It was a bit of an adventure, but we made “The Crossing.” For the non-Loopers in the bunch, The Crossing is a much-anticipated, and occasionally feared, part of the loop. The issue is that the elbow of Florida that separates the panhandle from southern Florida is very shallow and full of crab pots. To go around the bend in three day trips, you need decent weather because you are out in the Gulf. Because the Gulf only offers a few good weather windows this time of year, most Loopers look to make the jump from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs. That’s a trip of about 170 miles. Depending on your boat and how fast you want to go, that trip can take anywhere from eight to twenty-two hours.

There was an unprecedented stretch of good crossing weather last week, but my work schedule wouldn’t allow us to make it. Thankfully, a weather window opened ever-so-slightly on the night of December 9th. It would be a bit rough, but safe.

The problem was that we were still in a marina in Apalachicola – not Carrabelle. So… we did math. It is 206 miles from Apalachicola to Clearwater – just south of Tarpon Springs and has better anchorages for us. Our Dash easily has that range, but not at speed. At 9 or 10 mph, it has a range of about 400 miles. At 20 mph, it has a range of about 130 miles. Going slow gives us range, but also makes the timing a challenge.

We decided that we would leave Apalachicola at 11 AM on Thursday. It would take us 3 hours at 10 mph to get to Dog Island where we enter the Gulf. We would anchor there and take a nap until 5:30 pm and then set out. The reason for the late start is because we didn’t want to get close to Clearwater until we had plenty of daylight to spot the crab pots. We planned to do the crossing at 10 mph.

We left Apalachicola right on time and put down our anchor at Dog Island at about 2 PM. It was overcast and cool with a bit of chop on the water. As planned, we both took a short nap and ate an early dinner. At around 4:30, it started to get hazy, so we decided to head out a little early. We wanted to have light as we passed the last buoy.

The first five hours or so were pretty intense. The waves were 3+ feet off the port beam. This made the boat rock quite a bit. We decided to zig zag a bit to give us better seas. It helped a bit, but it was several hours of rough going. I think the boat was much happier than we were. After the sun set, the overcast skies made it very dark. That didn’t help matters.

Eventually, the skies cleared a bit and the water started to lay down. For several hours, it was absolutely wonderful. The moon had set, so the sky was ablaze with stars with a few of them occasionally falling. We also had several patches with bioluminescence in our wake. It was like blueish fireflies making our wake glow. It was really, really special and I truly appreciated being able to see God’s wonders. I tried to get a little video of it, but it doesn’t come close to doing it justice.

We took turns taking short naps and manning the helm. We watched a couple of movies, listened to music, ate, and generally passed the time while keeping a sharp eye on the radar and the infamous magenta line (the line that marks our route).

At dawn, we moved into a fog and the waves picked up again. They weren’t as bad as before, but noticeably choppier. We kept an eye on the radar and set a course to stay in at least 50 feet of water (very few crab pots that deep) and turn perpendicular into the inlet.

As we neared shore, the fog cleared and we were able to enjoy watching the buildings rise out of the water. We went through the inlet and around the corner to Clearwater Municipal Marina for fuel. After waiting a bit for the dock to clear, we filled up with 123 gallons of fuel! For 206 miles! Going slow sure makes a difference in the mileage!

For the night, we anchored just south of One Tree Island. It has one tree. Wendy and I dinghied over and spent some time on the beach in the sun. The tiny island is a destination spot for various tour groups and locals. There were times when we were completely alone. There were other times when there were 40 people on the island.

We returned to the boat, enjoyed another beautiful sunset, ate some dinner, and headed for a well-deserved night’s rest.