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Thanks to the winds dying off to a calm for a good portion of the night, we all slept well last night down at Shipping Cove off Dog Island after a steak dinner aboard Seminole. Thanks, Jackie for feeding me while Mary was gone.


Seminole remained rafted up overnight to Calypso, and we got underway around 0730 EDT (0630 Southport time).

After finally winning (old-timey word) the anchor out of the bottom I followed Jim and Jackie out into St George Sound for the 23–mile run to Apalachicola and found none other than Journey chugging along. This vessel is a beautifully converted sailboat, which we met in Caladesi State Park back in March after a brief exchange with them in their yellow RHIB, appropriately named School Bus. We spoke them briefly and moved on. They are headed home to the Tennessee River after a winter/spring down here.

Jim was not sure whether or not they were going to bring Seminole to our house before heading off the 123 extra miles to home in Orange Beach, but consideration of the approaching bad weather tomorrow convinced them late in the day to follow me home.

The 100-mile run from Dog Island to Southport was not necessarily something I wanted to do after two consecutive days doing 70- and 123-mile open water trips, but I did not want to wake up Saturday facing a rainy and windy trip home form wherever we chose to stop.

I told Jim and Jackie I intended to run at 1750 engine RPM, 250 more than Jim is comfortable pushing his troublesome transmissions, in order to shorten the trip and get home before dark, but later in the morning, I backed off that RPM as it was not necessary thanks to some good fortune in helpful tidal currents. I slowed to 1650, yet Seminole kept the couple of mile separation I had created early on at the higher RPM while they ran a mere 1500 or so. When I went to the flying bridge to maneuver into the slip here at home, I found the tachometers there reading 1550 RPM instead of the 1650 showing at the lower helm. That’s a little issue I will have to look into.

Calypso moored at 1730 after 58 days traveling 1275 nautical miles (1466 statute miles) averaging 7.2 knots (8.3 MPH) using about 600 gallons of diesel over about 177 engine hours.

Equipment issues were negligible with the only new casualty a starter button replaced for 30 dollars. Old issues I found time to solve (remember, cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locales) were replacement of a faulty entertainment radio and speakers and a new VHF radio antenna to replace an iffy one and a slow lubricating oil leak on the starboard engine. Good maintenance equals carefree cruising.

Until the next cruise....