Chattanooga to Cape Coral

Careful out there Carter. It doesn’t have to move much to make a b-line toward Mobile. And let me apologize in advance for my hurricane. Stay safe!
 
Good luck Carter, stay safe. I like reading your adventures back and forth. Good luck to you also Frank and everyone else in the path. Watching CNBC this morning and their showing a CAT 4 heading for Panama City. Thoughts and prayers for all.
 
We dodged it in Mobile. Looks Like she's up to 145 mph and will hit east of Panama City. Last night we thought we could depart Friday and go straight across the Gulf, but this morning the wave forecast is not favorable, so Reward may sit here a while. We'll have to see how long it takes for marinas to get power and fuel back.
 
Carter - we are still seeing the effects here on the Florida central East coast. Small craft warnings (5 to 7 with 9 second periods). Calming down greatly this weekend on both coasts (1 to 2's) Naples and East coast. Hoping end of next week it's good for us to stay off shore to Key West.
Stay safe!
Tom
 
I wonder where Frank W hunkered down. If I recall, his place is located such that in addition to wind damage it's likely storm surge could either pass through his house or hopefully under it. Anyone hear from him?
 
I wonder where Frank W hunkered down. If I recall, his place is located such that in addition to wind damage it's likely storm surge could either pass through his house or hopefully under it. Anyone hear from him?

Heard from him a day or so ago. They are safe and out of harms way.
 
Good to hear that. I would be very careful running with the storm surge I would bet there is a ton of stuff floating around the Gulf all along your way!!! Take Care. Crazy how fast it spun up to a Cat 4...
 
Carter.

Hope all is well and calm now. Not sure if you've left your slip yet or not, but I would think there would be a astronomical amount of floating debris washing out of every river and inlet in that area. Be safe!!!
 
So here’s the “Paul Harvey” - the rest of the story (I’ll update the OP as well)

Day 8/9/10/11/12
Slipped at Dog River Marina due to Hurricane Michael. On Wed when Michael came ashore, we had N winds 15-20 gusts to 30. We were alongside with a 7 point tie heading 330 so the winds held us nicely off the dock.

Day 13 (Oct 12)
0740 Depart Dog River
1500 Enter Gulf at Pensacola Cut
Oct 13
0001 Taking 4’ swells abeam - Terrible Ride - not forecasted
Oct 14
0600 Abeam swells finally end - 36 HRs of terrible ride
0730 Enter Boca Grande Cut
1120 Arrived in Slip Tarpon Point Marina

440 nm/52 HRs

Ran at 8.5 KTs for timing arrival at Boca Grande after dawn. My MAN‘s got pretty good economy there as well started out at 7 GPH and ended up at 4 GPH as we got lighter. 375 gallons for 440 Miles. We did run at 80% load at the end for a while to clean out any soot. We use 62 GPH there, so we could not have crossed the Gulf from Mobile/Pensacola at that speed - 700 gallon capacity. We normally run 9 hrs Panama City to Clearwater on 560 gallons with a 20% reserve.
 
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Welcome Home!! Glad you made it without incident.
 
Carter, I've been watching your journey and glad you made it safely across. Those 4' beam seas ain't a bit of fun but in a boat that size it's doable.

You now have some great tales to tell all your buds when you get home. I've always said that anyone can drive a boat in calm waters. Not everyone can or wants to skipper a boat when the going gets a bit on the rough side.

Kudos to you!
 
So here’s the “Paul Harvey” - the rest of the story (I’ll update the OP as well)

Day 8/9/10/11/12
Slipped at Dog River Marina due to Hurricane Michael. On Wed when Michael came ashore, we had N winds 15-20 gusts to 30. We were alongside with a 7 point tie heading 330 so the winds held us nicely off the dock.

Day 13 (Oct 12)
0740 Depart Dog River
1500 Enter Gulf at Pensacola Cut
Oct 13
0001 Taking 4’ swells abeam - Terrible Ride - not forecasted
Oct 14
0600 Abeam swells finally end - 36 HRs of terrible ride
0730 Enter Boca Grande Cut
1120 Arrived in Slip Tarpon Point Marina

440 nm/52 HRs

Ran at 8.5 KTs for timing arrival at Boca Grande after dawn. My MAN‘s got pretty good economy there as well started out at 7 GPH and ended up at 4 GPH as we got lighter. 375 gallons for 440 Miles. We did run at 80% load at the end for a while to clean out any soot. We use 62 GPH there, so we could not have crossed the Gulf from Mobile/Pensacola at that speed - 700 gallon capacity. We normally run 9 hrs Panama City to Clearwater on 560 gallons with a 20% reserve.


Tell Howard and Marty I said Hi.. We will be down in mid-november. Hope to meet you then. I'm glad your Gulf leg was safe
 
Carter - we will be passing right by you on our trip back to the East coast on the 29th from Key West/Dry Tortugas. I'd love to stop and explore the area but need to get back to that work thing. One long blow on the horn as we pass.
Tom
 
Carter,
Thank you so much for the abbreviated version of the log book. I may be weird but to me it is fascinating.

Guys like me can't imagine that gulf crossing. We are all glad that leg of the trip had a safe ending.
 

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