Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

 

 

  

 

January 10, 2023: Apalachicola Marina, Apalachicola FL: 

Things have not turned out the way we planned, and I thought I would post an update as several of you have been asking if we are crossing or already crossed to Tarpon Springs. Unfortunately, the answer is we are stuck in Apalachicola, broken down!

 

 

We had a setback last Friday traveling from Panama City to Apalachicola. This was a travel day of 65 miles and 7 hours. During the day our port battery was losing voltage (these batteries are going to drive me crazy). While running all day we should have had 13 volts (which we had on the starboard side), and I only had 11 volts, so I figured that my alternator was not working properly. Luckily, I had an extra alternator on board so I called the marina to see if they could help me out. Turns out they don’t have any mechanics on staff but gave me a fellows name who might be able to assist. Being Friday I was lucky he was willing to come Saturday morning and check out the problem, as it was 4:30 PM by the time we got tied up at the marina.

 

Now I had been working the last four days lining up buddy boats to cross on Saturday night.  We had a full moon, flat seas and no wind, a perfect combination forecasted just a perfect combination. In the end we had 14 boats going over. The plan was to meet at 4 PM off Dog Island and boats were coming from three ports, Panama City, Carrabelle, and Apalachicola, and start the 180-mile journey to Tarpon Springs. We were still hopeful to be crossing with the flotilla!

 

Saturday morning Tim showed up changed the alternator and noticed the main belt was worn and I was fortunate enough to have a spare belt as well. Thank you Dwight Raymond! However, Tim discovered that the belt tensioner was bad. That we did not have aboard, and it was not an easy part to find on someone’s inventory shelf. The combination of these items runs the water pump and he said that it was too risky to cross with this combination not working well. If the belt fails (and the existing one was in bad shape) then there is no water to the engine, the engine then overheats, and then the motor shuts down. We would be in a very bad place if that occurred possible 45-90 miles offshore. Since it was Saturday morning, we had no way to get the parts and would not be able to get to Cummings (our brand of diesel engines) until Monday morning.

Therefore, we were unable to cross with all the folks we were planning to. I was so disappointed (I could use stronger language) but honestly it was a terrible blow. We had been working on this weather window for a week as the forecast was showing great weather for these three days for a while. Unfortunately, the next good-looking window looks like Sunday.

The flotilla turned out to be 16 boats and they had a peaceful crossing Saturday night, and the forecast was very accurate, good for them!

 

I had a pity-party for two days and got up early yesterday (Monday) and spent the morning looking for the part and found the part in FT Myers. The unit is being shipped in next day and is expected today by 4:30. Tim has agreed to come install it if it gets here say by 3 today if not tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

 

If that is the case we will move tomorrow to Carrabelle, which is the closest port to launch to Tarpon Springs from. The weather goes to heck on Thursday so we will have to wait for the weather to improve, maybe Sunday. In addition to weather another challenge we have with an overnight crossing is finding 2 or 3 Buddy Boats. The weather has been perfect the last three days and so everyone that wanted to cross has done so. There are very few loopers in the area but hopefully by Sunday some will show up. If we don’t find a buddy boat we will do the big bend and spend 4 days traveling.

We (I) want to get this section behind us!

 

 

So, I may as well update you on the two beautiful days we had getting here to Apalachicola, which is a cool town.

 

 Last Night at Baytowne Marina 

 

Thursday January 5,2023 Travel Day # 86 Baytowne Marina, Miramar Beach FL to Point South Marina Panama City Fl: Total Distance 55 Miles, Total Time 6 Hours, After 5 weeks enjoying Sandestin Resort we were very excited to be “Back On The Loop” and running again. All 4 loopers who had spent the month there departed by 7 AM and 3 of us were headed to Panama City.

 

 It was a great day to travel with light winds and unlimited visibility. All 4 boats traveled at different speeds: two traveled at 15 MPH and left us in the dust within an hour, we traveled at 10 MPH and Change of Pace traveled at 7 MPH, so we lost them an hour later. Once we departed the Marina we went out to the channel in Grassy Cove took a right headed under the bridge and into The Grand Canyon. The next 25 miles is a channel they call the Grand Canyon  which was 200 yards wide but again the navigational channel is only 50 yards. This 25 miles had no channel or navigation markers, so we just stayed in the dead center of the channel, and we had 8-9 feet of water the entire length. Grand Canyon empties out into West Bay that takes you into Panama Bay. It was a very pleasant first day and when the channels were marked they were very easy to follow. We saw several dolphins on this section

 

When we arrived at Point South we took on fuel and were happy to say we only paid $4.65 a gallon by far the least we have paid all season. We sure didn’t miss a month without fueling!  We tied up in our slip and there were several loppers already there. In fact, we talked with about 10 boats that have spent several weeks there. Point South is a brand-new marina (well rebuilt after Hurricane Michael 2 years ago) and was in in excellent shape. Overall, a great place to spend a month or a night.  

 

Shocking I know, but with 14 loopers present we all go together for Docktails and 10 of us walked ½ mile to a tiki bar and had dinner. Early night as we had an early morning Friday. My Nebo never logged the trip so I don’t have a track for this leg but will post pictures:

 

Grand Canyon

 West Bay

Passing  Another Looper Beautiful boat

Friday, January 6,2023 Travel Day # 87 Point South Marina Panama City Fl to Apalachicola Marina, Apalachicola FL.  Total Distance 65 Miles, Total Time 7.5 Hours

Two of the folks we had spent time with, in December, were headed to Carrabelle as they were doing a high speed (25MPH) day crossing on Saturday and that this would be a 90-mile day for them, so they left in the dark at 6 AM. We were headed to Apalachicola which was only a 65-mile voyage, so we waited until 7 planning to arrive before 5 PM. I have already explained our strategy, but we were meeting two boats here in Apalachicola and two other boats were leaving Panama City Saturday to meet us.  But you know how that (didn’t) turn out.

 

At any rate it was another beautiful day to cruise, warm weather in the low 70’s with wall-to-wall sun. Our first body of water departing was Panama City Bay which is a large open body of water with some commercial traffic and a lot of recreational boats. Our next body of water was east Bay which is a large body of water (at least 1-2 miles wide) but the channel is only 40 yards wide, so you had to stay on your steering game to insure you didn’t drift out of the channel. Most of the shoreline was swamp, as you will see in the pictures. Like the day before the middle 20-miles, we were in a dredged channel Wetappo Creek which was a channel 9-feet deep, 100-yards wide with the navigational channel maybe half the width, once again 20-miles with no navigational aids so you are on your toes the whole time. Very rural, no development no house again mostly swamps on both sides.

I explained the battery issue earlier, but I am so glad I was able to figure this out underway and locate a mechanic to assist. We got to the dock around 4 and tied up and got settled in. This is a great little town and so if we had to get stuck someplace this is a fine location.

 

Pictures

A few derelict Boats in Wetappo Creek 

Wetappo Creek

Friday Nights Almost Full Moon from Apalachicola Marina

 Saturdays Full Moon (The night we should have crossed!)

Pictures of our few days in Apalachicola

Few Items We Found Around Town That Caught our Eye's 

Pretty homes (don't do them justice) 

Really Beautiful Old Trees in Town 

Shrimp Boat Fleet Right in Front of Her Idea

The Dock we are on and Old Ice House, Really Cool Building

Her Idea's dock the Past Few Nights (hopefully the last night!)

 

It’s Tuesday afternoon and we are waiting for the parts to be delivered then getting the mechanic to the boat and install. Never an easy thing, but we are hopeful he will respond promptly. We actually just heard he is going to Panama City and cannot come tonight but the part is here! So he has promised to be aboard at 8:30 and said we can be gone by 9:30. Therefore the plan is to depart and head to Carrabelle in the morning a short 30-mile voyage and stage for our crossing: where ever and when ever that will be.

 

Fair Winds, Fingers Crossed

 

P.S. I am not sure everyone got the last post which I did on January 3rd^. If at any time you want to go back to the Blog, it’s the same link that I send out each time, so just go to an old link and click on it. Scroll down and all the posts are there.