Day 99 – 101
Saturday, 12/19/20, was an emotional roller coaster of a day, as we vacillated back and forth on whether or not we should cross the gulf that afternoon, or tomorrow morning, or continue waiting in Carrabelle for better weather. It was also up in the air as to whether we’d make the full (overnight) crossing, or if we’d split it into two days – first day cross over to Steinhatchee, FL, to spend the night, and second day continue from Steinhatchee onto Tarpon Springs, FL. There was another couple, Scott and Shelley Johnson, on Mona Gee, who we’d communicated with via The Great Loop Facebook page, who were strongly considering the two-day crossing from Carrabelle, starting Sunday morning, 12/20/20, but then the captain of yet another boat almost had Steve talked into making the entire overnight crossing, beginning at 3:00 pm, this very day! Steve perused his various weather sites, discussed the situation with other captains at Carrabelle, and consulted with Kim, the Harbor Master at C-Quarters, who keeps a very close eye out for crossing weather windows. I was nervous about making the overnight crossing, even along with “buddy boats”, so was hoping for the two-day crossing. Unfortunately, the waters at Steinhatchee are very shallow in many places and iffy for a boat with Legacy’s draft of 5-feet or more. Steve did not relish the idea of running aground in Steinhatchee and having to call Boat US to tow us again, or worse – damaging Legacy’s hull. The weather forecasts changed almost minute-by-minute, which kept our plans from becoming concrete, which is most frustrating for an OCD control-freak like me.
Saturday afternoon we walked over to the nearby Carrabelle IGA grocery store (handily, almost directly across the street from our marina) for provisions, then walked down to the World’s Smallest Police Station, which is a touted stop on the Loop and nothing but an old phone booth positioned on one of Carrabelle’s main streets. We read the story of the “police station” from back in the day, and took our obligatory pictures of it.
Later we walked up to The Fisherman’s Wife Restaurant for an early dinner. This restaurant was in a converted family ranch-style home. We ate dinner in what appeared to be the house’s former living room, and the restaurant kitchen was located where the home’s kitchen originally was, complete with a pass-through from the kitchen into the living room. The food and service were both fine, though the food was under-whelming. When we returned to the boat, we untied and retied our lines so that Legacy’s bow was pushed farther out of our slip. Steve had noticed this morning, that, when the tide was out all the way, Legacy’s stern-thruster and rudder were resting on the bottom, which was NOT good! Therefore, that evening, when the tide was at its highest, we moved the boat out manually, rather than trying to start the engines, since we knew the propellers were so close to the ground. As I described earlier, our slip at C-Quarters was far from the best setup we could’ve hoped for. In fact, it was probably one of the worst we’d encountered so far. And moving the boat out further into the river into deeper water only made our boarding and de-boarding process that much more precarious!
By that afternoon, Mona Gee had arrived at C-Quarters Marina, so we talked some more with her captain, Scott Johnson, about making the crossing. (By this time, we’d opted out of trying to cross on Saturday afternoon, thankfully.) Scott and Shelley (along with their geriatric Australian Shepherd dog, “Buddy”) were relative newbies as far as big water crossings go, the same as we were. They’d been watching the weather sites and talking to our weather-knowledgeable harbor master as well. The four of us finally decided to wait until the next good weather window, which was to be Tuesday, 12/22/20.
We received a phone call from Carol and Russ Burchfield, on their trawler, Spirit, from down in the Keys where they were moored awaiting a good weather window to cross the gulf-stream over to the Bahamas. (We also knew Carol and Russ from our sail-boating days down in Seabrook, TX, on Galveston Bay.) They were checking up on us and also wanting to discuss water-maker woes with Steve. I’ve been anxious to meet up with them on this adventure, but they are always several steps ahead of us. They promised to keep us abreast of all the COVID-related hoops they have to jump through to gain access into the Bahamas.
Sunday, 12/20/20’s, weather forecast was right on point with cloudy, dreary and windy weather. We stayed onboard taking care of boat chores. The sun finally appeared that afternoon, so I ventured out to explore the Carrabelle area on foot, as there was no courtesy vehicle available. As always, I found plenty of picture-worthy scenes to include in this blog.
On 12/21/20, Scott and Shelley introduced us to Walt and Ladonna Schweer, who were also in Carrabelle, aboard their beautiful 41’ Ranger Tug called Antares Star over at The Moorings, which was the marina adjacent to C-Quarters. Walt and Ladonna were Gulf-crossing veterans, and also planned to make their overnight crossing on 12/22/20, so we discussed all three of us crossing together as “buddy boats”. Shelley and I really wanted to do the two-day crossing (especially since Mona Gee has a shallower draft so is relatively safe in “skinny” waters), but that got ruled out, as both Legacy and Antares Star have deeper drafts. Walt strongly advised against trying to spend the night at Steinhatchee, because of the shallower depths. We all made a plan to meet up at the marina on Tuesday morning, 12/22/20, to decide whether or not we all wanted to depart that afternoon.
On the afternoon of 12/21/20, my strongest fears were realized when I was attempting to get off of our boat at low-tide, which meant Legacy’s stern floated far beneath the high, fixed docks of our slip. We had setup a small step-stool in the cockpit, right in the port stern corner, to use when getting on and off the boat, where we literally had to balance on the outside rail of our boat and step out over the water onto the fixed dock finger. While that step-stool helped a little, it was still too short for me. Steve got off the boat and onto the tiny dock-finger so he could turn around and grab my hand to help me de-board after him. Even though my 63-year-old legs have become surprisingly toned from all the marina-walking over the past seven months, they apparently haven’t gained any real strength, as I was not at all strong enough to step up from the step-ladder onto the railing by myself. I got my left foot up onto the varnished, teak rail and then attempted to step the right side of my body up onto the rail while holding onto Steve’s hand, which was just NOT going to happen! ☹ By this time, an audience had gathered (Venus Miller, whose lost cat I had so valiantly searched for back at Florence Harbor Marina, and her husband were also slipped aboard their boat at C-Quarters Marina). Venus was standing on the dock as I pushed as hard as I could with my right leg to get up onto the rail, only to have my left foot slip completely out from under me, which sent me plummeting over the port side of the boat (at least a 5-ft drop) – fully clothed and with my purse safely strapped cross-body so I wouldn’t accidentally drop it into the water LOL – and right down into the marina water below! I remember very little about the fall itself except for a strong feeling that Steve WOULD catch me before I went into the water, and then the cold saltwater slapping me right in the face as I realized my feeling was but only a fantasy. Even though the water was barely over 4-feet deep (thankfully!), I somehow managed to be completely submerged, purse containing my iPhone XS Max and all, and lost one of my brand new Sperry Lounge-Away boat shoes, I managed to keep from losing my prescription glasses! As I flailed about in the water, Steve calmly stepped back onto the boat and retrieved the swim ladder out of the aft storage underneath the cockpit. Meanwhile, Venus was jumping around up on the dock, screaming “Help! Help!” at the top of her lungs to alert the marina of a ‘man-overboard’. I jerked my purse out of the water and over my head just as fast as I could, shouting “my phone! my phone!” to Steve as I handed the purse up to him. By this time, Steve had the swim ladder lowered from the swim-platform for me to use to climb back aboard the boat. Again, my disappointingly weak leg muscles failed me and refused to lift my body-weight on their own. Steve grabbed my hand and basically pulled me up onto the swim-platform like a beached whale, which was a good thing, since Venus’ frantic cries for help went completely unheeded! While Steve immersed my iPhone into a baggy of uncooked rice (thank goodness we had some onboard!), I hurried onto the boat and into the shower to completely disrobe and start my whole morning routine all over again, where I noticed a large, ugly bruise forming on my left upper-arm. UGH! Another lucky break was that I had previously ordered and received a brand new, “back-up” pair of Sperry Lounge-Away boat shoes, which I immediately pulled out to replace the pair I’d just lost, so I did not end-up shoeless. About an hour later, I was clean and dry, wearing fresh clothes and shoes (my phone having miraculously survived its impromptu “baptism”), but not without first hitting Steve with several loud “I TOLD YOU SOs!” After that debacle, Steve proclaimed that I was NOT to attempt to get back off the boat until AFTER we’d departed our slip in Carrabelle, which was more than fine with me! There was really no need for me to de-board again – Steve could do or get anything I needed for me. My purse was fortunately machine-washable, so I pulled everything out of it to dry and threw it into the washer. As nightmares go, this was a relatively tame one, but not one I wish to repeat! (Oh – and I should add that I immediately ordered another back-up pair of Sperry Lounge Away shoes to ship to us at Stock Island Marina in Key West, where we were headed!)
Position: N 29° 51.143, W 84° 40.183
Marina Nights: 85