The 170  Mile Gulf Crossing
                                                  

sunset - beginning the adventure

                         Crossing the Gulf was a long, amazing experience.  It took us 20 hours, leaving at 5:00 in the afternoon and arriving at noon the next day. We headed out to Dog Island  (an hour out of the marina) a couple of hours ahead of time. Once there Bill took a nap in preparation of the long night ahead and I went looking for shells on the beach. We met the 2 other boats we were traveling with out there. We went with Kat in the Hatt (43') and Frederica Lady (48').

                                                      

sunrise

          There was a half moon and you could see the stars so there was some light.  It’s really eerie when you are out there in the middle of the ocean at night 80 miles from land in either direction.  It was very comforting knowing there were 2 other boats out there with us.  We wouldn’t have wanted to do this alone!  We were the middle boat.  They were ½ to ¼ mile away.

          The seas were very calm and we had perfect conditions until about 3 in the morning.  Then the wind came up and things changed.  We had 4 hours of wave period 1-2 seconds, 3 foot waves and 15 mile/hr wind.  The 2 sec. wave period meant it was really rough and we just banged from one wave to the next.                                             
                                                            

          We had a beautiful sunrise and sunset. Bill drove the whole way except for a half hour (then it was me) and stayed awake with a lot of coffee, diet coke, chocolate and loud music. I stayed up in the flying bridge all night to make sure he didn't fall asleep.  Autopilot is wonderful!  We were pretty envious when  the boat we were following barbequed steak on their grill 
 underway while we were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 
                                                                

          There were lots of crab pots a couple of miles out from Tarpon Springs that are difficult to see.  They are dark green so you can barely see them until you are on top of them. We saw lots of dolphins out there.  They actually performed tricks, jumping back and forth over our wake. We didn't see any other boats all night.
                                                                 

The engines performed flawlessly!  This boat is awesome!

We arrived into Tarpon Springs about noon, went on a golf cart tour with the marina people around town, then took a longggg nap. We are extremely happy to have this behind us and grateful it went so well.