Steinhatchee, safe, sound and closed down…

Readers it is 2240 and I am bushed. The Admiral has been asleep for a couple of hours. I will only give the briefest of testimony about today and fill in the details tomorrow as it looks like I will have plenty of time.

To begin, we are tied up at Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee. More on this tomorrow. We are in a safe location up the Steinhatchee River and sheltered from what is hitting tomorrow. Instead of leaving tomorrow it looks like we are here until after Christmas due to weather and our desire to return home to family for the holidays. By 1300 tomorrow it will be howling on the Gulf and not fit for man nor beast. There will be no weather window to get us safely out and back in at Tarpon Springs until next week and we must go home. Seabiscuit is marooned here with us and has plane reservations out of Tampa next week. So it goes.

“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas!” My barber, Dewey Bass, said his mother used to tell him that and it still holds true. This morning at 1000 the Commander was urging us to skip Steinhatchee and run for Tarpon Springs. He said going to Steinhatchee solved nothing and he was afraid we would not be able to get out Wednesday morning. Another friend, Mickey MacClain USN, told me the same thing yesterday but we played it safe and lost. So be it. We will start closing her up again and figure out how to get home. In Carrabelle the closest rental car was Tallahassee and here we are even more remote. May have to send up a flare. I will catch you up with photos tomorrow.