We moved on to Carrabelle today. It was a relatively short trip, just under 30 miles across the Apalachicola Bay. I took this photo as we went under the Bryant Grady Patton Bridge. This is what it looks like when a 61-foot mast goes under a 65-foot bridge. Not a lot of room up there!

The most exciting part of the day was getting into the dock. I chose this marina, because the other one was said to have 10-foot finger docks, meaning we'd have trouble boarding once in the slip. Well, this marina had pretty short docks, too. So Bud opted to back into the slip. There was a current in the river, and between having one engine, having a prop that pulls off to the side in reverse (prop-walk), having the prop far enough from the rudder that you have to get some way on to be able to steer at all, especially in reverse, it was quite an undertaking. Happily there was a guy out there to help. Bud said he thought he shifted from forward to reverse or back at least 15 times. I'd guess it was more. He did three separate tries before he got everything lined up and managed to get our 13-foot wide boat backed into the 15-foot wide slip. I was pretty proud of him. He didn't even get flustered.

After all that work, we're only staying one night. We have a great weather window for crossing to Clearwater. The wind is from the right direction and isn't supposed to be over 10 knots for the next four days. The waves should be two feet or less. Yeah! There are four other boats staying here tonight that are leaving tomorrow. We'll leave sometime after 10 AM and should be in Clearwater by noon or so on Monday. Of course I'm still nervous, but this is about as good a weather window as we could get, so I'm happy, too.

Wish us luck; next post should be from Clearwater!