Saturday, October 28 - Apalachicola, Florida

Up before sunrise at 6:30 a.m., to begin our cruise day.

 And, this is why!  A storm is a-brewin'!

This photo shows us leaving the marina; thank goodness we are heading the other way!

 Once we're out of the marina and in St. Andrews Bay, 

to the left we begin to see the beautiful sunrise.

 

 But to our right, we see the storm catching up with us.

 So, what to do?  Put the boat on plane!!!

The bay has many beautiful homes,

 a little bit of industry,

 and of course, towboats!

Soon we enter a canal, as we finish crossing St. Andrews Bay.  

Do you remember the dark green on the navigation screen prior to entering Mobile?  

It indicates marshland; this is what we thought the last canal would be like.

 As we enter the canal . . .

 marsh is exactly what we see on both sides of this canal.

 Some of our sites along the canal include:

A VERY unique towboat,

 (again, it's a narrow canal; that's our silver pole in our cockpit!),

 a festive greeting from a jack-o-lantern,

 a sailboat that has seen better days,

 (I guess "Wild Cat" got a little too wild!😁),

 some unique homes,

 and more submerged boats; 

 what's that all about?!?!?!

Soon we come to the most important (and I think only) bridge that we pass under; this is where we officially begin to follow the Eastern Standard Time Zone 

(hope we don't call anyone too early in the morning!😉)

About three-fourths the way through the canal, we see this sign.  Port St Joe is supposed to be a cute town, but considering we are thinking about a Gulf Crossing on Tuesday, we need to go a bit further.

 That's a long channel to Port St. Joe . . .

 . . .with a pretty cool-looking tunnel-hulled cruising vessel.

And wouldn't you know, just when we're getting near the end of the narrow canal, 

there's a towboat!

 At least we have a bend to pass him on (interesting note, this is the same towboat that was stuck in the middle of the channel in St. Andrews Bay)!

We now enter Apalachicola Bay.

 Sand beaches and a swing bridge remind us of back home.

 We start to see a few more homes as we get closer to the marina in Apalachicola

 (our spot for the night); 

Sis Hanson, is this your manicured yard?💗

 And right before we get to the marina, we see this towboat maneuvering a bunch of barges.  

As he leaves to get another barge, I tell Captain Dave that it looks as though he wants to race!😁

 And here we are: Apalachicola!  Something tells me this might be a fishing village!

 Turns out, the town was having a car show as we pulled into the marina (I heard on the loud speaker that a Mustang won!!!💗).  They also had MANY cute shops and restaurants.  Unfortunately, I never got to the shops, because once we got the boat secured, that storm hit!  

At least it waited for us to be in a secure spot.

 And look at what the storm left . . . simply beautiful!!!