We remained anchored with no issues in Pearl Bayou through the night. It was a comfortable enough night after the rain and with the breeze to not use the AC. Wonder if we will ever use our AC while anchored now that we can?? lol. We awoke early again and took a look at the weather (as we do most every morning). This pesky rain system just will not seem to go away. Again, today the forecast was for a pretty good chance of rain and thunderstorms at varying times during the day. We once again determined that there was enough of a window in play and that we would prefer to not be anchored out for a rainy day, but instead would like to try and make it to Apalachicola where we would have some facilities and things to do. We pulled anchor and went out into the bay to experience a pretty sunrise to get our cruise underway. We had about 60 miles to cover today. We kept a good pace going in order to hopefully get into a dock/slip before the storms moved in again.
An hour or so into the cruise for the day Erik went down below to get some breakfast and fill up his coffee cup. This is when the DISASTER was discovered and we almost had to call in the Coasties for assistance! Erik went below and to his awe and unbelief he found that our coffee thermos had fallen off of the galley counter and the interior glass lining had SHATTERED! OH NO!! What will we ever do? Anyone who knows Renee and Erik also know that this is most definitely a life threatening emergency....lol. After a few moments of deliberation the decision was made to try and press forward WITHOUT coffee, as dangerous as this could be :-)
With the exception of slowing up for a few fishermen and no wake zones we cruised at about 17 mph again today....the gas companies are loving us :-) We did also slow down and stop for a few minutes along the route when we saw a couple of manatees swimming to the surface. They are always fun to see, particularly in the wild. They did not give us a great show but did snort at us some and give us a wave with their tales.
Shortly after leaving our anchorage we cruised through an area of Panama City East Bay that had huge ships being built and and worked on by a many cranes.
Further into our cruise for the day we started encountering the obvious signs of the destruction from Hurricane Micheal that still exist. We saw multiples of boats that were washed up on shore and abandoned. Many, many homes that had tarps on the roof and other damage. Saw trucks and cars that were still pushed against trees and houses. For a considerable period along the shores you would see a good proportion of the trees either snapped off or bent over to the ground. The storm certainly changes the landscape drastically.
After making it to Apalachicola and getting secured up at the Apalachicola Marina face-dock (the main marina was also damaged badly in Hurricane Micheal and is no longer operating) we ventured off to explore what the town had to offer. We quickly discovered that it has A LOT! What a charming and fun town this is. It has a wonderful vibe with a great mix of eclectic shops and restaurants but at the same time a feeling of being "real". We had several friendly conversations with locals. We stumbled upon Apalachicola Coffee and Chocolate Company....OH My! They have many delicious things but we got stuck early on their weekly special 'Apalachicola Affogato' which is a scoop of homemade gelato (we chose mocha) with a large shot or more of espresso over it.
A very artsy town this is. We walked through many of the shops and saw quite a few things that were of interest; many of them made locally. Thought of our son Devin when we saw coffee tables made from drums. Renee went on an earring buying spree...lol.
This is definitely the kind of town that we could envision dropping our anchor for a long time!
After exploring our way through the main downtown area in the afternoon we came back to the boat and had lunch. We then utilized the golf cart provided to us as part of our docking fees to go down the street to another marina and utilize their FREE laundry room :-) We like free laundry when traveling. While the laundry was washing and drying we cruised around a bit in the golf cart to a couple of local sites. We went to a botanical garden and walked through it. It was not the most impressive garden we had been in. We did see a couple of turtles along the path. one was turned over on its back. We flipped him over (Tim was his name...lol), hopefully to live a long and prosperous life!
Also while the laundry was drying we walked through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park. it was very well done. We were treated with yet another view of a rainbow in that park. Good timing to....just as the eagle was flying by (hahaha...ok, it was a statue but it still looked cool)
On our walk around town earlier we had stopped through '13 Mile Seafood' shop and got a bag of fresh jumbo shrimp as well as a container of smoked mahi dip. We grilled up the shrimp (Chicken for Renee) and enjoyed a delicious dinner and sunset. Renee gets bonus points for broadening her culinary horizons by agreeing to try something seafood. She tried, liked, and ate more of the smoked mahi dip on Ritz flip side pretzel crackers. She is growing up to be such a good girl!
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