Gulfport, Miss

It's a 65 mile trip from New Orleans Municipal to the Bert Jones Marina in Gulfport. As we arrived at the first of two drawbridges we heard the bridge tender say, "Railroad bridge is broke."  That's all she said.
The railroad bridge is the second of the two bridges and it was still 45 minutes away.

What if it didn't get fixed? It's a long way back to New Orleans, and the alternate route through the Industrial Canal, and then East in the ICW. As we continued East, I studied the charts and Louisiana Cruising Guide and found that we could go up the Pearl River, and then down one of its branches into Mississippi Sound. That was only a short detour. Alas, that was not required, because the bridge got fixed just as we arrived.

The rest of the trip to Gulfport was uneventful except for the greeting we received from the porpoises as we entered the Sound.  We called ahead and found the fuel $.98 a gal. That was better than we saw on the docks at Municipal so we bought 200 gal.  Next morning the pastries and the newspaper were sitting  right by the door.  That is such a nice touch by the Harbormaster, D.J.

Dauphin Island, Alabama

Marion and I both got hooked on the Martina Hingis' Stalker trial. It was live all day on the Satellite TV.
I have found that the Autopilot holds a course so well, that one can manually set the TV dish at each way point turn, and have uninterrupted reception till the next turn. This is usually several hours on long straight stretches like Mississippi Sound.

By evening the trial recessed, and we approached the anchorage behind the long sand dune at Dauphin Island Harbor. As I set anchor a fisherman came by and warned us of shallow water within the scope of our anchor. He recommended that we move to the main harbor by the ferry landing.

Although it was a bit of a fire drill getting set, we finally got permission from the ferry captain to tie off on the outside of the ferry bollards. "You are no problem on the outside," he said, "I have only one more run an hour from now, and you will have a peaceful night." He starts service again at eight AM, and we would be gone by then.

It worked out well. Tied off we could watch our favorite TV shows on Satellite TV.

Pensacola, Florida

There was 1/4 mile visibility in fog as we started across Mobile Bay the next morning... The RADAR was working as long as you turned it on only when needed, then off after about 5 minutes of looking. We only needed the RADAR for the first hour. Then the fog lifted for a beautiful day of travel.

We stayed at Palofox Pier for only one night. At $1.25 a foot it was our first taste of high living. On our way into Pensacola the saddle bearing on the port drive shaft got hot, so that gave me something to worry about. Next morning I borrowed a grease gun, but was not very successful in getting grease into the bearing. I decided to call ahead and find a qualified mechanic to check it out. That is how we ended up staying at Ft Walton Beach.

Ft Walton Beach, Florida

Norm Hays, the mechanic we found,  recommended we stop at The Boat Marina. He met us as we came in and went right to work on the shaft bearing. It took grease successfully. He noted that the engine wobbled a bit at idle. "Shouldn't be doing that," he said, "let me check the mounts and the engine alignment."

The alignment was within specs, but he found that the nuts had worked loose on three of the four mountings. He also inspected the turbines on both engines and pronounced them ready to go.

We stayed two days. Marion had injured her toe back at Avery Island and it was still hurting. We looked for a doctor and waited for over two hours to see him. Then Marion decided that was too much waiting, so we just left.

We enjoyed riding our bikes over the Brooks Bridge to the island. That's where I discovered that my rear tire had a rip in the side wall and was in danger of failing. Bike repair became an important item. On the way back we shopped for provisions, Easter Cards, lock tite for my chronic left bike pedal, and a replacement rear tire.

We celebrated Marion's Birthday at the Summerhouse Restaurant that evening. It is in an historic old home, the Beal mansion. It is  right on the ICW and has a great view. We shared the smoked salmon appetizer served with capers, chopped onion and a delicate cream sauce on crispy panni. Also the Grouper fillet served with a portobello mushroom and shrimp topping was outstanding for its' delicate and unusual seasonings. The Summerhouse was recommended by dock neighbors, Nick and Pat Malambri, of M/V Dolce Vita.  We also recommend it highly. Rating ****$$$$.

Panama City, Florida

Next morning, Saturday, we headed out for Bay Pointe Marina. At Nick Matambri's recommendation we went off shore and saved about 15 miles of travel. It was a pleasant passage.

We were hoping to pick up our forwarded mail, stay a night and head on.  Instead, the mail had not come and it could not possibly be delivered until Monday. We borrowed the courtesy car and went to the nearest Kmart where I got my much needed bike tire. With time on my hands I fixed the tire, and finished off on the overdue cruise reports. We finished off the day visiting Bob and wife on Legend III, they are from Texas and were planning to leave in two days for a crossing to Cedar Keys.

Monday came... still no mail... Oh, well, we ARE on Vacation. We took the dinghy down and went to lunch at Hook's Restaurant. Tuesday the mail came and we headed out at 1100.

Apilachicola, Florida

"Coast Guard Cutter 55117," I announced, "This is Remedy on your stern. I would like to see you on the one."

"One understood, Captain" the cutter replied. The cutter was reinstalling Nun 18 (that's a floating red buoy) which marks the edge of the ICW in Wettappo Creek.  "Be sure you place that marker correctly," I chided, "I will be reporting to Capt. Rich Cusson."

"Yes, sir," he came back, "right at the New Coordinates. Have a good trip, and thanks for the slow bell pass."

Wettappo Creek is in an area where the pine forests meet the cypress swampland. The marsh island shown above has a stand of pine trees. We were escorted for several miles by porpoises that played alongside our boat. I took over a dozen pictures of them leaping out of the water. Sometimes two would leap together. Alas my fancy camera seems to have a slight delay and all I got was a picture of the splash after they entered the water.

We stayed at the new Scipio Creek Marina. It's out of the currents on the Appilachicola River and  about a half a mile from town. We used our bikes to get into town for dinner at Boss Oyster. The oysters were good, but not as good as at Gillhooley's in San Leon TX. The fancy ones with the crab meat and cheese topping command $14 a doz. A bit pricey. Rating ***$$$.

Before we took off for Carrabelle we lingered in port, fueled up and met Jerry Barton and Nancy Carter on M/Y Gryphon. It is a Nordic Tug, 32 footer. We took the tour of Gryphon. We were favorably impressed with all aspects of the boat.  She is very well equipped: Single 250 HP diesel, Bow thruster, Genset, two AC units, Refrigerator and Freezer, three burner range, Convection/microwave oven, and a full suite of electronics. The boat looks like a tug but will go 20 knots on plane. At 32 feet there is only a single stateroom. We would not choose it as a live aboard, but it is great as a short getaway cruiser.

Indian Rocks Beach, Florida

We were not in much of a hurry as we pulled out.  Carrabelle is only 24 miles.  We listened to the weather and it sounded like we were enjoying a good window for crossing to Clearwater.  The weather was forecast to worsen after 24 hours.
 
 

"If we go according to plan," I told Marion, "we will spend tonight at anchor at Carrabelle and go the 90 miles to Cedar Keys during the day.  Then the following day we would have an 80 mile run down to Clearwater." "But the second day the weather is supposed to be bad," she said. "Right, that's the risk with our current plan," I said, "We could be stuck several days at Cedar Keys." "Can we cross all the way to Clearwater tonight?"

"Maybe," I suggested, "Let's pull in to the anchorage, eat lunch, rest a bit and I will plot a route for Clearwater. We don't want to head out now, because we will arrive in the crab trap waters before daylight."

Marion remembered our last trip into Clearwater. We had snagged a trap, and I had to dive to cut it loose. "No cruising in the crab traps after dark," she agreed.

We anchored, ate and rested. The route was 150 miles and would take about 17 hours. "Will there be a moon lit night?" asked Marion.

I went below and found the calendar.  Full moon was three days earlier. "I think we will get a moonrise about three hours after sunset," I was guessing.

We talked it over for a half an hour and decided to leave at around 5 PM. We would get into Clearwater around 10 AM the following morning.

The weather was fine and the seas were 2 to 3 footers right on the nose. It was not a rough ride but an uncomfortable one. It got very dark when the sun set. There was a slight overcast and most of the stars were hidden. It was nerve wracking, staring into the darkness and seeing nothing. It was around 11pm when the moon finally peeped over the horizon. We were about a third of the way and already we were both tired.

I had no trouble napping and did about three for four hours during the night. Marion could not sleep but did lay down with the cats below and rested a little.

About 5AM there was a ruckus below... "MEEEROWWW... CHEEROW... MEROWW," screamed  Beauregard as he came charging up the steps. He was saying, "Let me off this damn boat."

"Beau... Beau... " called out Marion as she rushed to capture him. "Here Beau, come on Big Boy."

Beauregard was headed for the fly bridge as she caught him. He was panting and very frightened.

"I really think he was ready to jump ship on us," she said after getting him calmed down. "You know, they have been riding in your closet ever since we left this morning. It's hard on them too."

The rest of the night passed very, very, slowly.  At sunrise we could see Clearwater in the distance. Around 9AM I called Holiday Inn Harborside Marina. We had stayed there over a year before.

Dave Kimmel, the Harbormaster, answered the call. "Let me see what I can do. I will call back in about a half an hour."

We were hours out so we could wait. He called, as he promised, and asked when we would arrive.

"It will be around 11 AM." I replied. That's when it dawned on me that we left Appilachicola at 11AM the day before. Our total trip time of 24 hours had been broken by two hours at the anchorage.

As we came in we were greeted by Grace and Robert Hammers, M/Y Hammerstime II.  They took our lines as we pulled into the slip right next to theirs.  They are long time residents at the marina and we had met them on our last visit. We felt immediately welcomed and at home.  After a Cheeseburger in Paradise we both crashed for four hours of much needed sleep.