Total
Miles Traveled 1158
Port
St Joe is a cool little town that we will definitely revisit in the
future. We spent two days here, November
28 and 29, but didn’t really see the entire town. We developed a small leak on our main engine
cooling system and found the culprit to be a leaking drain valve. I walked to the local Napa Auto with both
fingers crossed, hoping they would have a replacement valve I could use, they
didn’t but said they could order it and it would arrive from Jacksonville by 8
a.m. the next morning.
The
next morning didn’t look very promising, what I thought was thick fog moving
in, turned out to be smoke. I learned
that a controlled burn was started overnight to clear land for a cow pasture
north of town.
I
walked to Napa Auto and sure enough the exact part I needed had arrived…. for less
than $3. It wasn’t much of a leak, but
we didn’t want any surprises crossing the Gulf next week.
Sunset at Port St Joe Marina.
We
departed Port St Joe November 30 and traveled 14 miles to one of our favorite
anchorages at the Searcy Creek Oxbow.
Anchoring here allows us to be less than 50 miles from Carrabelle, FL
our last marina before starting our Gulf crossing.
Although
we tried several lures and a piece of shrimp, we didn’t have any luck
fishing. The last time we anchored here
we watched and alligator make his rounds, but no gators this time.
We
arrived at Carrabelle, Fl December 1st topping off our fuel tanks
and preparing for the first section of our Gulf crossing to Steinhatchee, FL. The marina is a little over 5 miles up the
Carrabelle River, so we departed the marina December 2nd and anchored
behind Dog Island, just a few hundred feet of sand between us and the Gulf of Mexico.
Before
I could record the information in my daily log, my best mate already had a line
in the water and was yelling “I have a big one”. I ran down to grab the fish net but before we
could see what it was, it darted under the boat breaking the line. We had purchased a heavy pole and line for
salt water fishing, but didn’t have it set up yet so the pole we used only had
6 lb test line on it.
We
set up the new pole and almost immediately Moni had another hit, but lost it
before getting it to the boat. Then
another hit, this time although smaller we caught our first salt water fish of
the season, a Grey Trout. After looking
it up we found we could keep them and the edibility was reported to be excellent. Now all we need is a half dozen or so for
dinner.
We kept about a dozen, all around 12 inches or so. We had several hits, and some seemed to be
big fish but then we would lose them. While reeling one in, Moni discovered the
problem, a 2-3 foot shark was eating our fish while we were bringing them into
the boat. We didn’t lose this one but
you can see where the shark had a bite on it.
Okay, I learned something that is not an issue back home,
rule #1; if you’re going to clean the fish while you’re fishing, wait until you
are finished before throwing the scraps into the water, and rule #2; don’t kneel
down on the swim platform and wash your hands in the water 😏
We had a supermoon while anchored at Dog Island, the closest
distance that the Moon reaches to Earth in its elliptic orbit, resulting in a
larger than normal size as viewed from Earth.
I took several pictures but my camera just didn’t capture the real
event.
At first light December 3rd, we weighed anchor
and started our 77 mile journey across the northern section of the Gulf to
Steinhatchee, Fl.
About half way across and approximately 20 miles
offshore, I noticed a boat on our radar about a mile or so southwest of
us. As he was passing us, still a mile
or so away, I called him on the radio and asked if he was headed to Steinhatchee. He replied yes and asked the name of our
boat. After a 10 minute conversation we
found that we had met briefly last year anchored at Dog Island and he is from
our home port at Green Turtle Bay, Grand Rivers, Ky. We have had several “small world” encounters
in our travels but not 20 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico! We were staying at different marinas in
Steinhatchee and not departing on the same day, but we are both spending the
winter in the same area of Florida.
Bajan Speed
We had awesome weather and seas for cruising today.
We talked to a couple of people about trolling in Gulf
waters and purchased a couple of lures that could be used trolling at 8 mph,
but no luck today.
We did see some sea life though; I thought this sea
turtle was a clump of weeds at first.
This picture didn’t turn our very well, but there are a
couple of jelly fish in this picture.
Maybe Santa will bring us a new camera; I think I have worn this one out
with the hundreds of pictures I have taken over the last three years.
After a little over 10 hours and 81.6 miles, we arrived
at the River Haven Marina at Steinhatchee.
The town is known as” a drinking village with a fishing problem”……..hmmm. This is a small town along the river with a
grocery, hardware store, a few local restaurants, and a post office. We will be here at least a week waiting on a
weather window to make the two day cruise to Cedar Key, Tarpon Springs and the Gulf Intracoastal
Waterway (GICW).
Our good friends from Palatka, Florida drove over to
spend the day with us Monday December 4th. Judy, Ralph, and Pearl hung out on the boat
for a while, and then we visited a local restaurant for lunch, then spent the afternoon
sightseeing around town. We had a great
visit, and appreciate them driving us around town to see the area.
On Tuesday we took advantage of the weather before the
approaching cold front arrived to visit the post office, hardware store, and
grocery. Probably a two mile walk on a
sunny 75 degree day, our last nice day for a few days with high temperatures
predicted to be around 50 degrees the rest of the week.
Someone is definitely into the Christmas spirit.
Ahh yes, that Grey Trout dinner, awesome!
Only 48 degrees and rain at 12:00 today December 8, 2017,
is this Florida?
Our next possible weather window is expected to be sometime after Wednesday, December 13th.
