Carrabelle, Carrabelle, Carrabelle. Today is December 1 and we have been in Carrabelle for 5 nights now and probably will be here for that many more. This is where patience and realism become key attributes. We are here waiting for decent weather for crossing the Big Bend of Florida. Decent Weather- What is it? Well for us, decent weather is waves under 2′, winds under 10mph and not coming out of the East or Northeast. The crossing is about 140nm and will take us about 20 hours so these conditions need to exist here when we leave and then follow us as we arrive in the Clearwater area. As we study the current conditions and the forecast, we see winds into the 20s and wave heights of 3′ and higher. The forecasts go out for about 5 days and so far there are no openings that we are comfortable with. And so we wait. Steve and Deidra Greenwell are here waiting with us. The 4 of us are in agreement of what we want for crossing conditions and at this point we plan to leave together.
So, Carrabelle. Cute little town. We have an IGA grocery store, a Dollar General, Ace Hardware and various dive bars and restaurants. We are at C-Quarter Marina. Osprey is tied up on the south side of the fuel dock and Subject to Change is tied up on the fuel dock’s north side. Between us is a large dock and ship’s store. This covered pavilion area is a gathering spot for other cruisers, live boards and local hanger outers. Its the story telling spot, dog run and internet hot spot. Not bad at all, in fact, we’ve grown fond of this little home.
We pulled into Carrabelle on Sunday afternoon and had the crew of Osprey over for a grilled shrimp and pasta alfredo dinner. Maggie was thrilled to have Trouble over for some play time.
On Monday we spent time exploring our new home town. We returned to the boat in time to see a sailboat slowly rounding the bend before the marina. It was Reprieve with my yoga friend, Deeanna and her husband Mark on Reprieve, a 33′ Morgan Out Island. They were heading to the fuel dock at C-Quarters. Those in the know, realize that this single engine boat is not the easiest to dock and with winds blowing in the 20s and a current pushing in the same direction, docking was going to be interesting. It was an all hands on deck event getting Reprieve secured to the fuel dock. With the conditions as they were, it didn’t take much to convince Mark and Deeanna that taking a slip at the marina would be a good call. So again, with a lot of manual coaxing, Reprieve was tied up inside the fueling area, next to Osprey. It was like old home week. Now we had 2 friends from the Kemah/Seabrook area to chill with.
Carrabelle.
So, what do we do while we wait? Well, Monday night is Pot Luck dinner night at the pavilion. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon is yoga at the library. Thursday the museums open for the weekend crowd. Then we also have our chores- laundry, grocery shopping, walks o the Dollar Store and Ace Hardware. We also have various projects. Remember our bow thruster? Well, Tim decided to have a diver come out and look at the thruster to see if we even had propellers still intact. One of the things he had found in his research is that if the propellers blades are not intact, the thruster impeller will just spin. It is possible that when we were trying to get off the dock in Panama City a fish got…well, caught up.. in the blades and broke them off. We needed to know and I was not volunteering to get down there to find out. Our suspicions were confirmed, the blades had broken off the thruster impeller and the diver was unable to remove the parts. After several calls, Tim was able to order a new impeller and have it added to the goodies being sent to Barbara in St. Pete.
Another job on Tim and Steve’s To Do list was to clean the ICW mustache off the hull of the boats. Cruising down the ICW, boats get a brown stain on the hull. Tannin from the cypress trees tints the water and it leaves a stain that takes a lot of hard work and a strong chemical cleaner to remove. Steve and Tim decided to join forces and get both boats looking spiffy again. Their supervisors made sure they got the job right.
I’ve also managed to get in some yoga at the library. Most of the classes are instructed by video, but Tuesday I did get a live instructor. She wasn’t Beth, but she was very good.
Today is Thursday, so I suspect we’ll get in some museum time. Look forward to reading about that in my Carrabelle Part II post.
Enjoyed our chat this morning – seems like there is a lot of work for the men to do, while the women are doing the laundry! Ha
June is a good writer – thank you, June!
So glad you are enjoying the blog. It’s fun to write when we have news to write about.