This is the neatest town I have been in on this trip. It is an old, funky Florida town on what is referred to as the "Forgotten Coast" of Florida. You may recall that we stopped her briefly on our way down to the Keys, to have Marc and his crew at Wefings dewinterize the Tom Cat and make a few modifications for us. This time we are in the water at the Water Street Hotel & Marina, a new hotel on the edge of town with a new, small marina. It has, wonder of wonders, floating docks -- much appreciated by those of us who go to the sea in boats smaller than trawlers. Strangely, there is only one rest room for the entire marina -- but it is a nice one and seldom in use. Only once have I not been able to get into the rest room when desired. By far, the biggest and basically only negative aspect of our stay here has been the no-see-ums. They are around all the time, but are out in force at dusk. Both Lori and I have been bitten numerous times, resulting in many ugly, red bites that resist a variety of anti-itch remedies.
The day we arrived we contacted Marc, who helped us launch the boat and then went out with me to evaluate whether it had the right props. I was gratified to find out that Marc said it was set up correctly. After checking in at the marina, we joined Marc, his wife Anita, and friend Cory Gracey (from Lake Stevens, WA, who delivers boats all over the country with his pickup and 50-foot transporter trailer) for dinner at Marc's house. Marc is a mean cook who whipped up a showcase meal of Floriday seafood: including tuna sashimi, oysters raw and cooked, and shrimp. Turns out that in a previous life, Marc ran several restaurants.
The next day Marc and Cory and I went out to the barrier islands separating Apalachicola Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. We spent the several hours fishing for Sheepshead and Black Drum with moderate success. After we returned from fishing, Cory gave Lori lessons in handling the Tom Cat that I also learned much from.
The day after that Lori and I went out with a local guide to St. Vincent's Island (a large wildlife refuge) and Bird Island. We caught quite a few whiting and two redfish (which unfortunately we had to release because they were bigger than the maximum size allowable.) I caught the first one, which weighed about 8 pounds. Then Brad, Charles' grandson who was with us, tied into a monster redfish which he battled for a good 15 or 20 minutes. Photos of both fishing trips can be found here:
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| Apalachicola |
After all the fishing activity we had a couple of days of R&R. Tomorrow we are taking the Tom Cat out for fishing. After that, we plan to spend a couple of days taking photos on the road from Talahassee to Apalachicola while the boat goes back to Wefings to have the pumpout access moved to a more accessible location. Then the boat goes back into the water and we will cruise the Intracoastal Waterway to Pensacola.
We definitely hope to return to Apalachicola -- it is everything I hoped to find in Florida (including, unfortunately, the bugs.) I am glad we experienced South Florida -- now we know what the Keys are like, and Naples and St. Petersburg. But the only area of South Florida that would draw us back is the Pass-A-Grille area of St. Petersburg.
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