Niceville, FL to Carrabelle, FL

Total Miles Traveled 1258.5

As with any adventure, there can always be an unexpected event that can change your plans and your life.  We received word just before reaching Apalachicola that my father had fallen and was in the hospital suffering from numerous complications.  We arrived at Carrabelle on December the 8^th and flew out to Texas on the 10^th to be with him, he passed away on December 16th.  One of the main reasons for starting this blog was for him; he tracked our every move and enjoyed our pictures as he followed our adventure. At 94 he was still able to keep up with today’s technology using our blog and Facebook to keep up with family and friends.   He told me he was living his life through us.  I’m going to miss those 2 hour phone conversations and it will take some time as we travel, not to make a mental note that I need to tell dad something we saw along our journey.

We departed Bluewater Bay Marina December 4^th, Jack and Patty are the Harbor Host from this marina on “Nearly Perfect”.  We met them a couple of times during our loop.  They are great people, having docktails on their boat every evening, and took a van load of us out to dinner one evening.   

As we were crossing the bay making our way to the ICW we noticed two boats in the ICW traveling on our projected course.  As we approached the channel we recognized one of the boats “Tanuki”.  We met Jerry and Sam when they started their loop in Key West last year and again this summer at our home port Green Turtle Bay.  We fell in behind “Tanuki” and Rick and Sue on “Fire Escape” as we entered the channel.

As we approached Panama City, we started to see some of the destruction from hurricane Michael with estimated damage to exceed 15 billion dollars.  Almost all of the marinas at Panama City were totally devastated. 

We anchored together in Pearl Bayou and another boat we met at Bluewater Marina “Antonia” came in just before dark .

As we traveled to one of our favorite anchorages along Searcy Creek, we passed more devastation from hurricane Michael.   

Tanuki and Fire House pressed on to Apalachicola and we stayed an additional day at our anchorage to catch up on our things-to-do list.  We’re glad we did, we saw three Eagles perched in a tree.

On December 7^th we anchored at Saul Creek for one night, and then continued on to Carrabelle Fl on the 8^th where we met up with Tanuki and Fire House again.    Carrabelle was also hard hit by the hurricane as most of the slips and the fuel dock at C-Quarters marina suffered extensive damage. 

We had an unexpected surprise as the Christmas Boat parade was scheduled during our stay.

Sue from “Fire Escape” was driving to Tallahassee on the 10^th so we were able to get a ride with her to the airport.  There are no car rentals, Uber, or Lyft at Carrabelle, only a private shuttle service which is very expensive.  Thank you Sue for giving us a lift!

We returned to “Best Mate” on January 2^nd, and are preparing for an overnight Gulf crossing on the 6^th or the 7^th.   The weather forecast is indicating calm seas, but we’ll decide on our departure day as we get closer to those dates.