Up early yet again we set off for an anchor night on the way to Apalachicola. There is a dock with a small park that is about 40 miles away. Aiden is leaving to go home in a couple days so we thought a night on the hook and some plane flying time in calm water would be a nice treat now that temps are cooperating. Crossing the bay and into tight channels to head into a cut in the swamp in calm winds was welcome. Dolphins are feeding and we see several pods just feet away from our boat. As we start into the small channel we see more dolphins in the shallow waters. The swamp is quite nice. The unusual thing we noticed was that the palm trees are green and the deciduous trees are barren. A strange contrast here.
We end up catching up to a tow and its 4 barges with another tow and 2 barges in front of it on this tight channel. Scott asks when or if its okay to pass. The squeeze was closer than we usually get to a barge but we do pass both. At the same time Scott realizes the dock that we wanted to stay at was about 1 mile up from the passing of the two tows. Instead of staying here we decide to make a go to Apalachicola. On this narrow channel there are several boats that have been left to rot on the shores. They do make interesting photo ops. Next we cross Lake Wimico with its notoriously shallow depths. We pass with 10 feet of water at Red marker 10 through 12. After that the water depth opens up to about 12-15 feet. It does seem that the water is high after all that rain that came through on Monday.
So now we are staying at the Apalachicola Marina Inc. It has lots of depths, with ample space on their docks. Diesel and gas, restaurants, showers, restrooms, and an easy walk to town. I spent most of the day arranging on getting Aiden’s flight from Tallahassee. The problem here is no way to get there. There are no rental cars, no shuttles open since its the holidays and no major transportation services. Scott meets a fellow working on the bridge nearby as he pulls up for diesel. They get to talking and the fellow offers us his truck to take to the airport. Now that’s southern hospitality. We also meet a couple from Nautical Dreams U Tube channel. They have put everything into traveling to the Bahamas to wander from island to island. They do have a drone and took some really neat perspectives of this area with our boat and offered us a copy.
While I was searching for transportation and flights Aiden was flying his plane. He was lucky the winds were calm so as soon as the battery needed charging he put it on charge until he could run it again. Scott and Aiden went into town between charging sessions. It’s a quaint little town with antique shops, a museum and lots of shrimp boats. You can get provisions here if you look for it. We’ll be here tomorrow as well. Aiden will work to finish a school project. It is supposed to drop to 40 degrees tonight but for now we are enjoying the windows open and no wind, in Tshirts. Gotta love this!
