Pensacola to Panama City

November 10, 2013

Dinner last night was great.  Trick is a really good chef!

I looked at the weather forecast last night and things have changed!  We may get a crossing in Monday evening!  I had not checked the last few days because what had been predicted was not good but now there is a reasonable window to get the crossing done.  More on that later if everything comes together.

Kerm and Chris follow us out of Sabrine Marina in Pensacola. 

Up at 4:30, motors started at 5:30, underway at 5:45, under the bridge and in the channel at 6AM, 15 minutes before sunrise…..Right On Time!

 

We are heading for Panama City tonight……100 miles….doable if we do not have to slow down much for slow wake areas.  The first 60 miles we can run 9 knots almost constantly….not sure about the last 40 so we will see how it goes.  We need to get to Panama City if we are going to be in position to cross the Gulf tomorrow so we are running faster than Kerm and Chris.  I would really love it if we can hook up with them for the crossing but the Southern Belle is not as fast as Aye Sea No Snow so we may head out without them. 

I have no idea what this is??  

This bridge had a bad day.

No one is doing this in Minnesota today!

Nice boat

Nice house

hungry bird

Trick multitasks

Several dolphins made a visit this morning crossing Pensacola Bay.  We had a bunch of them later on in the afternoon and I took a ton of pictures (250 or so). 

There is a canal section call “The Grand Canyon”.  Kinda boring…..

Florida's idea of Grand Canyon

I waked these two pretty bad.....I did not see them until I was alongside.

He does not look too made at me!!!

but then things picked up when we got to Panama City Bay.

Fueled up at the City Marina….80 gal for 180 miles….very happy about that….XP3 is continuing to prove it’s superiority. 

Since we hope to cross the Gulf tomorrow, I aired up the dingy so we have something other than Aye Sea No Snow that will float.  The weather window is narrow but sufficient.  Some other cruisers are opting to wait for a bigger window but if things hold as they are right now, we are going for it. 

Here fishy fishy!

We will leave Panama City early Monday morning and head to Carrabelle.  Once we get there, we will see if we can find a buddy boat to cross with.  If not, we will just head for Tarpon Springs and not even stop in Carrabelle.  It is 142 nautical miles from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs and we will be 80 miles off shore at the furthest.  It will take us 14 to 16 hours once we leave Carrabelle.  VHS radio has a range of 25 miles max and there is no cell phone coverage so we will be on our own.

I have a spot locator that will transmit our location every 15 minutes.  If something goes wrong I will have Melissa call the coast guard and give them my spot link and they can find us in very little time.  Aye Sea No Snow has been running flawlessly so I do not expect any problems.

When Trick and I crossed the Gulf in April of 2012 we had a buddy boat with us but I really do not feel the need to have someone along.  If the weather turns ugly we can always speed up and cross faster but that burns a lot of fuel.

We will adjust our speed to arrive at the channel near Tarpon Springs around 6:30 AM so we have plenty of light coming in.  Then we will head for a marina and get some sleep.

 

The only thing we needed to do to prepare for the crossing is get the dingy ready and fuel up so we are ready to go.  I checked on Kerm and Chris' location and they are 15 miles behind us.  They might be able to get in position to cross with us but Kerm did say they were in no hurry so I will wait and contact them in the morning so see what their plans are.  I sure would like to cross with them.  Stay tuned………………….