Today, we focused on preparing for the Gulf crossing. We chose the direct route to Clearwater.  It is 170 miles and 18 hours overnight. We leave at 5 pm and arrive at our destination in the morning with sunlight to avoid crab pots snagging our props. 

At lunch, Mike rode his bike to the bait shop in preparation of a chance to catch a fish while crossing.  On the way, he stopped to take a selfie of the world’s smallest police station (see picture below). 

Jen and Kelly took the wagon to the grocery store for new provisions. The store is just across the street but actually a 10 min hilly walk due to our boat slip location. It is very strange shopping with a wagon vs. a grocery cart. Funny, no one looked twice at us.At 5pm, we met up with fellow loopers to discuss the crossing. We divided into groups based on 1. Day crossing, 2. Evening crossing and 3. The “elbow” route which is hugging the shore and stopping in 3 towns (Steinhatche, Cedar Key and Tarpon Springs).  Jen brought name tags and Kelly brought a list of things to consider for safety and logistics. Our group agreed to meet at Dog Island at 5pm and use channel 68 for communication. We agreed to do an hourly check-in at the top of the hour.  In total, our night crossing group totaled 9 boats – Wishes, In Custody, Silver Linings, CJ’s, North Star, Tug Lee Loo, Patriot, Northern Lights and Great Escapes.

After the meeting, all the loopers coincidentally gathered at the only restaurant in walking distance – The Fisherman’s Wife. We sat with our new friends, In Custody and Silver Linings. Funny, we all grew up in Michigan. We had a great night bonding over Michigan hot spots like Alpine Valley Ski Resort, Kensington Park, Lipsticks, St. Andrews Hall and Charlevoix. We also bonded on Michigan food favorites such as Sanders Bumpy cake, Coney Island hot dogs and Vernors soda. It was great time visiting memory lane. Dinner was very good. Mike has been rating key lime pies since we’ve been in Florida.  The Fisherman’s Wife is now #2. Dewey Destins at Destin is still #1!

At midday, we were sad to say goodbye to Apalachicola but it was time to look ahead to Carrabelle. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and low winds. The journey was a winding ICW with few houses and a lot of trees. Jen did all of the driving. We had to go under a bridge and there was some tricky current and Jen did great adjusting the power distribution on the engines to over come the current and stay on course. She did a great job.

Just before sunset, we arrived at The Mooring of Carrabelle. It was a tricky boat slip. There was a lot of under-current pushing the boat making it difficult to dock. After several tries, we aimed our boat directly at the boat next to our slip and as we approached 6 feet away, the current pushed us towards our slip, and we turned in. Whew!! It was a little scary.

After we tied up, got our bumpers in place and hooked up to shore power, we met up with fellow loopers for a meet and greet. Carrabelle is a great place to meet loopers because everyone gathers here to wait for good weather to do the gulf crossing. We also took a group photo below.

Girls started the day doing some yoga and working out. While Mike washed the boat, it was a little salty.

We loved Apalachicola so much, we decided to stay an extra day. But the marina didn’t have any space so we moved our boat to the city dock wall. It was a nice 3 minute trip and had no issues docking.

We had brunch at The Owl. Kelly and Jen had Prime Rib Eggs Benedict, it was nice to have steak after eating a lot of seafood over the last few weeks. Mike had a chicken warp.

After lunch we went back to the boat and took Harley around town. He loves getting to go with Jen, he’s such a mamma’s boy. We took him to Oyster City Brewery. He loved all the attention and being with him mommy. Afterwards we walked around town some more and walked towards one of the other marinas. We met a group of loopers who were all planning on doing the crossing as well. We dropped Harley off at the boat and went to dinner with our new boat friends.

We went to dinner at The Franklin. The boats at dinner were, Silver Linings and In Custody. Kent and Katie, and their daughters Ruby and Violet on Silver Linings started their journey from Michigan. Steve and Terri on In Custody started their journey from Tennessee. We loved hearing their loop stories, and bonding with them as both families were from Michigan.

After dinner we parted ways with plans to meet in Carrabelle to further discus crossing together.

Started our morning by going to the Farmers Market. Harley being older and wiser, he got to go with. Unfortunately Bonnie and Teddy, are just not ready for some of our outings and get left back at the boat.

While walking around the Farmers Market, we bought Authentic Tupelo Honey from Buddy Nachtsheim. The honey was sweet, and perfect. Buddy, was very nice and shared stories about his time as a barge captain and all the adventures he has been on.

On our way back from the Farmers Market we met some fellow loopers, Mark and Mary on the boat M2W. They had their dog River with them, she was so very sweet and Harley loved getting to play with her as we chatted about our plans for the crossing.

We dropped Harley off at the boat, and walked towards town. Apalachicola is such a darling town, everything was in walking distance and the people were so friendly.

We walked around and went to some of the stores in town. Jen got a new sweater. Kelly got Michael a Christmas present. It was fun walking around town, the weather was perfect.

We went to Oyster City Brewery. Mike and Jen had a few beers. Mill Pond Dirty Blonde was Jen’s favorite so she got a sticker to add to her collection. Jen has been getting stickers from all the places we have gone. While having a beer we ran into Buddy again, we chatted with him for a while and swapped life stories. He wrote two books, and was kind enough to sign a copy of them for us. We plan to read them in route on our travels.

After that, we walked to The Tin Shed. It is a nautical antique shop. They had a lot of really cool items from old boats. Mike and Kelly picked out a lantern, and Jen got an old crab pot buoy.

Dinner tonight was at tiny place in town, Hole in the Wall… OMG YUM! Which the name is an extremely accurate description, it’s a hole in the wall place. That is the best oysters we have ever eaten by far! The shrimp was perfect, and so were the crab claws. We loved this place, and highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Apalachicola.