Heading to Florida from Texas

[LarryS1]

Hi all. I'm planning on departing Kemah, TX the first week of January heading to Tarpon Springs, FL with planned stops at Grand Isle, LA and Carrabelle, FL. Boat is a Beneteau 393 equipped with radar, AIS and Raymarine chartplotter and instruments. I'm looking for information, recommendations and suggestions on the following:


Best satellite communicator for family/friends tracking, texts/e-mail, enroute weather and emergency notification.


Routing through the oil patch. Is it better to head south from Galveston then east along the safety fairway or is it reasonable to take a routing further north through the oil rigs? There's a considerable difference in distance going south vs heading east out of Galveston.


Best marina for fuel, provisioning in Grand Isle, LA. Sand Dollar Marina has been recommended.


Best marina for fuel, provisioning and a day or two stay in Carrabelle.


Routing to Tarpon Springs from Carrabelle. Better to enter the Tarpon Springs area from the north or from the west?


Best marina for fuel, provisioning and a day or two stay in Tarpon Springs.


Any and all suggestions, recommendation, ideas, etc. to make this a safe and enjoyable passage welcome. Thanks!

[hafa]

Best satellite communicator: Garmin Inreach is my preference; it does what I need and is very affordable.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by hafa

Best satellite communicator: Garmin Inreach is my preference; it does what I need and is very affordable.

Ditto for Inreach

[sailjumanji]

We stay in Clearwater, which has a large marina and deeper water. Take a taxi to Tarpon Springs. Short ride.

We also take the northern route thru the Gulf. Just have good radar and alert watch. The safety fairway is a long way out, especially if you have problems. We shoot for Freeport to Grand Isle, then Ft Myers hop, if I have my offshore crew. Otherwise with my wife its ICW to other side of New Orleans, and then coastal hops all the way to Bahamas.

We like Port St Joe instead of Caravelle, but not sure marina is rebuilt yet.

[rbrentp]

Made the same voyage in a cat two Decembers ago. We had the wind in our faces the first week so took the ditch to the Mississippi. Otherwise the northern route would have been the choice. Have sailed it before, but radar is useless at night as some rigs are rusted off down to waterline. Not many, but enough for a little paranoia in the dark unless you have a good night vision spotlight and a sharped eyed watch.


Sand Dollar is good and friendly.


Depending on your sailing you can rent a tracker for not a lot. Depends on how often you intend to use it as to whether buying and storing is part of the plan. If you buy, I like the Garmin, too.


If you do the ditch to the Mississippi, and you decide to do open water, it's not much farther to Fort Myers. We had a winter storm hit and made land in 2 and a half days (500 NM), but we were in a cat.


If the goal is to hop the coast and sight see, it's all pretty. and you can use the cell antenna booster which works about fifty miles from the closest tower.


Good luck.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

I crossed from Galveston to Panama City in 2015. We used Spot. We headed well south to avoid shallow water rigs and it didn't seem all that much out of the way. We didn't stop in Grand Isle (although it was a possible bailout) but did enter South Pass to Port Eads, LA (not really recommended as it is skinny for a sailboat).

Not sure why Carrabelle is on your list but it is an ok place. I tend to like Apalachicola a bit better for hanging out for a few days. Port St. Joe is great but there are no marina services due to Hurricane Michael. You can get to Apalachicola via St. Joseph Bay near Port St. Joe and the GICW (you don't have to sail all the way around St. Joseph Bay and St George Island). St. Andrews Bay in Panama City has plenty of options to diesel up and provision; CSS Yacht Basin may have a transient slip available but the PC big marinas are still out of order. Have fun!

[sailorman7225]

InReach, check out their “Freedom” plan which allows you to activate and deactivate your plan at will. We did that trip (Corpus Christi to Tampa Bay in 2015. We stopped at Grand Isle to take on fuel and wives. We went through the rigs at night and just kept a good lookout (the weather was clear and fairly calm in May). It was a great trip.

[Rigdaddy]

Originally Posted by LarryS1

Hi all. I'm planning on departing Kemah, TX the first week of January heading to Tarpon Springs, FL with planned stops at Grand Isle, LA and Carrabelle, FL. Boat is a Beneteau 393 equipped with radar, AIS and Raymarine chartplotter and instruments. I'm looking for information, recommendations and suggestions on the following:


Best satellite communicator for family/friends tracking, texts/e-mail, enroute weather and emergency notification.


Routing through the oil patch. Is it better to head south from Galveston then east along the safety fairway or is it reasonable to take a routing further north through the oil rigs? There's a considerable difference in distance going south vs heading east out of Galveston.


Best marina for fuel, provisioning in Grand Isle, LA. Sand Dollar Marina has been recommended.


Best marina for fuel, provisioning and a day or two stay in Carrabelle.


Routing to Tarpon Springs from Carrabelle. Better to enter the Tarpon Springs area from the north or from the west?


Best marina for fuel, provisioning and a day or two stay in Tarpon Springs.


Any and all suggestions, recommendation, ideas, etc. to make this a safe and enjoyable passage welcome. Thanks!

If you have decent crew, go east from Galveston at the start of a good norther. If you are single-handing, avoid the rigs.
I love my Garmin In Reach, but if you want e-mails and good weather forecasts, get/rent a satphone.

[Rigdaddy]

I should have added that if you're single-handing, go south first to avoid the rigs.

[t-3400]

I sailed from Tampa to Kemah a few years ago.
- we sailed west -- approximately 20 miles offshore, with the current.
- if you sail east, you will have current on the nose until you pass the Mississippi River.

We used SPOT to notify family once per day. The technology is now better and has more features now. We decided against renting a sat-phone. On the east side, we saw two boats after we left Tampa.

We stopped at Grand Isle -- it cost a day since it so far north of the south channel of the river. We fueled up; spent 24 hours and hitched a ride to get a meal.

Do-over. We'd sail closer to shore, take our time, and enjoy towns along the intracoastal, Mississsippi Sound.

Before trip, I looked at routing software and gulf stream current maps (google) to plan start-time, and sail with favorable currents. The current was worth 0.5+ knots over the bottom for the 600+ mile trip.


Mark

[flyingfin]

Not many choices in Carrabelle, but should be empty slips in winter

https://www.mooringsofcarrabelle.com/

[Scaramanga F25]

or, wait for a cold front, wait one more day after the strongest winds have a fabulous downwind ride. Dress warmly.

[wesevans]

In January the ICW. Fronts in the Gulf will kick your but and beat you up.

[bob fleege]

This is BaBaLu, I live in Pensacola and have sailed here and to the Bahamas, Cuba, west coast of Fl and Mexico. If you call me I can give you many current details about Marinas and passage this time of year along the Gulf Coast and down. 850-291-8528. So much to talk about don’t want to type it out. Regards, Sir BaBaLu P.S. Winter sailing can be dicey so weather is very important with bailouts important to your plan. Try Mary’s Weather for starters..gives you passage weather info for all around ...based on NOAA weather.

[bob fleege]

That’s, Marv’s Weather.