Left the boat ramp/park at White City, FL on the ICW after a leisurely breakfast: it's a short day today and we have another day's layup in Apalachicola to wait for a weather window that looks like opening on Tuesday for the trip "outside" to Clearwater (near Tampa). That will be Grant's first offshore, so we want the weather to be just right.

About an hour along, we saw what at first looked like a barge coming the other way, up ahead. But a bit like Obi Wan Kenobi, Derek said, "That's no barge, that's a cabin!"


And indeed it was. We waved enthusiastically! Most people use their boats as a vacation cabin, this guy was just turning the idea the other way 'round. A jonboat was pushing it:


Now THAT's a "cabin cruiser."


Unfortunately, they had a lot to deal with, with people still exiting Apalachicola after the Seafood Festival. Probably should have waited one more day. Powerboats: more than half slow down to avoid waking you. The other 40%, well, that's the problem, and whatever rocking we dealt with, we were thinking of that house-and-jonboat that would have the same 40% to deal with west of us. These two were very reasonable, not sure about the one coming up some distance ahead:


Probably the worst offender wasn't even American, some gargantuan pleasure craft from Grand Cayman with a two-plus-foot wake. Not being very careful in the channels, though, so maybe she went aground, eventually. I guess on the ocean, you don't have to worry about wakes, so her helmsman wasn't used to inland waterways. Yeah, that's it...

Derek was amused by how shallow it was around us without LOOKING like it (except when Cayman Dingbat's -- OK, I can't remember the M/V's name -- wake showed them up by rolling across them), so he snapped this shot of two birds standing on -- what is that, a log, or a bump in the bottom? --


The tide was against us, but only about a knot, not more than a knot and a half. You can usually tell by the wake around anything affixed to the bottom. I am still recalibrating my tidal-wake-judging skills, their being more than a decade out of use:


Our first swinging railway bridge. There are many of these along the ICW, but they stay open unless a train is about to use them. We encountered them often on the Atlantic side, but this was Grant's first sight of one. He looks pretty casual, though, up in that deck chair :-)


Past it, up close, it looks like this. Seems like a few infrastructure dollars might be needed here:


As we passed a side creek approaching the wider waters, we saw a whole little community of those cabin-boats nestled in there!

Many of the marinas are up Scipio (sip'-pee-oh) Creek. There is a preferred channel in, and even the jonboats follow it, so we figured that was a good idea. You make for the bridge following the markers and then when you see the green-over-red channel marker off to your right, you leave that to starboard and follow the waterfront into the creek. It looks wide open from the west for quite a way, but it's shallow until you get close to the waterfront. It's a working fishing, shrimping, oystering and crabbing town, so the workboats are all along the waterfront as you come in:


We pulled into the floating docks at Water Street Hotel And Marina, which has a Boat/US discount and wifi. Nice place! Restaurants are very close. No fuel dock and no laundry, though:


We saw more of those houseboats along Water Street, as well:


Took a walk in the town and enjoyed the seating people leave in front of their businesses even when they are closed:


The seafood festival ended Saturday. This was the main street (the highway off the bridge) Sunday afternoon:


Seems like when we approach the sea on the ICW, we always wind up beside a sea of grass at some point. Here is the peaceful sea of grass beside Scipio Creek Sunday evening:


And here's the hotel, makes a good windbreak and nightlight:


Good night! We installed the new alternator on Monday, ate out at the Stuffed Owl and Papa Joe's Oyster House, fixed some instrument panel items, worked online, and cleaned a bit. Re-met Andy and Alice on Contentment and met Marc and Michele on Marc's Ark Monday evening. We plan on leaving Tuesday afternoon if the weather window really opens then -- later if it has been delayed.