St. Petersburg, FL. to Panama City, FL.

April 12 to April 16

We left St. Pete and spent one night on anchor in Clearwater Beach than one night at 3 Rocker Bay near Tarpon Springs. The weather was not to be in our favor to make a crossing to Panama City so we decided instead to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Apalachicola, FL instead. This crossing was 174 miles. We left our anchorage at 11:30 am on Tues. and went all night across the Gulf and arrived in Apalachicola at 7:30 am on Wed.

We moved on to Panama City on Thurs. through the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) and went to a friends dock once we got there. We will spend a couple of days here than move west across the Pan Handle toward Mobile Bay.

 

Stuart FL. to St. Petersburg FL.

April 5 to April 11

This section we traveled thru Lake Okeechobee, using a man made canal that cuts right through the state of Florida. Starting from the east is the St. Lucie River and coming out on the west side in the Caloosahatchee River which ends up in Ft. Myers.

Okeechobee Waterway.

 

 Cows & horses in the front yard??

Lake Okeechobee is the 2nd largest fresh water lake (Lake MI is the largest),

but it's average depth is only 6-10 ft.

 

 White pelican.

 

Once we arrived in Ft. Myers we went to a private dock in the canal system. This dock belongs to a lady who also belongs to the AGLCA and offers her dock with free power & water (also a pool) to any Loopers traveling thru.

Kitty, Sherri, Randy

 

From there we traveled north staying one night near Don Pedro State park where we took our dinghy in and walked the beach and found sharks teeth. The next night we moved on to Sarasota and enjoyed a very calm quite night at anchor. Next we stopped in St. Pete. and anchored by an American Legion (Randy is a member). Tomorrow we will move on north of Clearwater and stage ourselves for a Gulf crossing to Panama City. This crossing is over 200 miles and will take us about 30 hours. So yes this will be an overnight event. We will be crossing with 2 buddy boats, Blue Angel and Radiance. If weather permits we will be leaving Clearwater on Tues. morning and arriving in Panama City on Wed. afternoon.

Osprey

 

White Heron 

Sun Shine Bridge, Tampa Bay

 

Bahamas to Stuart FL.

March 31 to April 4

Our final days in the Bahamas we spent traveling and anchoring by several Cays. The weather held out for us keeping the winds low and the sun high.

Green Turtle Cay

 

 Our last day traveling on the Sea of Abaco.

 

 The water was 14' deep here.

 

We spent 12 hours and 100 miles crossing the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Stuart FL. yesterday afternoon. The crossing was very uneventful (thankfully), with 2-3 foot rollers which were hitting us on the side of the boat but not too uncomfortable.

It was a bittersweet time for us seeing the States again. We had to say goodbye to crystal clear water and a laid back way of life. Once we hit the St. Lucie inlet that laid back life went right out the window. There were dozens of sport fishing boats and others zigzagging everywhere enjoying the day. Along with that were the noises we had grown used to not hearing, like trains, sirens, and the good ole Beep-Beep of some truck backing up. On the bright side we were back to our home country and also the use of internet and phones. It was great being able to talk to family and friends with no time limit.

After anchoring we shared a bottle of champagne with our buddy boat Blue Angel (Jim and Sharon) for safely completing our Bahamas trip and celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary.