The timing and the day any Looper crosses the Gulf of Mexico encompasses the most emotions, planning, analysis, referencing professional Meteorologist, weather sites and buddy boat coordination. There were at least 6-12 Boats waiting in Carrabelle and the weather Guru (Eddy’s Weather Wag) who is reliable especially the slow trawlers planning a overnight to daytime crossing. Fast boats are built different are no where near as efficient on fuel but give owners like Mike and I, lots of flexibility. Friday morning as we were throwing off the lines Eddy’s weather Wag was reporting the next best “night to day crossing” would be Tuesday night departure and Wednesday February 1, 2023 to Tarpon Springs area. Daytime only crossings Wednesday February 1. Here we were pushing off based on the confidence of two fellow loopers especially Captain Randy.

We shared a couple things in common: we both are charging to get out of this cold weather and get south, both have fast boats that are made for heavier seas and of course this is an adventure so adding little extra risk just adds to the adventure, so off we went. 72 NM or bust.

Slow out of the channel past Dog Island than fast 18-21 knots for 2 1/2 hours and about 1 1/2 hours at 8-9 knots. Would have gone faster at the high speed but with 3-4 foot waves (6-8 foot from top of wave to bottom it was beating the boat so the 18-22 seamed a nice smooth synchronization between speed of the boat and the size and speed of the waves with the boat planed out staying high on the crests.

Arrived Friday afternoon about 2:00 PM straight to our Slip where Drifter was there to greet us. Lots of great dock help with our lines from Marina Staff. This Marina is brand new, Floating docks means no dealing with changing tides, fuel right at your slip,2 restaurants and full ships store.

So good to be safely across the Gulf and now no more heading east we move south where the temperatures will only get better. Looking for 70’s by end of week. Off to Crystal River Monday, 76 NM.

Mostly at Sea tomorrow no ICW up this far north.

Mike was inspecting the engine room he discovered that the Starboard engine engine oil cap was left off and oil had spattered sparingly about the engine room. Captain Chris had added oil that morning. my bad.

During our travel across the Gulf it was very rough with the rocking and rolling and even worse when we slowed down. None the less at some point in the trip when the salon door was opened it slamed hard and we seem to have a sliding issue the is making the operation difficult. We tried to get a mechanic on board but not in Steinhatchee so we will push on.

Friday evening we joined fellow loopers from Drifter, Dream Maker, and BareFeet, for Docktails at the Marina Grill and dinner at Roy’s.