Stillwater, MN to Ft. Meyers, FL -The original float plan called for a departure on Sept. 17th and an arrival of November 8th.
46 total days Sept. 18 to Nov 5
30 days of actual cruising
8 nights anchored out
2245 total miles
274.45 engine ours
8.2 mph average, includes idle time waiting for locks etc.
41 lock and dams
30 plus bridges
1130.06 gallons of diesel
1.99 MPG Includes running the generator
8.18 gallons per hour of run time
Worst fuel economy was .95MPG
Best fuel economy was 3.18 MPG
$4274.85 for fuel
Slip fees:
Lowest weekly rate at Turners Marine in Mobile was a lopper rate of 42 cents per foot
Highest daily rate was at Crows nest Marine in Venice, FL at 2:25 per foot
Average would be about $1:00 to $1:25 per foot
Maintenance and repairs
Replaced the Generator impeller in Grafton, Illinois
Changed oil and filters in Mobile
Replaced the Battery Bank in Mississippi
Changed Racor fuel filters in Carrabella, FL
The Crossing
175 miles from Carabella, FL to Tarpon Springs
22 hours ( 12 hours at night)
We crossed with 2 other boats on Wed afternoon October 29th and arrived mid morning the 30th.
We all cruised hard to get to Carabbela to make a weather window. We had perfect weather, Sea's where 1-2 ft with occasional 3-4 footer. Winds where 5-10 knots from the south. A front came through Thursday late with up to 35 knots and seas building to 14 ft. We have friends that were a day behind us and have been stuck on the Panhandle since the 30th and probably will not have a weather to cross until Nov. 10th!
That's it for the trip Blog, Brigitte and I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did. We will continue to Blog but less frequently. If you want to follow "Putz'n Around" on here next adventure, check in on us every couple of weeks.
Cheers and God Bless
Friday, November 7, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Longboat Key to Ft Meyerso
We left Longboat Key and Cruised to Venice, Fl. And stayed at the Crows Nest Marina. Toughest wind and tide action we have tried to get into! I made a mess of the approach but didn't hit anyone and the only damage was to my pride. Once tied up, our traveling friends Steve and Gina from Island Time and us went for a walk on the beach, our first dip of our toes into the gulf! OUTSTANDING!!!!
We had Docktails watching other boats head out to sea or dock at he Marina and grilled on the boat.
At 8 AM, Island Time and ourselves backed out of our side ties and headed 27 miles south to Pelican Bay where we anchored out. Both of us dropped the dinks and headed over to the island. We paid our $4.00 fee and they took us across the Island to the beach. For a reference point we could easily see the Boca Grand Pass from the beach. This is pristine, only a few primitive campsites and cabins. And miles of unspoiled beach. All you can see is sand and ocean. We walked back .7 miles to the dingy's and headed to Island Time for cocktails. We got back to our boat and grilled snapper for dinner.
November 5th, we called Island Time on the VHF and said our goodbyes until Jan. when we will see them in Snookbite Marina. We pulled anchor after taking Cody to the island for a long walk, and Brigitte served up a great breakfast! This is the last leg of our trip! Feels kind of weird! We traveled 41.3 miles to Legacy Harbour Marina. We arrived at 3:10 PM some 2245 miles from Sunnyside Marina! Brigitte and a I are enjoying a wee dram of 18 year old Glenmoringie! I will publish the data regarding time fuel ECT of this first leg of our great adventure on Thursday.
We had Docktails watching other boats head out to sea or dock at he Marina and grilled on the boat.
At 8 AM, Island Time and ourselves backed out of our side ties and headed 27 miles south to Pelican Bay where we anchored out. Both of us dropped the dinks and headed over to the island. We paid our $4.00 fee and they took us across the Island to the beach. For a reference point we could easily see the Boca Grand Pass from the beach. This is pristine, only a few primitive campsites and cabins. And miles of unspoiled beach. All you can see is sand and ocean. We walked back .7 miles to the dingy's and headed to Island Time for cocktails. We got back to our boat and grilled snapper for dinner.
November 5th, we called Island Time on the VHF and said our goodbyes until Jan. when we will see them in Snookbite Marina. We pulled anchor after taking Cody to the island for a long walk, and Brigitte served up a great breakfast! This is the last leg of our trip! Feels kind of weird! We traveled 41.3 miles to Legacy Harbour Marina. We arrived at 3:10 PM some 2245 miles from Sunnyside Marina! Brigitte and a I are enjoying a wee dram of 18 year old Glenmoringie! I will publish the data regarding time fuel ECT of this first leg of our great adventure on Thursday.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
11/2 on the move again!
After arriving in Tarpon springs and getting some rest, the cold front started to blow through. We were in a very perfected marina with little wave action but man did it blow. Winds were near gale force, anyone on the gulf was running in 14 footers, not good. Back to our reality, we took a cab to the sponge docks of Tarpon Springs. This is a close to Greece you can get in this country . We had a great meal and found a new favorite bar. 50 kind of vodka, good thing I am a scotch drinker! We ended riding out the cold front by returning to our new favorite bar another two nights. Finally the winds subsided enough for us to get underway and we ran seventy miles, crossing Tampa Bay and spending the night in the long boat key area.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Crossing weather
This why we spent so much effort and left a day earlier than expected. The sea is a mighty force not to be messed with! Here is one of the forecasting tools we used. We hope none of looper friends tried to cross today!
- TONIGHT
NORTHWEST WIND AROUND 20 KNOTS INCREASING TO AROUND 30 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO GALE FORCE AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET OCCASIONALLY UP TO 6 FEET.
BUILDING TO 4 TO 7 FEET OCCASIONALLY UP TO 9 FEET OUTSIDE OF APALACHEE BAY.
DOMINANT PERIOD 4 SECONDS.
PROTECTED WATERS CHOPPY INCREASING TO VERY ROUGH. - SATURDAY
NORTHWEST WIND AROUND 30 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO GALE FORCE...BECOMING 20 TO 25 KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON.
SEAS 4 TO 5 FEET IN APALACHEE BAY AND 5 TO 8 FEET OCCASIONALLY UP TO 10 FEET FURTHER OFFSHORE.
DOMINANT PERIOD 5 SECONDS.
PROTECTED WATERS VERY ROUGH BECOMING ROUGH.
Night Passage!
October 29th, 2014
Wednesday morning the Gulf Crossing weather prognostications told us today was the day. An approaching cold front and north wind a would make the gulf a mess untill at least the 6 th of November! 15 to 20 knot winds with seas 3-5 which means occasional seas over 6. No place for small boats like ours.
At 8AM Brigitte and I started the process of cleaning the boat stowing all stuff breakable. We took the dingy motor off the dingy and lashing it down in the cockpit. To much weigh on the transom if we encounter heavy seas. I spent a couple hours in the engine room checking oil, sea strainers and change the Racor Primary fuel filters. The three primary failures on diesel engines are fuel issues, fuel issues, and fuel issues followed by clogged water intakes. Topside I loaded a series of latitude and longitude coordinates into the chart plotter. Gina one of our new travel companions was our naviator and she had plotted two courses depending on the weather we would face along the route.
At noon the crew of Island Time, Gina and Capt. Steve along with Master Capt. Glen and Brenda from Young at Heart, Brigitte and I assembled on Putz'n Arounds deck. We re-read weather reports, conferred with Eddy's Weather Wag. Eddy is the new crossing expert for all us loppers. Daily he collects all facets of weather date such as tides, wave highth, wind direction weather fronts etc. And he gives the thumbs up or down on our crossing. We matched time, speed, course approach and determined it was time to go. It was important to arrive after sunrise to be able to spot the crab pot bouys that litter the waters We said a prayer and Brigitte attended to casting off our lines. I was ask to lead as we had better radar capabilities and we are the faster boat.
At 12:40 we entered the bay and went out into the gulf. Once in the gulf we had 1-2 for waves, mostly off the bow with a 5-10 knot wind. Very doable weather! As expected I-2 foot waves means Mother Nature throws a few 3-4 footers at you. This was the first time I had used the Navigation function on my chart plotter with my Auto Pilot so it took a few miles to get them to talk to each other and as a result I zig-zagged like a drunk in sailer. Glen had the same issue. Finally out about 9 miles out we had our band of boater is a relatively straight line. We are in our 60's the next boat were in their late 50's and the last boat in their late 70's. None had done the golf crossing and only one of us had done a night crossing. So why are these experienced boaters asking me lead! I wore my new tee shirt that states on the back " no one much cares about the storms you incounter in life, only did you bring the ship into port! So that's my job!
At 7:30 PM the sun went down and at 7:30 AM the sun came up and that was a very good thing. We had dinner, snacks, lots of caffeine and took two hour watches. We had a little moon light on the starboard side for a while. It was mostly overcast but when the clouds broke the stars where amazing. Mostly we watched the chart plotter to make sure we where on course, checked the AIS and Radar other ships, and monitored engine gages. It was a mild night so we sat on and slept on the flybridge with all the front curtains wide open. It was very strange look out the window and seeing nothing but black. I spotted only 2 other boats all night . I picked up a commercial tug on AIS about 10 miles out before his lights came into view. We talked and tracked our courses which showed he would pass behind us about 1.2 miles. The second boat I picked up as a radar blip about 6 miles out. I tracked him on radar and about 4 miles out I could see his white Nav. light. I tracked him until daylight as he narrowed his distance between us to 1.2 miles then he turned further south. We did have to slow to idle for about an our in the morning as it was getting down to about 30 ft of depth which is about the depth start dropping crab pots and it was to dark to proceed. We arrived into our marina at 10:20 AM
We took Cody off the boat, what a boat dog. He mostly slept the entire trip! Yup he made it 22 hours without relieving himself. We both took a shower and went to bed for 3 hours.
Statistics
175 statute miles Carrabella ,FL to Tarpon Springs
22 hours
Speed 7.1 knots
Fuel burn approximately 55 gallons
Observations:
Cross with a buddy boat
Putz'n rolls less at 10 12 knots but burns
Wednesday morning the Gulf Crossing weather prognostications told us today was the day. An approaching cold front and north wind a would make the gulf a mess untill at least the 6 th of November! 15 to 20 knot winds with seas 3-5 which means occasional seas over 6. No place for small boats like ours.
At 8AM Brigitte and I started the process of cleaning the boat stowing all stuff breakable. We took the dingy motor off the dingy and lashing it down in the cockpit. To much weigh on the transom if we encounter heavy seas. I spent a couple hours in the engine room checking oil, sea strainers and change the Racor Primary fuel filters. The three primary failures on diesel engines are fuel issues, fuel issues, and fuel issues followed by clogged water intakes. Topside I loaded a series of latitude and longitude coordinates into the chart plotter. Gina one of our new travel companions was our naviator and she had plotted two courses depending on the weather we would face along the route.
At noon the crew of Island Time, Gina and Capt. Steve along with Master Capt. Glen and Brenda from Young at Heart, Brigitte and I assembled on Putz'n Arounds deck. We re-read weather reports, conferred with Eddy's Weather Wag. Eddy is the new crossing expert for all us loppers. Daily he collects all facets of weather date such as tides, wave highth, wind direction weather fronts etc. And he gives the thumbs up or down on our crossing. We matched time, speed, course approach and determined it was time to go. It was important to arrive after sunrise to be able to spot the crab pot bouys that litter the waters We said a prayer and Brigitte attended to casting off our lines. I was ask to lead as we had better radar capabilities and we are the faster boat.
At 12:40 we entered the bay and went out into the gulf. Once in the gulf we had 1-2 for waves, mostly off the bow with a 5-10 knot wind. Very doable weather! As expected I-2 foot waves means Mother Nature throws a few 3-4 footers at you. This was the first time I had used the Navigation function on my chart plotter with my Auto Pilot so it took a few miles to get them to talk to each other and as a result I zig-zagged like a drunk in sailer. Glen had the same issue. Finally out about 9 miles out we had our band of boater is a relatively straight line. We are in our 60's the next boat were in their late 50's and the last boat in their late 70's. None had done the golf crossing and only one of us had done a night crossing. So why are these experienced boaters asking me lead! I wore my new tee shirt that states on the back " no one much cares about the storms you incounter in life, only did you bring the ship into port! So that's my job!
At 7:30 PM the sun went down and at 7:30 AM the sun came up and that was a very good thing. We had dinner, snacks, lots of caffeine and took two hour watches. We had a little moon light on the starboard side for a while. It was mostly overcast but when the clouds broke the stars where amazing. Mostly we watched the chart plotter to make sure we where on course, checked the AIS and Radar other ships, and monitored engine gages. It was a mild night so we sat on and slept on the flybridge with all the front curtains wide open. It was very strange look out the window and seeing nothing but black. I spotted only 2 other boats all night . I picked up a commercial tug on AIS about 10 miles out before his lights came into view. We talked and tracked our courses which showed he would pass behind us about 1.2 miles. The second boat I picked up as a radar blip about 6 miles out. I tracked him on radar and about 4 miles out I could see his white Nav. light. I tracked him until daylight as he narrowed his distance between us to 1.2 miles then he turned further south. We did have to slow to idle for about an our in the morning as it was getting down to about 30 ft of depth which is about the depth start dropping crab pots and it was to dark to proceed. We arrived into our marina at 10:20 AM
We took Cody off the boat, what a boat dog. He mostly slept the entire trip! Yup he made it 22 hours without relieving himself. We both took a shower and went to bed for 3 hours.
Statistics
175 statute miles Carrabella ,FL to Tarpon Springs
22 hours
Speed 7.1 knots
Fuel burn approximately 55 gallons
Observations:
Cross with a buddy boat
Putz'n rolls less at 10 12 knots but burns
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Sunday Oct 26 - Tuesday Oct 27
Sunday we pulled out of Pennsicola and end up some 60 miles latter at Baytown Marina in Sandestin. We were the small boat in the Marina , this a 2800 acre resort which included Golf , a village with all kinds of shops, resteraunt, bars, and the beach. You could even rent a golf cart for $80 per day that you could drive to your slip. We wish we could have stayed longer but we were trying to catch a weather windows to cross. Rates were $ 3.25 per foot but because we are loopers it dropped it to $2 a ft. Life styles of the rich and famous they even proved you with charge card to use on the property----not!
We left before sunrise the next morning for a 99.1 mile run to Port St Joe, Fl. We started the morning with dolphins surfing or bow wake on and off again all day. It was so cool to watch, every once in a while they would roll on their side so that they could look you right in the eye! We stopped in Panama City to fuel up on $3.39 diesel. From Mobile to Panama City we got 3.18 miles to the gallon! I underestimated the time and miles for today so we ended up running for 11.5 hours to get to Port St Joe FL, 99.1 miles. We ran out of the ICW into the bay at 19.1 knots to get to our slip as the sun dropped into the ocean at 7:30 Eastern. So here comes the fun part! As we entered the Marina at dusk, a guy was fishing off the pier and we snagged his line and spooled his reel on to the prop. Just terrific, I am tired, qranky and pissed! We have a few words and after being accused of being a Northerner, we get tied up, so nothing to do till morning. I talk to the Mariana manager at 7 AM and he had a kid in a dive suit in the water at 8:30 AM. No issue he cuts off the line and we are out of the Marina at 9:05.
We have been talking with two other boats behind us that want to cross the gulf weather permitting, on Wed. So after 2 days or texts and VHF talk we dock in Carabella, Fl and meet for the first time. We had Docktails on our boat, then walked into town for dinner. We stopped at the local grocery store borrowed a cart and took our collective provisions back to the boat. Tomorrow is the big day!
We are planning to leave the Marine around noon and will run for 22 hours straight to Tarpon Springs This is about a 181 mile over night passage. wish us luck and Gods speed and protection! We will talk to you on the other side!!!
Putz'n Around!
We left before sunrise the next morning for a 99.1 mile run to Port St Joe, Fl. We started the morning with dolphins surfing or bow wake on and off again all day. It was so cool to watch, every once in a while they would roll on their side so that they could look you right in the eye! We stopped in Panama City to fuel up on $3.39 diesel. From Mobile to Panama City we got 3.18 miles to the gallon! I underestimated the time and miles for today so we ended up running for 11.5 hours to get to Port St Joe FL, 99.1 miles. We ran out of the ICW into the bay at 19.1 knots to get to our slip as the sun dropped into the ocean at 7:30 Eastern. So here comes the fun part! As we entered the Marina at dusk, a guy was fishing off the pier and we snagged his line and spooled his reel on to the prop. Just terrific, I am tired, qranky and pissed! We have a few words and after being accused of being a Northerner, we get tied up, so nothing to do till morning. I talk to the Mariana manager at 7 AM and he had a kid in a dive suit in the water at 8:30 AM. No issue he cuts off the line and we are out of the Marina at 9:05.
We have been talking with two other boats behind us that want to cross the gulf weather permitting, on Wed. So after 2 days or texts and VHF talk we dock in Carabella, Fl and meet for the first time. We had Docktails on our boat, then walked into town for dinner. We stopped at the local grocery store borrowed a cart and took our collective provisions back to the boat. Tomorrow is the big day!
We are planning to leave the Marine around noon and will run for 22 hours straight to Tarpon Springs This is about a 181 mile over night passage. wish us luck and Gods speed and protection! We will talk to you on the other side!!!
Putz'n Around!
Saturday, October 25, 2014
We made it to Florida!!!
Saturday, we cruised at 6.4 knots only planing to make 30 - 40 miles. As we passed through an extremely narrow pass we contacted an approaching boat 60 ft at least. We discussed the approach and agreed to pass on the one whistle ( port to port). Further conversations lead to recommendations that we needed to stay in downtown Pensacola Fl. Yes we have crossed the line into Florida!!! Our new friend " Shell Cracker" radioed that he was not using his slip tonight so we were welcome to use his slip! We only made about 28 miles today. The Marina / yacht club is right in the middle of town.The downtown is a lovely area. I took the bike to the liquor store as we had run out of rum to make lum and remonades . We will need to make some miles for the next couple of days to make a passage from Carabella to Tarpon Springs on Wed or Thursday. Weather permitting! Will,post again as we can based on internet availability ! We hope all is well with you and yours! God bless!
Putz'n Around
Putz'n Around
Friday, October 24, 2014
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