I don’t even know where to begin catching you up to speed on the last whirlwind of a week, but I’ll start with this: WE CROSSED THE GULF! 

We woke up Monday morning, immediately checking the weather (just as we had done every day for the last week), and saw there was a chance we could cross over to Steinhatchee from Carrabelle early Wednesday morning. Before getting too excited, we kept an eye on the HRRR (High-Resolution Rapid Refresh) forecast, which updates each hour.

Evan and I primarily pay attention to the wind speed and wind direction rather than the projected wave heights, and with each hour that passed, the forecast was showing a promising 12- to 16-hour window. With the winds calming down all day Tuesday, we moved the boat from Carrabelle to Dog Island, which would cut our Steinhatchee crossing down from 12 hours to 10 hours or so. Unfortunately, we were seeing a possibility of the winds picking back up on Wednesday afternoon, so we decided to wake up at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning in order to arrive at Steinhatchee around noon. 

For the first two hours, we couldn’t get a good feel for the sea state because there was still some land protecting us from the wind. Around 4:30 a.m., the nerves came out as we were out in the open Gulf. Luckily, the 2-to-3-foot waves were coming directly at our bow, so Northern Attitude navigated them like a champ. By 7 a.m., the waves had calmed down, and all we had were 1-to-2-foot swells, rocking our boat in a very comfortable manner…comfortable enough that Evan threw out two fishing lines and even caught a tuna! Dolphins continuously surrounded us with no land in sight, making the rest of the morning feel rather surreal. Our early wake-up call proved to be worth it as the winds did, in fact, pick up right around noon as we were pulling into the Steinhatchee River channel. Leg one — done! 

We anchored for two nights in Steinhatchee, since the wind was forecasted to pick up again on Thursday. By Thursday night, it was already calming down, so we planned to make a run to Cedar Key early Friday morning. As we made our way out of the channel and headed south, the sun’s glare over the water made it difficult to spot crab pots. I sat on the bow of the boat for an hour or two letting Evan know how to turn if we came close to one. 

In the early afternoon, the sea state lay completely flat. Seeing how uncommon this is for this time of year in the Gulf, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to bypass Cedar Key altogether and head straight for Tarpon Springs. Unfortunately, due to our speed of a whopping 6 knots, this meant we’d be arriving in the dark. With the Saturday forecast less favorable than what we were currently cruising in, we decided to buckle up for a long couple of hours and put our spotlight to the test.

The sunset going into the evening hours could not have been more beautiful. We saw the insanely stunning ombre sky as a good omen for the next five hours to come. This wasn’t our first time cruising in the dark, but it was our first time dodging crab pots in the dark, which required both of our full attention. We took turns switching between scanning with the spotlight and driving the boat, and we’re proud to say we missed them all! 

We were put to the ultimate test until the very end because even when anchoring at 11 p.m. near Tarpon Springs, the crab pots were still surrounding us. Although entirely exhausting, I dare say we would do it again if we had those same conditions. The feeling waking up the next morning, knowing we had crossed the Gulf without a scratch, was unexplainable. This section of the Loop carries a lot of weight for most Loopers, so to conquer it as successfully as we did is something we’ll look back on quite fondly. 

Now we’re continuing southbound to store our boat near Fort Myers for the holidays. Cheers to continuing the adventure!