We left Palafox Pier Yacht Harbor Marina in Pensacola, FL the morning of Tuesday January 7th and anchored out in Destin Harbor East Anchorage in Destin, Florida for a calm and peaceful night. The following morning we headed out for a 7ish hour trip and tucked into Sun Harbor Marina in Panama City, FL for the night. This marina was completely wiped out by Hurricane Michael in 2018 and is still rebuilding but their docks are new and they have fuel at 50 cents off per gallon for Loopers, so we topped off. Once the marina gets back to full operation it looks to be a really nice place to stop while traveling along the Florida panhandle. The staff was exceptional too!.
On the trip to Sun Harbor we were joined by two other Looper boats, Ti Amo and Knot Golfing as we all traveled to various ports in Panama City.
On Thursday January 9th we made a 6ish hour trip to Point South Port St. Joe Marina in Port St. Joe, FL. This trip was on “the outside”, which means we took a shortcut into and along the Gulf shore instead of the ICW which meandered several miles up into the land areas, increasing our travel time by a couple of hours. We would have taken the ICW if the windy conditions had made travel in the Gulf uncomfortable. But! it was a very nice, warm, and calm ride that day.
While at Port St. Joe we were once again joined by Day Dreaming and Sea Batical, two of the Looper boats we spent Thanksgiving with. We also spent some time over Christmas with Day Dreaming while in Biloxi.
So, here’s the thing. We officially started our 4th year of doing Americas Great Loop on January 8th, 2025 and I am ready to end my boating life when we finally dock at home, as I feel that part of me is complete. BUT, when I get around other Loopers I start to feel conflicted. Maybe we could keep this going for a little while longer? Hmmmm…what if?
Debbie and Mark on ‘Meant to be’, who live about 10 minutes from us, are doing the east coast thing up to the Chesapeake this year and want us to join them. I don’t know. Then, Florida has that hurricane thing from June 1 to November 30th which makes Florida a highly questionable place to boat full time.
The thing that happened this time while gathering with the group has to do with “the crossing”. There are two traditional ways to get from the panhandle of Florida to head south along the west side of Florida.
Option One is “the big bend” which is the 3-5 day longer route and takes boaters through 2 additional cities; Apalachicola and Carrabelle, Florida, Carrabelle being the jump off point for all the crossings. From there it is a day long, down to Steinhatchee, Fl. Then bop down the coast south to eventually get to Tarpon Springs/Clearwater.
Now, here’s the issue with “the big bend” route. The last two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, that went through the Gulf coast of Florida in November of 2024 have decimated all the marinas along the panhandle and the upper Gulf coast. Because of that staying in Apalachicola and Carrabelle for longer than a day, maybe 2, is not an option as those marinas have no services for longer stays. So “the big bend” is out.
Option two is “the overnight crossing”, which is 175 miles down open water of the Gulf from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs/Clearwater. This crossing has never interested me as you leave about 3-5PM (depending on how fast you drive) one evening and getting into Tarpon Springs/Clearwater at 10am the next morning. Arrival time at 10am is due to the number of crab pots in that area along the western shore of Florida that are very hard to see and along with the sun shining directly in your face before 10am. Those crab pots are essentially invisible and you do not want to drive over one of those as they will wrap up your props and ruin a veeerrrrryyy long journey as well as the time and money it takes to pull the boat and get it fixed. Traveling overnight has never excited me as being in open water and in the dark is just plain scary. But, there are about 30 boats all stacked up waiting for a reasonable weather window to make the crossing, so I am now okay with making the overnight crossing as part of a huge group.
Option two is completely weather dependent. Up until this very morning the weather looked perfect for the “the overnight crossing” leaving Carrabelle Thursday night January 16th and getting into a marina in Tarpon Springs on Friday morning January 17th, perfect. BUT! the weather and wind direction have changed since last night. That is still probably doable, but it might be a considerably bumpy ride due to broadside winds and swells now coming from the west, pushing more water at us for a long period, in the middle of the Gulf, in the cold and in the dark.
Now, just sitting here, Michael has come up with a third option. We get to Carrabelle tomorrow, as planned, and anchor overnight, leave early on Thursday morning and take a shorter trajectory across the Gulf toward the west coast to Cedar Key to anchor overnight, then travel outh into Tarpon Springs/Clearwater the following day on Friday. Hmmm, that sounds good too. It is still 175 miles, it won’t be any longer, but it changes our travel trajectory to compensate for the west winds and it will keep us closer to the coast when the winds later shift to come out of the east for our travel south along the coast. We will not be with the pack, but we won’t be traveling at night either so…maybe? Gonna have to take a look again tomorrow morning before we leave here and head to Carrabelle for overnight anchorage to make the final decision…overnight or not?
There is a Looper gathering tonight at the marina lounge to discuss crossing plans so more discussion will take place. We will see.
Once we get to Tarpon Springs we will be there for at least a week due to the crappy weather through the rest of January. BUT! we will be only a few hours from home so we will rent a car and drive home for a few days rather than sitting on the boat with nothing to do. We will also be able to take our car and park it at our new marina so when we get there we won’t have to make an expensive Uber ride home across Tampa Bay over the Sunshine Bridge. So that works out well.
Yes, we have secured a home port marina for whenever we get back home. We actually are in the same marina, Little Harbor Marina in Ruskin, FL, that we had to give up last year due to damage and lock closure keeping us from getting home last winter. We are even on the same dock as we leased last year, only one slip over. Our lease starts February 1, so hopefully we can get there within some reasonable time the first part of February. From Tarpon Springs to Ruskin is only 60 miles! so hopefully we can make it on 1 day, when/if weather ever cooperates.
That’s it for now. Thanks for following ‘THIS is what’ as we look to complete America’s Great Loop in the weeks to come. Follow back in a few weeks to see how we crossed and how that went, oh boy… Love to all, Gina and Mike
