Jim and Barbara from Golden Lily, Jeannette and Charlie from Highlander and Bob and I met this morning at 6 a.m. to review the forecast and decide if this is a go day. It is an agonizing process as there is no real right answer for everybody. Today’s NOAA forecast looked great for our immediate area but mentioned west winds building this afternoon which would mean beam seas. NOAA forecasts have not always been right the past few days and when this happens, you tend to question their accuracy. We evaluated that most of the day looked good, so let’s go for it. However, if we stayed, there was going to be a pancake breakfast in Steinhatchee as well as the holiday parade so no choice was totally bad.
We left with gray cloudy skies and a light East wind with a 1 foot chop on the Gulf. Here’s a picture of crabbers setting their pots and we did find a number of them. Baby Grand is the slowest boat and the lead was taken by Golden Lily, followed by Highlander and the boats initially had a 1 mile spacing which increased to 6-10 miles as the day wore on. All of us stayed connected on Channel 69. The cloudy, sometimes foggy day, was brightened by a solar breakthrough which cast a halo on the water ahead and urged us forward.
We monitor Channel 16 and heard 3 distress calls to the Coast Guard and towboat companies from boats in our area that were “dead in the water”, “having engine problems” and one from a 13 foot hydrofoil with kids aboard with no insurance. We began to have some concern about our situation when a Boat US Towboat operator interrupted us on Channel 69 and advised us that the tide charts that we were using for Crystal River were not accurate, that there was less water in there and that boats with a draft over 4 feet might go aground.
This created immediate panic and problem solving. Our boat, Baby Grand, only draws 3’10”, so we volunteered to go into the 7 mile channel first and scope it out and relay our depths to Highlander and Golden Lily. Here’s a picture of them following us through the notorious Shell Island section. We did find a few 5’ sections in the channel, but generally, there was plenty of water depth. Here’s a picture of us approaching the Twin Rivers Marina at 5:30 at sunset. We made it.
This day had a relaxing ending when Tom and Debbie, who live in Crystal River and are former Loopers, met us at the marina and took us all out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There is goodness in the world.
We left with gray cloudy skies and a light East wind with a 1 foot chop on the Gulf. Here’s a picture of crabbers setting their pots and we did find a number of them. Baby Grand is the slowest boat and the lead was taken by Golden Lily, followed by Highlander and the boats initially had a 1 mile spacing which increased to 6-10 miles as the day wore on. All of us stayed connected on Channel 69. The cloudy, sometimes foggy day, was brightened by a solar breakthrough which cast a halo on the water ahead and urged us forward.
We monitor Channel 16 and heard 3 distress calls to the Coast Guard and towboat companies from boats in our area that were “dead in the water”, “having engine problems” and one from a 13 foot hydrofoil with kids aboard with no insurance. We began to have some concern about our situation when a Boat US Towboat operator interrupted us on Channel 69 and advised us that the tide charts that we were using for Crystal River were not accurate, that there was less water in there and that boats with a draft over 4 feet might go aground.
This created immediate panic and problem solving. Our boat, Baby Grand, only draws 3’10”, so we volunteered to go into the 7 mile channel first and scope it out and relay our depths to Highlander and Golden Lily. Here’s a picture of them following us through the notorious Shell Island section. We did find a few 5’ sections in the channel, but generally, there was plenty of water depth. Here’s a picture of us approaching the Twin Rivers Marina at 5:30 at sunset. We made it.
This day had a relaxing ending when Tom and Debbie, who live in Crystal River and are former Loopers, met us at the marina and took us all out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There is goodness in the world.
