Here are a few photos from before the gulf crossing and after.

Abandoned boat on the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (GICW).

Shrimping boat at a home on the GICW

Another sunken boat on the GICW

and another

And this one Mike called our anchorage pirate ship.  It was 20 feet from  our quiet  anchorage  near Apalachicola, FL

This river mess was right in the river by the city of Carrabelle, FL.  

We left Carrabelle, FL to cross the gulf of Mexico, at 4:00PM on Thursday afternoon.  There were four looper boats who crossed together. Actually there were more than 20  looper boats, all who left marker two outside Dog Island, between 3 and 4:00 pm. They left in packs according to their desired speed and desired destination. We went across to Dunedin, FL, and came in south of Honeymoon Island and stayed one night at the Dunedin Municipal Marina. 

Before taking off across the gulf we put together a ditch bag.  Everyone puts together items they would need in an emergency.  Some of the items we put in our waterproof bag were: mag light, smaller flashlight (took out and used all night), flares, mirror, whistle, distress flag-orange, VHF hand held radio, GPS hand held radio, leather an type super tool, car medical kit plus lots of bandages, aspirin, motion sickness pills and sun lotion. Water, nuts, granola bars, passports, money, book and cards.

We also sent Mike's sister a travel plan. It included the date and estimated time of departure, arrival. Also the city, state and coordinates of departure and arrival.

Now about the crossing. It was a night from hell. Mike and I will not be lifetime loopers, because we will never make the gulf crossing again. With that said, the moon was beautiful, the stars were magnificent and it was really great running in a pack at night. To keep us awake, we spent a few hours after 10:00pm, discussing trivia over the radio, and the next few hours went very fast. That all ended, as everyone became more concerned about driving, as the rollers increased in size.  The supposed weather window we all waited for was not quiet there yet. We left in rollers that were supposed to die out by 1:00am. About 1:30am they actually got worse. I put my life jacket on for the next few hours and prayed, literally. Okay, we did all make it in one piece and have the experience to tell, but never again for Mike and I.  

The boat took a beating and we were up for over 30 hours, before sleeping. No way we could take nap shifts over night, in those rollers. We each drove for three hours then two hours each then changed shifts after one hour. After carefully planning to arrive at the Florida west coast after sunrise we found out how important the daylight arrival was.  Fishermen crab pots were everywhere.  All you see are little 8" round floats.   You have to avoid them, due to the attached lines getting caught in your props.  We started seeing the pots 30 miles out from shore.

Welcome first light after the gulf crossing.

The rollers were finally settling down as we approached land.

Arriving at Dunedin, FL we raced to a restaurant for food then back to the boat for a few hours sleep.