Cedar Key, FL. - Clearwater, FL. - November 12, 2008

We both slept very well last night. In fact, we slept straight through the night, and that is an extremely rare occurrence. It was probably due to the cumulative effect of the last 2 days rough seas and the fact that we didn’t sleep much the previous night.

The anchor was up and we were underway at 6:45. The day started out pretty cloudy and calm. It was much nicer than the previous 2 days. However, Mother Nature was just playing with us. As soon as we got back in the channel and out of the protection of the islands, the waves and wind picked up. Certainly not as bad as the past 2 days, but again, an uncomfortable ride.

After a couple of hours of this, the wind died and the rest of our day was nice and smooth. Today was also nice and warm. A change from the cold of the past 2 days.

Everything was going well, everything had been going well. Too good to believe, right? Right. So, Beth was driving while also keeping an eye out for crab pots, which are scattered all over the gulf. While avoiding 2 crab pots to port she ran over one dead ahead. The line cutters by the props did cut the line, so the trap was cut loose. But we did have the float and about 25’ of line trailing us. We put the boat in neutral, Beth picked up the line out of the water with a boat hook and Darrell cut it as close to the boat as possible. Luckily, the propeller seems to be just fine. We’ll get the rest of the line when we pull the boat out of the water.

We arrived in Clearwater, FL at 4:20 p.m., after 84.6 miles.

Last year, in 2007, we took our boat on a shakedown cruise from Burnt Store Marina up to Clearwater, FL and back again. So, although we’re not back to Burnt Store Marina where we started our trip, we have completed “The Great Loop”, because we crossed our wake as we entered Clearwater Inlet. We have encircled the eastern portion of the U.S. by water. We are now fully “looped”! We have replaced our AGLCA “In Progress” flag with the gold flag that signifies a “Completed” loop.

We will wait to hold our major celebration for a few days until we return to Burnt Store Marina.