Carrabelle to White City, FL

Departure day at Carrabelle. Fortunately the clouds cleared.

I had been in Carrabelle so long I was sure I would need an ax to cut the roots that had grown from the keel of the boat. But with a little help from a fellow boater, I was able to back out of the slip with little problem. The current was a little swifter than I expected, so I had to do a little pirouette. I tried to make it look like, I meant to do that. On to White City, FL.

It was a long slog to reach White City.  The wind was blowing about 20 degrees off nose of the boat at about 10 knots and the tide was coming in. I could only make about 6.2 MPH. The bay is no less than 4 miles across between St. George island to the mainland, there shouldn’t be much tidal current effect. And a 10-knot wind should not be slowing me down this much. I was convinced that I had a big chunk of mud stuck to the keel, from where I was on the bottom at C-Quarters Marina.
I decided to turn around and test my theory. If I put my back to the wind and I pick up speed to 7.5 or 8 MPH, then it was just the wind. If I couldn’t make any more than 7, then I have a problem. I spun her around and almost immediately picked up to 8.5. There must be something wrong with my anemometer, the wind must be blowing faster than 10, even though the waves are only a few white caps on waves (the Beaufort Wind Scale would place the wind at 7 to 10). 

I got to the St. George Island Bridge. There is a sandbar on each side of the channel here so the channel narrows here, under the bridge. I found out the problem with my speed, it was the tidal flow. Bernoulli's principle is demonstrated again for me (when a fluid moves through different sizes of tube, the fluid's speed changes). In this case we have a 4-mile-wide body of water compressed down to 1 mile. I slowed to about 5.5 going under the bridge. I could not believe how much the tidal flow affected my progress in the Apalachicola Bay.

Apalachicola Bay

I got to the White City free dock about 4:50, struggling against the tidal current nearly the whole way. When I left Carrabelle, I thought I would get to White City (51 miles) by about 3:30.

Active Captain lists White City as a free dock with no services, electric or water. I saw a couple of sailboats tied up there when I passed though about a week earlier, I hoped that there would be space when I got there. I saw that the dock was empty from a mile or so away, I was relieved because the next stop was Port St. Joe Bay (another hour and a half away).

I approached the dock and was greeted by a nice gentleman that offered to take my lines. He helped me get tied up and we chatted a bit. During our conversation I learned that there are signs posted on shore that overnight docking is not allowed. But he assured me that it is not enforced and if I had any issues I could tell them that Denis the “Brit” told me it was OK. It seems that Denis owns quite a bit of the land around the park. He was quite the interesting character. He has a business selling hay huts that he patented and travels the country via RV setting up dealerships for the hay huts. Prior to settling in FL Denis served a pilot in the British Navy. He moved to FL to train US Marine pilots on the Harrier jets. You meet the most interesting people on the dock.

Sunrise at White City, FL

The next morning, I woke to a beautiful sunrise and the start of a fishing tournament, and of course they all had to pass by my boat on the way out. I guess “NO WAKE” doesn’t apply if your boat is an overpowered fishing
boat. I hope I provided some good entertainment for them. I am sure there was a pool on who could rock me the most. After they all got away and down the river, I set off for Panama City.

Lessons Learned: Tidal flow can have an effect on the boat, even in a 4 mile wide bay.