The Crossing!

We left our slip in Carrabelle at 7:25, when we had enough light to see what we were doing. This sunrise greeted us just before we went out the pass west of Dog Island. The seas were relatively calm, with two foot swells on our aft quarter. Within an hour we were out of sight of land...and it wasn't until 1:30 that we could finally see land at Cedar Key. 

There were some small fishing boats nearby from time to time, and we could hear the powerful Coast Guard marine radio signals from Mobile, St. Petersburg, and as far away as New Orleans. We could not hear the boats in distress, but we heard the CG discussing the situations. One boat was on fire, another sinking rapidly....not much fun to listen to, but we are required to have our radio on. Our transmission signal would only travel about 45 miles...so if we needed help we would hope one of the fishing boats would hear us! Better times were had watching the dolphins and two sea turtles swimming next to our boat.

But we had no problems at all. In fact the seas calmed completely by the time we reached Cedar Key at 2pm. For the next two hours we had to dodge crab trap floats...a sure sign we were back to civilization. At 4:05 we were getting fuel in Crystal River, the end of our 140 mile journey. I had baked brownies the night before for some "comfort food" for the trip, and we never even thought of them until we arrived!!!! The calm seas and warm weather were comforting enough!

We will stay here today, 10/10/10, and probably leave tomorrow for Caladesi State Park, near Dunedin, FL.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home!!!