West bound

Tough going against the tide

In December, 2019, Bryce and I left Apalachicola at 0800 making it to East Pass at 1130, to make the Gulf passage across Apalachee Bay to Clearwater. So this time with Ruth and I being anchored near East Pass at Dog Island, I assumed the jump to Apalachicola would take no more than 4 hours. We pulled up the anchor at 0800, on Wednesday, April 8, and steered the boat west through the St. George Sound into Apalachicola Bay where we turned north to the town of Apalachicola. We faced a strong current of 3 knots and west winds of 20-25 knots the entire distance.  The trip took 6 hours.  Our speed was 3-4 knots the entire journey.  Since we needed fuel, water and laundry we paid for a night at the Scipio Creek Marina. Apalachicola is a lovely fishing village with great history that is pretty much shut down because of the virus.

We shoved off the following morning at 0700 EDT

Old Apalachicola Northern Railroad Bridge

uncertain of where we would stop for the night, but knowing we needed to make some headway.  The trip carried us through 2 large lakes and the St. Andrew Bay system which is several bays in the Panama City area.  The wind blew near 20 knots, from the west, most of the day. In narrow parts of the ICW we were mostly protected and in the large lakes and bays, not so much.  The trip took exactly12 hours and covered 76 ICW statute miles, a trip record for a day, excluding overnighters. We left at 0700 EDT and arrived at 1800 CDT in a different time zone. We noticed many damaged trees, especially snapped pines, damaged from Hurricane Michael in 2017.  On the positive side we noticed many bald eagles.  It must be spring because there were many nests with mom and dad eagles.  They must have been guarding eggs or chicks.  We dropped the anchor in the NW corner of West Bay, at Crooked Creek Point and were greeted by a large pod of dolphins; always a good sign.  The anchorage provided some shelter from the northerly winds that blew through. 

Nesting eagles

On Good Friday, April 10, 2020, we upped anchor near ICW mile marker 275 at 0700 CDT hoping to make as many miles as yesterday.  During the early morning we had strong winds and hard rain.  Some of the rain lingered and the temperature dropped into the 50’s as we shoved off.  This portion of the journey would have 3 legs.  The first 22 miles included narrow, winding but smooth motoring just west of West Bay.  It was eventless.  With the temp drop and slight rain we deployed the remainder of the “bubble” (wrap around) to keep the weather out.  The second leg, ICW miles 256 to 223, included the open waters of the Choctawhatchee Bay, between Panama City and Ft. Walton Beach.  With winds between 15 and 20 knots most of the distance, we turned off the Yanmar and deployed both sails.  We did some Art style sailing, meaning no reefing under any circumstances.  Fortunately, the wind was abeam most of the time and we were able to fly.  We sustained our hull speed (7.48 knots) and greater, often.  It truly was a great 30-mile sail.  The third leg of today’s journey included the very beautiful and narrow ICW waters into the Santa Rosa Sound.  On the gulf (south) side is the white sands of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, a protected area.  The north side includes more private and government property including several military bases where we heard a presumed bombing practice.  At 1815 we dropped the anchor off Big Sabine Pt. on the south shoreline, at mile 195.  The 80 Statute miles traveled today is again a record for a daytime travel for Pura Vida.  I’ve been working the ole’ girl pretty hard… and Pura Vida too. 

Remnants of Hurricane Michael

Plans are not set for tomorrow but if we travel we will probably drop the hook in Alabama. 

Old Guy getting lazy steering by remote control