Just as Pigpen always had a cloud of dust around him, we seem to always have a cloud of rain around us. In the last 24 hrs we have had over 2”of rain. And it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Is there a drought somewhere where we should go and bring them rain?

We drove down to Clearwater Beach but it was raining the whole time so no pictures – is this really the Sunshine State???

The forecast calls for rain and gale force winds on the Gulf from Thursday morning through Friday night, with high waves continuing through Saturday . The next part of our trip will be on the ICW, but all that separates that from the Gulf are long skinny “islands” – not much protection from the winds. So I started calling around this morning to see if I could find a slip for us that had power and water hookups where we could stay put until Sunday. Fortunately Tarpon Springs Yacht Club had one slip available and it was less than 10 minutes from the wall we had been tied to. Because of falling tides we needed to get there immediately so we quickly untied and moved to that slip. The people at the yacht club are super friendly and the club is very nice – it should be a nice place to stay for the next few days. They invited us to join them tomorrow night for bingo and we’re welcome to eat in the restaurant, too!

One of our classmates from high school lives in Tarpon Springs, so we got in touch with her yesterday. She and her husband picked us up mid afternoon today and showed us around Tarpon Springs. This is known as the sponge capital of the world so we checked out a couple of sponge shops, bought a few sponges, had a glass of wine at a local wine bar, and finally ended up at a very nice Greek restaurant. Of course it started raining as soon as they picked us up so we didn’t spend much time outside.

Tomorrow morning we will get a rental car and explore the area on land for the next couple of days.

We got out of the slip at 7:10 this morning and 45 minutes later we were in the Gulf of Mexico. 150 miles and 7 1/2 hours later we were in sight of land and the river that would take us into Tarpon Springs. Because we made the crossing sooner than we had originally planned, we didn’t have a chance to call any marinas for reservations. That turned out to be a problem, but fortunately the harbormaster at the second marina we called gave us the name and number for a woman who has a restaurant right on the river with a sea wall where we could tie up. We have no electric or water connections on the wall, but we have a full water tank and a generator to power our lights, fridge, etc., and a great Greek restaurant right there, so life is good. Tomorrow morning I will call a couple of other marinas to see if we can get a slip nearby with power and water. This looks like a cool area – and of course the weather is going to turn bad on Thursday, so we need a place to stay for a couple of nights.

We left Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach this morning intending to go to Apalachicola and then to Carrabelle tomorrow, the jumping off point for the Gulf crossing. But we’ve been following forecasts from a guy who lets Loopers know when the weather will be good for making the Gulf crossing and he said tomorrow should be as good as it will ever get. And then we got an email from a friend who’s done the crossing 14 times and he said the same thing. So we revved up the engine and made it all the way to Carrabelle. Go fast boats can be very nice when you really need to get somewhere!

We met up with a couple today who also want to do the crossing tomorrow, so we plan to untie at 7:15 tomorrow morning and hope the sea gods will look kindly upon us as we traverse open Gulf waters for 150-160 miles to Tarpon Springs. Interestingly, the couple we will be traveling with is from Spencer IN and started their trip from Racine WI about a week after us.

Some photos from today’s travels –

Today the weather decided to provide us with a good travel day, so we made it to Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach. About a third of the trip was down a narrow channel, with interesting banks on both sides.

It’s early to bed tonight because we have a slow day ahead of us tomorrow. A long stretch of the ICW tomorrow will be a narrow channel, which means speeds of 8-10 mph, not very fast.

The winds picked up last night and the waves really slammed us all night long. In spite of being properly tied up, the boat went forward, backward, from side to side, and up and down all night long. Every time we thought the wind was dying down it would start up again and then there would be an extra large wave that would really slam the boat and wake us up. When we got up this morning there were white caps on the water and brisk winds, so we decided to stay put for one more day. White caps on the water do not make for a comfortable ride and we’re all about comfortable rides.

Unfortunately the wind and waves kept up all day and are continuing tonight. We really need to be moving on to take advantage of a good weather window so we can be out on the Gulf on Wednesday so tomorrow we will head out. We’re hoping the next marinas will be calmer – we could use a good night’s sleep.

No photos today. We went out for breakfast, then stayed on the boat for the rest of the day. Along with the wind and waves the water level has also risen, so between the boat not staying steady and the longer step down to the dock, getting off and back on became very difficult. Situations like this make it nice to have the bigger boat, so you don’t feel claustrophobic when you’re inside all day.

We had clouds all day, lots of wind for several hours, and now it’s raining again. The weatherman says it’s supposed to end later tonight and be dry for several days – fingers crossed he’s right!

I’m not sure why Florida is called the Sunshine State – there hasn’t been much sunshine since we got here ☹️. And now it’s windy and rainy. I shouldn’t complain because it’s better than snow, but the lack of sunshine is getting depressing. 

At least there are pelicans to keep us entertained! This one sat on a piling by the bow of our boat and another sat over one slip.

I’ve tried to get a photo of the military jets that fly over us several times a day, but they’re too fast. We have a naval air station in Pensacola to our west and an Air Force base to our east so I’m assuming the planes could be from either base.

We’ve decided to stay put for a couple of days because of predicted rain for tomorrow and Friday, and some leaking shaft seals that needed to be checked out. Fortunately a mechanic was able to come by the boat about noon and had the problem solved in about 15 minutes. Apparently the seals just needed to be tightened – we breathed a sigh of relief that it was nothing major.

After the mechanic left, we took a walk over to the Baytowne Wharf, a village like setting with restaurants, shops, and various activities. It’s amazing how deserted the area was, because this is a huge resort with several high rise condo buildings. We had lunch in one of the few restaurants that was open and we were the only ones there. Lunch was great – award winning gumbo and smoked BBQ wings. The wings had a very crispy skin with no breading or batter on them and a very nice smoky flavor – although different, they were as good as the wings at Phil’s in Saugatuck, which have been my favorite wings until now. Everything on the menu was gluten-free, except for the hamburger bun, and they keep the kitchen area gluten-free – pretty amazing!

Of course the clouds started rolling in by mid-afternoon, so no sunset. The clouds and rain seem to be following us. Just call us the rainmakers!

Some photos I took while the sun was still out – 

It’s been several weeks since I last posted and much has happened during that time. I’ll try to summarize what we’ve been doing with photos