FL Panhandle, continued
On Thursday, Nov. 21, we left Baytowne Marina in Miramar Beach with Kim and Chuck on “Til You Can’t” amidst windy weather and rocky seas. Exiting the marina turned out to be more challenging than crossing the bay into the channel, as there was little room for error in the narrow waterways between docks in the marina.
On the way that day, we saw many damaged and seemingly abandoned boats from the hurricanes …
… as well as an increasing number of live aboard situations in which people were using what were apparently abandoned boats as shelter.
After West Bay and St. Andrew Bay, we arrived at Emerald Marina in Panama City where we caught up with “Unbridled” and learned that they would be leaving their boat at Emerald Marina through the holidays. Sailboaters in a neighboring slip were having some work done by a brave soul using a bosun’s chair to complete the maintenance.
Did a free load of laundry (whoo hoo!), watched the sunset while waiting for the clothes to dry …
… and got takeout from a nearby Thai restaurant. Living pretty large today!
It was quite chilly when we left the next morning on Friday, Nov. 22, with a high in the low 60’s predicted for daytime and 40’s for night. We left along with several other boats all headed ultimately for Carrabelle where we’ll wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico (i.e., depart the Panhandle and cross to Florida’s upper west coast).
While we “lost” an hour owing to crossing back into Eastern Standard Time, we gained the opportunity to see beautiful sights in the bays and channels …
… plus more “gunkholes” and duck blinds.
Our stop in between Panama City and Carrabelle was Apalachicola where we were able to get a spot on the wall adjoining the park downtown. This was fortunate, as we learned from the radio chatter of other boats that the main marina in Apalachicola (Scipio) was full. The picture below (left) of our boat in the foreground also shows several “Looper” boats anchored across the channel.
Apalachicola is a neat little town, reminiscent of “old Florida.”
However, we’ll remember Apalachicola less for its quaintness and more for the unseen obstruction underwater that we hit in the middle of the channel shortly after leaving town on Nov. 23. We left early, viewing a beautiful sunrise …
… but hit right after crossing under a bridge. The right engine developed a vibration, so Dennis called ahead to C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle to ask if they could try to contact a diver to check the prop.
After arriving, Dennis spoke to the Harbor Master at C-Quarters, and a delivery captain, overhearing the conversation, indicated that he too had hit what must have been the same obstruction right outside of Apalachicola. He had already contacted a diver who was on his way to the marina. Fortunately, the diver who soon showed up to check the boat the delivery captain was piloting (“Tax Relief”) agreed to check ours immediately afterward. The diver didn’t spend too long on “Tax Relief,” as the damage was extensive, and the boat was going to have to be pulled for repairs.
I was eating some lunch in the galley when the diver began using the hammer (pictured in his hand above right) on our prop in an attempt to straighten it to the extent possible. I definitely could both feel and hear the operation! The noise was fine with me, however, because the longer it went on, the better the chance that the diver thought he could hammer out the worst of it which meant we could make the crossing in the morning!
This proved to be the case, so with the knowledge that the prop could function reasonably well and that we would be making the voyage in the morning, we were then able to concentrate on provisioning and taking care of as many errands as possible (including “wheeling” through the ATM). These chores needed to be completed before crossing to the upper west coast of Florida because there would be limited services available given the impact in those areas of recent hurricanes.
Later, we got the chance to join Loopers Russ and Jamie (“Naut Lost”) and Chuck and Kim (“Til You Can’t) for a very good dinner at a small restaurant within walking distance. Russ invited Dennis and Chuck to join the Looper Men’s Bible Study, and Dennis has since enjoyed being a part of this weekly virtual meeting.
Tomorrow’s a big day, the day we cross the Gulf. That story to follow soon.
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