Gulf Crossing

Buddy said Wednesday would be the only day to get out of Carrabelle for another week, so we left at 7 am, with Brown Eyed Girl and Free to Be to make a fast run.  The Carrabelle River and Intracoastal were fine.  As we headed toward the buoy to make our turn south, waves were about 2 feet.  An hour later, they started building and didn't get better for the whole run.  Often the wave patterns were confused and swells came from different directions.  About 2 hours out from our goal of Tarpon Springs, the other boats continued south toward Clearwater as we turned more east.  We used so much fuel fighting the waves that we came into Hudson, as it was closer than Tarpon Springs.  We made use of our Boat US membership and are glad we did, as Captain Red could give us local information about which fuel source was closest and it wasn't the one we thought-the chart (remember, water is important, not land) doesn't indicate that it's 6 miles (all no wake) into the marina we had in mind.  We were on the water for 10 hours today and are glad we are not among those who left Carrabelle this morning soon after us and will be on the water most of the night because of their speed limitations.  Sorry no pictures-that was the last thing on our minds today.