Time to move on

Last Friday, John and Ryan left to go home to wives and work, and left me at C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle, Florida.



Here is our "team photo" before they got in the car.

I have been here since, waiting for the Gulf to calm down. The same storm that caused all the problems in New England, combined with the remnants of tropical storm Rena has stirred up the Gulf. Carrabelle, population 1,300, has been very hospitable and I have kept myself busy. Nonetheless, I'm ready to move on.





If you know me, you know I don't do "sitting around" very well. My wife says I'm part border collie -- always needing something to do. So while the marina porch is covered with rocking chairs filled with other cruisers waiting for better weather, I found some boat projects that needed doing.

I won't bore you with the details of rebonding a teak seat in the cockpit, or defrosting the freezer, or changing the fuel filter. But I will bore you with a quick story about one of my batteries. Agaliha has two huge 12-volt batteries that run everything when she is not plugged in to shore power. I replaced both of them a little over a year ago, so they should be perfect. The boat has a very complex battery monitoring system and I noticed something that bothered me while we were on anchor in Panama City.

Monday morning at 2:30 a.m. I was awakened by my carbon monoxide alarm. Agaliha doesn't produce any CO, so I was puzzled. I peered all around me in the marina and no one was running an engine, so I disabled the alarm and went back to bed. When I got up at 7:00 a.m. and got near the engine compartment, I could smell battery acid. Not good.

Without all the gory details, I determined by mid-day that one "cell" of one of my batteries had gone bad and the charger was trying to compensate --boiling the acid in the remaining cells. The fumes from this boiling had set off the CO alarm. So then I starting pounding the streets of Carrabelle looking for a replacement battery. At first, it looked like there wasn't going to be one. I was prepared to limp along on one battery when my last phone call located a replacement at a marina across the river. I got a ride to drive me and my bad battery the two miles to the marina, purchased the new one and brought it back to the boat. When I installed it, everything started working perfectly again. So, I was in a good place for that to happen, with plenty of time to deal with it.

Last night I had the great pleasure of eating dinner with one of my high school professors who has retired in nearby Apalachicola. We caught up on lots of mutual friends and I was happy to see that his wit and wisdom is just as sharp as it was 40 years ago. The only fish the restaurant had on the menu was frozen from the Atlantic, so we opted for local shrimp. Seriously.


Sitting 5 days in one place waiting on weather is just part of this experience. People who have done lots of boat travel all have their stories about long waits for better weather. And sorting through the forecasts and hunches from everyone lined up in those rocking chairs is a real challenge. The good news is that I have learned of some additional resources by listening to the porch rockers. So it appears that there is a narrow window of calm seas between here and Clearwater starting tomorrow morning -- if the forecast is correct. Even if it is incorrect, the seas are not dangerous -- just very uncomfortable.

So, my next crew is on his way here and we will sail out of the marina this afternoon and anchor just off Dog Island. At first light tomorrow we will venture back into the Gulf for a 155-mile trip across open water. It will take at least 24 hours, moving all day and night, so my crew and I will take turns napping to keep Agaliha moving. This will be the longest continuous passage of my trip.

Real "blue water sailors" (those that sail across oceans) will laugh at a little jaunt like this. I even have enough fuel on board to motor the entire way if I need to. But for lake sailor like me it is still an exciting adventure.



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