Goodbye St. Pete! 7:30 AM July 26 the HUCK FINN exits the city marina bound for St. Paul. I hired on Capt. Rick Rhodes as crew. He wrote and published "Florida's Big Bend", the latest cruising guide for the NE Gulf region. I figured his knowledge and experience would come in handy if we hit bad weather on the Gulf and had to head for the nearest port. We did catch the edge of a storm about 20 miles offshore, but HUCK handled the 4-5 ft. seas better than expected. We managed to stay our intended course from Tarpon Springs to Carabelle, about 130 miles across the Gulf.

A following sea and some boost from the current gave us a nearly 6mph avg. speed. After our first night on the Gulf, we were visited by dolphins in the morning. A pod of 5 or 6 stayed with us for nearly 1/2 hour, playing in the bow wake (see photo).

It's a sailor's tradition that dolphins sighted at the beginning of a journey brings good luck. Our luck did run well, and we arrived in Carabelle (the Eastern end of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway) about 4:30 PM July 28.




Here are a pair of Atlantic bottle-nose dolphins just in front of the bow of HUCK FINN. I was leaning over the anchor roller on the bow to snap their portrait. I see them often but never tire of their company. They always appear to be very contented and playful. We let the autopilot do most of the steering, which is quite a luxury on a long trip. A warm shower was another luxury I enjoyed while under way.