Thanksgiving Trip 2020 Day 1

   

Boating With Friends

 Finally, after doing so many projects, it was time for another “shakedown Cruise”, every cruise is a shakedown. Our plan was to travel South to the Clearwater area with our real intended destination to be Dunedin for Thanksgiving Day. The girls would drive down on Wednesday and we could have dinner on the boat.

    We departed one day later than we wanted to because of weather and it was certainly worth the wait. Sunday was gorgeous! One of those perfect boating days where There is just enough breeze to be pleasant and little or no wave action. For this part of our journey that is always important because it is the longest, and far longer than we usually travel in one day. 7 hours and 54 minutes to be exact, 68.1 miles. We have found that a maximum of about 45 miles is the most comfortable and at an average of 8.5 mph that is still pushing 5 hours.

Screen Shot from NEBO App

    The ride out of our home port in Crystal River takes us West out about 8 miles to get into navigable waters. Even at that we’re in 8’ give or take. From there we Turn South and make a gradual Westerly turn moving slowly in to catch the North inside tip of Anclote Key and the end or start for us of the Westcoast Florida Intercoastal Waterway at green 41. Once we hit that we are inside fairly protected waters as far south as Sanibel Island, but for this trip we won’t go that far.

    The Auto Pilot proved it was 100% worth the time and money. Linked to the gps, I pulled up my route and the autopilot ran it. This time of year and at certain depths we see Stone Crab traps. They are set in a line and generally it is easy to navigate the matrix of what sometimes looks like a minefield. The worst scenario is traps with extremely long lines set in shallow water. The upper portion of the line to the buoy is floating horizontally and if you pass to the wrong side of the float you can snag it.  We were very careful to avoid this. At one of my engine room checks I looked behind the boat and in our wake about 20’ back was a surfing trap. How we snagged that thing I have no idea. I took the engine out of gear and grabbed a mask and fins, which is always something to be kept on a boat, they have come in handy on more than one occasion. The 70 degree water was to say the least a little brisk but not bad. Yup, we were caught. My mate handed me a dive knife, also something to keep handy. A knife is only worth having if it’s sharp, otherwise you might as well be using a spoon. On my first breath I was able to cut the portion Of the line that was twisted on the rudder. My second breath was a little longer as I swam to the front of the sand shoe where the remaining portion of the rope was snagged. I don’t take doing this lightly and I hate cutting a trap line and destroying a fisherman’s gear but it was the only way to get free in this case. He might get the float back but I’m afraid the trap is gone. I have seen them tangled worse where the gear has wrapped around the shaft and stopped the engine with trap and rope in the wheel.  

    We made our way to Anclote without incident and even though we got delayed some, arrived at our first stop. Anclote Village Marina is located fairly close to the mouth of the Anclote River. They have only a few slips and the transient slips are pretty much where they can put you. There is a restaurant/bar on site with restrooms but no showers. It is not a bad place and the staff was friendly. It costs us about $60 which for what we got seemed a little steep. The down side was that the marina is close to the fast zone on the river and although it was no big deal at night (no boat traffic) during daylight hours it caused some rocking & rolling, but rock & roll go well with the hoots & hollers of the beer drinkers at the restaurant.

Anclote Village Marina

   We cooked steaks on the grill and enjoyed a nice meal and a fantastic sunset.

Sunsets Never Disappoint on the Gulf