Orange Beach to Ft. McRee (anchored)

The loop experience is largely made of moments. Some big moments (New York, Chicago) and little moments (awesome sunrises, fun gatherings). Yesterday was a fairly big moment, for me at least.

We stepped onto the boat as the new owners and unloaded a truck of belongings exactly one year ago. 

Today was another fairly big moment. We're back in Florida. 

We're BACK!!!

Big wows on both.

We still have one daunting task ahead of us and that's to get across the gulf. After Apalachicola there isn't an ICW; you have to go outside until you get to Tarpon Springs. Most folks do "The Crossing", capital T for sure, which is an open water run from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs. That's roughly 170 miles, and most boats can't get it done in a day. It's an overnight kind of thing.

But we aren't most boats. We have a low draft, which means we can get into shallow ports, like Steinhatchee. And that's only a 70 mile run. Doable during the day. All we'll need is a good weather window.

The other advantage of the long run is when you're done you're back on the ICW. We'll have 2 more open water days which will take us to Crystal River before Tarpon Springs. So it can be slower, since you make only get a good day in 10 to move.

We anchored out tonight due to a FedEx faux pas. They said our package would get to the marina by 10 am. At 10:30 they called to tell me that it wasn't even on the truck. They were very apologetic, of course, but that means we waited for no good reason. Such is boat life. We went for a short day, just 2 1/2 hours. 

The anchorage is near Fort McReee, which is home to the Blue Angels. On Tuesdays they practice. Guess what day it is?!

My dogs are not amused.

Blue Angels bombing through the clouds.
On the one hand, this seems like a waste of taxpayer money.
On the other -- IT'S SO COOL!