Underway Day 95:

We pulled up to the lift at 0900 at Treasure Island, which was about 300 feet away. Jim and his team were ready and waiting. We hauled the boat out of the water, changed the oil, oil filters, and gear lube, and we were back in the water by 10 AM. This was the fastest and most professional oil change of the trip. If I ever need a NASCAR style pit team for a boat, these guys would be top crew. They were very nice, fun guys, and we had an enjoyable conversation. Good boatside manner.

Mary had walked to town to run errands, so I motored over to the fuel dock, topped up on gas and water, bought an ice cream and paid my haul out tab. I then went back to our slip at Pirates Cove. After lunch there, we got underway and left Panama City in our wake. We passed through White City, and Lake Wimco. This section of waterway is remote, swampy, and primordial. It would be a very tough place to survive without serious Bush skills. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite books, called A Land Remembered, which is about the early settlers of the Wild South. The history of Florida is, to me, in many ways more interesting than the Wild West. Spanish, English, French, Seminoles, Settlers, Slaves, Shipwrecks, and Pirates make this state very rich in history.

We joined the Jackson River and then the Apalachicola River. Apalachicola was where Dr. John Gorrie invented and patented a machine that made ice in 1830. It was originally made to help yellow fever patients. They are also famous for their Oysters. We passed several Shrimp boats, and cruised through the channel across the bay to Carabelle.

This section looks like a large body of water but tread carefully, especially at 28 knots. Just outside the channel, that wide expanse of water is only one to three feet deep! There were lots of shipwrecks as evidence of this. The picture above represents just a few of the sunken boats we saw in this area. The town of Carabele was very charming, salty dog kind of town. We stopped in to C-Quarters to top up the fuel again, in anticipation of crossing the Gulf Stream in open ocean tomorrow. We got an educated weather report from the lady at the counter. She does a lot of boat deliveries and advised us that it would be a bit rough for Mombo, with winds 10-15 out of the east, against the current, and 2-4' waves. I told her that I had no interest in being a hero, but that we would poke our bow out into the Gulf in the morning and see how it felt. We also bought some pre-rigged frozen Ballyhoo for bait. If it was going to be a slow slog in big waves, we might as well fish.

We headed back out of town and zipped over to Dog Island, which is a long, narrow, sandy spit of land near the inlet. It offers good holding, decent protection, and is a good jumping off or arrival point when coming or going across the Gulf of Mexico.

I took a picture of the beautiful sunset along with our location and posted it on Instagram. When my buddy Chuck Meide, the Director of the St. Augustine Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program (LAMP), saw it, he informed me that on August 1, 1899 a hurricane drove a dozen lumber ships ashore, right where we are anchored in Shipping Bay. He had been here on a job investigating the wrecks, both in 1999 and last year. They've since been retaken by the sand again. It's always nice to have a maritime archeologist on standby whenever you want to know where you are anchoring!

The purple and orange sunset gave way to an unbelievably clear sky, and the most stars I've seen in years. The Milky Way was stunning. It was very calm. We set up the teepee and turned in early. I want to get a good nights rest and an early start tomorrow. It's always best to be fresh before a salty 90 nautical mile open water crossing.