Day 9: Apalachicola becomes home

Friday, October 6, 2017

Water Street Hotel and Marina

The water level has risen 2 feet since we docked.  We are on a floating dock with about 7 more feet to spare before we need to worry.  Hurricane Nate has flooded Nicaragua, Slidell Louisiana (where we just were a week ago) is being evacuated for Nate and coastal flood warnings are in affect for Apalachicola.  As of today we are living the good life.

We slept in, did some maintenance on the boat, tried to check the props with our go pro, but the water is too mucky to see anything.  Jacob is going to have to get in the water, but probably not here.  This is gator country.  There is a sign on our dock that says, “DON’T FEED THE GATORS”.  Jeeno has fallen in the water 3 times here.  I feel like he’s begging to get eaten by a gator.  He hasn’t fallen in once on our trip and now that we are docked up in marsh country he does???

When we ventured out today we saw many of the same people; this place is already starting to feel like home.  

I love when mother nature takes over.  Does anyone know how long it takes for this to happen?  and does it harm the structure?

Day 8: Change of Plans

October 5

Jacob and I woke before the sun even began to cross over the horizon.  Our goal was to get an early start when the waters are most calm.  The weather wasn’t going to be calm and favorable, but we knew with the tropically storm brewing in the gulf and with it scheduled to come right through Apalachicola we wanted to be away from here.  If we made it to Tarpon Springs today we would be far from the possible hurricane making landfall by Sunday.  The harbor waters were like glass but as soon as we reached Apalachicola Bay the choppy waters began and the rip current was making it difficult for Jacob to keep on course.  Today was gonna be a loooong day!

My stomach was a little queasy, today we were traveling 120 miles in fairly open ocean, still close to shore, but not within 2-3 miles swimming distance.  Jacob gripped the wheel and the throttles and steered the boat as best as he could.  We slowly made it to the last channel marker and turned left to head north.  As soon as we did the water spray in through the open isinglass.  Three huge splashes soaked Jacob and continued to interfere with his ability to see where we were going.  Man, oh, man!  Brand new isinglass would be nice right about now.  I didn’t even bother to try to close it as Jacob and I both agreed we should turn back.  The waters in the bay should be more favorable than the ocean and this was already looking terrible.  We immediately turned around, the huge sprays of water stopped and we headed back in.  This time crossing the channel the water was already 2-3 feet shallower than just moments before.  It’s strange to me how tides work.  It was as if the full moon from last night was pulling the waters with it. 

Back within the safer waters of the harbor we docked up with the help of a neighboring mariner at Water Shore Hotel and Marina.  We noticed this spot yesterday when we pulled into Scipio Creek.  This marina had a floating dock, power, pool, and a cozier feel.  If we were gonna have to be here for a few days we wanted to be more comfortable. 

Pud’n and Jerry, our adopted family from New Orleans even text us today making sure and insisting we don’t move an inch until at least Tuesday.  So it looks like we get to hang out in this quaint little sleepy town all weekend! 

There was such a sense of relief when we checked into this marina!  They had smiling faces and comforting personalities.  I poured myself a cup of their freshly brewed coffee and browsed the books in their library.  I noticed they had a Yoga class offered on Saturday, I will definitely be there.  I have only done Yoga once since we left and was just thinking how awesome it would be if a marina had a yoga class!  LUCKY ME!

Instead of battling the waves of the ocean today we relaxed by the pool and made arrangements for a new autopilot to be shipped to us.  We also headed to Piggly Wiggly, the local grocery store to grab some food and rib-eye steaks for dinner.  Our delicious steak dinner for four cost a less than $7 per person!  Lately, we haven’t been eating meat, but today, it sounded amazing.  Even though it was only a pan-fried steak it was! 

Some pictures of the sights we saw…

Day 7: Scipio Creek Marina, Apalachicola, Florida

October 4 : Panama City, Florida – Apalachicola, Florida (93 miles)

We traveled 8 hours on intercostal waters.  We crossed two lakes and motored through 2 rivers.  After we crossed East Bay Lake google maps no longer showed us on water.  I'm wondering...does this show/support global warming is real?  (Personally, I think the poles may be shifting)

 People around these parts call it the “ditch”.  It was a pretty smooth ride; the kids slept most of the time.  One of the lakes was only 7 feet deep yet the river was 25.  During the crossing of the first river it sound like we hit something.  EEKS!  I think it was a branch that was in the water.  The boat carried along fine so we weren’t too worried.  Jacob stayed up on the fly bridge the whole 8 hour trip.  Not able to move to use the restroom or eat.  Not having auto pilot is complicated with only one captain.  He is definitely earning his Captain’s stripes on this trip! 

We were cruising along fine that we didn’t even notice we were passing Apalachicola.  We had to turn around.  In doing so, we unknowingly were slightly off the channel.  All of sudden a group of mariners started hollering at us waving their arms in the air.  We really didn’t know what they were saying until the transducer and engines went out.  We hit land!!! A jetty at least 50 feet from land covered by about 2.5 feet of muddy river water.  One of the fellas hollering at us hopped in his boat with his broom stick and stuck it in the water revealing just how shallow the area was.  I am surprised it wasn’t marked better.  Jacob put the boat in reverse as the nice gentleman guided us with his broomstick.  Luckily, we were going slow enough and the ground was muddy, not rocky, so we were easily able to reverse out of the mud.  Once we made it back to the channel we continued through the narrow shallow harbor our marina, Scipio Creek , was tucked in.

The Marina was huge, but nearly vacant, with only a few boats docked.  After tying up we sent the kids to go explore, Jacob needed a moment of silence to relax from the drive and hitting land.    

We walked through a musty abandoned Oyster Bar and restaurant searching for the marina shop.  The boys both got chills walking through later in the night and are convinced it’s haunted.  When we came to the marine shop we found a woman and a partially stocked marina.  The shelves were closer to being empty than full.  This place looked like it was really cool at one point, but not anymore! 

The stop sign isn't even red anymore!

Apalachicola was a huge oyster town, but now like so many places humans have over taken.  One oystermen told me that it would take at least 10 years for the oysters in this area to reproduce to acceptable levels.  Most oysters you eat here nowadays are shipped in.  We, loving oysters, ate some at the Tap Room, bartender said they were local.

We also had also had a couple of locally brewed Apalachicola beers.  I really liked the IPA and Jacob the brown ale.

The full moon began to light the sky and the sun left us with a beautiful sunset

Day 6: Panama City Marina

October 3

After our wild day yesterday when we woke up and the wind was blowing, we decided we would stay put. 

I never imagined I would enjoy traversing the ocean so much!  Jacob always said he wanted to live on one of those cruise ships that travels the world.  It never appealed to me.  I wanted roots, a house, a garden, a place that I owned that I could call home.  I’ve never been a fan of renting because it never feels like it’s yours.  But after owning our previous house I realize now the maintenance and cleaning became overwhelming.  Too much time was spent keeping our home in order.  I decided I wanted to buy a tiny house and adopt a minimalist lifestyle.

Purchasing our boat, Dream Catcher, is like owning a tiny house that moves along the water to any place we desire.  Perfect for both of us!  I get a home and Jacob gets mobility.  We have only been living on the boat for a short time adapting our lavish lifestyle to be more simplistic.  I am loving it!  There is peace with simplicity.

I am learning that we have roots regardless of our location, life isn’t as complicated as I was making it, and things don’t have to be perfect.  Laundromats are more time efficient for doing laundry, when your home is small the cleaning is simple, and potted plants are a great way to garden.  I don’t think I will ever want to purchase another traditional home.   I can definitely see us retiring buying a larger boat and traveling the world on our “tiny house”  

Day 5: More Than We Bargained For

- October 2 -

Destin, Florida - Panama City, Florida

Boy oh boy!  What a day!  We ventured out of Destin, Florida today with white caps on the water and a breeze in there air.   We closed up our eisenglass as waves crashed crashed into our boat.  A few zippers wouldn't close all the way so the water was still trickling in.  The boat rocked, the waves crashed, today was gonna be a rougher day at sea.  Luckily, none of us get sea sick.   

Even though Jacob and I both had the thought that we should turn back we didn't share that thought with each other so we kept moving along.  I took a shot of tequila, liquid courage, to calm my nerves.  I have a tendency to worry too much otherwise I would have told Jacob that we should turn around.  I'm working on letting go of my worry so my intuition can be more accurate.

The waves were 2-4 feet high, not too big, Dream Catcher was handling them like a champ.  Oh, crap!  The grill.  It's connected to the railing on the bow of the boat.  The waves are too big for me to go to the front to remove it now.  All of a sudden the lid flies off and the grate crashes into the deck and slips into the water.  Ah!  The first valuable item to go overboard.  A few moments later I hear another crash, this time at the back of the boat.  The top of the swing gate is missing!  It must have fallen.  Hopefully, onto the dive platform.  I run over to the back of the boat to find it is in the water right at the edge of the platform.  I can reach it there.  As I head over the platform, a wave pushes it beneath the boat.  I scream STOP!!  I don't want it hitting our props.  Our props are fine, but the that piece sinks 25 feet below us in the Choctawhatchee Bay.  Ahhhhhh! I was so close to retrieving it.

Whoops!

How many more items will go over board before we make it to our destination, St. Thomas?  I wonder how much that piece will cost to replace, if it's even possible.  It'll probably have to be custom made.  At this point I suppose we don't need it and on the island we may need it even less.

We keep motoring along.  At this point we are to far along and monetarily invested in making it to Panama city so we don't even think about turning around.  Plus there is a small canal we'll go through and the water will be much calmer.  Jacob steps away from the helm for just a moment to use the restroom. Jayden and I faintly hear a beeping noise, but the only thing that we know beeps wasn't beeping.  Moments later I notice that the boat has significantly veered right and we are heading straight towards land.  I check with Jacob and he exclaims, "Oh Shit!"  He checks the autopilot.  That beeping we heard was the autopilot shutting off.  It got too wet!!  I sure hope it turns back on.  The rest of the run Jacob at to stay right at the wheel steering us.  It's a much harder way to travel for long distances, but he did it.  If our eisenglass would have properly sealed up we probably wouldn't have lost our autopilot.

We get a break from the rough waters as we go through West Bay Creek.  It was calm and beautiful through the creek, but once we reach West Bay Lake the chops start up again.  It's not as choppy as it was, but definitely not a smooth ride like our previous days.  We reach Panama city and raise our glasses; we made it!  It's time for a cocktail, Cheers Mates! 

Day 4

- October 1 -

Weather Forecast: 3-7 foot and a storm system in the gulf just below us.

We debated on leaving to head to the next marina, but it was 4.5 hours away.  We decided not to go out.  Hoping that tomorrow will bring better weather.

Somehow we ended up going back to Harry T’s for brunch.  Their breakfast was much better.  I drank bottomless mimosa’s and we all dialed into our electronic devices using their free wifi.

Can you believe our marina was $160 and they don’t have wifi?!  It’s shocking to me.

Fish, an employee at the marina helped us, me, learn how to fillet a fish.  I tasted a bit of the Spanish mackerel raw.  Tasted pretty good, I could have eaten it sushi style.  After filleting the fish I took a nap before preparing our feast; Spanish Mackerel, rosemary lemon potatoes, and salad.  Homecooked food is so satisfying.  

     

Day 3 - Catching Fish

- September 30 -

Orange Beach, Alabama - Destin Florida

Good Mornin' ya'll!  Another beautiful day at sea...

As we were trucking along we came across a few fishing boats so we dropped our speed and dropped in our lines to troll.  Jayden and Joie were holding the lines for awhile but they didn’t get any bites. I took over Joie’s line.  We still weren’t getting anything and were well past the fisherman so we started reeling in our lines.  As I was reeling mine in I could swear I was getting some bites but I couldn’t really tell.  I kept reeling it in.  As the end of the line got closer I could see my tackle, but I thought it looked a little different.  Jacob was on the fly deck looking down so I asked him if it looked like I had a fish.  He didn’t think so.  It wasn’t until I reeled it all the way in that we realized I caught a fish!  First fish of the trip!  He flipped and flopped around freeing himself from the hook and dropped inside the back of the boat.  At that very same moment Joie slipped coming down from the fly deck and flopped on the deck too!  Luckily, she didn’t get hurt.

The kids and I were thrilled about catching the fish until we could see that it was dying.  Then we felt bad for killing it.  We planned to cook it so it surely wasn’t dying in vain.  We didn’t even know what kind of fish it was until Joie searched the internet to find it was a Spanish Mackerel; tastiest one in the mackerel family.  Lucky us!  We chopped off his head, wrapped him up, and put him over ice to eat later.

Today felt like the longest day ever!  Though it was a pretty short trip it seemed like we were never going to make it to Destin.  We didn’t run the generator today because it more than doubled our gas consumption.  At one point we got so hot that we all needed to cool down.  I would have loved to jump into the water but there were so many jellyfish.  We even saw two manta war.  No thank you!  I think I’ll stay inside the boat.

We sat on the bow of the boat with our legs dangling letting the waves splash and pound on our legs.  It was refreshing and felt like a massage on my calves, a perfectly safe way to cool down.  Jacob even got to do it while he let Jayden captain Dream Catcher on autopilot.  After that Joie and I hung out on the fly deck where the breeze was stronger and cooler.

We were really excited to get to Destin.  When we drove through it on our way to drop off our truck to be shipped to St. Thomas we saw how crystal blue the water was, just like the Caribbean.  We specifically chose to come back to Destin so we could hang out at Crab Island.  It’s a sand bar with a floating restaurant, bar, and water slides.  Boaters anchor up and gather around to hangout.  It looked like a bunch of fun.

It was sunny and beautiful all day, but as we finally reached Destin the clouds were rolling in.  We pulled straight into Crab Island.  It didn’t look as pretty as it did when we drove through because the sun wasn’t out, but we anchored up anyway hoping to hop in with everyone else.  Just as we were about to jump in the water it started to pouring.  We’ve had so many awesome blessing lately how could we complain.  We pulled up the anchor and headed to Harbor Walk Marina.  We agreed we would go back to Crab Island tomorrow considering that was the biggest reason we stopped in Destin.  We pulled into the dock with our swimsuits on in the pouring rain.  It seemed like everyone was seeking shelter at the same time in a narrow channel.  Two pontoon boats actually ran aground while we were getting drenched tying up our boat in yet another wood piling marina, lol.  We are getting much better at tying up, but it still makes me nervous.  Somehow we were blessed with a free night stay, saving us $160.  This is the most expensive marina we’ve stayed at. 

We opted for dinner on the the Harbor Walk since there were many choices available.  We ate dinner at Harry T’s since they were dog friendly.  That was the only good thing, none of us were impressed with the over-priced food.  After that we headed back to the boat to watch Jerry Seinfeld on Netflix before going to sleep