Gulf Crossing

Intracoastal Waterway shown in red

Since leaving Baytown, TX on September 22, 2015 we have been traveling east on the Intracoastal Coastal Waterway along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  We reached Apalachicola, FL November 7, 2015 -- the end of the line, so to speak.  Along the way we have visited some great places: Port Arthur, TX; Lake Charles, LA; Houma, LA; Gulf Port, MS; Dauphin Island, AL; Ft Walton Beach, FL; Apalachicola, FL. Plus, we have met many fantastic people and made many great new friends like Archie & Nikki (Lake Charles), Sarah (Houma), Ray (Gulf Port), Margaret (Fort Walton Beach), Svend & Sharon (White City) and Pam (Apalachicola).

We really enjoyed visiting Apalachicola.  While there we went to the Seafood Festival where we had plenty of shrimp, oysters, and crabs.  The music was pretty good, too. We were fortunate to meet Pam who was kind enough to take us to Church and to give us a tour of some of the local sights including St George Island and Carabelle.

The Gulf of Mexico crossing

But, now it was decision time -- we could either "port hop" around Florida's "Big Bend", which would add an extra 140 miles and another week to our trip (we would not be traveling at night), or we could cut straight across the Gulf of Mexico: a 30 hour, overnight, offshore trip.  We decided to cut straight across to Tarpon Springs. Since going offshore would require us to be as much as 70 miles from the nearest land, we wanted a near perfect weather window for the trip.  This window arrived on November 11th according to the weather forecasters.  As we left Apalachicola we wondered if we had made the right decision to leave. We pulled up the anchor early, before sunrise.  There was no moon out.  It was overcast and foggy.  And, as we traveled down the channel we discovered the buoys were not lit.  At first it was very disorienting, but soon the fog lifted and we were able to spot the buoys using a flashlight. The sky lightened just before we reached the jetties at Government Cut and "Little Lara" was making a record 8.4 knots (9.7 mph) as we rode the outgoing tide.  Once in the Gulf of Mexico the sun came up and the skies continued to clear. It turned into a beautiful day as you can see from the video clip at the top of the blog.

 (Hint: you may not be able to play the two clips on this blog on your phone, but they can be seen on your computer.  Also click on any picture to enlarge it.)

Gulf of Mexico sunset

20" Little Tuna

Along the way we enjoyed the warm weather, caught a little tuna for dinner, saw a beautiful sunset, and marveled at the expansive night skies.  Out in the Gulf the day the water is so clear it takes on a spectacular iridescent blue color.At night the stars are so bright you feel you can reach up and touch them. Even the dolphins came to played in "Little Lara's" bow wave (see the video clip below).   It is days like these that we feel privileged and blessed to be out cruising. We wish you were here with us.