Nov 18-21, 2017
A short hop down the canals and connected lakes and sounds to Panama
City. I went for a bike ride when we got
there and checked out places to visit the next few days.
Sunday I went to church at St Dominic’s
very modest church but they had a great music/choir ensemble. Unfortunately they were away in NYC that
Sunday. The priest was of the Catholic
Charismatic persuasion and gave a really nice homily. I felt more like I was back at St Mary’s than
I had for a long time.
John’s cousin Terri Leonhardt Floor and her husband Tom came down to the
boat in the afternoon and then we went back to their house before heading out
to dinner. They live in an older part of
Panama City and have a veritable jungle in their back yard which they work hard
to keep under control. Fun evening with
them and got John thinking about birding which they are really avid about.
Insert pix
Can't believe I didn't get a picture of the cousins.
Monday I helped John change the oil because I can get back into the spot
where the switch for the pump is a lot easier than he can. Then I checked out shops in the old downtown
of Panama City. Some really interesting
ones. I don’t do into too many antique
stores but there are a lot along the trip and the most interesting ones have
old childrens’ toys which I would love to bring home, but no space, thank
goodness.
Another small world story when a small ranger tug pulled in front of us
on the dock. The gentleman aboard said
he had a niece who lived in Rifle with her anesthetist husband. Of course it was Janet Kirkpatrick from PEO.
On Tuesday John wanted to go back to the golf course he had played on
Sunday for a men’s group. Unfortunately
he played really badly. He blamed it on
sore muscles from crawling around the engine room the day before. I went for a walk along the beach and then we went to a
nice Italian restaurant for dinner.
Nov 22, 2017
We then headed across Florida’s “Forgotten Coast”. A lot of small old Florida fishing towns
that are difficult to access because of the shallow waters. I read a historical novel about the four
surviving members of a Spanish expedition in the early 1500’s who ended up
traversing this area and after 8 years had made it across the continent to the
Bay of California. John is reading the
real history of the journey. You can
still get an idea of how rough it would be to walk along the coast here, even
without native tribes who weren’t too happy about their presence.
We stopped at Port St Joe on Wednesday night since it was too far to get
to Apalachicola. Nice little beach town
trying to attract the tourists to the Forgotten Coast, but there was a good
Publix two blocks from the marina and we had been getting low on supplies. John went on a long bike ride and after the
grocery store I did happy hour at the restaurant at the marina with some other
Loopers. Margaritas and oysters and
sunset over the Gulf! We were now
meeting up with other Loopers gathering for the jump across the Gulf from
Apalacicola or Carrabelle.
Thanksgiving morning we got moving slowly since we only had 30 miles to
go and in looking for a coffee and pastry for breakfast I happened upon
Thanksgiving dinner at the Deli in the grocery store. Bought two and after a short cruise we had
turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and collard greens with the pumpkin pie I had
managed to bake in our countertop convection oven. I rode into town and check out some of the Old Florida town. Nice old houses and downtown area.
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| Thanksgiving dinner |
In order to cross the Gulf instead
of going around some really skinny water without and marinas for three days we
had to wait for a “weather window” when the winds are negligent and the seas
calm. The Trip is about 170 miles and
requires cruising overnight. The
forecast was for perfect conditions on
Saturday/ Sunday and we had found another cruiser that wanted to go at the same
time and traveled our speed. So I got to
spend all day in a wonderful downtown area, old buildings repurposed for
shopping and restaurants.
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| Start of Christmas season in Apalachicola |
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| Santa comes to the Forgotten Coast on a shimp boat |
“Ágape”? What was that about?
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