Clearwater Beach Marina to Apalachicola May 8-9, 2017

We got underway fairly early, without incident, and proceeded along the main channel to the ICW. Turning into Clearwater pass around 0830 the pass did not appear to be the 1'-2' seas as predicted by the NWS but the area off Clearwater was forecast to be a little rougher than further offshore. The wave height was 1'-2' but it was superimposed on 4'-5' swells again about a boat length apart. We pressed on thinking conditions would get better as we got offshore and they did but it was 30 hours later when we approached the Government Cut at St George Island. Needless to say the gulls were not happy with the co-captains weather forecasting prowess ( lack ) and stated that early and often. As Gerry stated several times, this was the roughest 1'-2' sea state he had ever encountered. On the plus side, both days were bright and beautiful with only puffy white clouds all along our track. After sunset the night was balmy and clear with little traffic.

We had not navigated to the Government Cut before but the GPS backed up by paper chart periodic fixes was in perfect agreement and we spotted the outer marker dead ahead before noon on May 9. It took us another couple of hours to get to Apalachicola but we figured this route saved about three hours overall and the cut was well marked and easy to navigate in the conditions we encountered.

The Water Street Hotel allowed us to select our mooring so we took a wide dock port side to and had no trouble with this landing. Roger/Sara contacted Peter and Sara and we joined them and their guests for a great Apalachicola oyster supper.

Respectfully submitted,

G. L. Ray, CDR , SS , USNR-Ret