Stupid Wind

Gail has repeated the phrase "Stupid Wind" about a hundred times today.  The wind continues to plague our very existence.  It has been blowing like a banshee since we arrived in Florida.  It has been the vein of our existence.  However, tomorrow finally looks like the day we can "blow this popsicle stand" and head across the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater.  The wind, according to the forecast should be calming down and we have our fingers crossed for a very early departure tomorrow morning for a 200 mile ride across the Gulf.

Now for some more bad news; Government Cut is the inlet that I have been out of numerous times when I make the crossing.  Unfortunately, the dock master informed me that the inlet is pretty well shoaled in.  He said with our draft of 5 feet that it would be unlikely that we would be able to get out without local knowledge.  Oh well.

Therefore, we will have to take the boat over to East Pass which is about 25 miles to the east of Apalachicola.  That will add well over an hour to our trip.  We would have been better off to stay a Carrabelle, FL to go out East Pass, but hindsight is always 20/20.

The off-shore forecast is for seas 2 to 4 feet.  If that holds true, we will be very lucky.  Tonight there is a small craft advisory with winds to 20kts and seas 6 to 8 feet.  How the seas will go from 8 feet to 2 feet overnight is beyond me, but I hope the weatherman knows what he is doing or it will be a very short day tomorrow.

So what is a happy couple to do in Apalachicola on a very sunny, cold and windy Friday?  Well of course head into town and have lunch.  We stopped at Riverside Café and had their special of Crawfish and Shrimp gumbo.  It was terrific.  We did some shopping and picked up a martini glass for me, a cute little dolphin ring for Gail and an Apalachicola T-shirt for our troubles.

Then it was back to the boat for a few boat chores.  We went back to Papa Joe's for dinner and polished off some more oysters and a few beers.  Tonight we are securing everything on board for an expected bumpy ride tomorrow.

 This is a really cool, old marine supply store that has about anything you can imagine.

 The fried soft shell crab dinner.

Gail went "healthier" with the Caesar salad with fried oysters.