Chilling in the Florida Heat
Wednesday, July 25th, 2018
Our anchor held through the wind and thunderstorm last night. Whew! We must be doing something right in our anchoring techniques!
We're in Clearwater Beach, just 10 miles from where the ICWW ends along Florida's west coast and a popular place to take off to cross the Gulf towards Florida's panhandle port of Carrabelle, where the ICWW begins again. It's about 145 miles to cross from here to there or figure 20-24 hours in a slow moving vessel like ours. All that we've been told and all that we've read about the crossing is "watch for a good weather window." And so today we stayed at anchor and took time to catch up on Puget Sound Mobile Wash business and research when our "weather window" might occur. Earlier in the week, it looked like Thursday/Friday would give us a crossing with no storms, heavy winds, and huge wave action. Thus, our anxiousness to get here. Now that we're here, it seems we may want to wait until Friday, Saturday or Sunday to make the crossing. This gives us time to study and prepare for the open water adventure.
As Mike worked on payroll and phone calls and invoicing for our Seattle business, Brenda subscribed to Marv's weather reports, Eddy's Weather, downloaded a NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) app to her phone, watched youtube videos, checked out the America's Great Loop Cruising Association's website for expert advice from those who had made the Gulf crossing before...she looked for anything she could think of. Her research so far boils down to this: watch the weather, make the decision, and tell your loved ones your plans. Ok. So maybe we'll visit a couple of marinas tomorrow and ask around for more advice.
Mixed in with our work, we discovered our electricity would "blip" every so often and needs checking into. We also discovered our connectivity to internet is more limited than we expected. Both issues we can deal with.
As we completed our tasks in our small, but comfortable air conditioned confines, we were entertained by people enjoying themselves in the sun and water: groups of jet skiers scurrying about, sailors in a regatta, both novice and expert wind surfers, and several commercial party boats and ferry boats carrying tourists. As evening came and the temps became more pleasant, we ventured outdoors and deemed it time to proudly display our AGLCA burgee to show our intentions to the world. We then continued to enjoy the activity around us over dinner on our sundeck and appreciate the end of yet another wonderful day.
Our anchor held through the wind and thunderstorm last night. Whew! We must be doing something right in our anchoring techniques!
We're in Clearwater Beach, just 10 miles from where the ICWW ends along Florida's west coast and a popular place to take off to cross the Gulf towards Florida's panhandle port of Carrabelle, where the ICWW begins again. It's about 145 miles to cross from here to there or figure 20-24 hours in a slow moving vessel like ours. All that we've been told and all that we've read about the crossing is "watch for a good weather window." And so today we stayed at anchor and took time to catch up on Puget Sound Mobile Wash business and research when our "weather window" might occur. Earlier in the week, it looked like Thursday/Friday would give us a crossing with no storms, heavy winds, and huge wave action. Thus, our anxiousness to get here. Now that we're here, it seems we may want to wait until Friday, Saturday or Sunday to make the crossing. This gives us time to study and prepare for the open water adventure.
As Mike worked on payroll and phone calls and invoicing for our Seattle business, Brenda subscribed to Marv's weather reports, Eddy's Weather, downloaded a NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) app to her phone, watched youtube videos, checked out the America's Great Loop Cruising Association's website for expert advice from those who had made the Gulf crossing before...she looked for anything she could think of. Her research so far boils down to this: watch the weather, make the decision, and tell your loved ones your plans. Ok. So maybe we'll visit a couple of marinas tomorrow and ask around for more advice.
Mixed in with our work, we discovered our electricity would "blip" every so often and needs checking into. We also discovered our connectivity to internet is more limited than we expected. Both issues we can deal with.
As we completed our tasks in our small, but comfortable air conditioned confines, we were entertained by people enjoying themselves in the sun and water: groups of jet skiers scurrying about, sailors in a regatta, both novice and expert wind surfers, and several commercial party boats and ferry boats carrying tourists. As evening came and the temps became more pleasant, we ventured outdoors and deemed it time to proudly display our AGLCA burgee to show our intentions to the world. We then continued to enjoy the activity around us over dinner on our sundeck and appreciate the end of yet another wonderful day.
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