Sleeping Bear made it to Twin Dolphin Marina, Bradenton in the afternoon on Friday 11-19. There has been a list of things to do since arriving. While important, blogging took a lower on the priority list to other items; getting all of the salt off of the outside boat, getting Al flight arrangements and to the airport yesterday, laundry, talk to family, see local family and friends, sleep, etc. In the interest of brevity and timing, the trip from Apalachicola to Bradenton will be covered in two parts.
It was early Wednesday morning when we bid adieu to Perry. The wind forecast was for 5 to 10 MPH out of the northeast, light chop in the bays. The distance to Carrabelle was 30 miles through the protected waters of Apalachicola and St Joseph Bays. Heading south out Apalachicola for the first several miles the wind was stronger than predicted but the waters were still fairly flat. Turning to an easterly heading toward the Bridge between Apalachicola and St. Joseph Bays, winds built to 25 with 2 foot seas on the port bow. Not since Waukegan, had Sleeping Bear been asked to respond to any wave action. She answered the challenge in normal strong and quite fashion. Shortly after passing under the bridge, winds and waves subsided. It was very smooth sailing the rest of the way to Carrabelle. The sudden change seemed odd, but was welcome; a little more on that a little later.
We had been following both Wunder-ground gulf forecasts and Tom Conrad’s “Musings.” Both indicated that it would not be until the at least the weekend before an adequate weather window would provide the opportunity for a comfortable gulf crossing. The trip to Carrabelle was being made to meet up with the legendary Buddy, for a second opinion. Pre-crossing maintenance included changing oil and filters on both engines, oil in both transmissions and primary fuel filters on both engines. The latter was insurance, though the smaller generator filter needed to be changed last Sunday morning while anchored in the Choctawhatchee Bay. The plan was to get as much as we could done Wednesday afternoon, finishing on Thursday. There should be time to visit the small but interesting town of Carrabelle after maintenance while waiting for the favorable weather hoped for during the weekend. That plan changed.
While fueling, I went into the ship store at the Moorings in Carrabelle. Their weather board was predicting waves of 1-2 for tomorrow. This was different from what we had been hearing elsewhere, but promising. When asked how long we intended to stay. I responded, “Until Buddy says we can go. And, where is Buddy?” She replied Buddy would be meeting us at the dock, guiding us into our slip.
We moved toward the slip where Buddy was indeed waiting to grab our lines, insure we had power and knew where everything was. As soon as the boat was tied, Buddy informed us, “You will need to leave as early as you can tomorrow, or you will probably be here thru the middle of next week.” But leaving at first light about 7AM with a 20 hour ride would put us on the western shore at 3 AM. Everyone we had ever talked to had advised against entering an unfamiliar harbor at night. The mix of channel markers and intra coastal markings were confusing enough in daylight. In the dark, they could be a disaster. Waiting until next week would mean that Al would probably not get home to spend Thanksgiving with his family.
Buddy outlined a crossing strategy that will be explained in Part 2. We worked until after dark Wednesday evening to complete the maintenance. After that we walked about a mile to a café where we both had an excellent steak.
For now it’s time to get back to the” to do” list.
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