A Safe Crossing
12 February 2014 | Clearwater Beach Marina
Bob
Sharon and I set sail from Panama City early Monday morning with the intention of just a day sail down to Cape San Blas. We kept checking the weather forecast as the day wore on, of concern was the approaching cold front. It seems that it was developing a nasty side and it began to look like our original plans to day sail the big bend area of Florida was not going to happen. As we approached San Blas we took one more look at the cold front's progress and the forecast for the waters area between us and Clearwater. It looked good for the crossing so we passed the Cape and made way directly to the #1 Green marker at Clearwater Pass. I have never seen the gulf so calm. We had virtually no swell, no waves and light winds out of the south that allowed us to motor sail with the jib. Sharon is just awesome in the galley, she fixed us oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and brussel sprouts. Around 0200 the wind quit all together and Sharon, who was on watch, brought the jib in. Around 0530 the wind began to fill in from the east and I put the jib back out and once again we were making 6.6 to 7 knots. This helped our ETA and allowed us to make Clearwater at 1730 and safely anchored just before sunset. The cold front that we were out in front of is arriving today, Wednesday so we've moved into the Clearwater Beach Marina. Winds are supposed to be in the high 20's for the next day and a half, so we'll stay put for now.