South From Panama City Florida to the Dry Tortugas

N 27° 57' W 82° 49'

Day 5 - Clearwater Beach

December 10, 2009

We are at anchor at Clearwater Beach.  We decided to come into protected waters due to inclement weather including dense fog, high seas, rain and a Small Craft Advisory (sounds like a blast doesn’t it!).  We are in an area with several other sailboats taking refuge.  There is a cold front moving through and during the night the winds shifted and we dragged the anchor requiring a new set first thing in the morning. 

Day 1, first night, Pam got sick due to very rought seas requiring Charlie to sail the boat for about 30 hours with only a 2 hour nap. 

Day 2 and 3 was fairly smooth sailing but we were bucking a SE wind (the direction we were headed) that required tacking several times.

Day 4, Wednesday we pulled into Clearwater Beach in the late afternoon in more dense fog and dodging an incredibly prolific distribution of crab trap bouys.  We finally got a full nights sleep last night.  We might get a transient slip at the marina here tonight and stock up on provisions.

Charlie and Pam

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Comments

nancy

nancy December 10, 2009 at 04:53 PM

Charlie, you might thinking of using the ICW you are more protected and it’s a lovely trip. I am sorry to hear Pam was ill, I kept hoping you would get good weather but it looked kind of stinky. I am glad you are warm now. Watch out crossing Tampa Bay, it gets rough. Tom says non salted crackers for sea sickness. Make sure Pam eats, or she will be more suffer more sickness. Don’t go below deck, to rocking will seem worse there. You did a great! Look for the metors showers, best on Dec. 13-14th you should be able to see some now right until De.18th.

debi

debi December 10, 2009 at 08:00 PM

Hey Pam,

Glad to hear you haven’t fallen off the boat:) Sorry you were sick, been there, done that, being below really does make u feel worse, but at that point you really dont care. I remember Doyle trying to cram “Fritos” down my throat, could’ve killed him.

Aaron is being deployed @ 4:00 am on Tuesday. Mom and I are going to Savannah to be there, then bring Alana back home. I hope u r at a point that u can start enjoying yourself now. Tell Charlie I said “Hi”.

Have fun and be careful, miss ya!

Debi

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