Port St. Joe to Apalachicola, FL

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January 6, 2023: I rejoin the Intracoastal Waterway and head to Apalachicola to meet up with my first buddy boat friends.

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(continued from Panama City to Port St. Joe, FL)

I woke early (as usual) to an absolutely silent marina. If you recall from my previous post, I was the only boater there. Until the marina staff arrived, I was the only one at the marina.

Do It Now looks pretty lonely at a brand new marina that isn’t quite done yet.

Dawn showed me another beautiful day. Once again, I’d drive from up on the command bridge. But first, I had some things to do around town.

Dawn at Point South Marina.

A Shopping Trip

One of the things that makes Point South Marina attractive to Loopers is how much is within walking distance of the marina. I’d walked into town for dinner the night before, but now I needed to make two much closer stops: Bluewater Outriggers and Piggly Wiggly. These stores were in the same shopping center about two blocks from the marina.

I went to Bluewater Outriggers first. Although Google identifies this as a “fishing store,” it’s a great resource for buying fishing, boating, camping, and hunting gear. What I was looking for was a snorkeling setup. I had a good one years ago but I left it behind when I moved out of my Arizona house. I suspect time wasn’t good to it anyway — those things don’t do well in dry air. My goal was to get a snorkel, mask, and flippers for under $100. I did better: I got them for about $60 in a drawstring storage bag I could put under the deck and pull out when I needed them. I was still pretty sure I’d make it to the Florida Keys before the end of the month and I wanted my own gear to possibly snorkel right off my boat.

With that mission accomplished, I went next door to Piggly Wiggly, which is a supermarket chain in the south. I bought a few grocery items, as well as enough sausage and canned goods to make Swamp Soup again and to send the makings to my house-sitter back in Washington. I’m not sure why I chose that location to buy so many canned goods — maybe I figured it would be my last chance for the ingredients? — because they were very heavy to carry back in the two big chicken feed shopping bags I’d brought along on my shopping trip.

Moving On

Back at the marina, I bought a t-shirt in the marina store and a pair of socks for a friend and then wandered over to one of the new docks that was being wired for power to get a nice photo of my boat.

I had to walk out on one of the fenced off docks to get this picture. That’s the marina’s office and restrooms behind Do It Now.

I wasn’t in a big hurry to leave. I didn’t have far to go. And there was an issue: the tide.

You see, where they’d parked me was where the water was shallowest. The tide had gone out and my boat was sitting in about 3 feet of water. It needs 2 1/2 feet of water to float. So I was barely floating alongside the dock. When I looked down into the water, I could see the bottom.

By the time I was ready to go, the tide pretty much completely out. So I took my time prepping the boat to depart, doing chores like the dishes and making the bed and putting things away. Stuff I should be doing anyway before departure but sometimes get too lazy to do.

But there came a point when everything was ready to go, including the command bridge setup with my radio, binoculars, and DC charger for my phone and iPad. I even had my girls in their life jackets and sitting on their blanket up on our command bridge seat. It was time to go.

I started the engine and let it warm up for a while. There was no current in the marina basin, so I untied the boat and went upstairs. I goosed the throttle into idle forward and immediately back to neutral. I didn’t want the prop stirring up stuff off the bottom or, worse yet, hitting a rock. Sure enough, mud was coming up behind me. But the boat was moving forward slowly, into deeper water ahead of me. I used the thrusters a bit to push me away from the dock, slid the throttle into idle forward briefly again, and watched the depth reading climb. When it said I was in 5 feet of water, I put the boat in gear and glided out.

Out in the bay, the water was calm — a real difference from the swells the afternoon before. I made an uneventful trip back to the canal, seeing dolphins along the way. Once I got past the no wake area near the fishing boats and marina entrance there, I hit the throttle and zipped up the canal, retracing my route from the day before, slowing down only when I approached fishing boats so as not to hit them too hard with my wake. It was a really gorgeous morning and good to be outside in the sun.

Here’s a much nicer shot of the fishing boats I passed on the way down the canal the day before.

At the end of the canal, I slowed down to about 8 knots and turned right to continue along the Gulf ICW toward Lake Wimico. The ICW was the same as it had been the day before: narrow, curvy, and ditch-like. I passed a community on the port side and under a 65-foot high bridge. Then more of the same, with the general direction southeast. The canalized waterway was called Searcy Creek and it occasionally had oxbows cut off by the dredged ICW channel. There were grounded houseboats along the way, especially where the creek opened up into Lake Wimico.

The lake was kind of peanut shaped, about 4 1/2 nautical miles long. The water was charted to be shallow — mostly less than 5 feet deep — except in the dredged channel that cut straight through it lengthwise. I did encounter a few spots in the channel that were shallower than I expected, though. I spotted a few shallow-drafted fishing boats speeding around it, but none of them came near to me as I motored along. At the far end, the canal-like channel started up again, this time as the dredged Jackson River. That’s basically what the ICW is: a series of dredged waterways linked by canals.

Eventually, the waterway widened and was joined by other smaller tributaries, some of which showed anchorages on my chartplotters and Aqua Map. I passed through an open railway bridge and the river’s name changed to the Apalachicola River. It would take me all the way to the town of Apalachicola on Apalachicola Bay, which is right off the Gulf of Mexico.

I passed this really cool looking boat as I was coming down the Apalachicola River. Later, while we were having dinner, it cruised up Scipio Creek past us.

Docking in Apalachicola

There were several options for docking overnight at Apalachicola and none of them were good. I was leaning toward the Apalachicola City Dock, which would cost $2 per foot per night. It had no services and the description warned about pilings sticking out from the dock wall.

Kim and Ted in Pony had made reservations at Scipio Creek Marina, which was on the north end of town, up Scipio Creek. It had restrooms, power, and water, but it was also a whopping $3 per foot per night. To that point, the most I’d paid for a marina was $2.50 per foot per night at the Wharf in Orange Beach, AL so Scipio’s fee was a bit tough to swallow. Still, I was looking forward to reuniting with my friends and I thought things would be more convenient for all of us if I stayed at the same marina. So I called and got the last spot available.

That last spot was along a wall adjacent to the fuel dock, behind another boat and right next to the restaurant. I pulled in and someone came to help me tie up and connect power. I was amazed by what a pit the place was for the amount of money they charged. Nothing about it was nice and it was the farthest marina from town.

But Kim and Ted would be there in a few hours. We’d have dinner together and then, in the morning, buddy boat to our next stop at Carabelle. Being at the same marina was convenient and gave us flexibility. I could deal with it.

Here’s my Nebo log for January 6, 2023. Download a PDF log file with more info. Track Do It Now on Nebo.

In Apalachicola

It was still early afternoon when I arrived at Apalachicola so I put on my walking shoes, got my pups on their leashes, and headed off for a walk into town. Apalachicola is a nice town with lots of shops and restaurants. It was about a half mile to the north edge of town and, after stopping at a bakery for a scone, we walked down Market Street, visiting shops along the way. I had a list of things I wanted to buy for the boat and wound up knocking one thing off the list in a shop in town: a pencil cup with a wide bottom that I could leave on my table.

After about two hours in town, we walked back to the marina. Pony was just pulling into a spot on the dock opposite where I was parked. I walked down the dock to greet them. We made arrangements to meet for dinner at the restaurant at the marina, Half Shell Dockside a while later.

Dinner was good and it couldn’t have been more convenient. I’m pretty sure I had oysters — I always do it they’re available. We got the server to take a picture of us. If I remember right, Ted picked up the check, which I sure did appreciate. (It’s always nice to be treated to a meal.)

While we were sitting down to eat, the moon rose over the marshland to the east of the restaurant and we all got pictures of it.

We went our separate ways after that. I stayed awake for a while; there was a lot of noise around the restaurant. I had to close the curtains on that side of the boat because of people looking in at me. When I went down to bed, a super bright light shined down into my stateroom hatches, keeping my sleeping area a lot brighter than I like it.

I was glad I’d only be there one night.

(continued in Apalachicola to Carrabelle, FL)