TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE

11/19/2017

Coming to you from Clearwater, FL.

We left Panama City on Sunday 11/12. Sunny day with only small white caps on the open bays. Pretty uneventful. We ran to White City & stayed on a free dock with no amenities. Many buzzards, I guess because of all the fisherman cleaning their catch. No cell service. We are back in Eastern Standard Time Zone. That's good for me. Never get used to time changes. We sat out on the dock for awhile watching some giant bugs (I think I mentioned, I don't like bugs). I was told they were Palmetto Bugs & get used to it. Like that is going to happen! Anyway, looked more like giant beetles to me. Are Palmetto bugs black? I managed to feed a couple to the fish.

We stayed at Apalachicola next. Only 1 night. The marina we originally planned did not work. The docks were not big enough. Went up the river a little & stayed at Scipio. New owner, is currently renovating. Uneventful.

We went to Carrabelle in the morning to wait for a weather window to cross the gulf. The day was sunny & the water was choppy & skinny. On our first morning there we woke to find the stern was sitting in the mud. Low tide & skinny water. Not a good combo. We waited till the tide came up & moved to another dock where the water was deeper. The people at the marina went & measured dock widths till they found one the would accommodate our beam. As it turned out, they were partially right. We could not get all the way back. Docks in FL tend to be pilings with just a short dock near shore. We need that to get us all off the boat. Especially Riley. We were able to tie up close enough to the dock with a little grease (just kidding) & Tim's expert docking abilities. Yea, Tim.

The Gulf can be crossed slow or fast. Our boat is capable of a fast crossing, but we were unable to find a fast buddy boat to cross with. It is safer to cross with a buddy & we absolutely needed one as our radar is not working & we were unable to get it fixed at this time. So instead of a 10 hour daylight crossing it was 21 hours. Our buddy boat was Donna Mae. We saw the sunset & sunrise while on the Gulf. The stars were awesome. As predicted, around midnight, the seas kicked up, so we were rocked around a bit. When we finally got to the approach to Clearwater, the sun was shining in our eyes. Poor timing. To make matters worse we were now on 30 hours without sleep & having to dodge crab pots. It is not something I would do again. Riley agrees. I had pee pads, with his scent on them. He would not use them no matter how I prompted him. When we made land, we ran off the dock & he stopped at the first tree & created quite a puddle. Then it was nap time. The plan was 2 days in Clearwater, but we ended up staying 3. Riley got to go to the beach & charge the surf & meet a horseshoe crab.