GL: Florida Bend Crossing

[Btlifes2short@aol.com]

Morning Ed,
 
Just some input on your questions.  How much time do you have/want to  take 
to get from Tampa to Mobile?  And then how much time from Mobile to  wherever 
you are located on the Tennessee?  Do you want to anchor out or  are you just 
interested in Marinas?  We are currently anchored in Crystal  River as we head 
north to Mobile and then points north on the Tennessee.   If you have the time 
to visit some of the areas/anchorages along the Big Bend  crossing you won't 
regret it.  You will also not have to make such a long  crossing if you head 
up the west coast prior to making the crossing, it's longer  this way but much 
more fun!  We will head north from here to  Steinhatchee spend a day or two 
and then do the crossing from there, approx. 80  miles to St George 
Island.......all in the daylight hours!  This will be  our 3rd crossing so we are pretty 
familiar with routes and anchorages from Tampa  to Pickwick.  Our previous 2 
crossings were from St George Island to Cedar  Key, we would pull anchor about 
3:30am and arrive at our anchorage late in  the afternoon.  We too have a 
trawler and travel about 9mph.  I agree  with the folks on here, you will not need 
SSB.  With Cingular we  will only be out of range for 6 to 8 hours of the 
crossing.  My guess  is going the way we are this time we "should" have VHF 
contact 80% of the time  should we need it.  If you want to discuss this more let me 
know and we can  set up a time to talk on the phone with charts in hand.  It 
was pretty  intimidating the first time we did the crossing, just pick a good 
weather window  and enjoy the ride!
 
If you don't have it yet pick up a copy of Skipper Bob's "Cruising the Gulf  
Coast", it will be the best $15 you will spend.
 
Brenda &  Todd Lanning
M/V Life's2Short
_btlifes2short@aol.com_ (mailto:btlifes2short@aol.com)  
Check out our  blog @
_http://btlifes2short.blogspot.com_ (http://btlifes2short.blogspot.com/) 



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