Peanut butta Jelly

We got our new bikes in this morning and after we put them together, we pedaled down to Sigma Marine to pickup our stuff and to see when they are going to come down to the boat to look at the auto pilot. I was laughing so hard at times I almost fell off the bike, my legs started burning almost immediately and I was huffing and puffing. We had to stop a few times to rest, now we can walk for miles, but the bikes are killing us, I was singing peanut butta jelly, because that is what my legs felt like!

Our new bikes

Captains log "All Walked Out"

Karin's book

Well Sigma Marina came today and brought back our chart plotter and when he plugged it back in it worked great, so after he left, Pierre turned it off and when he turned  it back on of course it did not work again, Pierre called them and they are going to have to send it back to Furuno,  Kenny was using the golf cart, so we had to hoof it back to Sigma Marina and my shin splints are complaining, but we got there and the girl that works for them is very nice and she let me refill our water bottles with their cold water. We have walked this way now for awhile and there is a little garden / etched glass door company on the way, they have their doors out in their garden, it's very beautiful, Codi they have lots of tillys, so I said to Pierre lets stop in and look at the garden and the doors, we looked around for awhile and we ran into a sweet little cat, so I sat down and started to pet him when a woman came out of the house and offered us to come in out of the heat, her name is Karin Mesa and her husbands name is Julian they are the most wonderful people! They are artist, like us and want to get into making wrought iron gates, just like Pierre and I used to make. She  also writes children's books and she gave me one of her books. When we got back to the "little ship" I read her book and I found it to be very charming, it is about a an anole lizard named Oliver, so sweet!
 I went on the Walmart online store and ordered us bikes, screw this walking thing!

Bromeliads on a tree

The walking Lesne'

Super cool old church

We have walked our feet off the last couple of days, Friday we took the chart plotter to Sigma Marine, and Pierre talked to him and they are going to look at it and see what is wrong and get back to us on Monday. Saturday we drove the golf cart to "Miss Vickie's the marina down the street from us and had lunch, they had a small band playing music and it was sweet! When we came back we met a man (Jackson) that has a small wooden boat here, he bought this boat and fixed it up. But him and his wife want to cruise, so they have bought a  38 ft Southern Cross. Very nice, so we talked to him for a while and he told us that he had to pick up his wife at 5 pm and if we wanted he would drop us off at the grocery store ( I needed toilet paper!) then he would pick up his wife from work and come back by and get us! Alright! His wife Arlene was so wonderful, as was he! Such nice people, I am regaining my belief in humanity! Today we drove the golf cart to Captain Jacks and chained it a tree, then we walked over the bridge and down to downtown Tarpon Springs, turned left and walked about 2 miles to West Marine and was surprised to find a Walmart, Dollar Tree and Big Lots in the same plaza! We walked across the street to Panara Bread and had lunch then we hoofed it back to downtown and off to a small park they have in the middle of the town, they have manatee in this park, but we did not see any, so we walked around to the sponge docks and back over the bridge, as we started over the bridge it started to rain and we ducked into Captains Jack for drink and wait out the rain, then we headed back to Mar-Marina, this Marina is fenced in and you have a clicker to get in, it makes me feel better to know we are safe.

From Captains Jacks

Sponge Capital of the World

Grass sponge

June 1905 was the month that the Greeks arrived in Tarpon Springs to start fishing for sponges. Newly arrived Americans settlers had discovered sponges in the Keys  around 1820s. The west coast sponges were discovered accidentally in 1873 by Key West turtle fishermen whose nets were foulded by sponges off the mouth of the Anclote River. Sponges came to the area to work the beds and some moved to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs got its name from a woman Mary that moved here with her father, she saw some fish jumping and thought they were Tarpon, they ended up being mullet, but Tarpon Springs stuck.
 In 1890 John Cheyney a Tarpon Springs businessman opened the Anclote River and Rock Island sponge Company across the river from Tarpon. During the 1890s sponge packing houses were built in the City, sponge presses were installed and buyers moved into Tarpon Springs. Gradually the sponge business shifted from Key West, Cuba and the Bahamans also moved to Tarpon Springs. By 1900 Tarpon Springs was considered the largest sponge port in the United States.

This is wool sponge

 It was, however the Greek immigrants who expanded and refined sponging in Tarpon Springs. The individual who is responsible for the Greek involvement is John Corcoris, who arrived in Tarpon Springs in 1896 as a sponge buyer for a New York firm. He went to work for John Cheyney, who financed Corcoris' early efforts to make the industry more efficient. In 1905 Corcoris introduced the first mechanized sponge fishing boat to Tarpon Springs and brought in 500 Greek divers from Kalymnos, Halki, Sumi, Hydra, Spetse, Aegena and other Greek Islands. Other Greeks soon arrived and family's were established!

Sponge vase

Milk, please

Well...I think I am changing my mind about Tarpon Springs, we put the sun shades up today and did some small stuff on the boat, but I have been out of milk for days and I love milk in my coffee in the mornings. So after we finished the sun shade we walked to the marina up the street and had lunch. I had fish tacos, they were good! We walked back and went to office to find out about where we can get some milk, Gene and his son Shane said there was no where we could go on foot, now there was another man in the office his name is Kenny Coffee..and when he heard what I wanted he said " you know, I baked a cake last night and when I sat down to eat a slice I did not have any milk to go with it, so hop in my truck and I will take you to the store" he took us to a Winn Dixie..and I have to say I have never seen such a big Winn Dixie, we got milk, oranges and some yogurt! He waited for us in the truck and picked us up at the door, talk about service! I commented on what a large Winn Dixie that was and he looked at me and said " you don't get out much do you?" He asked us what else did I need and I told him I need a laundry mat..stat.. He drove us to the laundry and showed us how to get there, and said " I am going to let you use my golf cart so you both can get around here."
We have meet such wonderful people on this journey! We meet Harold and Kim and the others on the dock at C Quarters, all such great people! I am loving this! We hauled up the TV antenna and we have 60 channels! Here are some pics of the dock, and Pierre pimped out on the golf cart! LOL

Add caption

Mar Marine

We got up early and headed up the river to the marina, we are now at the dock and I now have wifi, sweet. We are getting charged for electricity here so we put up the sun shade. No laundry here, bummer, we are going to put the water taxi down and head out to look around and see what we can find, the furuno  repair man can not come till Monday, so we wait, post grip.

Tarpon Springs

Whew, after a 28 hour sail, we are now anchored here on the south end of Ancolte Island. We left Carrebelle around 9am and sailed out into the gulf ( the big pond) we sailed for a few hours and the chart plotter would not find us, so Pierre told me to go down below and find the book, I did and he read up on it and the furuno told him it was broken...BROKEN....and about now the auto pilots went out..so he said let's go back, I said hell no..we go on ....I only had 2 hous sleep because someone had to be at the helm steering. Long story short..we made it with no worries, well lots of worries on my part!
  After a day of rest and some research, I called the City Marina and talked to Ted, the dockmaster, after a lot of questions on my part we had a slip waiting on us. The next day I said to Pierre lets dingy in and check it out before we take the " little ship" up the river, boy are we getting good at launching the dink, it only took us about 30 minutes this time!  So off we go to the City Marina what a joke Tarpon Springs should be ashamed, very ashamed, the docks are a mess and they do allow live a boards, they charge a small fortune..etc..needless to say we could not stay there, so Ted felt bad and called a friend whom has a dock next to the Marina, but alas, the story of my life, we just missed it, he has another boat coming in so it was spoken for. Well what to do, so we had lunch at a authentic Greek restaurant, Kimmy you were right the spina thing with spinach was good and we had some sort of flaming cheese too! Their pita bread was to die for! Then we went on the hunt for a slip, what a joke this town is for cruisers, we soon learned to say "no we do not live aboard" because we finally found a place and after we talked to the man and we must have told him about 4 or 5 times we lived on the boat, got all the paper work done and everything, he said so you live on the boat and we said yes again...then he took the paper work and told us to go away, he didn't allow live a boards...go figure..I was pissed and hot. After all day we finally found a place and again Gene the dockmaster told us no live a boards, but there is a man that lives on his sailboat here!! They gig transients and cruisers here..me no like...but we had to take the slip. We will head in tomorrow!

Rainbow over Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs..here we come!

Hey everyone! We are heading to Panama City tomorrow to drop off the truck and do some last minute shopping before we head off to Tarpon Springs. We finally have a weather window...no rain and storms in the gulf! We are going to leave either Sunday or Monday, and sail all day and all night and get there the next day. I want to get there in the day light, we are going to anchor off a Ancolte Island and dingy into Tarpon Springs. They have a sponge festival at the end of the month and Kim and Harold may come down and spend a couple of days with us, I hope so!! I will let ya know!

Kingfish Shoot Out

Every year,  for the past 10 years C-Quarters Marina has had a kingfish tournament, to benefit the leukemia society. Jimmy Crowder, the man that owns C-Quarter had a daughter that died from leukemia, so he has sponsored this tournament and they have raised over $700,000,00 so far. Quite impressive! It was a lot of fun watching the boats come in and seeing their catch, I have never seen such big kings. They have big raffle at the end of the tournament, but I didn't win anything :(  I did get a small fish finder to put on the dink for $45.00, that was a good buy! The winning fish weighted in at 46.5lbs. 

Winning fish

Chicken ranch

We have made some wonderful friends here at C-Quarters Marina, Kim, the lady here, is the best and I am going to email Mr. Crowder himself and tell him what a prize he has in her. Her husband, Harold, is a Dutch man and he is a wonderful person, he comes up on the dock and hangs out, he is a wealth of information, they had a 70 ft steel hull and we love it. He is helping out his friend,  they have a chicken ranch, of course when I heard chickens I was in love, his friend has lots of chickens. I love chickens and Harold took us to his friends chicken ranch and we got to see all his chickens, he also raises koi fish so he has a ton of ponds all over his property with koi fish in them in different stages of growth. The water was dark in most of the ponds so seeing them was hard, but I was so excited..they were so sweet!
My next question is going to be?? Is it ever going to stop raining? We woke up this morning to the rain. At least the hatch over the bed has stopped leaking, but we have sprung new leaks upon leaks..we watched two campy movies " The land that time forgot" and its sequel " The people that time forgot" I went insane!!
After the rain let up this afternoon I went up on the porch and met two wonderful people, Frank and Sharon, we sat up there with them for hours and we laughed and laughed. Sharon is a hoot, and I thought of Sharon my other friend, she too was a hoot..I miss you...They are coming back tomorrow and we are going to have a picnic..Frank is a doctor and just retired, Sharon has lots of businesses and they live in La. They are both too cute. They are a lot older then we are and she says they need to make decisions like right now, because you just never know when it will end! She is so right, that is why Pierre and I doing this. You just never know when it will end. We went to the aquarium in Panacea and it was so cute, it was a wonderful surprise and we had a fun time.

He was trying to get out!

this one speaks for itself

Hi there!

Puffer Fish

This is a frog fish

A boat full of Fiddler crabs

Just hanging out!

Sunshine!!

Here at C-Quarters all the boaters come in with their fish, this is a big cobia that was caught off Dog Island. Check out what Jarvas's son has in his hand, that made me laugh, we had a bet on the weight and I won..Sweet..so Jarvas gave us a hunk, it was yummy. THANK YOU!!

At least the rain has stopped, but the wind has been blowing a gale and the gulf is a mess with high seas and all, so here we sit, waiting for a weather window to leave. We are going to Tarpon Spring to the sponge docks. This a wonderful Greek community and they have been harvesting sponges out the gulf for years, they are famous for the worlds best sponges.

Still raining!!

Rain rain go away, come again some other day! Well I paid for another month here at C-Quarters Marina today, I would rather be at dock wishing I was at sea, rather than at sea wishing I was at dock!  
Going a little bit stir crazy, we only have two options, the boat or the porch. So today we spent a lot of time on the porch.

Ice cube award

We had a very tense time here at C-Quarters Marine this afternoon.  This morning Pierre and I got the dink going, now this is a big deal, we have to set the dink down, Pierre has to go down in the dink and I have to send the engine down with the davit, then he has to line up the engine with the end of the dingy and then secure it..But anyway..we did all that..it only took a few hours..so off we went..we went to Fish Camp...on the other side of the river and had lunch. Then we motered arounded, I wanted to go to Dog Islnd but we did not have the fuel for that, so we headed back to the boat. Now..I am very anal about putting things up, but I told Pierre, lets keep the dingy in the water because we want to go about tomorrow. Good thing I  did. we were sitting aboard and we heard a motor start up..I looked out the window and saw our neighbors dingy flip over and he landed in the water. We flew out of the boat and Pierre jumped  into the dingy I let the lines go..Keith was hanging onto side of his dingy, the tide was running about 6 knots too, so he was moving. After Pierre started after him, I screamed to the people on the porch for help. Well, Pierre got to him and we got got him up on the dock without any injury. We used the spinnaker pole to raise the dingy up and get it flipped back over. Whew! What a evening! Kim told us we get the ice cube award!

Captains log..soaked

Will it ever quit raining? I had a melt down in the boat today...stalking from one end to the other..swearing and yelling about the rain and the forcast..It was not a pretty sight..thank you Pierre, I am so glad he loves me..and puts up with me. He sat on the couch and laughed at my antics..playing candy crush on my iPad.  If only.

Glad we are on a boat right now!

Wow, as I alway say...it does not rain here...it monsoons...we have been holed up here now for 2 days, with hurricane winds buffing us and rain and thunder and...yes...lightning..those that know me know how fearful I am of lightning.
 We went to Apalalchicola with Bill and Charlie the other day and had lunch at Boss Oyster, there was a small female grackle that was stealing food off the tables and sugar packets out of the dish. She was sooo cute..Apalachicola has grown since I was last there, now I have to admit, the last time I was there was years ago. It was a fun day, thank you Bill and Charlie...Codi..they have tillys..
 Yesterday we took the hot water heater out ..ouch.. no hot water..and today West Marine called me and our new one was in. John drove us to the West Marine in Tallahassee, it is a new store they have only been there for a month, beautiful store and well stocked. It was heaven! I got 3new pairs of shorts! I really needed them.
 Johns computer bit the dust awhile ago and he was on the hunt for a new one, so we went to Best Buy, Staples and Office Depot.  ( Charlie...I tried to talk him into a Mac, but no go) I want the new Mac Book Pro...Honey..do you hear me?
Anyway...I am hoping we can set sail for Tarpon Dock soon! I am feeling the pull of sailing! Oh yea..happy Fourth of July  everyone!!

Rain..rain..go away

We are still docked here in Carrabelle Fl. With the weather and all we are not going to move.We are fair weather sailers. Getting a lot done on the boat, so that is good.
We worked on the autopilots and got one of them working, Pierre is glad for that, we only have 5 things left on the board, but the boat keeps added more.
I noticed the bilge pump came on the other day and I was worried, but, we had worked on the air conditioner because the water flow had not been right and it was very clogged up with grass and such, but in doing so, we had gotten water in the bilge, so Pierre said to me that is why the pump came on. Now you have to know, the fist thing I do in the morning when I get up is check the bilge pump meter to see if the pump has come on. It had...not once but twice..that is bad. Pierre went down in the engine room and the hot water heater was leaking. REALLY..we had just replaced that thing in March. I called West Marine and they will replace it, but we have to wait a week for a new one to come in. John, (a very nice man) just a couple of boats down said he will take use to Tallahassee to get the new one. But this sets us back some. Bummer...
On a lighter note...we are having a blast!! Life is sweet on board..

Sad day

Pierre and I have some good friends, David Dykes and his wife Rosemary, they have a 70ft schooner "Nina". They asked us to sail with them a few years ago, but I told Pierre, if they can do it we can too, so we told them no. They set sail a few years ago with their son. I heard they were in New Zealand not to long ago and they were going to sail to Austrailia. They have been lost at sea now for three weeks, I am hoping they will be found. They ran into a bad storm and they have not been heard from since. Every cruisers nightmare.
We are still here in Carrabelle, get things ready for the crossing, we had about 12 things on the board and now we down to 7. Sweet!

Partay

John at the grill

This is John @ the BBQ pit cooking the chicken, we borrowed this from James, he works here at C-Quarters. The party was fun for all, at first the fishermen that hang here stayed at the other end of the dock, but as Keith sang his songs, they wandered over to us. By the end of the night they were singing and hanging out.

Sleeping Inn

We have been so lazy...I slept in till 9am the other morning, we are in fresh water here in Carrabelle so I have not been as worried.

  We are still working on the boat... getting the list smaller and smaller. We walked to the store yesterday and then we went to the "The Fisherman Wife" restaurant for lunch, as we were eating the rain started...and it was a deluge, the lady that works there, her husband works here at the marina, George..she told me she would drive use back, but the rain had let up and we headed back to the boat. When we got back..the cockpit was a awash. So today we took up the teak deck and we found a bunch of rust spots, they were bad! This was not on the list....we fiberglassed them and tomorrow we are going to paint them and replace the teak deck. 

John..he is a couple of boats down from us, invited us to go to dinner with him. He has a car..sweet...he is from Kentucky. He and his wife have a Hans Christian, Cristina, they only made 14 of these boats, they are not double Enders, that was a change for them. But anyway..he took us to a really sweet restaurant, over the bridge.

 Tomorrow we have the BBQ going on the dock and John bought 5lbs of chicken and he is marinating them as we speak..will let you know how it goes!!

What fun!!

We are having a blast here at C-Quarters Marina, our neighbors here are the coolest, they have a 1981 36ft Hunter, and have come all the way from Port Isabelle, Tx. He has a Kareoke Machine on board..yes they do..did i spell that right? Well.. He sings..love it..so we have talked to Kim, and we are going to have a sing-a-long here Saturday night. Ok..Tip jar..Keith...we went to the Doc today and Pierre has some sort of weird sport injury on his knee..yes a sport injury..go figure.. We are going to treat it with Methylpredniolone tablets...Codi is that right? We have to go back tomorrow, and we have to walk there..hmmm..he has a knee problems...but ok...they are going to show us on the x-ray they took today...hey Codi...Tillys are still alive..there was a huge 75ft houseboat that came in yesterday, they are on the way to Tampa to get that houseboat on a ship for a trip to Russia..4 guys...they had NO idea what they were doing...we hope they make it...they had no plan..no live raft..no dingy..and they were drinking!! Sweet..I so love this life...We slept in till 8:30 this morning..I told Pierre, I may never return to land life. When you stop the clock..life just gets sweeter!!

Carrabelle History

Carrabelle's  first post office was founded in 1878. This new federal facility served the fifty families living around the mouth of the Crooked River.
  Lumbering and the timber harvesting industry soon came to be the mainstay of this struggling but optimistic settlement. Vast quantities of logs and loads of turpentine were floated down the river and dispatched aboard sailing vessels, which anchored in the secure coves of Dog Island, hence the name Shipping Cove. The captains of these vessels also left their crew on the Island. Most of their crew were men that had been shanghaied, so they did not want them to run away!
  A severe hurricane in 1898 destroyed much of the town. The lumbering business fell off and the local economy was depressed for a time as the residents strove to rebuild their community a bit farther upstream. The new version of Carrabelle rose on the shores of St James Island, sandwiched between the Crooked and New rivers. The town continues to occupy this site today.
  During WWII, Carrabelle experienced a short lived boom. Camp Gordon Johnston was established five miles out of town and new recruits trained for amphibious landings on the shores of Dog Island.
  Following the war, Carrabelle lapsed more and more into the role of an isolated but charming fishing village. Shrimp, crab and freshwater fish are harvested for sale locally and they are shipped out. Grouper, snapper and other deep water fish are fished offshore. There is also a lot of commercial, charter and recreation fishing.
 This weekend they hosted the Big Bend Saltwater Classic Fishing Tournament.  So we walked down yesterday to see the weighins, they caught some really big fish...today they auctioned them off. It was cool. See ya on the water!

Squirrels in the trees

Pierre and I walked about five miles today, looking for the local doctor, but no luck, we did see a white squirrel in a tree and I got some pictures. I need a better camera! But after we got back to marina, I talked to Kim, she is the local expert here, she told me there is a story about the white squirrels. There was a lady here and she and her son raised white squirrels and sold them as pets, when her son died, she had about 30 of them and she just let them go. Kim has three of them in her back yard. She did help us find the local doctor and loaned us her car to get there, but they do not have a doctor till Monday, so we will go back then...

Hello Carrabelle

After bobbing on the hook for a day in Shipping Cove off Dog Island, we got up yesterday and decided to check out Carrabelle, after fighting the davit that holds the engine, and getting the engine started..we have to fix that...we headed out..the channel here in the river is well marked and very deep. We passed several marinas, one of them had a wonderful porch where there were people sitting in rocking chairs, drinking beer, we waved and motored on. Before you reached the bridge, there is a marina called The Moorings at Carrabelle, we docked the dingy and went inside to talk to the girl in the ships store, we asked her if we could leave the dingy there while we had some lunch, she said no..they where to busy..Hello..we where the only ones there.
So when we got back to the dingy and moved on..I told Pierre, lets go the marina that had the porch...super great place, it is  called C-Quarters Marina. This is large and friendly marina, they have lots of transient dockage and they let us leave our dingy there to go and have lunch. The Fisherman Wife is good restaurant.
 We talked to Kim..who runs this marina..and she told us we could come in and dock and do our repairs, so off we went, back to the boat in the dingy. What a rough ride back, but when we got back, we motored to over to Dog Island and checked it out...neat Island.
This morning we motored up the river to C-Quarters and docked up. After talking to Kim she told us about a marina store downtown and the man ..Jerry..who runs it. So we walked to his shop and he told us he would have our part the next day..cool..we found a museum not to far...it tells the history of Carrabelle so we stopped in, the lady that runs it is very nice and we had a wonderful time talking with her, there is a nice ice cream shop downtowm too so stopped there and had a scoop of cotton candy ice cream...yum...
Back to the boat..we walked to the grocery store to get the stuff I needed for a great dinner...thank you Budget Bites..and we were we stopped by Jerry...he had stopped by the marina to find us and was told where we were are by our neighbors...they are fellow Texans...they are from Port Isabelle Texas...Pierre always says this about... me....you can always tell a Texan..but you can't tell them anything..He not get the part...but he will do everything in his power to find something that will

work...I love this town already...

Bobbin on the hook!

Sunset in Carrabelle

We are at anchor in" Shipping Cove" off Dog Island, here in Carrabelle,  Fl. It is a wonderful cove and a lot less rolly then off the beach of St George Island.
Surprise....Carrabelle's history is as rich as PSJ.
  Shortly after the Civil War, an industrious pioneer by the name of Oliver Kelly came to live near the banks of what was known as the Crooked River. Though stories vary, it seems that Kelly must have lost his wife or sweetheart in the war. Her name was Carrie. He named the settlement after his lost love and added the word "belle" to recall her beauty.  Thus the name Carrabelle was born.

Whew!!

As we where leaving PSJ..sweet company

As I write this, I am in the cockpit, watching the house on the Gulf side of St George Island glide by, so many of them! We headed out of PSJ early Monday morning, we had planned on leaving Sunday, but the boat and Pierre's knee wanted to stay put, he hurt his knee somehow and could not put any weight on it, then we decided to get the water maker going and then the generator quit working...after getting things in order off we went, we were going to go into Apalac via the Intercoastal cut, but as we got there dark thirty had set in and as we slowly made our way, we ran aground, could not believe there  is not even 10 ft of water! It's an Intercoastal for goodness sake! Apalac needs to get in together, anyone using this cut, be careful!
 Now it's pitch dark and Pierre has to get us out of there, whoops, there goes the nails again, he did a wonderful job, with my help of course and we spent a very rolly night anchored out about a mile from shore, we are headed to Carrabelle, via the East Pass, it seems, on the chart to have plenty of water...hopefully we can get the part we need to fix the generator there and I would like to go ashore and see some of Dog Island, the Guide book says to do just that. I am using my Verizon data now, so gotta go, will post lasted when we get settled in.

Andrea

Ohhhh...  Our first Tropical Storm aboard the "little ship" I woke up early this morning to sound of rain pattering on the boat. Love that...went right back to sleep...

After pouring over charts last night we decided to head to Dog Island, if you go thru the channel and round on the back side of the Dog Island there is about 25ft of water, so Pierre wants to go there. I am good with that ..but...

 The dock here at Captains Cove Marine is super good, but the yellow flys are fierce. One guy told me they are the worse they have ever been, so Dog Island is fine..but no yellow flys...if they r bad..we have to leave.

  We did the laundry today and getting ready for the Sunday take off, we drove around PSJ today and the history here is very interesting,

I read the "The Great Tide" awhile ago and it was a great book, I love reading about the history of different places,
The legend of the lost city of PSJ is a major part of the history and folklore of Nortwest Fl.  The old city of St Joe was for a time the largest in all of Florida.It disappeared without a trace durning the 1840's, however, spawning many tall tales.

Among these are the stories of a massive yellow fever epidemic and of "The Great Tide". Legends holds it that the city was so wicked God sent a plague of the fever, then used the tidal wave to wash away what was left.

In truth, the city was all but destroyed by a yellow fever epidemic and did suffer a hurricane, but it really was the economic power of Apalachicola that finally destroyed what remained of the old city. The two had been bitter rivals, but due it's location at the mouth of the river, for which it was named, Apalac prevailed.

The city is charming and it a great place for exploring not only the history of Old St Joe, but it also has some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in Fl. PSJ has revitalized itself from a failing industrial town to one of the newest vacation areas.

Back to Alcatraz....

We headed back to Panama City today in our borowed truck to get the parts we needed from Panama Marine and to get a wench from the shop for Danny Raffield, he needs it on his fishing boat and well...he has let us dock here at no charge so I told Pierre we need to get it for him. We picked up Codi at the house and met Gloria and Matt at Bayou Joe's...downtown..love that place..( Gloria...We love ya'll and hope ya'll visit us.. You are a great friend and a special person and I love you) we are going to set sail on Saturday and anchor out at the cape then set out early Sunday morning for Crystal River. I thought I would like to sail over to Vincent, Dog Island, but water is skinny...I do not want to risk it. I get so worried....yes I am a worry wart.

Envie Rose

Ohh..

We got up this morning and headed off to Raffield Fisheries, they are located just under the George Tapper Bridge in the intercoastal water way in Port Saint Joe, Fl., they fish for bait fish and butter fish, which is one of their better sellers, they sell fish all over the world..Butter Fish? Gotta try that one!!
  Pierre has made parts, welded, and generally made all sorts of stuff for the Raffields boats for years.. I must say, they are great people. Well anyway...Harold told Pierre we could tie up their docks, so, off we went....I looked up the George Tapper Bridge clearance on the Internet, and found it is 75 ft high...but if anyone on a boat knows..when you come up to a bridge, it always looks as if you are not going to make it.
 The people fishing on both sides of the bridge gathered up and watched, I bit off all my nails in a chainsaw motion, Pierre asked one guy fishing, if we were going to make it under the bridge and he just shrugged and laughed, like a glove...we cleared it with room to spare.
 Charlie met us on the dock and we spent the day getting stuff we needed and did not bring with us....Codi....we found this store downtown, and they had "Kiss My Face" 1/2 off, so I bought them out, I now have plenty of sunscreen. Sweet!

Captains log 060113

We escaped....we are at anchor in St Joe Bay...we left the dock around 10am, the sail to the pass was spectatcular, one tack. Bryant Bishop, on the Kaula, came out and sailed with us for a while ( We love you Bishop) we sailed out about 6 miles, then the fun began. The winds veered and we set down with a south west wind, around 18-20 knots. So we plowed thru some rough seas, it took us 10 hours to get to St. Joe, I told Pierre we could have run to St. Joe faster..Lol...I did get to see a big hammerhead shark, and lots of flying fish..I love them, they are so cute. Not so many dolphin, but it was really rough out there. Envie did not do so good, she is laying here next to me passed out, she had a hard time of it. I will post some picture when we get closer to the marine, and get Wifi, the data is so slow out here and St. joe just does not have that many towers.

Two Snaps

Well... The shake down cruise went without a hitch, we have a little vibration, Pierre thinks it is the coupler or the flex plate..but both of them are not really bad, they are just a hiccup. We can fix them on the fly. We went to the shop and took the truck out again..three times is the lucky number..Right?
I think we are going to stay here till Saturday and leave out then. The weather is going to be great.
   Envie Rose did really good this time, she did not try to abandon ship.
 I think we are going to go up the East coast till hurricane season  is over, then head back to the islands, we still have a lot of work to do on the boat.

Working on my boat

We spent the holiday weekend working in the boatyard, but when it's all said and done, we got a lot done. Bill replace the main sheet wench for us ( thanks Bill) so HAPPY about that, the wench we had was way to small and it took the strength of Hercules to take the main and and out, it will be easier now with the big 54 size.
The dock we are at is on fire with wires hanging, so the bottom was ate up with electrolysis, Charlie and I worked on this while Pierre fixed the damage to the dripless. We also got to change out a leaking valve on the engine intake.
We splashed on Monday morning, big thanks to Jason at the boatyard! Got a few loose ends to tie up today, going to do shake down cruise too, just to make sure...stomach in knots...fingers and toes crossed.

Alcatraz?

Almost got out of here:( We didn't even make it to Shell Island before we had a disaster, our water flow valve failed and we burned up the dripless. We had to anchor up and call Tow Boat (Thanks Dave) so here we are back at Bay County Boatyard waiting our turn to haul out today, we will be working in on the boat this holiday weekend. Yes...I had a good cry...but all things happen for a reason, we may not know why, but I truly believe it.
 On the plus side we did forget some key items, so I can retrieve them and go ahead and do laundry, oh the joy of cruising life, I love it!

Good Morning

This is what I saw when I went out to the cockpit this morning. (This life is hard!).  Went to Sams today and bought them out. Still on track to leave tomorrow. Super excited...now the packing of the stuff begins...sigh

OMG

The back of the truck

So much stuff.. I want to know who said " getting ready is half the fun"..they lied.. Codi called and we met Sharon, Skip, and Matt for lunch at Finns, it is a super cool little get a way in St Andrews, (the food is great). Thank you again..Sharon for lunch...so glad to see ya'll before we leave...Then we went to the shop and loaded the truck up and now the lazarette is slam full, still have a ton of stuff on deck and in the cockpit. (Going to have to start unloading stuff overboard) LOL. We hope to be out of here Friday morning and sail to St. Joe.. We are going to stay there thru the holiday weekend and then set out for Crystal River. I got my Redi-Set-Go cooker today and I made pizza on it I love this thing.

Done

Bobs Boat

Here it is...DONE!  Yes, now we going to devote this week to getting the last things on board and getting out of here!! Tomorrow Pierre is getting his bloodwork done and his new crown. Sweet...

Learning how to use this dang thing

I went to Codi's house this afternoon and with the help of Halo, we made made naan bread. I have to say this...I am going to miss my daughter so much, she is my BFF.

Working at the shop getting my brother-in-laws boat ready to go into the water..almost done. Got all the stuff out of the shop and onto the boat, I think she sank into the water at least an inch. Pierre still has to get his welding stuff on board, but other than that we are set to go. Hopefully the dentist will call next week and Pierre can get his new tooth.  I told Pierre we ARE leaving the following week.  We are planning on going to Port Saint Joe, so we aren't going to go to far away. I want to see how Envie Rose does on the boat before we head off on a long leg. Pierre went up the mast on a friends boat this morning to help him set his Tactic system and he took these pictures!

Rain Day

Most of the time I love rainy days, but now with us trying to get out of here, I view them as a pain in the butt.  Today was no different so as we sat in the boat looking at each other, Pierre said, lets go to Dothan. We have been talking about going to Harbor Freights to get some stuff for the boat, so off we went. We stopped at Sadie's, this really big flea market just as your coming into Dothan and I found a super little spice market....now I have all the spices I am going to need...sweet!

 

Party Sucess!!

Well the party's over ;( but it was a wonderful party and I want to thank everyone that helped make it that! The food was fab! As was the company. Thank you everyone!! We are going to try to be out of here in the next two weeks ( fingers crossed). The weather of all things has gotten cold, so are motivated to go south. Sunday was my first day at the laundry mat and I had to ask a nice young man how to use the washers! He was nice about it and didn't laugh at me:) at least not in front of me, but on a positive note, I know how to use the washers now.

Almost

Got the back deck painted and we are going to put the new hatch cover for the propane tank, everything can go back into the lazarette..just a few hiccups...and we will be sailing away on our adventures!! Envie Rose went to West Marine and is ready!!