Carrabelle, Fl Day 3,4,5

December  8^th, 2015

Tuesday

Miles Traveled 0

Total Miles Traveled 1552

Day 88,89,90

We rode the bikes around Carrabelle today and visited the world’s smallest police station.  In the early 1960's, Carrabelle's police phone was located in a call box that was bolted to a building at the corner of U.S. Highway 98 and Tallahassee Street. During this time, the city had problems with people making unauthorized long distance calls on its police phone. Johnnie Mirabella, the only St. Joe Telephone Company employee in Carrabelle at the time, moved the phone to another location, but the illegal calls continued.

Mirabella noticed that the policeman would get drenched while answering phone calls when it was raining. So when the telephone company decided to replace its worn out phone booth in front of Burda's Pharmacy with a new one, he decided to solve both problems at once by putting the police phone in the old booth.

On March 10, 1963, Mirabella, with the help of Curly Messer, deputy sheriff at the time, moved the phone booth to its current site on U.S. Highway 98. The booth did protect the officers from the elements, but some people still snuck into it to make long distance calls. Eventually the dial was removed from the phone, making it impossible for anyone to make calls.

We have decided to make the Gulf Crossing from Carrabelle, Fl to Tarpon Springs Fl in one continuous cruise; the distance is about 175 miles and will take around 22 hours.  We had originally planned to take three days stopping at Steinhatchee on the first day, Crystal River on the second day, and Tarpon Springs on the 3^rd day, traveling about 10 hours each day.  There are no protective barrier islands from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs and the Gulf of Mexico is very shallow in this area, ten miles from shore the average depth is 12 to 20 feet.

I called a marina at Crystal River and was told not to enter the channel with less than mid tide.  I also called a boat towing company and was given the same information.  We can time the tide and daylight to make it in, but if we wait the following day for mid tide, we would not be able to make the next port before sundown. 

We know others have taken this course in the past, but we would be traveling alone and if we run aground, we would have to rely on VHF radio signal only for assistance.  We feel it is not worth the risk so early in our adventure to follow our original plan.

When we arrived at Carrabelle there was one other boat here waiting for a weather window to cross, today there are seven.  We will all start our crossing tomorrow, the slow boats will start about 2 p.m. and the faster boats around 4 p.m.  There are two reasons for the afternoon start, the first is crab pots.  Crab pots or traps lying on the bottom, are connected by a rope to a float on the surface.  When we arrive at our destination we will be heading east and at sunrise we will not be able to see the crab pot markers with the sun reflecting on the water.  Although we have a cutter ahead of our prop, if we hit a marker and rap the rope around our prop shaft it could be a show stopper.  The second reason for the afternoon start is the tide.  If we leave at 2 in the afternoon, traveling about 8 mph, we should arrive at Tarpon Springs at noon; high tide is 12:30.

We had docktails at the marina last night and discussed our plans for the crossing tomorrow.  We are looking forward to a sunset and sunrise cruising on the Gulf of Mexico!