Clearwater, Florida

Picture of us heading for Clearwater, taken by Eddie on Dream Fever

Sun is up and we are heading into Clearwater pass

We are safely docked at the Municipal dock in Clearwater, Florida. We left Carrabelle at just after 11 yesterday morning for our trip of 191 statute miles; the trip took 21 hours, 50 minutes. As we pulled out of Carrabelle, the weather was beautiful, sunny and fairly warm. We had met with Buddy, the gentleman at the marina who gives advice on weather ad crossing the Gulf, and he advised us to leave early, travel as fast as possible down toward Clearwater, then slow down as we arrived so as to arrive after daylight. Another cold front was coming into Carrabelle, and we wanted to be out of the area well before it arrived. We travelled in a convoy with 4 other boats, Dream Fever, The Old Grouch, Kim Joe III, and Navigator. About 2 hours after we left port, our auto pilot started leaking hydrolic fluid. Wayne turned it off and looked at it, apparently a seal let go, so we had no auto pilot for the trip.

The Gulf was smooth, no wind. At about 4 pm, we all heard a loud bang, perhaps a sonic boom?? Everyone jumped, we each assumed it was an issue with our own boats, but then realized that we had all heard it. As we travelled, several schools of dolphins (do dolphins travel in schools?) went through our convoy and played around the boats. Sunset over the water was beautiful.




Dream Fever and Kim Joe III at sunset.

Eddie serenading us from their boat with his guitar

Movie night in the park; they are setting up a blow-up screen.

During the night, we needed to slow up to make sure that we did not arrive in Clearwater too early (the entrance to the pass is full of crab pots and we needed to be able to see them).The waves were a little higher at that point, so a little less comfortable for travel. As we neared Clearwater pass, there were indeed crab pots. They were everywhere. It took both Wayne and I watching to avoid them over about 4-5 miles. We were glad to arrive at the marina and get tied up, Wayne sprayed off the boat, then we both went to bed for a couple of hours. Went for a walk this afternoon, nice town, beautiful beaches with white sand. Went out for dinner with Nancy and Eddie, it will be an early night.