Made it to Carabelle

December 8

We entered the eastern time zone yesterday afternoon so when I tell you we left the anchorage at 7 AM please do not think us lazy. It was 6 AM 10 miles behind us. Interesting though, as we moved east along the Florida panhandle we were picking up daylight. When we started east from Mobile Bay first light was 6:20. Two days ago it was 6 AM sharp. Following are a few more photo’s of Irma’s wrath. A few of these were taken before sunrise so they are a bit dark.

A few days ago the forcast for today was for smooth going with very little winds. Uhhh, what the hell happened?

My wind speed indicator showed a wind speed of 29.3 knots, adjust that to miles per hour and we had winds off our bow (thank God) of 33.7 MPH. The indicator was clocking around a bit even though it appears the wind was coming from our starboard. Mostly directly on the bow which made the ride very tolerable even at the high wind speed. If the wind was blowing across the water and making the accompanying waves hit us on the beam (side) everything inside the boat would have been destroyed. Here’s what the seas looked like from the flybridge. Better to hit ‘em with the bow of the boat rather than the side of the boat.

Actually it was a lot worse than the video depicts. Waves were in the 3 foot range.

The followng video of Whisky Business under way during the high winds. This was taken by our buddy boat Oar Knot. This is how a boat gets it’s “mustache”.

We arrived at the Moorings Marina in Carabelle around 12:30 today and met a number of other Loopers who are preparing and hoping for a smooth Gulf crossing this Wednesday and Thursday. The group that crossed last Thursday/Friday got the hell knocked out of them. It was reported that a few had messes to clean up on their flybridge cuz they didn’t have buckets handy when the motion of the boat became, uh, a little nauseating shall we say??? Note to self: If it can break, secure it. Everything in the boat must be placed in a secure location. Fridge/freezer doors must be secured. All lamps and knick/knacks must be layed down on the floor. What the heck am I gonna do with all of this “water of life”???

Precious cargo.

Keep yer fingers crossed that we have a better experience than those other guys.

After arriving at the marina we took a walk around and found this sailboat that was being salvaged. If you look closely around the gaping hole in the side of the boat you can see where it got pretty scraped up. I am guessing it must have been blown up on rocks.

Our timing could not have been better because tonight was the Christmas Parade of Boats in the marina. My Ipad did not take very good photos but the video’s came out much better.

Can’t get used to Santa in shorts.