Happy Easter

A short day today. We ran up from Marco Island, FL to Clearwater. Total distance today was only 163 miles. We departed this morning at 7:00am and arrive in Clearwater just before 1:30pm. Clearwater Beach was crazy with people for Easter Sunday. The beaches were packed as we ran up the coast today. Seas offshore were just a bit bumpy to start the day; around 3 to 4 feet. However, with an east wind we were able to run up against the beach which smoothed the water out considerably. "Long & Large was "christened today by Dan. He had salt spray all over her from top to bottom. We gave her a good bath once we got in.

A funny thing happened today during the trip. I went down to use the head and bring up a bottle of water and a snack for Dan. Well with the seas a bit bumpy while I was below, the salon door slammed shut and jammed. I was down in the cabin about 10 minutes trying to do everything I knew how to open the door to no avail. I thought about trying to go out one of the hatches, but with the seas and water coming over the boat, I knew that was going to cause a real mess. I then tried calling Dan on my cell phone and texting him as well. But with the open flybridge and the noise from the engines, wind and water, he couldn't hear it. Finally, I remembered I had a handheld VHF radio in my cabin. I called Dan on the radio from the cabin and asked him to stop the boat and come down to see if he could try the door from the outside. After about a 10 minute ordeal, we finally got the door open. Glad this happened off shore and it was easy to just stop the boat. It could have been more challenging if it happened on the ICW or a narrow channel. Once we got in to the marina, we took apart the door lock, sprayed it with WD-40 and she is all fixed and as good as new.

Not too many pictures today. Jeff Harris jumped on board tonight after Dan left to head back to IL. I am looking forward to the journey ahead.