Day #133: Moderate rain all night along. Rain continued today as well. The winds are suppose to pick up and temperatures are going to fall into the 50's by 5 P.M. The morning started out with "Eddy's Weather Wag" informing us that the Saturday night/Sunday morning window crossing is occurring. Eddy Johnsen (and his wife Linda) are gold loopers. Beginning in October, Eddy starts publishing a daily email that is a report from looking at multiple weather sites doing an interpretation of those sites about the possibility of being able to cross the Gulf of Mexico. You may ask why we wouldn't just go up the panhandle? First of all we would need to travel up canals to get to marinas, if there are any, then exit those canals to get back into the intercoastal and repeat at the next canal. There are numerous fisherman and crab pots that would need to be dodged. We would need to still have the weather in our favor but for more numerous days and we are barely able to just get one weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico.
This year is particularly hard in the panhandle after Hurricane Michael so we are going to move as quickly through getting to the west coast of Florida. There haven't been very many weather opportunities to cross the Gulf so there will be numerous loopers heading out on Saturday afternoon.
This was Eddy's Weather Wag for November 12, 2018:
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Ahoy Fellow Loopers!
O.K. This happens every season when anxious Loopers get near Carrabelle and start seeing what they want to see on the forecast sites! I know some of you are eyeing what appears to be a break in Tuesday night’s weather that would allow an overnight crossing. All I will say, based on personal experience that got our butts kicked on our first crossing, is that “The crew of Spiritus does not do doable”.
Patience, Grasshopper! Wait for a safer, more promising weather-window coming as early as Saturday (17th).
Brain Clutter: “Combat emplacement evacuator” was once Pentagon double-talk for . . . .
a shovel.
Be well, keep safe, and enjoy the journey!
Eddy Johnsen
aboard Spiritus, Grand Banks 36 Classic
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The note below came the next day and is what got us all working on calling marinas yesterday setting us up for a crossing.
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This was Eddy's Weather Wag for November 13, 2018:
Ahoy Fellow Loopers!
If you’re still west of Pensacola you may want to consider pulling up anchor today and making your way further east across the Panhandle. It looks like Mother Nature is going to give us a weather-window this weekend!
Need to do an overnight crossing? This morning’s forecasts seem very promising for a weather-window to open for a Saturday-night / Sunday crossing. King Neptune may calm things down long enough to allow a Sunday-night / Monday crossing as well, but we’ll have to wait another day or two to see if that materializes.
Brain Clutter: In 1874, Levi Strauss marketed blue jeans with copper rivets . . . . Price: $13.50 for a dozen pairs.
Be well, keep safe, and enjoy the journey!
Eddy Johnsen
aboard Spiritus, Grand Banks 36 Classic
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At noon Ken, Karen, Wayne ("Island Girl"), Ray and Caryl ("Hooligan Again"), Bruce and Bev ("Bay Tripper") and Mike and I ("Parrot Bay") all met at LuLu's Restaurant for lunch. We had lunch, planning meeting and great time talking about the loop. "Island Girl", "Bay Tripper" and "Parrot Bay" are going to be traveling together starting tomorrow until we cross the Gulf.
This is the plan that we have set up for now:
Wednesday, November 14th: Fort Walton Beach Yacht Basin (they don't take reservations it is first come first serve but they thought that they could help us out for one night).
Thursday, November 15th: Lighthouse Marina in Panama City, FL (we have reservations)
Friday, November 16th: Scipio Creek in Apalachicola, FL (they are full at this time but I need to call back in the morning-we are anticipating that loopers will be leaving heading to Carrabelle, FL)
Saturday, November 17th: We will leave Apalachicola, FL at about 1:00 P.M. heading toward Dog Island (this is where all of the other loopers will be heading) We will leave Dog Island around 3:00 P.M. Most loopers will go to Tarpon Springs, FL we are going to head to Clearwater, FL which we are hearing is much easier to get into than Tarpon Springs (but it is about 20 miles further). We will be on the water for approximately 21 hours and 46 minutes.
Sunday, November 18th & Monday November 19th: Clearwater Municipal Marina to sleep! Time to decide what we are going to do for Thanksgiving on Thursday 🦃
We met with Bruce and Bev at 4:00 P.M. to solidify our plans for tomorrow.
Mike and I back on our boat at 5:13 P.M. for paperwork and blogging. Early to bed to get ready for a very busy week.
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At noon Ken, Karen, Wayne ("Island Girl"), Ray and Caryl ("Hooligan Again"), Bruce and Bev ("Bay Tripper") and Mike and I ("Parrot Bay") all met at LuLu's Restaurant for lunch. We had lunch, planning meeting and great time talking about the loop. "Island Girl", "Bay Tripper" and "Parrot Bay" are going to be traveling together starting tomorrow until we cross the Gulf.
This is the plan that we have set up for now:
Wednesday, November 14th: Fort Walton Beach Yacht Basin (they don't take reservations it is first come first serve but they thought that they could help us out for one night).
Thursday, November 15th: Lighthouse Marina in Panama City, FL (we have reservations)
Friday, November 16th: Scipio Creek in Apalachicola, FL (they are full at this time but I need to call back in the morning-we are anticipating that loopers will be leaving heading to Carrabelle, FL)
Saturday, November 17th: We will leave Apalachicola, FL at about 1:00 P.M. heading toward Dog Island (this is where all of the other loopers will be heading) We will leave Dog Island around 3:00 P.M. Most loopers will go to Tarpon Springs, FL we are going to head to Clearwater, FL which we are hearing is much easier to get into than Tarpon Springs (but it is about 20 miles further). We will be on the water for approximately 21 hours and 46 minutes.
Sunday, November 18th & Monday November 19th: Clearwater Municipal Marina to sleep! Time to decide what we are going to do for Thanksgiving on Thursday 🦃
We met with Bruce and Bev at 4:00 P.M. to solidify our plans for tomorrow.
Mike and I back on our boat at 5:13 P.M. for paperwork and blogging. Early to bed to get ready for a very busy week.
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| Mike, Patty, Caryl, Ray, Bev Bruce, Wayne, Karen and Ken at LuLu's Restaurant. We had a great lunch and planning meeting. |
