Date: January 22, 2014
Day on the Cruise: 215
From: The Moorings Marina, Carrabelle, FL
To: The Moorings Marina, Carrabelle, FL
Statute Miles: 0.0 SM
Time: 0.0 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 5,374.6 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Tonight we are still at the Moorings Marina on the River in Carrabelle, FL.
The Planned crossing to Tarpon Springs with a departure this afternoon was scrubbed at 4:00 PM due to weather uncertainty down range tonight and in the wee hours of the morning. More to follow.......Break.
New Plan is to leave early tomorrow and get to Steinhatchee, FL tomorrow before dark. More to follow......Break.
Update on January 24:
Catching up on the "Plan B" decision that we made as a group on Wednesday evening.
There were about nine boats at the Moorings in Carrabelle that wanted to get across to Tarpon Springs. Three had been there for weeks waiting to cross. Five of us had come in yesterday. One came in today.
All indications were on Monday and Tuesday that the weather (wind and wave height) would be acceptable for an overnight crossing starting Wednesday afternoon and ending in Tarpon Springs around noon on Thursday. We were looking for winds between 10 and 15 MPH and wave height of 2' or less. This looked doable on Tuesday. I thought that a route that took us East about 40 miles then Southeast to Tarpon Springs looked the calmest. We all agreed to meet for breakfast at 8:30 on Wednesday to verify our plans to leave Wednesday afternoon.
Overnight on Tuesday, the weather degraded some. We met with Buddy the dock master at The Moorings for breakfast, who is an "Old Salt" and knows the weather and the Gulf. I still liked the Easterly route as being calm, but there were as many opinions as we had people in the room. Buddy thought that the Eastern route was doable for Wednesday night, but he was not sure that the winds would die down enough to make the trip, even though the data showed that they would. Tom Conrad, the Looper who does weather musings for the Gulf Crossing, had concerns about a cell of high winds and waves that would "Pop Up" on the route during the wee hours of the morning. I could see this disturbance being shown on the PassageWeather Model, but I thought we would be below the weather by then.
One of the Loopers had hired a Captain from Carrabelle to pilot the boat and its owners across the Gulf. The Captain was at the morning meeting and did not think that the weather was right based upon information from NOAA. We all agreed to meet again at Noon, with no decision on crossing having been made.
Rick from Sun Gypsy emailed Tom Conrad after the breakfast meeting, and Tom was basically hesitant to say that the crossing should be made unless wave heights at a certain sea buoy in the Gulf dropped to 3' by Noon. They were dropping through the morning and afternoon, but by late afternoon, seas were still running almost 5' at the buoy.
Our Noon meeting was held and Buddy could not verify that the winds in the Gulf had dropped sufficiently to start a late afternoon crossing. The Captain also attended, and he still stood on the NOAA forecasts which showed 4-5 foot seas along the route. This was a forecast that none of the other models showed. After the Noon Meeting, still no decision had been reached on doing the crossing. So, we scheduled another meeting for 4:00 PM to make a go-no go decision.
It quickly became apparent that we were dealing with information from a variety of sources. The data that I was reviewing did not support the doomsday scenario that was being put forth by NOAA, the Captain, and others. The Easterly Route then South Easterly looked good on two of the weather models that I was depending on. Everyone had an opinion, and the lack of a consensus was frustrating. Still, the primary mantra of anyone cruising in a boat is "Be Patient"! Do not force the issue, there is no dire need to be somewhere!
Meanwhile, the weather in Carrabelle on Wednesday afternoon was great. A little cool, but almost no wind. Did this not translate to the Gulf? On Wednesday afternoon, Rick on Sun Gypsy looked at weather to go to Steinhatchee on Thursday. A Plan B, which would require a total trip length of about 84 miles that could be done in daylight. No overnight! This became very appealing.
At 4:00, the eight captains met. The professional captain did not join us. He had thrown in the towel and would not agree to take his client's boat to Tarpon tonight. Word had also come back that two local captains advised against going tonight. So, that made our minds up. No Gulf Crossing tonight! But, did we want to go with Plan B?
Plan B was very viable for tomorrow. Waves were forecast to be 1-1/2' to 3' starting out, but would subside to flat about 2/3's of the way across the 70 miles of open water. Winds would start out from the NE and get to 15-20 MPH, but were also showing to subside. Not ideal, but doable for all of our boats. We could leave at first light and run down the Sound, through the pass, into the Gulf and be over to Steinhatchee before dark.
More discussion at Docktails at 5:30. We had five boats of the nine boats at the Moorings that wanted to go. Leila from Sun Gypsy contacted Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee and they confirmed that they could accommodate five boats.
The Steinhatchee option is sometimes called the "Big Bend" Route. This requires a shorter crossing of the Gulf than does the Tarpon Springs or "Direct Route", but then requires a run down the West Coast of Florida to Tarpon Springs or Clearwater. Once at Tarpon Springs, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway picks up again and there is protected cruising water available.
So why does everyone not take the "Big Bend Route? Several reasons, really. The distance from Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs is maybe 150 miles counting getting into and out of the ports themselves, which are set back on rivers away from the Gulf. There are few places to overnight at a marina between the two towns. The water is very shallow along the coast, and is also shallow in the small towns available for stopping. In the wintertime, the Northeast winds blow some of the water out of the bays and rivers that are available for stopping, sometimes dropping the water level two feet. The short days in the winter require that you have the speed to get between stops in the daylight, and this is a very big limitation for some. You have to have the right boat, to do the Big Bend in the Winter.
Sea Hag is the big player in the fishing village of Steinhatchee. But, this is a marina primarily for fishing boats to fish the near Gulf and the bays and flats around the town. Not for cruising boats the size of ours. The limitations at Sea Hag are available dock side power and water depth at their slips.
So, going into Docktails, we had five boats for Steinhatchee. One of the nine was going to do a daylight crossing to Tarpon Springs on Thursday. Coming out of Docktails, we only had four for Steinhatchee. The boats that had been in Steinhatchee for weeks, plus one more, decided that they would not do Plan B, and they would just continue to wait for a weather window to go directly across.
Our departure for Steinhatchee was planned for 6:30 AM tomorrow. We would amp up our speed, burn some fuel, and cruise at 9-10 mph. This would put us over there by 5:00. Blue Moon, Sun Gypsy, Free at Last, and Perregrine would make the trip. Blue Moon would get a pump out when the marina opened at 7:00 AM and catch up with the others. Thank Goodness we were leaving Carrabelle! Two nights was two nights too many for me! Is this being patient?
So, that is the story behind our direct crossing scrub and our implementation of Plan B!
Thanks for Reading!
The Planned crossing to Tarpon Springs with a departure this afternoon was scrubbed at 4:00 PM due to weather uncertainty down range tonight and in the wee hours of the morning. More to follow.......Break.
New Plan is to leave early tomorrow and get to Steinhatchee, FL tomorrow before dark. More to follow......Break.
Update on January 24:
Catching up on the "Plan B" decision that we made as a group on Wednesday evening.
There were about nine boats at the Moorings in Carrabelle that wanted to get across to Tarpon Springs. Three had been there for weeks waiting to cross. Five of us had come in yesterday. One came in today.
All indications were on Monday and Tuesday that the weather (wind and wave height) would be acceptable for an overnight crossing starting Wednesday afternoon and ending in Tarpon Springs around noon on Thursday. We were looking for winds between 10 and 15 MPH and wave height of 2' or less. This looked doable on Tuesday. I thought that a route that took us East about 40 miles then Southeast to Tarpon Springs looked the calmest. We all agreed to meet for breakfast at 8:30 on Wednesday to verify our plans to leave Wednesday afternoon.
Overnight on Tuesday, the weather degraded some. We met with Buddy the dock master at The Moorings for breakfast, who is an "Old Salt" and knows the weather and the Gulf. I still liked the Easterly route as being calm, but there were as many opinions as we had people in the room. Buddy thought that the Eastern route was doable for Wednesday night, but he was not sure that the winds would die down enough to make the trip, even though the data showed that they would. Tom Conrad, the Looper who does weather musings for the Gulf Crossing, had concerns about a cell of high winds and waves that would "Pop Up" on the route during the wee hours of the morning. I could see this disturbance being shown on the PassageWeather Model, but I thought we would be below the weather by then.
One of the Loopers had hired a Captain from Carrabelle to pilot the boat and its owners across the Gulf. The Captain was at the morning meeting and did not think that the weather was right based upon information from NOAA. We all agreed to meet again at Noon, with no decision on crossing having been made.
Rick from Sun Gypsy emailed Tom Conrad after the breakfast meeting, and Tom was basically hesitant to say that the crossing should be made unless wave heights at a certain sea buoy in the Gulf dropped to 3' by Noon. They were dropping through the morning and afternoon, but by late afternoon, seas were still running almost 5' at the buoy.
Our Noon meeting was held and Buddy could not verify that the winds in the Gulf had dropped sufficiently to start a late afternoon crossing. The Captain also attended, and he still stood on the NOAA forecasts which showed 4-5 foot seas along the route. This was a forecast that none of the other models showed. After the Noon Meeting, still no decision had been reached on doing the crossing. So, we scheduled another meeting for 4:00 PM to make a go-no go decision.
It quickly became apparent that we were dealing with information from a variety of sources. The data that I was reviewing did not support the doomsday scenario that was being put forth by NOAA, the Captain, and others. The Easterly Route then South Easterly looked good on two of the weather models that I was depending on. Everyone had an opinion, and the lack of a consensus was frustrating. Still, the primary mantra of anyone cruising in a boat is "Be Patient"! Do not force the issue, there is no dire need to be somewhere!
Meanwhile, the weather in Carrabelle on Wednesday afternoon was great. A little cool, but almost no wind. Did this not translate to the Gulf? On Wednesday afternoon, Rick on Sun Gypsy looked at weather to go to Steinhatchee on Thursday. A Plan B, which would require a total trip length of about 84 miles that could be done in daylight. No overnight! This became very appealing.
At 4:00, the eight captains met. The professional captain did not join us. He had thrown in the towel and would not agree to take his client's boat to Tarpon tonight. Word had also come back that two local captains advised against going tonight. So, that made our minds up. No Gulf Crossing tonight! But, did we want to go with Plan B?
Plan B was very viable for tomorrow. Waves were forecast to be 1-1/2' to 3' starting out, but would subside to flat about 2/3's of the way across the 70 miles of open water. Winds would start out from the NE and get to 15-20 MPH, but were also showing to subside. Not ideal, but doable for all of our boats. We could leave at first light and run down the Sound, through the pass, into the Gulf and be over to Steinhatchee before dark.
More discussion at Docktails at 5:30. We had five boats of the nine boats at the Moorings that wanted to go. Leila from Sun Gypsy contacted Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee and they confirmed that they could accommodate five boats.
The Steinhatchee option is sometimes called the "Big Bend" Route. This requires a shorter crossing of the Gulf than does the Tarpon Springs or "Direct Route", but then requires a run down the West Coast of Florida to Tarpon Springs or Clearwater. Once at Tarpon Springs, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway picks up again and there is protected cruising water available.
So why does everyone not take the "Big Bend Route? Several reasons, really. The distance from Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs is maybe 150 miles counting getting into and out of the ports themselves, which are set back on rivers away from the Gulf. There are few places to overnight at a marina between the two towns. The water is very shallow along the coast, and is also shallow in the small towns available for stopping. In the wintertime, the Northeast winds blow some of the water out of the bays and rivers that are available for stopping, sometimes dropping the water level two feet. The short days in the winter require that you have the speed to get between stops in the daylight, and this is a very big limitation for some. You have to have the right boat, to do the Big Bend in the Winter.
Sea Hag is the big player in the fishing village of Steinhatchee. But, this is a marina primarily for fishing boats to fish the near Gulf and the bays and flats around the town. Not for cruising boats the size of ours. The limitations at Sea Hag are available dock side power and water depth at their slips.
So, going into Docktails, we had five boats for Steinhatchee. One of the nine was going to do a daylight crossing to Tarpon Springs on Thursday. Coming out of Docktails, we only had four for Steinhatchee. The boats that had been in Steinhatchee for weeks, plus one more, decided that they would not do Plan B, and they would just continue to wait for a weather window to go directly across.
Our departure for Steinhatchee was planned for 6:30 AM tomorrow. We would amp up our speed, burn some fuel, and cruise at 9-10 mph. This would put us over there by 5:00. Blue Moon, Sun Gypsy, Free at Last, and Perregrine would make the trip. Blue Moon would get a pump out when the marina opened at 7:00 AM and catch up with the others. Thank Goodness we were leaving Carrabelle! Two nights was two nights too many for me! Is this being patient?
So, that is the story behind our direct crossing scrub and our implementation of Plan B!
Thanks for Reading!
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