Florida’s Big Bend Great Loop Route

One of the most anticipated (dreaded?) parts of The Great Loop is the infamous “crossing” from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs.  170 miles and an overnight unless you have a boat that can go 170 miles in daylight.  We don’t.  We’ve done many overnights in our cruising lifetimes, but we’ve never had the chance to explore Florida’s Forgotten Coast.  So we jumped at the chance.  Lots of fun, but the route takes planning and weather.

Optimystique has a 4′ draft – not optimal for cruising The Forgotten Coast, but we made it work. For reference, you need several days of good weather, not just one as for the overnight. But keep in mind, the weather days don’t have to be consecutive – ideally, you’ll have a couple days between each good travel day so you have time to explore where you are! If the wind is strong from a northerly or northeasterly, it will blow the water out making it shallower than the norm. Here’s our route:

Carrabelle to Alligator Pointe Anchorage.  23 miles, 3 hours. Weds, Nov 28.  We chose to “stage” to Alligator Point to cut 10+ miles off our route to Steinhatchee the next day.  It was a lovely anchorage, a bit shallow going in at low tide – we might have bumped sand in one spot just as we made the turn.  Too bad it was too windy to put the paddleboards in the water and explore the beach!

Alligator Pointe Anchorage to Steinhatchee.  72 miles, 9 hours. Thurs, Nov 29.  We had a bit of a headwind & waves for the first half of this trip which slowed us down, but then the winds and seas became flat calm. No skinny water made this one a cinch.  We tied up at Sea Hag Marina and walked to Roy’s Restaurant for dinner – delicious scallops! The floating docks were a bit rickety but the hospitality was great. We would have loved to stay another day, but the best weather window to Crystal River was the next day and there wasn’t another in the foreseeable future.

Steinhatchee to Crystal River.  10 hours, 87 miles. Fri, Nov 30.  One.Long.Day!!!  But perfect weather and almost flat calm made for a very enjoyable passage.  We really wanted to anchor out by Cedar Key, but you need a calm overnight to do it and that night was forecast to blow a gale – which it did not, but who knew.  We cut through Seahorse Reef to shorten our day to Crystal River.  Look on your charts, cutting through Seahorse Reef shortened the mileage enough to make it doable for us.  We also looked into anchoring at Suwannee River or the Cross Florida Greenway but our 4′ draft was too much for Suwannee and since we would be “stuck” a few days for weather, thought Crystal River offered more to do.  (Update:  another Looper with just shy of our draft anchored at Suwannee and enjoyed it, so maybe we missed it….)

Crystal River was delightful.  The shallowest water we saw (and we came in at LOW tide, not optimal) was 6′ going in – rounding the tip of Shell Island as you go into the river by Marker 23.  Once we were in the river, we never saw anything shallower, most of the water was at least 8′.

Pete’s Pier is an older facility which recently has new owners.  Unfortunately, they’ve also raised the rate considerably.  The new rate is $1.95/foot plus tax.  That seems OK until you realize there are NO facilities. The “renovated” restrooms are old and shabby at best, the one shower room with two showers was unusable for me – too musty and smelly.  David used it & didn’t complain.

No pump out, good electricity, no laundry, no cruiser hang out area.  But my biggest beef with Pete’s Pier was the fact that the new owners have had time to redo the parking lot and make some overall improvements, but they haven’t had time to update their Waterway Guide & Active Captain listings? Poor business attitude in my opinion.

But they are the only marina in the area, so if you want to visit Crystal River, your choices are anchor in Kings Bay (which would have been a good anchorage, but the two days we were there, it blew in the 30’s and the marina was just more comfortable).

Having said that, the Three Sisters Spring Park (where the manatees hang out in the crystal clear water) is less than a mile walk.  We walked downtown to watch the Christmas Parade (great parade!), visited the brewpub, walked to West Marine & the ABC Liquor store.  Lots of “stuff” in walking distance.

Leaving Crystal River was a bit more challenging.  Only time on the entire Great Loop we literally ran aground.  Turning south just outside the channel, the water shallows to 4′ at low tide.  We could feel the keel in the sand and David upped the rpms just enough to slide us through, but we could see the stirred up sand behind up and the depth sounder was reading “–“.  Ugh.

Crystal River to Tarpon Springs.  72 miles, 9 hours. Tues, Dec 4. Once we were clear of the shallow spot, we had a very nice run to Tarpon Springs.   Entering the river was no problem and we had no shallow water.  Staying at the City Marina was perfect location, but with the old docks it was challenging to tie up. But we made it and LOVE it here!  So much to do literally right across the street.  The marina office is in the same building as the Visitor Center. Yum!  Greek food!!!

That’s our Big Bend Route and we enjoyed every minute — other than trying to fit our schedule into Mother Oceans weather whims!

Have you traveled the Big Bend Route & stopped in other spots?  Please leave a comment and share for future Great Looper’s information!  Cheers!  Jan