THE CROSSING

Apalachicola to Clearwater Beach. The Stats:

Dock to Dock Travel time: 23:59

Distance Traveled: 203.9 miles

Average Speed: 8.5 mph

Maximum Speed: 9.8 mph

Looking for a good weather window for the crossing is essential. Who wants to spend 23 hrs being battered by the wind/waves. The captain of Last Chance had heard from the recommended source in Carrabelle that Sunday was a good weather window to cross. We had planned to stay another day in Apalachicola, but decided to join the two other boats on Sunday for the crossing. I’m not sure how to describe my feelings about the crossing so I won’t try to explain….I’m sure you get the gist =).

Normally the crossing is done from Carrabelle, but we left from Apalachicola which added 2.5 hrs to our trip. We left at 11:30 AM on Sunday. The day was sunny and the bay a bit choppy. It was a bit surreal as we motored thru the East Pass, at 2:45pm, into the Gulf of Mexico. Oh baby….here we go. Waves were predicted at 1 foot average, but were closer to 2-4 footers. Luckily the waves were on our bow head on. It was a long 11 hours of pounding, but after the midnight hour the waves flattened out. There was a point in the night that I said to Tim “what if I wanted to fly home after we arrive in Clearwater”.

The night hours in the Gulf were interesting. Not much to see except the buddy boats. We were traveling three abreast, so we tried to maintain the same distance/speed as the lead boat. We pounded thru the waves for what seemed like forever. Tim assured me the boat could handle the beating, I wasn’t sure. I tried to nap before my turn at the helm, but my mind was thinking about how my parents traveled on a ship during the war, hoping that it wouldn’t get torpedoed. Or how it felt to be a servicemen wondering if their ship might be the enemies next target. And here I am just feeling uncomfortable on our boat. I relieved Tim at the helm about 10pm. I felt very overwhelmed at first, but settled down to my responsibilities and let Tim get some well-deserved sleep. The moon peaked out from the clouds so it wasn’t completely dark. Tim took over 4 hours later and when I woke up from my nap the Gulf had smoothed out. What a nice change.

What a wonderful sight to see the sun coming up. We still had a ways to go, but we welcomed the daylight. Our next challenge was navigating the crab pots as we turned toward Clearwater. It important that the sun is overhead, not in your eyes, so you can see and avoid running over the crab pots. We traversed the crab pot mine field and arrived in Clearwater very tired but safe. We are back on the ICW.