After leaving Orange Beach Alabama we crossed back into Florida at Perdido Key. We stopped at the Oyster Bar Marina and took the dinghy over to the Flora-Bama for a fun afternoon. Next stop was Pensacola where we celebrated 1 milestone, my 54th birthday. As usual we celebrated with a pint (or 2) at a local brewery.
We next moved on to Destin where we were lucky that our timing coincided with a vacation trip for my brother and his girlfriend. They were accompanied by her daughter and her husband and we had a great visit with them! One day we went out to Crab Island and spent a fun afternoon. The water here is more like something we've seen in the Bahamas, not the panhandle of Florida.
We stayed in an "interesting" marina in Destin where we did some creative docking. When it was time to leave I was glad there wasn't a crowd watching....
After Destin we moved along pretty quickly toward Carrabelle FL. which would be our jumping off point for the gulf crossing. Carrabelle makes for a shorter crossing than Port St. Joe where we left from in 2015. In fact, it cuts about 10 hours off the trip and allowed us to do it in (mostly) daylight this time instead of overnight.
One day while traveling toward Carrabelle I heard a familiar voice on the radio talking to a barge behind us...naw...couldn't be...they live in Nashville and didn't plan on doing the loop again! Sure enough, when the boat catches up to us we get a call on the radio from our friends Carol & Tim who we had traveled much of the Great Loop with...talk about a small world! Turns out they were helping friends move their boat to Florida and were just along for the ride this time. It was great to see them again and meet new boating friends. They travel quite a bit faster than us but we still got to enjoy docktails in the same marina at the end of the day.
When we got to Carrabelle it looked like we would be stuck there for a week as the winds and seas were forecast to start building the next day. In looking at different forecast models it turned out the building wouldn't start until late in the day so we decided to head out early the next morning and stay ahead of the weather. The forecast actually was accurate this time and we made the 17 hour crossing with no drama. 2 days later the weather buoy NW of Tampa was reporting 9 foot waves!
It was along the crossing that we hit one of the milestones. In the almost 4 years that we've owned Chasing 80 we have now passed the 10,000 mile mark!! I know it doesn't sound like much from a car driving perspective but most boaters don't travel that far in a lifetime. We're still enjoying it and looking forward to the next 10,000....
After the crossing we spent a few days of R & R in Tarpon Springs and are now in Gulfport FL about 100 miles from our destination of Ft. Myers. This brings me to our next milestone...the "not good" one. After leaving Tarpon Springs the starboard engine temp. started to creep higher than normal. I shut it down and continued on one engine for a bit before trying it again.... same results. I suspected a stuck thermostat (the easy answer) and went down to investigate. In checking things out I found that it was low on coolant and high on oil.....very much not good! Somehow the coolant is leaking into the oil and I suspect through the oil cooler which we just had serviced in Orange Beach last December. Soooo it's our first mechanical breakdown...on a holiday weekend...no chance of seeing a mechanic before Tuesday...flight out of Ft Myers in 10 days kind of milestone!! Wish us luck!!!
I'll leave you with a few parting pictures while we head off to see what Gulfport has to offer for the weekend. The first is an interesting take on the pedal bar we've seen in several towns. This is the pedal BOAT!! looks like it could be a really fun time on the water with friends.
The next is a sign we saw in a brewery in Apalachicola...Just call me Exploding Candidate Lager...what's your beer name????
