Port St. Joe and Carrabelle

I made it to Port St. Joe, FL on Thursday, beating sunset by over an hour. The sailing was excellent from Destin to Port St. Joe, which is why I arrived 45 minutes before I calculated.  I even had time to do a little exploring before darkness set in on this "little town with the big heart", as the locals proclaim. It cleanliness and struck me first.  Everything seems to be neat and well planned, at least around the marina. But the Port part of Port St. Joe seems to be a little overstated. There is a very nice city marina (with a very friendly staff) and there is a commercial marina with a few shrimp boats, but there are no cranes unloading container ships or barges, at least none that I saw.

Lesson Plan at Port St. Joe

The sign welcoming you to town states it was founded in 1829. But, it was mostly abandoned in 1841 after a yellow fever epidemic. Then a hurricane in 1843 destroyed many of the structures of the nearly abandoned town. Another hurricane in 1851 destroyed most of the remaining structures. In 1909 the Apalachicola Northern Railroad came to town and the town was revitalized. Today the population is around 3,500.

There were a lot of restaurants to choose from for such a small town, but I found a great breakfast restaurant, the Sand Dollar Café. The people were friendly, the food was good, and I met a couple from Muhlenberg County, KY while I was eating (it was the UK hat that gave him away).

I spent Friday in Port St. Joe and decided that I would make my way to Carrabelle to prepare for crossing the “Big Bend” to Steinhatchee.  I found a great radio station for this trip, it claimed to serve all of the “Florida’s Forgotten Coast” (Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, and Carrabelle). Since most of this trip would be on the Intracoastal Waterway, I expected an easy/uneventful trip.  The first couple of hours was spent looking at the landscape and watching for eagles and other wildlife. I enjoy these trips through the ICW.  About 3 hours into the trip is a “lake”. Most of it is only a couple of feet deep, but the channel goes straight through it. It is wide open to the wind, and the wind was blowing 25 to 30 MPH all the way through the lake. I required full attention to make sure the boat stayed in the channel, it was anything but a boring ride.  It was quite exciting for about a couple of hours. Then I was back in the river, protected from the wind a bit.

Underway through the Lake

I passed Apalachicola, even though I have read it is an interesting city, but I wanted to get on the Carrabelle to prepare the crossing on Sunday or at the latest on Monday.  Once I passed under the Hwy 98 I was in Apalachicola Bay, out go the sails.  I was on the same tack for about 8 miles, nearly an hour, and then the channel makes a 90 degree turn to port (left) and then I was dead into the wind, so much for the sailing.

I made it to Carrabelle and go tied up in the slip. Just after I got settled in, a young couple in a 27’ Catalina Sailboat pulled in next to me. They were headed south to spend a year sailing the Caribbean.  I also meet a couple of guys that are traveling in a 20’ sailboat. They had come from Port Aransas, TX and were headed to Dominican Republic via Cuba. After they visited with a friend in Dominican Republic, they were sailing to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico a

Pot luck night at C Quarters Marina

nd then back to Port Aransas and back to work.

Neither of these boats were Looper boats and I don’t see any loopers in the Marina. I see on the AGLCA Meets app that there is now Loopers in Port St. Joe and Apalachicola, perhaps we’ll all cross together.  For now I wait and explore Carrabelle and enjoy the marina “family”.

Lesson Learned: Patience, Patience, and more Patience, the serenity prayer.

Notice the front of the boat out of the water. Super low tides for the next week.