C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle, FL here we come! It is sunny and winds are less than 10mph. We knew this location was remote but we were not prepared for just how much so. The nearest Walmart was 30+ miles away. Population is 2,600. The Dollar Store, hardware store, and small IGA grocery were all within walking distance—very appreciated. We found a small park memorial (Carrabelle memorial) to armed services. A local source shared Carrabelle was a WWII training base for amphibious soldiers on the nearby beaches.

So now it is decision time with two options: 1) Proceed directly across the Gulf to Tampa area OR 2) Hop to waypoints along the gulf coast of FL panhandle.  Clearly our preference is 2). We have crossed the Gulf in the past and didn’t feel a need to do that again. Last time we had a licensed captain with us. However, several factors come in to play with the decision. Our boat can go fast or far—but not both. Gulf crossing is about 150 miles. At top speed, we’d burn through fuel too quickly to make the full 150-mile crossing. But if we throttled down to 8–10 knots, we’d have enough fuel—at the cost of an 18-hour haul.

Typically the waves and winds calm down after dark. We are watching for a weather window with no storms, low winds, minimal current to accomplish either choice 1) or 2).  The intermediate waypoints are all ravaged by storm damage and are lacking many amenities plus the approach is very susceptible to tide changes making the approach dicey even for low draft boats like ours (our boat dept under water line is about 3.5 feet). We could not find a consecutive window to make the shorter hops needed for option 2) and we were very concerned about shallow waters and trying to arrive with high tide swings only. If we waited much longer it appeared we would be “stuck” in Carabelle for a couple weeks. So… we decided to go for it and cross the Gulf. We made the decision that day, and scheduled our departure for March 25 at 12:30pm.