Monday, November 29, 2010

Yesterday, Sunday, was forecasted to be the nicest day here until next weekend so we took advantage of it and left Panama City and took the GIWW to Port St. Joe, Florida.  We did the rest of St. Andrews Bay to East Bay and then into Big Cove which brought us to the narrow Watappo Creek (part of the GIWW).  Big Cove was very shallow outside of the channel; 10 to 12' in channel and 1-3' on either side at times.  At about Mile Marker 312 - Green Marker 23 was way out of place.  We slowed down to a crawl until we saw the next red and green markers ahead. You really have to watch closely at times.

After we turned down the Gulf County Canal to Port St. Joe we changed into Eastern Standard Time.  So far we really like it here; nice restaurant, friendly people, walking distance to town, and they even have 3 wheeled bikes with baskets to take to the grocery store. 

There are a lot of Loopers here and we are all waiting for the next weather window to cross the gulf.  As of today, it looks like that will be next weekend.  We have heard so many conflicting stories about which way to cross the gulf and we are really confused.  Some people say it's about 50-50 as far as leaving from Apalachicola via the "Government Cut" or from Carrabelle via the East Pass and others say absolutely, do not go out of Apalachicola.  Some of the guys have been talking with the old shrimp boat captains that have lived in this area for their whole lives and they all recommend leaving from Carrabelle.  So, for the time being, we are going to do the Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs route.

N29 48.918
W85 18.607

CO's comments:  This evening over sunset cocktails I heard of 2 boats hitting bottom, nothing serious, but just because you are on the Intracoastal Waterways doesn't mean you have safe passage. 

Working on the head - so far two tries
and it is only partially fixed; one more
thing to try before we will have to get
professional help

This huge ship is being built in the
middle of the swamps - we were wondering
how they are going to get it to the ocean
because the GIWW is very shallow

This is what our wake looks like
in salt water at 2800 rmp-it really foams