The Crossing

 We had such a lovely forecast from our weather routing service we actually thought about making it all the way to the keys.  Oh well, reality just didn't match the forecast.  For the blog, I'll just focus on the good things because the bad was, well, bad.

 We had spent a great night at the St. Andrew's Bay Yacht Club enjoying one more night of heat and a fabulous dinner. Coming out the St. Andrew's Bay pass was great. Wind and waves were exactly as forecast.  Strong, steady but not overpowering winds with flat seas, a sailor's dream.  We had pods of 30-40 dolphins taking turns cruising with us and playing in our bow wake.  One juvenile even did spectacular flips and leaps for us.  Just a wonderful start.  We saw some pelicans and seagulls too.  We had a rod in the holder so I think they were looking for scraps but we weren't fishing.  We were surprised that we saw no other boats until the middle of the night and they were on the reverse course to Choctawhatchee bay.  What a small world that two small boats would pass on reciprocal courses.  

Cut to coming in the pass at Clearwater.  It was just at sundown and the pass was full of tourist boats taking their fares to watch the sunset. On one classic schooner, a bridal couple was being photographed with the bowsprit and sunset as background.  I'm sure they were stunning pictures.  We made it in to our anchorage and filled with gratitude dropped anchor and stopped moving!  We like to anchor just off the Clearwater Yacht Club where we have reciprocal privileges.  It rained all day so we took a day off to clean us and the boat.  David also continued tweaking the generator for the alternator.  It was a great and much needed respite.

St.Andrew's Bay Yacht Club.  The club's docks were destroyed by Hurricane Michael but they now have this long dock and power.

Blue Moon ready for the next leg of the journey.

Beautiful grounds and club.

Getting ready to go offshore means securing items from being tossed about in rough seas.

No one likes to think about it, but sinking is a

possibility.  We fill our ditch bag with important papers, cash and wallets.  We also include water and an

emergency signaling device.  We were going farther offshore we'd include more survival gear.  Realistically, in the Gulf we could expect a rescue within 24 hours once we set off our EPIRB.

Water starting to get a bit active.  So long flat seas.

Before things got rough, David was able to work on the engine.