Sunday 

November 13th, 2016

After being awake for 30 hours, this was the first place we stopped for dinner... 

I think I had Mahi Mahi...

From across the street...

This place is excellent!! Great food, service and atmosphere...

Dunedin, FL is very dog friendly... Elwood laid right under our table, and they brought him water right away...

Hog Island Fish Camp...

Joell sampling my Manhattan...  easy girl!

Very friendly manager...

This is only the second Gator we've seen so far...

No problem taming this one!

Downtown Dunedin, FL.

Olde Bay Cafe was right at the marina...

This parrot sure made a lot of noise... The parrot was on one of the boats that will take you out on a cruise.

During the "Super Moon" the water changed almost 3' here!

Joell got up in the middle of the night to let Elwood out and had to wake me so we could loosen 2 lines....

The start of sunset...

Another restaurant at the marina  $$$$ we stayed away from there!

Looking out of the flybridge...

Since we've been in Fl. you find one boat after another sunk.  Here this sailboat was right at the marina in one of the day slips...now no-one can use this space...

I guess if your boat's sinking, just swim away and leave it..... there'll be more...

Today (Sunday) we move on south, heading for Sarasota, Fl.  After a week of anchoring we will be staying at Sara Bay Marina for one full week starting Nov. 20th, while we visit Joell's brother David and another couple that I used to work for when I was much younger.. Jim and Aura Rasmussen, who owned the A&W in Fond du Lac, Wi.

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.

Thursday

November 10th, 2016

Today we cross the Gulf of Mexico...

aprox. 180 miles from Carrebelle to Red 4 ATON (aids to navigation)

at R4 the Intercostal Waterway starts again to give us protection from the Gulf.

We push off at 3 pm this afternoon with at least two other boats running at 9 mph. We should arrive at marker R4 no sooner that 10am Friday morning after running all nite.

We have our ditch bag ready!

Mike, Joell and our dog Elwood

Tuesday 

November 8th, 2016

This is LuLu's Restaurant.  Owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister...

We heard the food wasn't the best but an interesting place to stop... Wind was up that day so we cruised on by...

Here's the boat behind us at the Wharf Marine which I had to avoid during docking and leaving our slip...

Shopping area at the Wharf Marine

I think they need to add some color here!

Our first anchorage on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway...

Less than a eight mile across the land here is the Gulf...

This is Santa Rosa Island with lots of white sand...

Anchored in 10' of water with 70' of rode out...

Nice Beach area...

Our first shell find of our loop....whoopieeeee

Most of the shells were occupied by Hermit de Crab...

I tried to coax it out but it wouldn't budge...

Elwood on line duty... cheer up doggie...

So what do you fresh water boaters see here???

Boats in the salt water leave a sort of contrail in the water behind them...

Dolphin riding our wake...coool........

Currently on our way to Carrabelle, FL.  to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico

Saturday

11/5/2016

We are now at the Wharf Marina in Orange Beach, AL.  Orange Beach is on the Gulf Inter coastal Waterway (GICW)  Today, Mike took back both of our West Marine folding bikes.  We will be looking for new bikes.  There are supposed to be a lot of nice bike trails in Florida.  

Below are a few pictures from the last few days we spent in Fairhope, AL.  Joell's Aunt Mary Ann drove us past Grandpa Joe Maradik's old farm and gave us a tour of the farm her home is on, which is Great Grandpa Joe Maradik's old farm.

Chicken coupe at Grandpa Joe's old farm

Brooder house that Grandpa Joe built.  The original red clay and  mortar have been covered over.  

This field behind the old farm used to be all pecan trees.

This is at Great Grandpa Joe's old farm.  It is a smoke house.  Notice the red brick.  There is a lot of deep red clay in this Alabama area. 

Inside the smoker.

Big utility shed on Great Grandpa Joe's old farm. 

A lot of neat farm equipment in the shed.

Old barn that mom (Betty) painted (see below)

Overgrown trough had been used for the cows

Another view of the barn

Inside the barn you can see there used to be cows.

Fresh fruit called Persimmon, we picked from Mary Ann's backyard.

Mary Ann's cousins are growing peanuts in the fields this year.  We collected some that were left behind.

Here is the picture mom painted of the old barn.  It is hanging in Mary Ann's home.

Friday

November, 4th, 2016

Last evening Joell noticed a little Crab about 1" deep by 2" wide

Hard to get in close for a photo op!!

These are piers with nice seating areas at the ends.

Sunset at Fairhope, AL

Looking South West from FYC

Heading down...

Gone!