Well we reached Tarpon Springs this morning after covering 210 miles the past two days. We set a new record yesterday, leaving Steinhatchee at 5:30 am(1 hr. Before dawn), and finally dropping anchor 4 miles short of our destination at 7:30 pm, 1 hour after sunset. That's 14 hours of cruising at an average speed of 9 mph consuming a whopping 265 litres of fuel in one day! We did do 121 miles of cruising that day. Almost double our fuel burn per hour because of the extra 2 miles an hour I was cruising at, but we did have a long way to go across open ocean!
So now lets play the game.
You and 10 neighbors get 10 roofing nails and paint them any color you like. Then you take one kilometer of road by your home, and everyone gets to place their nails on the road, preferable in staight lines, about 5 feet apart. Then everyone gets in their cars, and drives to work. If you hit a nail you lose!
Thats what it is like with crab traps in the gulf. Even though you are crossing between 70 and 160 miles of open water, the depth does not go much over 35 feet. So it is all good for commercial crabbing. There are literally thousands of traps in lines of 10 everywhere, and if you hit one, the line wraps around you shaft, and the engine stops. FUN! Add wave heights of 2 to 5 feet, and sun glistening off the water and you can have an awesome day of crabtrap dodgeball! We won, not hitting any, but everyday, there are distress calls with boaters diabled bcause of the lines wrapped around their props.
We are staying at Tarpon Springs for a few days for a visit with our buddy, Herb, that we met cruising. Then off to fort Myers to visit with another good friend, Bill, and his wife Rose Marie.