Pensacola to Apalachicola Cruise (PAC II) - Part 1

The Cruiser's Group from Pensacola Yacht Club (PYC) organized a cruise from Pensacola to Apalachicola.  our "ad hoc" group of both sailing vessels and motor boats left from various spots around the Pensacola area between May 21 and May 23.  I think those with the flexibility to leave on the 21st hit optimum conditions, but because of work, travel, and other such less important matters, the larger group departed from Ft. McRee in the early hours of Saturday (23rd).

Taking the sound decision to skip all the madness at Destin, the first stop for the main group was a nice anchorage located within the entrance to Panama City/St. Andrew's Bay, known as Redfish Point.  After a day that fellow sailor Chuck described as "riding a horse named Fu Manchu", we were happy to reach the anchorage before dark and rest up.

 One of many of our wonderful sunsets

Motor-sailing very lumpy conditions

I seem to never get the camera out except on the calmest of days.....but this time I decided to risk an iPhone.  In this part of the Gulf, the water is not that deep (typically 20-40 ft), and while the waves were not that high, they were every 3 seconds making for a bumpy ride beating into 15 kts or so.

S/V TraSea

The next day, we continued on into more of the same to arrive at Port St, Joe marina, passing fellow PAC II cruisers Mike and Carol that had set off the day before in calmer conditions and sailed straight to Cape San Blas.  They were anchored on the Gulf side of the Cape.  We saw them at anchor on our way in down the channel.

Part of our group decided to stay an extra day in Panama City, while others decided to head for port St. Joe.  On our way over, we learned that fellow cruisers Chuck and Peg had experienced mechanical problems and were now searching for parts.  At first, I heard it was a broken steering cable, but that was later clarified to be a transmission/gear shift cable.  Ahhhh!!  I know something about that having broken one in the Bahamas!  The upside was that they were in a good spot to find parts and one was quickly located.  I understand that Chuck (S/V Point of Sail) with help from Ron (S/V Night Sky) spent the next day getting parts and making the repair.

Peppers - Port St. Joe

The next day as we were readying to reluctantly leave PSJ, I was filling the water tanks and noticed that the bilge was running...Hmmm   - am I filling the boat with fresh water somehow?.....after a rather frantic search, pulling up floor boards to locate the source of the water, looking in lockers etc, the leak was found.  The outlet pipe from the front water tank had separated from the tank.

Sure enough, I was filling the boat with fresh water.  An iphone can work as a handy substitute to a boroscope when trying to see what's going on in an obscure location.  It looked like the pipe was never seated too far into the threaded tank port, so rather than messing with it at this point, I let the tank drain, and isolated the pipe with the valve.  I was sure we could get by with one water tank and make a better more permanent repair when we got home.  It looks like the threads need a good clean  our before putting the pipe back in.  I am sure this connection was a victim of the previous two days of beating we had taken in the Gulf.  

So off we set for a more relaxing motor cruise to Apalachicola.  We decided to go via the ICW which actually makes use of the Jackson and Apalachicola Rivers.  For anyone that makes it to this part of the world, to me this is a short trip not to be missed.  With very little imagination, you could easily be miles up the Amazon with some wonderful river scenery, wildlife and tranquility.

The Captain Salty Shrimper - based in the mouth of the Gulf County Canal 

Our "First Mate" Salty....and Captain Salty

One of many Osprey Nest on one of the ICW markers

We saw some wonderful "Cyprus and Mangrove" anchorages on the river.  Some members of our group decided to anchor on the river, while we decided to continue on to Apalachicola.  Our decision was driven by a lack of shoreline suitable to land "Salty", and the likelihood of a bug invasion out here in the wilderness. Apalachicola was just an hour further.

We arrived in Apalach and tied up to the public seawall.  No power, but that was OK - it was only $30.  The instructions were to call the Chief of Police.  When we did so, we got a recorded message, but later received a call back.  When we told him we were two boats, he actually gave us a "two for one" special.  What a wonderful part of the world this is!

...........more to follow in Part 2