December 5, Day 175 – In Apalachicola

We woke up this morning to very chilly temperatures, in the low 40’s. Took us awhile to get going. After a late breakfast we headed out to explore the town. Apalachicola proved to be a very charming town with lots of historic buildings, antique stores, specialty shops, museums and many restaurants. All in all, we had a very pleasant day as we strolled the streets, shopped in many of the stores and had a nice lunch. We actually ran into several other loopers that were at the other marinas in the area. There are several of us waiting to cross the Gulf. We hope to head for Tarpon Springs tomorrow …. but the weather may still be a little “iffy”. Gerry has checked all the weather data he can find, but we won’t make a final decision until in the morning.

Later in the afternoon we met Mark Grove from Wefings Marine and he showed us some of the C-Dory’s we are interested in. He also shared his local knowledge with us about the Gulf crossing.

In the evening we went out to dinner with the gang from Second Star and Emotion III. We will probably be parting company with them as they are both going to go the “Big Bend” route instead of making the crossing all at one time.


We went to bed, still not sure about what tomorrow would bring.

Our boats at the Water Street Hotel and Marina

The marina is right on Scipio Creek

The hotel/marina from the front ... all decked out for Christmas

Decorations in the palm trees

The town dock with the fishing boats

Linda and the wooden indian

Here we are with the local mermaid

We spent quite a bit of time at the Tin Shed

The shop had a little bit of everything ......

... including a sexy pirate

Ahoy Matey ......

It had a cute nautically decorated Christmas tree. We bought 4 of the little round fish balls .... 2 red and 2 green for the boat. We also bought a Santa windsock at another store. That will be the extent of our Christmas decorations.

The owner's cat was sound asleep under the Christmas tree

Here's the Franklin County Courthouse

... and the historic Gibson Inn

As we walked back to the boat, I took a picture of the hotel/marina Christmas tree. It is decorated with shells like the ones we gathered at Crooked Island. Maybe next year I can make ornaments out of some of them.