Scott here. We did it! We had apprehension, especially at the beginning when we came into the forecast 1′ chop. It seemed more like 2-3′ chop to us, but we checked the NOAA weather buoys and they said 1′. Still don’t believe it. But, we trusted our skills, the forecast from our weather expert team at https://www.mwxc.com/, and most importantly we trusted God to keep us safe.

Rita will share the fun, stress, and pure exhilaration we felt during the crossing. Dolphins, jelly fish, stingrays, and turtles, oh my!

Here is a huge mistake I made. I made a reservation at Clearwater Beach Marina. All my research was for Clearwater Beach Municipal Marina. We are paying twice the price for the same amenities. The marinas are less than 1/2 mile away if you walk between them. But, it was 5.8 miles the way the boat travels. Both use Dockwa, a marina reservation system, and I just didn’t pay close enough attention when I made the reservation. And we paid for it!!

Be sure to take a look at the photo of my hand-steering compared to autopilot steering.

Now, the municipal marina people were great. Before we docked there, we talked with them on the phone, and they couldn’t find our reservation, but they found a space for us. The slip, according to them, is the hardest to get into due to the current. It was not easy! It took me four times of backing into it and getting pushed port (to the left) toward some pilons. Pull out and try again. I think Rita was getting frustrated as she could see the aft (back of the boat) going exactly where she wanted it, but I could see the bow (front of the boat) being pushed and I pull out to try again. Rita is on the swim platform at the back of the boat being my eyes as I cannot see the actual back of the boat and wouldn’t know how close I am to anything if she wasn’t there. Finally made it, get to the office and we figure out what the issue was. NOW I HAVE TO LEAVE! We could have stayed, but we would have lost the all the. Only we pain to the other marina and still have to pay this one. The hardest docking I just had was the least amount of time we spent in a slip!

Plot the course to the correct marina, and let’s dock again. I made it in the correct slip just fine and we are all hooked up for 4-days of rest, relaxation, provisioning and a few projects to keep us busy.

How did my plan go?

Plan v ACTUAL
Start at: 11:30 am ACTUAL 9:45 AM
End at: 8:00 am ACTUAL 10:15 AM
Total Time: 20:26 hours ACTUAL 24:02 hours
Distance: 184.0 miles ACTUAL 189.8

I didn’t count on the fuel up time with the plan. Fueling took 30 minutes plus another 30 to get there and back. The time would have been about right. We left St. George Island through the Government Cut at 12:05 pm.

We arrived at the wrong marina around 9:30 am and that makes sense. Once we hit 20 miles offshore we started keeping an eye out for crab pots. We saw our first one at 15 miles offshore. That is when we donned our radios and Rita went to the bow of the boat to point them out so we could avoid hitting the crab pot and get the line wrapped around our propellers. We were going about 7 mph.

We had already slowed our speed to 8 mph as we knew this “crab pot minefield” was coming up and wanted some daylight, but we also wanted to get through it before the sun rose so it wouldn’t be in our eyes. We did pretty good. The last couple of miles we had the sun in our eyes, but we made it through unscathed!