Wow, when last we wrote we were Preparing to Leave St. Pete. Well we prepared and prepared and prepared and prepared, .... and finally left.
First we said we were leaving in the morning, and God laughed at our plans, and we sent the message "Just checked all the weather stations and it looks like we probably won't be leaving St. Pete until Friday 17th instead of tomorrow. Tomorrow looks ok BUT there is the possibilities of 2-4 etc in places and the Admiral don't like 4 footers and Friday looks like it will be more like she (me too) likes so we leave then. We will probably Not anchor at Anclote Key and just go straight to Dog Island or Carrabelle out of Clearwater". And as we were all prepared with waiting on the final news to be shown and going to bed to get a good nights sleep, God was really laughing and reminded us about Storms.
We are still getting used to Florida versus Texas Gulf and weather. We were reminded that and it was a good thing we were at the slip in St. Pete and not out there where we initially planned. We had a rain storm/thunder storm/lighting storm or whatever else you want to call it. Totally unexpected but the Florida people call it good and want more like it today and tomorrow. It had all the things a Thunder Storm/Squall Line has, HIGH wind (We clocked 50 at the boat-news reported 63), lots of wave action (we were in 18-20' of water with about 300 yards to the breakwater and had 3 to 4'whitecaps at the boat - low tide and white blowing water over the finger piers is how we measured it), and of course the rain, lighting and thunder etc. The news and the people who live here say, that is good we got needed rain, cooled us off, and it is getting that time of year, hope tomorrow we get the same. Well we said, our issue is they sent out no warnings (e.g breaking into or scrolls on tv for the line that hit us - had sent some earlier for a line south of us and predictions were none for us. They did a great job of describing and explaining why it occurred during the weather at 2300 which happened to be in the middle of the storm), and if this is "normal" and they predict more and want more, we asked ourselves; what would it be like if we were out in the Gulf 80+ miles from shore and run into one of them. We did not like the answer. Would we survive? YEP but we don't need the hassle. And we know it is going to happen sometime even with the best of planning but let us not jump into it if we feel there is going to be something to make us uncomfortable. So we looked at alternative ways of dealing with the issue of DAILY storms and some of them not predicted. We looked at it before but not as close as we should have we think especially if we are going to be out of reach of a divert port/anchorage.
And so we thought about it the next day, we scoured all the weather outlets, we talked to people and then decided to leave the next morning. The plans were to pull out of the slip around 0700. ICW to Clearwater then offshore to Anclote Key. Anchor at Anclote key and then follow the bend at the 3 fathom line anchoring each evening before any storms, ride them out if required, get some sleep and continue the trip around the bend till we anchored at Dog Island to go into C-Quarters the next morning.
And at 0700 the following mooring we were off and running (or better classified as a crawl as our trawler is a slow but steady beast).
Steve & Carol aboard
m/v Sandpiper
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