Boating with Carl

Orange Beach, AL - Tarpon Springs, FL

March 13-31, 2001

Carol & I met Carl in Tampa and and we all drove to Sportsman's Marina near Orange Beach, Alabama. Arrived at the boat and unloaded in pouring rain. TV news the next day reported 4.47" inches of rain that night. About noon the sun broke out and the weather looked good so we cast off our dock lines and got underway.

Carol took up a comfortable position to keep an eye on things.

We found a protected anchorage behind a very small island in the Intercoastal that would shield us from the wake of other boats and dropped anchor for the night.

We had a pleasant sunset view.

Carol made a nice shrimp dinner.

Friday 3/16 woke to blue skies at our anchorage along the Intercoastal waterway near Fort Walton Beach, FL. Enjoyed a leisurely breakfast then hoisted anchors and were underway. Saw some nice homes along the Intercoastal and Carol said she was house hunting. Motored along to Bay Point Marina at Panama Beach, FL for the night and discovered there was a boat show underway at the marina.

After tying off and washing the salt spray from the Josephine, we walked around and looked at new boats large and small. We went aboard a most opulent Hatteras with polished wood and faux marble countertops. Carl was impressed with the engine room which was completely painted white, walls, floor and ceiling. Certainly would be easy to find a dropped bolt or tool. (Notice how the side of the Hatteras is so shiny that it reflects the water and a piling).

In the morning, we were surprised to find that Bay Point Marina had delivered the morning newspaper to our boat. We took on 275 gallons of diesel and got underway to an overcast sky and light sprinkles.

While I drove, Carl used the free time to play with his new GPS system to try out all the bells and whistles.

We traveled across large bays and down narrow channels dredged through pine and cypress forests. Saw some back water homes still flying the Confederate flag!

Looked at the town of Apalachicola and considered stopping but decided to press on. Skirted the Gulf behind narrow barrier islands and saw only the booms of a sunken shrimp boat protruding above the water. Arrived at Carrabelle in a steady rain. Weather forecast is rain for the next two days. Considering that we may be here awhile with little to do, we visited the local IGA and bought two half gallons of Blue Bell ice cream.
Rained all night at Carrabelle. Sunday, 3/18 woke to more rain. Carl tuned into the weather channel which showed a green swath across our entire intended travel path. Decided to chill for a day. I joked about getting down and painting the engine room white like the Hatteras we saw a couple of days ago. Carol baked a chocolate cheesecake in the oven.

While we hung around Carrabelle, I amused myself by photographing the birds. Carl and Carol walked to the fish market for oysters and grouper. Had oysters raw and fried for lunch and grouper for supper. At least while we wait, we are snug in the boat with excellent meals thanks to Carol. Watched a movie, Prisoner of the Mountain, in Russian with English subtitles. Grade B, nearly everyone killed in the end. Went to bed with the waves slapping the hull and the wind making the boat tug at its moorings.

Wednesday March 21 another gray day. It has been really easy to sleep in until 10AM the last several days. The forward cabin has small windows angled down toward the water. That combined with overcast skies makes the cabin dark and sleeping late seems to just happen.
The weather channel suggests Thursday will be good weather for our crossing from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs. Carl's GPs shows it to be about 170 miles.
We are now on a first name basis with the guy that runs the fish store. We had more of that excellent grouper for lunch and shrimp for supper last night. This morning while Carol was cooking breakfast we were entertained by a porpoise show only about 30' from the boat. After breakfast we planned to motor over to the fuel dock and top up the tanks in preparation for an early start tomorrow. However, the neighboring boat was in the process of doing the same when he got one engine stuck in reverse and crashed into another boat two over from us. Instead of shutting down until the problem was corrected, he dropped an anchor and continued to work the throttles and attempt to shift out of reverse. We kept a wary eye on him.

Thursday, 3-22 woke to sunshine and clear skies! Sea buoy reports 13 knot wind and 8' waves. The captain says we will stay in port one more day to wait for the seas to subside a bit. Time for more Blue Bell ice cream?

March 23 Why is this man smiling? It's good weather and a go for crossing the Gulf!

Cruising along well out of sight of land.

Of course all that cruising can make one a bit sleepy!

Even though we were out of sight of land for hours, the GPs navigation system worked perfectly. Carl set the position of the entrance buoy to the Tarpon Springs channel and went below to take a nap. The radar picked up the coast line before I could see it by eye. Eventually the coast showed up and finally the entrance buoy appeared right in front of me.

As we were coming in the Tarpon channel, Carol started house shopping again.

Finally we were at the dock in Tarpon Springs and the cruising part of our visit was over.

We unloaded a spare set of propellers.

Carl's slip is on the far side of the Anclote River from town, just off the main channel in an area with two small marinas and a small shipyard with several big shrimp boats in various states of repair.
We walked along the river then crossed a bridge and walked into town about a mile or more. Town was full of tourists browsing in the sponge shops, T-shirt shops, Greek restaurants, etc. We heard the barker trying to tempt tourists onto a boat with a driver to go out and watch him retrieve sponges that had been planted previously. We decided to pass on that, then Joe and Reta arrived and we went to one of their favorite restaurants for a lunch of huge Gyro sandwiches.

As long as we had the dingy in the water, we decided to take if for a spin. (Notice the weird horizon?)

A last meal on the Josephine and we moved off the boat into Joe & Reta's cottage at Keystone Lake.

An added bonus to visiting Joe and Reta was also seeing Lee and Marie while they were in Florida. We had a great trip and a great visit with everyone then it was time to leave.

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