Month Long Cruise PCB - Key West - 340

Thanks, guys. I'll keep it going until the pics and vids are up to date.

We finally got gas and got moved to our real slip after 2 hours at the Sea Hag Marina. Shelli and I headed out for a short walk to see a little bit of the town. The way it's laid out, you can see more by boat. There are water-front properties available. I think the place is too small for a phone book - everyone posts their info at the corner of the one intersection in town.

The Sea Hag has a nice, little bar, but no restaurant. It rained all night long.

We headed out first thing for our journey across a section of the Gulf to the East end of the ICW inside Dog Island:

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The weather was up and down, but the water settled down when we got inside the barrier islands. The work boats began to appear along our route. We got a wave from the lucky pelican as we approached Apalachicola. We got gas and GREAT grub at Scipio Creek Marina in Apalachicola.

From there, we wound our way down the ICW to the channel to St Joe Bay and the Marina where we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at their restaurant overlooking the bay.

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Thanks John,

Great photos again.. I see your gauges reading about like mine.. Looks like your starboard gets better gas mileage than your port engine? Is your genny hooked up to your port tank?

What's the 8.5 reading on your starbaord tach?

Like the small fan you have, where are you running the cord to?

Weather has been awful the past few days here on the east coast!! Hope it clears up soon.

Barry
 
Thanks John,

Great photos again.. I see your gauges reading about like mine.. Looks like your starboard gets better gas mileage than your port engine? Is your genny hooked up to your port tank?

What's the 8.5 reading on your starbaord tach?

Like the small fan you have, where are you running the cord to?

Weather has been awful the past few days here on the east coast!! Hope it clears up soon.

Barry

My engines actually burn the exact same amount of gas at the same RPMs. After 200 gallons of gas, they require within 1 gallon of each other to re-fill the tanks. Genny gas comes from the stbd side, but we didn't use any on these legs.

The 8.5 is the depth. I just got two of those small fans at West Marine on this trip - lots of stale air until this last week. They are plugged into the helm under the steering wheel in the cigarette lighter receptacle. Our weather has been very wet and stormy too. Maybe this weekend will be nice.
 
Dockside's at Port St. Joe Marina. One of my favorite places. An odd coincidence...we ran into a couple from Connecticut who are doing the Great Loop (they took a side trip up the Tennessee) & took them out to dinner Tuesday night. While at Goosepond Marina we met Ray & Patsy who used to be the harbor hosts at St. Joe. They moved north & ended up at the local marina here. Small world.

Looks like you had a great trip and I have enjoyed reading your trip log. If you run into Scott or Connie McLelland (he is a veterinarian in PCB & keeps a boat at Capt. Dave's) tell them Anne & Bill said hello.

Enjoy your retirement.
 
Thanks for sharing the trip , excellent :thumbsup: and like you said one hell of a Boat .. Will defo have that on my list when i upgrade .

Congratulations to you both by the way , and look forward to the next trip..

You covered it so well with Pictures Video and write ups it was a great thread ..

:smt038
 
Dockside's at Port St. Joe Marina. One of my favorite places. An odd coincidence...we ran into a couple from Connecticut who are doing the Great Loop (they took a side trip up the Tennessee) & took them out to dinner Tuesday night. While at Goosepond Marina we met Ray & Patsy who used to be the harbor hosts at St. Joe. They moved north & ended up at the local marina here. Small world.

Looks like you had a great trip and I have enjoyed reading your trip log. If you run into Scott or Connie McLelland (he is a veterinarian in PCB & keeps a boat at Capt. Dave's) tell them Anne & Bill said hello.

Enjoy your retirement.

Great place, great people. I'll keep Scott and Connie in mind.
 
Thanks for sharing the trip , excellent :thumbsup: and like you said one hell of a Boat .. Will defo have that on my list when i upgrade .

Congratulations to you both by the way , and look forward to the next trip..

You covered it so well with Pictures Video and write ups it was a great thread ..

:smt038

Thanks, Big Pete!
 
John, My Man, I believe someone else already said this but I'll say it again.

YOU AND THE WIFE ARE THE ENVY OF EVERYBODY ON THIS WEBSITE:smt038:smt038:smt038!!!

Congratulations on your uneventful journey and welcome back .:thumbsup:
 
Thanks, Kreole Kid. I don't look at it that way, but I can see what you mean. We've come a long way, and we made this happen together. You don't get chances like this many times in a life, and you have to grab them and run with them, after a good year of preparation.

It's all very surreal. It's like everything else that has happened to us lately - we'll have to sit back and soak it all in before we really understand what has happened (military retirement, wife done working, Daughter #1 grad from college, Daughter #2 grad from HS, 25th anniv....
 
John,

Sounds like a great trip and good times where had by all, thanks for sharing. Can't wait for the book.
 
John, My Man, I believe someone else already said this but I'll say it again.

YOU AND THE WIFE ARE THE ENVY OF EVERYBODY ON THIS WEBSITE:smt038:smt038:smt038!!!

Congratulations on your uneventful journey and welcome back .:thumbsup:
My thoughts exactly. Thanks for letting us come along for the ride!
 
John,

I'll add my congratulations and thanks for having us along for the trip.
 
Great trip, wonderful pictures. Someday maybe we will do a long trip. But it would be really long from Central NY
 
I once ran from upper Tickfaw River (Hammond, LA) to Destin and back and I thought I had really done something. Your trip and associated documentary is truly an inspiration. And, thanks to BP it appears your timing wasn't too bad either.

Congrats on a wonderful adventure and thanks for sharing.
 
Great updates John..

A few questions.. When you took the dinghy out to snorkel, what kind of anchor do you use? Also how do you get back in the dinghy from the water?

I haven't really used the galley stove before, usually just grilling for lunch and dinner.. Curious what you cooked, what you would make for breakfast, and any tips or ideas on what to bring?

Thanks again...

Barry

Sorry, Barry. Just saw this, I guess.

The only time we anchored with the dinghy was over at the wreck at Loggerhead Key. We used Nelson's dinghy anchor - seems like it was a big, heavy mushroom anchor. Usually, we either held on to it or tied it to a mooring ball.

Shelli and I hoist ourselves up from out of the water over the side of the dinghy.

Shelli always cut up fresh fruit, then we had lox and bagels or bacon and eggs, or waffles, or some combination of the above. We also added breakfast burritos to the list.

We like to bring:
Eggs
Turkey Bacon
Fruit
Canned fish products (Oysters, anchovies, tuna, sardines - good, fast protein)
Bread
Lunch Meat
Cheeses
Sandwich toppings (L, T, O, Pickles...)
Pancake mix
Syrup
Bagels
Lox (the good stuff)
Coffee (Starbucks, pre-ground, Breakfast Blend, 1/2 caffeine)
Wheat thins
Pre-made Guacamole dip
Chips
One or two main dishes - Grouper, Steaks, Chicken...
Fresh Veggies
Packaged Rice (I hate that stuff)


We read that you always bring too much food, so figure out what you'll actually eat, and bring only that. We through away two nights worth of chicken. We ate a lot less while on our trip than we do at home.
 
Great Trip.....Congrats to you and Shelli........

I plan to re-read this thread during the first snow storm next winter....brrrrrrr.
 

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