Waiting in Apalachicola

I seem to be fascinated with pelicans for some reason. These are some of the inhabitants of the marina at Port St. Joe. We left there on Sat the 12th headed for Apalachicola. We got to travel via the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) again for the first time in awhile. We knew we could make it under the bridges we'd encounter. First was the 75ft. St. Joe Bridge - no problem. Then we headed into the 5-mile long Gulf County Canal, which dropped us into Lake Wimico. Cap'n Paul had to be very diligent to stay inside the channel as the depths were only about 4ft. outside the channel markers. After the lake, we were on Jackson River, then the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola. We've been docked at Scipio Creek Marina since Saturday afternoon.

This is the view nearing the second bridge we encountered on Saturday, the 65ft. White City Bridge. We knew we could clear it easily but it is rather unnerving looking up at the mast nonetheless.

We rented a car here to travel to Tallahassee on Monday to meet Paul's brother, Jim, who winters in Bonita Springs, FL. He decided he wanted to experience this leg of the trip and was good enough to be our 3rd crew. Jim drove up from Bonita Springs in another rental car and we met at the airport - lots of logistics going on here. We came back to the boat in our rental and that's where we still are. The grand plan was to leave Tuesday AM for the trip across to Tarpon Springs. Being the prudent boaters that we are, however, we decided to wait as the weather reports weren't all that favorable. The wind direction was better, for a change, mostly out of the north but it was predicted to pipe up to 20+ knots after midnight and we weren't feeling real warm and fuzzy about being out in that in the pitch dark. Also it turned quite cool and rain is on the way for sometime Wednesday. So.... we're hanging out here with the new plan to move on to Carrabelle tomorrow and see what our weather window is.

That's the news from the "Restless Wind" for today. I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to post again before we actually leave so thanks for your interest, you faithful blog followers. Think good thoughts for us out there on the big water and keep us in your prayers, please and thank you!