Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs
17 November 2012 | Florida
Gil
Did I tell you that the locals at C Quarters know more than the weather bureau? We waited 9 days for a forecast we liked and the locals sorta agreed with. We were a little nervous as this was the longest open-water passage we had planned and we would be farther offshore than ever before. However, we wanted to be in Tarpon Springs before Thanksgiving, so when the trawlers decided they would go, we did too. The forecast was for N winds 10-15 with seas running 1-2 feet. It looked like we might actually get to sail to Tarpon Springs. We departed Carrabelle with a small flotilla of trawlers on the Great Loop and a couple of other sailboats. The first thing we ran into was fog reducing our visibility to about 1 mile. That lifted by late morning, but it remained cloudy. The wind was supposed to clock around to the N, but it never did. It stayed from the E and SE right on our nose. We were getting some waves at 4 ft, so we decided to take the longer route along the coast rather than direct to Tarpon Springs. By nightfall we were a few miles offshore in 3-5 foot seas and 15-20 knots from the E. Some of our flotilla decided to divert to Stienhatchee, but I did not feel comfortable trying to negotiate that narrow channel in the dark, so we pressed on.
Let me say the boat was fine, it was the sailors who were uncomfortable. :-)
Thankfully the autopilot performed flawlessly and we arrived at the Anclote River sea bouy about daybreak. We were wet and tired when we tied up at Port Tarpon marina at 1215. We got showers and hit the sack for about 4 hours. We put 26.2 hours on the engine, having motored the whole way. But we arrived safe!