Mike and Patty's Great Loop Adventure 2018-2019

The Moorings in Carrabelle, Florida to Gulf Crossing across the Gulf of Mexico

Day #137: Up at 6:30 A.M. for coffee. Eddy's Weather Wag for today:

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Ahoy Fellow Loopers!

Go-Fast Loopers will be rewarded for one more day of patience if you’ll wait until Sunday to do your daylight-only crossing. The northern part of the route still needs a little more time to settle down this morning.

Tonight’s weather-window does fit my self-induced criteria for “good” crossing weather. The waves should be less than two feet and winds less than 13 knots for the entire trip.
However, if Spiritus were at Carrabelle, I’m pretty certain my First Mate would opt to wait for the Sunday-night / Monday weather window. It is certain to provide even "kinder" sea conditions than tonight’s will.

For those who are still making your way across the Panhandle west of Carrabelle, this weather-window will likely stay open long enough to allow crossings through Tuesday.

Brain Clutter: Ever hear of a train called, The 20^th Century Limited, that ran from New York to Chicago in the early 1900’s? The phrase “red-carpet treatment” comes from the practice of this luxury train of rolling out a crimson carpet to welcome boarding passengers.

Be well, keep safe, and enjoy the journey!

Eddy Johnsen

aboard Spiritus, Grand Banks 36 Classic
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Mike and I both looked at the weather forecasts and decided that today would be the day as the winds were the same tomorrow. At 8:00 A.M. we had free continental breakfast at the marina with Bruce and Bev. Back aboard Bruce helped Mike prepare the dinghy. We got the boat ready for any wave action that might occur. I made phone calls to marinas for the next week including an e-mail to Terry at Aquamarine Palm Island letting him know that we could be there as early as next Friday. We talked to Mom and Dad Burdo via FaceTime. We did our last minute preparations. We started the engines at 2:50 P.M. We were away from the dock at 2:55 P.M. with "Island Girl" and "Bay Tripper". As we pasted Dog Island we saw a few crab pots. At 3:45 P.M. we were past Dog Island into the Gulf of Mexico We could see at least eight other boats making the same crossing on the outbound horizons. The had dolphins surfing in our wake. We past "R-2" buoy at 4:00 P.M. We listened to the Michigan football game on X-M. At 5:10 P.M. Mike pulled the boat into neutral as he thought that he saw a deadhead floating in the water but it was a huge sea turtle. At 5:20 P.M. we had dolphins jumping out of the water. Mike and I had snacks during the football game but that ended up being all that we had to eat as the waves were 1-2 feet. We had a beautiful sunset. Michigan beat Indiana 31-20. As the sun set the winds picked up to 10-15 miles per hour and the waves increased to 2-4 foot hitting us on the port beam. Although we had stowed most items we still had drawers that came out and items ended up on the floor. We tried to drive the boat from the lower helm but the boat was rocking so much and there wasn't enough air in the cabin that we went back up to the flying bridge. I couldn't lay down as I would get seasick so I spent my time sitting in my chair or at the helm when Mike laid down to take short naps. When you were at the helm you needed to brace yourself and hold on as you would fall when the waves would hit the side of the boat. Bruce and Bev slowed down as they had items flying around in their cabin. The total trip is 20 hours so we had 20 hours from Carrabelle to Clearwater Florida.