Slowdown was definitely ready and we thought we were also, so we weighed anchor and set out around 7:45 am Monday morning. We had our first issue within an hour out, when The alternator chewed up one of its belts. We made our way just outside of the Mobile ship channel and dropped the hook. Ed had a new belt installed and we were back underway in about 20 minutes. The weather was nice and not too cold. We spotted many dolphins during the day. The seas were calm with 1-3 foot waves and we had a nice wind so we motor-sailed. Everything was about as good as it could get. It was nice to travel with a buddy boat as it is lonely out there especially when night falls which is before 6 pm. The skies were cloudy and we had no moonlight the first night but we could see and talk to Dean and Katy. The night gets long when you stand watch every 3 hours. Since it was only the two of us, we stayed in the cockpit even when not on watch. We wore our lifejackets and tethers. It's easy to see (because you can't see) how if you fell overboard at night, you would be fish food.

This crossing was so very different from our first crossing. When we brought Slowdown across from Tampa in May 2011, we had to keep a sharp lookout for platforms. On this crossing there weren't any platforms to watch out for but our charts did show some large moorings along our route which we never did see.

Sometime during the second day, the winds picked up to 20-22 knots sustained. We had one reef in our main and decided to put in a second reef. That turned out to be a very good idea because after dark (why does everything happen after dark?), the winds jumped up to 29 knots at times. With the stronger winds came bigger seas between 3-5 feet, with an occasional 6 footer thrown in. So what was forecasted and what was reality weren't the same. The actual conditions were just one notch above what was forecasted, so even if the forecast had been accurate, it wouldn't have changed our decision to cross the gulf.

It's difficult and potentially dangerous to cook in these conditions, so the planned dinner of chili quickly got scrapped and we had microwave baked potatoes and leftover cherry pie.

Both of us were tied of getting beat up by the seas by Wednesday and were looking forward to getting to Tarpon Springs. The approach to the channel into Tarpon Springs from the gulf was fairly shallow. We new we needed to come in on a high tide to the marina which we had taken into account in our planning. Our original estimated ETA was around 9am and the high tide was noon so we had plenty of extra time or so we thought. We arrived around 2:30 with the tide having gone out some. We didn't have any issues docking other than sucking in the sides of the boat to fit into the slip. We definitely take up the entire slip. We are staying at the Anclote Harbors Marina, which is a quiet marina that is very peaceful and has a tropical appearance.

Our good friends John and Libby, who own Hotwire Enterprises, picked us up and treated us to a wonderful dinner and we had ice cream again. I only mention the ice cream because I (Cheryl) eat ice cream about once a year.

We turned in before 8:30 and slept 11 hours. I guess we were a little worn out from the crossing.

It's Thursday 1/2 and Ed is on the phone with Garmin trying to figure out all our woes with AIS and our instruments locking up. We will probably e here for several days.