Anchored at Useppa Island
June 16 - Omega left the dock at Cape Coral Yacht Basin and headed north up the Intracoastal Waterway. Received a radio call from Bob and Barbara Dein aboard Gondola, 44 Defever owners. They live in Venice and were returning home from a month in Marathon. They are very active Defever Cruiser club members and know most of the members. We anchored off pretty Useppa Island for the afternoon and night, and they came over in their tender to visit. They told us there is only one other Defever 50 in existence (Patti J) whose owners, Jim and Patti Kennedy, have her berthed in Bay City, MI. OMEGA was the third one made. The other one burned. The Deins have been cruising for many years and knew Vern, the original owner of OMEGA. They are also good friends of Bob and Barbara Fordyce. We enjoyed meeting them.
June 17 - We continued north to Sarasota. Just north of the Gasparilla Island Causeway Swing Bridge, we saw something unusual. A dump truck loaded on a barge was being moved across the waterway. Wonder why he wasn't towed across the bridge? We'll never know!!
There are so many lovely homes with beautiful landscaping along the waterway. Here's just one that we passed.
We anchored in the little cove adjacent to Marina Jacks in Sarasota. It is right downtown with the busy road that goes to St. Armands Circle and Lido Beach running right by it. We've anchored here several times before and always enjoyed seeing the huge statue in the median of a WWII sailor and a nurse embracing. Much to our surprise, we observed that there were two flatbed semis parked not far from us, and the statue of the sailor and nurse were loaded on them. She was broken in two pieces. We don't know what happened to cause this, but I'm sure they will be missed by those passing by.
June 18 - We went offshore at Longboat Pass and cruised in the Gulf north to Anclote Key, which is west of Tarpon Springs. It was a beautiful day, and we saved lots of time by avoiding all the bridges in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area.
Longboat Pass to Gulf
We arrived at our anchorage at Anclote Key mid-afternoon, and tried to get some rest before our Gulf crossing departure at midnight.
Up came our anchor at 12:10 AM, and Captain Bill set a northwesterly course to Appalachicola in the Florida Panhandle, approximately 176 miles away. The Gulf waters were pretty calm, which was wonderful. We took turns napping through the night. There were a number of thunderstorms here and there in the vicinity, but fortunately they stayed at least two miles from us.
Charlotte was at the helm as the sun came up at 6:09 AM, a welcome sight to behold!
About 8 AM we saw a shrimp boat directly ahead of us. It's hard to believe he would decide to take a little siesta directly in our path in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, but there he was! Notice how nice and calm the water is - we were certainly blessed!
At about 4:30 PM, we shouted "LAND HO!" as we caught our first sight of the land in the distance Our Conch Republic flag was blowing briskly in the breeze as we approached Government Cut, the inlet leading into Appalachicola Bay. We were thankful to have the crossing behind us. This was our fourth crossing and definitely the smoothest one of all!!
After nearly 18 hours of cruising, we docked at Scipio Marina in Appalachicola so we could "pig out" on oysters at Boss Oyster House and catch up on our shuteye with the comforts of AC!
June 20 - It's Fathers Day as we turn west across the Panhandle on the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway.
The first part of the day we were on the Apalachicoa River, and then we branched off onto the Jackson River named for Stonewall Jackson when he was governor of the territory. We crossed Lake Wimico and entered Searcy Creek. At White City, we gained an hour as we entered the Central Standard Time Zone. Our anchorage for the night was Pearl Bayou, about five miles east of Panama City. Pearl Bayou is a picturesque cove adjacent to an Air Force Recreation Area. A number of military folks were relaxing both in the park and on the water on jet skis, kayaks, etc. We went for a swim to cool off and enjoyed watching all the activity on the water around us.
June 21 - As we continued west past Panama City, we saw our first booms in the water in preparation for the possibility of oil from the Gulf Oil spill disaster getting into the Intracoastal. We heard that some tar balls had washed up on Panama City beach yesterday.
Before long we saw our first tow coming toward us. For those of you who weren't following our blog last summer, a tug boat pushing barges in front of it is called a "tow." There will be many more along the waterway between here and our destination on the Tennessee River.
After cruising through the 16 miles of land cut known as the "Grand Canyon," we arrived at the east end of the Choctawhatchee Bay, which is about 30 nautical miles long and three to five nautical miles wide. Obviously this is a huge open area of water, and unlike our other crossings, it was unbelievably smooth. In addition, we had a positive tide and current, so we zipped right along which always makes us happy. We decided to bypass one of our favorite anchorages in Destin Harbor, so we boogied right by and anchored behind a little island up close on Santa Rosa Sound.
White sand dunes dominated the scenery. All of the surrounding property is restricted as it is occupied by AF personnel stationed at Eglin AF Base so going ashore is not permitted . At 5 PM, we heard music coming from a PA system across the waterway, and we quickly recognized they were playing our National Anthem - how neat it that?
As the sun went down, we watched an AF pilot practicing "Touch and goes." Later in the evening, we heard "Taps" played over the PA system. It was impressive!
June 22 - As we approached Pensacola Bay, the sky ahead of us got very dark, and we knew we were probably going to be in for a big thunderstorm! We started seeing booms along the shoreline as we got closer to Pensacola Inlet as well as numerous work vessels (barges loaded with heavy equipment, dredges, and quite a few patrol boats. The tide was going out at the time, so the inlet didn't appear to be blocked with booms.
It was obvious that a great deal of effort is ongoing to protect the Intracoastal Waterway and shorelines from the oil!
We continued west to Perdido Key and found that several anchorages were completely blocked off with booms across the entrances. There had been some oil in Perdido Bay about ten days or so ago, but we were told that skimming efforts outside the inlets have been successful in keeping the oil offshore.
While the threatening storm clouds visible in the photos surrounded us, we surprisingly escaped with only light rain. Wolf Bay was open, and we dropped our hook for the night. We realized we had crossed the state line into Alabama and evidently were on the outskirts of Orange Beach.
A beautiful sunset was the climax for another interesting day on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
June 23 - We delayed our departure so we could dock at Lulu's for lunch. The owner of Lulu's is Jimmy Buffett's sister (Lucy). Our timing has been off to stop on our previous trips, and we decided it was a "must" this time. Lulu's is a large restaurant with a seating capacity of 400 with a tropical and festive decor and a very customer-oriented friendly, energetic staff.
We couldn't resist ordering a Cheeseburger in Paradise! What a fun place!
Entrance to Lulu's
Mobile Bay was a short distance west of Lulu's, and we observed booms everywhere along the shoreline as we approached.
We proceeded across Mobile Bay to Dog River on the western shore about halfway up the huge bay. Dog River Marina is a very familiar place to us since we stayed here last year in June and again in November. Dockmaster Michael welcomed us back and made us feel right at home as did Sonny Middleton, the owner of both the marina and the boatyard.
June 24-25 - Talk about activity! Docked here at Dog River Marina the past two days, we have been in the midst of the Mobile Bay oil spill protection efforts. BP officials have a portable office set up at the fuel dock, and every day 80 or more small boats come in to refuel. They are all working for BP in a program called Vessels of Opportunity. At 8 AM each morning they pass by us headed for Mobile Bay where they watch for evidence of oil. No doubt they have also been involved in the placement of all the booms that have been placed to protect the shorelines.
Every kind of small boat imaginable is on the water! It looks like the Spanish Armada fleet!
We caught up on boat chores and did some reprovisioning. Tomorrow we will cast off and head north up Mobile Bay and start our cruise up the Tombigbee Waterway.
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