I paced the dock.  After arguing all morning, there was no changing Beth's mind. We would go when the fog lifted.  I resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't be arriving in daylight and surprisingly I was now anxious to get underway, saying "We have radar and we can see 2 buoys away.  Lets go!"  No. We would wait for the fog to lift. 
     The fog began to lift around 10 am.  We said good bye to Jennifer and the dog Spencer, untied from the dock and glided out into the river, warm sun on our faces and not a whisper of a breeze.  We rounded Dog Island into Government cut and there it lay, sparkling in the morning sun and smooth as glass, the Gulf of Mexico.  Wha Hoo! My apprehension began to abate.  Maybe this would be a smooth trip. Maybe I wouldn't suffer from "mal de Mer." Maybe we wouldn't have any problems on this trip.  After all, Tom stated," This is the first time everything has been fixed on this boat. There is nothing left to do."
      I headed the boat due east.  We were told that there was a west to east current  27 miles off shore and that if we headed 16 miles east we would be outside the current and enjoy an even smoother ride. Plus if a storm were to brew up unexpectedly we would be closer to some safe harbours on the west coast of Florida.  We travelled east to Buoy #26 than headed on a direct plot to Anclote Key.  We should arrive around 3 am.

                                      
                                         Dog Island.  Last of the visible land for 20 hours!                                      

     It was smooth sailing. The sun was warm, the water glistening with a cool breeze coming through the open windows and doors.  We all revelled in our good fortune to be able to travel in a beautiful boat with such fantastic weather.  Smooth as silk, until the wind started to freshen in the afternoon. Not bad. No spray over the windows like we experienced in Mississippi Sound.  Just repetitive. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down....ad nauseum. It started slowly as it usually does.  Just a little pressure behind the eyes and a little dizziness, but as the relentless motion of the boat persisted the dizziness increased to the point where I finally turned over the helm to Beth and opted for the one thing that always seemed to help.  Ah! He's going for the gravol or some kind of anti-nausea medication, your thinking.  Not! I have learned after being on my friend, Terry Winchester's, boat that the first treatment for sea sickness isn't medication, food, ginger or looking at the horizon...it is...a lazy-boy chair!  Laugh if you want but it works for me, at least for as long as I am stretched out in the chair.  I did have to get up and take the swinging picture and plaque off the walls as the repetitive drumming against the wall was irritating, but for the most part the nausea and dizziness abated as I reclined in the soft shock absorbing lazy boy.

                                                                                  
                                                       Treatment for Mal De Mer!

     Within a couple of hours I was back up at the helm watching the sun settle in the west and the veil of night start to envelope us.  Or should I say cloak us, because it got black! We turned down all the instruments to their glowing red night mode in an attempt to see out the helm window but it was useless.  We had to keep the chart plotter and radar on to make sure we were on course and not going to run into another boat or obstacle, but there was no way we could see if there were any small objects or debris in the water we might strike!  It began to wear on me. It was like driving a car in an open field with a black cover over the windshield.  You could look out the side doors and see the water  rushing past, lit up by what little starlight there was,  but it was pure blackness out the front window.  I thought,  "This must be what it was like for the astronauts headed into deep space." Than the beginnings of doubt started. What the hell would happen if there was a floating container lost from a ship, lying out there in front of us!  What if we hit it and put a whole in the boat!  How awful must it have been for those poor people who have sunk and floated in the water for days before getting eaten by a shark..(ps it didn't help that I had just read in soundings magazine about a 50 foot Chris Craft that sank after hitting some debris in the water crossing the gulf stream on the way to Bimini. They were travelling the same speed we were going!)
      The fear began to grow and feed on itself....I had enough.  If we were going to sink, I was going to be in a position I enjoyed---back to the supine position.  Beth, Tom and Mildred could navigate in the blackness for a while..I was going to take a nap! I guess that's what ageing does to a person.  Five years ago I would have had a couple of shots of whiskey yelled "Damn the torpedoes" and said "Full steam ahead".  Now, I take a nap!  UGH!
     When I got back up we were just a couple hours from Anclote Key.  I checked the course made an adjustment and decided to slow the boat down in anticipation of the crab pots.  Mildred was the first to spot one--a mere 10 feet from the side of the boat!  We slowed to an idle.  All hands on deck with flashlights (never thought to fix the spot light!) as we idled through the minefield of crab traps still a good 10 miles off shore!  It was slow going but we managed to avoid the traps until....the flashlights died out!  @#$%&!~+* that's it! We stopped. We threw out the anchor and had a rolly night on the hook. Just the kind of motion that makes me puke!  Sooo rather than puke I used my now fully established anti-nausea protocol and went to bed.   When the daylight started to emerge I jumped out of bed and rushed to the helm where I encountered a very bleary eyed Admiral.
 "Why didn't you lie down?" I asked.
 "I sent everyone else to bed!" she gruffed.  "Someone had to keep watch!"
 As she sauntered off to bed, I meekly responded "You could have woke me up." 
"Yea, right !@#$  (I think it rhymed with mole!). 
     Tom and Mildred responded to the motors lighting up and we were now able to see the mine field of crab pots.  "Man we didn't lay this many mines in any one area when I was in the war!" remarked Tom.  With the sun coming up over the horizon we easily managed to avoid the crab pots and cruised in to Anclote Key. 
     Since the majority of us were refreshed (not a lot of laughs to the admiral, ugh!) we decided to go on to Caladesi Island after the park rangers informed us that our 50 foot boat would have enough depth at low tied to stay at the T-dock.   Getting into this national park is tricky.  After coming through the Dunedin draw bridge we had to take a hard turn to the west then turn to 212 deg on the compass at marker 14...and it was "skinny water" soo... of course we got out of the channel and stirred up some mud.  Once back in the channel we followed another boat into the marina and had 3.5 feet of water below our props the whole way to the floating dock.

                                                                           
                                                            Dunedin Draw Bridge  

       Caladesi Island Park and Beach was voted #1 best beach in Florida by Doc. Beach in 2008.  It is a natural beach, meaning everything is left in place.  The sand is not groomed daily (although trash left by those visitors(ignorant enough to not pick up after themselves) is picked up by the park rangers.) Thus, it is a great beach for sea shell pickers....like the Admiral!  (finally a smile on her face!) Kept in its natural state you can start walking through ancient live oak trees, virgin slash pine, coastal hammock community and wind up walking through prickly pear cactus with tropical species of plants surrounding Cat's eye Pond. Wading birds (Ibis, herons and egrets) and Gopher turtles abound. The beach is a young dune system with sea oats, panic grass beach croton and ink berry.
                                                                               

                                                                               
                                                           Hard to take - not!