also by morning the sea was as flat as a pond, just as predicted. Tomorrow it is supposed to be rough again. Very thankful for the weather window and everything else that went right.
    

We split off from our other boats and continued on to Clearwater and Paige and Lu. The other boats went to Tarpon Springs.  So there is the skyline of Clearwater. Just drive in and go to sleep. WRONG!  It should be called Crapinwater, Propsnagwater, anything but Clearwater. Can you say crab pots. 1000's of them between us and sleep! Two hours later we make it to canal entrance. Finally almost sleep time....No wait is that the Coastguard?