|
The FLORIDA GULF COAST!
and Back Home to the Florida Keys!
Nov 17-26, 2001
"In-Flight Dolphin" - photo courtesy
of Lisa Absten |
We know we're close to home now! - with
the dolphins playing in our wake! We ran the
intracoastal to Apalachicola (around the bend of Florida on the Gulf).
Stayed one night at the Pensacola Yacht Club. We anchored out around Panama
City the night the meteor shower came - got up at 4:30am and watched the
great show in the dark night sky with Jessica.
From St Georges Bay in Apalachicola we headed offshore
across the Gulf of Mexico for an all day run to the Suwannee River. |
| Jessica made another friend (at right) in
the town of Suwannee just inside the river. The little girl's name was
Briana. We stayed at the fuel dock of this marina (no services) for the
night. We had been several days out to sea and thought about walking in to
town for dinner. The No-Seeums took care of that though! At sunset we had to
retreat inside the boat to escape the insects.
The next day we took our time to run as far as we could up the Suwanee River
- saw lots of alligators, birds, wildfowers, turtles, racoons, etc..
Eventually we gently ran aground in the middle of the river about 10-15
miles upstream and had to turn around and go back. We had to time our exit
from the Suwannee river channel about 3 in the afternoon to gain high tide.
As it turned out it STILL wasn't enough and we went firmly aground - had a
very difficult time getting out - but locals came up in a fishing boat and
showed us some deeper water on the WRONG SIDE of the marked channel - they
didn't know anything about the navigational markers - just where the deeper
water was. We finally got out and made it to Cedar Keys to anchor just after
dark. |
|
|
Crystal River was the next stop past
Cedar Keys. We spent Thanksgiving here at the fuel dock - no big Turkey, but
we did have Turkey lunchmeat. We had a good time anyway. Upon arrival here
we got to see and video a mother manatee with her baby eating around our
boat. On the day we left here I was up early before 7am getting the dinghy
ready to hoist back on the Flybridge. As I was trying to take off the fuel
tank onto the swim platform, dressed in my morning jumpsuit, I FELL IN! -
The Kersplash woke up Lisa in the aft stateroom.
I was OK - just a refreshing morning swim.
We dinghied to the King head springs in
this crystal clear fresh water river to see the spring and watch for
Manatees. We saw lots. When we anchored the dinghy in the spring we had 2 or
3 large manatees start to EAT OUR WHITE NYLON ANCHOR LINE! Never saw
anything like it. They just gummed it to death, but was interesting to
watch.
|
 |
|
|
We made it back along the coast in record time. We had
been constrained by the river system to short daylight runs, and we made up for
it now on the Gulf Coast. Lisa was anxious and we were both getting
"get-home-fever" after six months away. After Crystal River we went to
Clearwater and stayed one night at the Yacht Club (very nice). The next day we
took the Intracoastal to Sarasota and stayed at the Field Club, Yacht Club. When
we left there the next day, we made a fuel stop at the Yacht Club in Venice,
then proceeded offshore again and ran all day and all night until we got back to
the Keys. We made the shoals just North of Marathon at about an hour before
dawn, and the seven mile bridge just after dawn. All night we kept picking up
trap lines we could here smack against the hull as we picked them up - it
presented a problem later when we tried to restart the boat, but we made it home
with no problem. |
|
THE END - at least until the NEXT
adventure . . .
Admiral Lisa says that maybe it's OK to cruise to the Mexican
Yucatan peninsula to Belize & Honduras, via western Cuba and the Cayman Islands.
-- stay tuned. |
 We returned to our OWN DOCK in Marathon about 7am on my
birthday, November 26th - over six months and 10 days, and 5342 Statute Miles ago!
|
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE
GREAT CIRCLE PAGE
|
