Port St Joe to Dog Island

We were surprised on Saturday morning to learn that a window for crossing the Gulf had moved up a few days, and if we wanted to catch it, we needed to skedaddle. The window we were shooting for was to leave the Carabelle Fl area on Sunday afternoon, and travel overnight to Clearwater to arrive on Monday morning. So...off we went to find an anchorage at Dog Island, some 50 miles south and east of Port St. Joe. With our travel partners InSpeyered 2 and Liquid Assets joining us, we managed to depart by about 11 am.

Nothing like a floating house with its own boat...maybe a slick way to avoid property taxes?

In this 50 mile leg, we once again had a variety of scenery that we traversed..

Some lowland marshes...

 

InSpeyered 2 and Liquid Assets on some lake like spots...

 

And some scenery reminiscent of the Tennessee River.

 We found the anchorage called Shipping Cove at Dog Island to be gorgeous! There were already a half dozen boats there anchored with the same idea as we had...to wait for the right time to leave for the crossing. In short, the idea is to time your departure so that you don't get to your intended arrival in the Tarpon Springs or Clearwater area too early in the morning. There are crab pots to be dodged, and if you get there too early, the sun is directly in your eyes, and you can't spot them. So, you do the math and figure out what time you need to leave to arrive around 10 am, after the sun is higher in the sky...for us, that was 3 pm the next day (Sunday).

View of the beach at our anchorage at Shipping Cove.

 

The crew of Liquid Assets surveying their raft-up with InSpeyered 2.

We arrived at the anchorage just before sunset, and enjoyed a very peaceful evening, and a relaxing morning resting up for our long overnight journey on Sunday/Monday. Sandy tried her hand at some beach art, and although she didn't spend as much time with it as she had wanted too, the result (an angel) was superb!

 

Just wait until you hear how much fun we had on this crossing...soon to follow!