Panama City, Fl to Carrabelle, FL

Total Miles Traveled 938

It was a little breezy when leaving Panama City but we only had a few miles of open water on East Bay before it narrowed into calm cruising waters. 

We had planned to anchor between Panama City and Apalachicola, but tied to the municipal dock at White City instead. There is room for two boats and only one small sailboat was at the dock.  I needed a valve core removal tool to replace the core and charge our water system air tank and figured I could walk to town and pick one up, but they didn’t have one (I have a half dozen at home). We saw several fishing trawlers pass the dock this evening.

We also saw this homemade houseboat approach the dock.  We talked to the houseboat owner and he built the houseboat and his 12 ft fishing boat himself out of aluminum.  He said the houseboat only has an 8” draft and he can go about anywhere he wants.  He pulled the boat into a shallow cut next to the dock.  He said his only problem with the shallow draft was the installation of the bow thruster; the boat doesn’t sit in the water low enough for it to work.

We stopped overnight last year at Apalachicola but didn’t visit the town, so our plan was to stop and see the sights and enjoy some of the local seafood.  When I checked the extended weather forecast before leaving White City, the wind was supposed to increase over the next several days.  We were 50 miles from Carrabelle and had to cross two big bodies of water, Apalachicola Bay and St George Sound to get there.  We decided to continue on to Carrabelle and visit Apalachicola on the way back in the spring. 

We arrived at Carrabelle Friday December 2^nd, I checked my log book and we arrived here last year December 3^rd and made our Gulf crossing December 8^th and 9^th.  Carrabelle is a cool little town to be stuck in; our marina was described to me as having a lot of character, and characters. The town has a post office, grocery store, bank, a few restaurants, great hardware store, and an oyster bar…..what more do you need?

We are not going to cross the Gulf of Mexico overnight like we did last year.  We will leave Carrabelle and go to Steinhatchee, about 62 miles across the Big Bend of Florida, then continue down the west coast to Cedar Key, anchor, then continue to Tarpon Springs.  The weather has not been cooperative, we planned to leave here tomorrow December 7^th, but 3 + foot waves are forecasted.  If it’s not fun, we don’t go.  It looks like our next opportunity to leave here will be December 12^th.

Oh, the valve core I thought was leaking ended up being the air tank, not to worry, the hardware store had one $7 more than an online purchase…..life is good