This morning we were up at dawn to grab the car from the local who was allowing us to use his car while he was at work on the barge. We can’t even say how thankful we are for that. I had no idea how we would get Aiden to the Tallahassee Airport. It’s an hour and a half easy drive. We set him up as an unaccompanied minor on Delta. They were great for the most part. They put a tracking device on his wrist , let Scott and I take him to the gate and from there he was seated first and chaperoned to his seat. His stopover again he would be escorted from his gate to the awaiting connection and then mom was picking him up from the Buffalo airport. The only thing that should be done by the airline is feedback. We haven’t had any contact with him since we dropped him off. I’m making a suggestion that with every unaccompanied minor they should throw in free wifi so that parents have access if needed. Aiden made it home to his brother’s place safe and sound and ready for his big presentation at school tomorrow.
Scott and I decided to push on to Carrabelle and stay at The Moorings for what will definitely be a waiting game. As we crossed the Apalachicola Bay we noticed a tow and her double barges waiting. We were following the buoys when the depths dropped to 3.5 feet. We slowed down and took a moment to figure out what was going on. We were in the channel, looking at charts, seeing the barge, and looking at buoys. Something was wrong. Relying on our charts instead of the buoys and the tow and her barges we headed toward port. The depths did indeed get deeper. We contacted the fellow that loaned us his truck and asked about the situation. He said that several buoys had been blown off course in a previous storm. He said follow your charts. Following charts over buoys is the opposite to what you would normally do. Now that we were in deeper water we realized that the tow and her barges had run aground following the buoys. You would think that the captain of the tow would have hailed us on the radio to let us know. Scott knew something was wrong so he took a moment and realized that he should be following the charts. We call this the drama for the day.
Now at The Moorings in a lovely spot we wait. We need to wait for the time to cross The Gulf for 184 miles which is 7.5 hours for us. It’s very uncomfortable in chop for that long so a window is a prediction that we will be waiting for by watching weather buoy wave heights, weather radar and local forecasts. We will be traveling with Lady V again as we have now met them in Carrabelle also waiting on that window. I am certain that other Loopers will be waiting as well. There is a breakfast served here every morning so I’m guessing that we will partake in that event to meet others waiting on the cross.