Weather forecast for March 24, 2018:
Shipping Cove, Dog Island, Carrabelle, Florida
Low 66 high 79, Sunny
Southwest winds, 10 to 15 kts
Captain’s Log: March 22 - 23, 2018
The weather has finally settled down enough to allow us to depart St. Andrews Marina, but our plans have changed a bit. After speaking with our friend and sailing mentor Steve, who assured us that our 63ft mast would fit just fine under the three 65ft bridges along the route, we have decided to take the ICW from St. Joe to Apalachicola.
With this new plan we can cut approximately 20nm off of our Big Bend crossing on Saturday/Sunday and allow us to stay in protected anchorages on both Thursday and Friday nights.
We departed St. Andrews at 10:00 and headed into the Gulf of Mexico; it was sunny and 64 degrees with winds out of the northeast at 9kts. While still in the channel a pilot boat contacted us on VHF channel 16 and told us to clear the channel for a freighter coming in from the gulf.
Out in the gulf we occasionally had dolphins swimming with us; it looked like they were playing tag with the bow of the boat. I climbed out on the bowsprit to get some pictures while hoping that our dolphin striker, the steel shaft with the arrowhead welded on the end, would not actually strike a dolphin. It didn’t.
The wind and waves picked up as we approached the St. Joseph Peninsula, heading towards Port St. Joe and the ICW. While in the ICW we saw several eagles, one of which had a fish in its talons. We squeezed under our first 65ft bridge at White City and, about 7 miles further down the ICW, we dropped anchor in a beautiful oxbow. Shirley quickly got her fishing pole out and did her best impression of having a 'big one' on the line. After sunset, with no artificial light anywhere near, the stars came out in all of their glory, they were absolutely brilliant; I put on a warm jacket, laid a cushion on the deck house and gazed up at the heavens for a good 30 minutes. I could see the Milky Way.
Friday, March 23rd:
We wanted to spend some time in Apalachicola before heading to our anchorage at Dog Island so we left the oxbow at 7:30 and by 10:30 we were tied up at the Apalachicola Marina, topping off our fuel tanks. We then moved the boat to the public dock in ‘downtown’ Apalachicola and took off to explore the place.
This is a very cool little town. There are many boutique shops and great restaurants. Apalachicola Bay is said to have the best oysters in the world and, after a dozen raw ones at the Hole In The Wall, we would thoroughly agree. We topped off our meal with a shared piece of key lime pie and then headed back to the boat.
After two more 65ft bridges and 23 miles on the ICW, we dropped anchor at Shipping Cove off of Dog Island. This is our jump off point for the Big Bend gulf crossing. The winds were light and the sea was calm. We shared the anchorage with just one other boat; a catamaran with a local couple who just came out to spend the weekend in the anchorage.
The weather predictions for tomorrow are a mixed bag. The winds should be out of the south at 10-15 knots, shifting to southwest late Saturday night. The wave prediction is for 2-3ft seas out of the southeast; right on our nose. Not perfect conditions by any stretch but not too bad either. Later in the coming week things are predicted to get noticeably worse so, if the forecast does not change for the worse between tonight and tomorrow morning, we will be heading out.
After an absolutely beautiful sunset, we hit the sack, anxious for tomorrow's adventure to begin.
Until next time, fair winds and following seas.