Day 6- Thursday, 1-17-08- Panama City Marina to Apalachicola

Having survived the "dark and stormy night" in the Panama City Marina mooring using doubled mooring lines and an extensive fender system and operating on the basis of a favorable weather report for Friday, we agreed to get a 6 am start on Thursday. Gerry, being one of the dutiful captains of the S/V Last Dance, set his watch for 5:25:00 am but was up and dressed at 00:05:25 am (12:25 a.m.) when he waked and misread his watch- Jean followed suit. Once they discovered the error, Gerry and Jean simply went back to bed, clothes and all! We did manage a pre-sunrise start for Apalachicola at 5:47 am - about a 54 nautical mile (nm) leg. The passage was uneventful (thankfully!), the weather cloudy, the air temperature on the cool side and the wind and seas moderate. The variable orientation and sheltered nature of this section of the ICW precluded the possibility of motor-sailing, much less sailing. The crew shared watches at the helm, Jean steered us through the treacherously shallow waters of Lake Wimico but got more than a little anxious when the water depth indicator on the chart plotter suddenly began to decrease and "pegged" at 1.4 ft! Fortunately, it was just a temporary malfunction. Activity along the waterway was limited to one overtaking motor vessel, a crabber, several fishermen and numerous birds-notably Blue Heron and Osprey. We arrived at the Scipio Creek Marina at about 4 pm EST having achieved our best average speed so far - 5.9 kts. The crew enjoyed wine and popcorn on deck before capping the day with great oysters at Papa Joe's Restaurant at the Marina. But the day's real highlight??? A repair-free day!! Tomorrow we venture into the unknown (to us!) waters of Apalachee Bay to seek the treasures of the far east city of Carrabelle. We pray we don't sail off the edge of the earth. (RKS)