Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

We have completed two of three crossings of the Gulf of Mexico. This is a large body of water and mother nature is once again in charge of our schedule.

We started out at 1;30 on Monday after pouring over many weather sites. The winds were quite a bit better than on our first attempt and the swells and the chop was acceptable. We knew we would run out of daylight so we olanned to anchor in Deadman's Bay at the mouth of the Steinhatchee River, which we did. I have never been so anxious for a moonrise before. It was very dark without it, we had to have radar on to be able to follow Randy in Black Tickle.  It was hard to judge distance without it. The crossing went well wih dolphins and stingrays to entertain us. Not much to see 50 miles off shore.

We were going to stay in Steinhatchee to wait for a weather window but as luck would have it, we were able to carry on to Crystal River by 8:30 in the morning when the fog lifted a bit. I never did see DFeadman's Bay anchorage as we arrived in the dark and left in the fog. Fog is usually an indication of light winds and true to form we had flat seas and fog most of the day. We arrived at Crystal River as the suns et so we anchored rather than get to the marina in the dark. We had lots of dolphins swimming on our bow. It looks like we will hit them but we never do, they are fast.

We are waiting for mid tide to head into the marina. We don't want to be like the Loopers we heard on the VHF radio yesterday who thought it was interesting to be doing 7 knots in idle. That makes it difficult to dock a boat Florida style.

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

I didn't think the Gulf could get this calm

In the fog on the Gulf...better than rough seas

Sunset on Crystal River

The Gulf of Mexico

This starfish was still alive on the beach on Dog Island

We are most likely staying here for several days as a cold front is supposed to move through and the winds will be building. Next stop is Tarpon Springs and then we are back in protected waters.