In Search of Apalachicola Oysters!

First, we stored Kismet at TTC Storage in Eastpoint, then we went in search of a well-deserved oyster feast. We found TTC to be a great place to store the boat. We feel confident she will be in safe hands during our return home for the holidays.

After Kismet was stored in her spot in the building and with the recommendation of Mike, owner of TTC Storage, we headed out of town to Lynn’s Quality Oysters. Nothing short of delicious is how we found their specialty, Captain Jack’s oyster platter. This meal of Apalachicola oysters was going to have to last us a while – until we return to pick up our boat in January.

The shallow waters of Apalachicola Bay produces most of Florida’s oysters. Big Bayou, a remote and pristine area on the western part of the bay, near Saint Vincent Island, a National Wildlife Refuge may produce the most. Oysters from Apalachicola Bay are considered Apalachicola oysters. Apalachicola is the last place in the USA where wild oysters are harvested by small fishing boats using tongs. Raw oysters, fried oysters, or slightly steamed, Apalachicola oysters provide the best oyster experience.

Lynn’s Quality Oysters

I love that smile, a hungry man waiting for his oyster fix with hot sauce ready to go.

Mike was right about Lynne’s Quality Oysters, a friendly atmosphere with the freshest oysters around. When you live in the “North Country,” like we do most of the year, a meal of fresh Apalachicola oysters can’t be beaten. We ordered several trays of Lynn’s Captain Jacks special, I guess anything with cheddar cheese, jalapeños and a dollop of cream cheese on it will satisfy your taste buds, but all that on top of those chewy oysters was a real treat.

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Retrieving Kismet from Storage – Eastpoint Florida

Seems like it was just yesterday when we left Kismet at TTC Storage in Eastpoint Florida, in fact, it has been several months. We like to cruise in the fall, somewhere south of Michigan, and then leave our boat in storage somewhere near where we plan to cruise after the holidays. This time, after our trip to the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association’s 2014 Rendezvous and cruise through Florida’s Panhandle, we ended up in Eastpoint to store the boat.

We arrived at TTC Storage and met the owner, Mike, at the building. Within half an hour we had Kismet out of storage and ready to go. With a little help from Mike, we located a great oyster restaurant within walking distance of the storage building and had to get our oyster fix before heading out on the road toward Carrabelle.

Eastpoint is an authentic fishing town with a heart as big as the bay. Here you can buy fresh local seafood from family-owned markets and eat a fresh seafood meal from restaurants operated by families four generations deep.

Oystermen still use century-old harvesting techniques. They use small wooden boats, under 23 feet long, using tongs that look like scissor-style rakes to scoop the oysters up to the surface where they are then sorted and separated by size.

Just past Carrabelle (going east), we happened onto Ho Hum RV Park, located off Highway 98 (Gulf side), four miles east of Carrabelle, in Lanark Village. The park is roadside, right on the beach, and caters only to adults and seniors, no children are allowed. It was overcast and a little misty while we were there, but beautiful nonetheless.

When we got Kismet parked at our park site, Jim settled into the back deck of the boat and proceeded to take a selfie of him drinking a bottle of his favorite beer, a Yuengling we got at a grocery store before we got to the RV park. We can’t get Yuengling in Michigan so he was pretty excited.

We don’t spend a lot of time at RV parks, so not familiar with all the different kinds of RV, but this one caught our eye as it has a retractable deck off one of its sides. What next?

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The Little Fishing Village of Apalachicola
is the End of the Line for Our Fall Cruise

Apalachicola is definitely “Old Florida.” Famous for its fresh oysters, Appalachicola employs a variety of seafood workers. It’s our favorite place to eat oysters. Apalachicola Bay is well protected by St. Vincent Island, Flag, Sand, St. George Island, and Cape St. George Island. We’ll leave Kismet tucked away in TCC Storage’s building, just across the bay in Eastpoint, while we drive the truck home to spend the holidays with family. We’ll return to pick up Kismet on January 1st for a winter of cruising in southern Florida.

This is our third time docking at Scipio Creek Marina. The restaurant, Papa Joe’s, is no longer in business at this location, but being just a short walk from downtown, it’s a great place to dock while visiting Apalachicola. The town is focused on providing a shopping experience for its visitors while maintaining that old Florida fishing village appeal. Just love Apalachicola!

We visited the New Papa Joe’s, now located downtown, just not the same atmosphere as when it was located at Scipio Creek Marina.

After one night docked at Scipio Creek Marina and a fun nautical shopping trip to the Tin Shed, we got down to business and prepared Kismet for storage. It’s always a lot of work to ready the boat to store or launch it, but the fun we always cruising more than makes up for it.

One of our favorite nautical salvage stores, the Tin Shed provides a visual delight the moment one enters the building. If you can’t find something here to decorate your boat or house, you are just not looking hard enough.

Jim readied the truck and trailer for me to drive to the boat ramp while he drove the boat there.

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Cruise to Apalachicola, a Photographer’s Dream Cruise

Smooth sailing today as we cruised the last leg of our fall cruise through Florida’s Panhandle. A little stormy and overcast but we still got some nice photos of some of the beauty available to see while cruising this area.

the cruise to Apalachicola did not disappoint, even though it was overcast, the water was mirror calm and the reflections on the still water gave pause to the crew on board Kismet.

Nature provided us with some interesting illusions while on the water today. Note the symmetry of the above water images on the mirrored glassy water we plowed through today.

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Grand Canyon Cut – A Favorite Cruising Channel in Florida’s Panhandle

Today we cruised Florida’s “Grand Canyon Cut,” after crossing Choctawhatchee Bay to a man-made, 18-mile channel (statute mile 255 to 260, east of Harvey Lock) that leads to St. Andrews, aptly named due to the steep, up to 100′ high, sandy banks lining this cut. Tall pine trees grow along the ridge of the sand dunes and down to the water. One of our favorite areas to boat in the Panhandle.

The clouds provided a stormy backdrop to the sun-it shoreline. Not many boats out on the cut today, a few fishing boats, that was about it.

Historic St. Andrews is a community in Panama City, Florida, along the beautiful St. Andrews Bay. We stayed one night at the town’s marina.

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Fond Memories of Our Last Trip to Destin Florida

Destin Florida is a popular tourist destination located in the Panhandle of Florida. It rests on a peninsula separating the Gulf of Mexico from Choctawhatchee Bay. Well known for its pristine beaches and turquoise waters, Destin claims to have the largest fishing vessel fleet in the state of Florida.

The last time we stopped in Destin was in 2008, while on our second Great Loop boat trip. It was Thanksgiving Day and we roasted a turkey (below) on the back deck of our Fathom 40 while anchored in the harbor. My favorite way to share a holiday feast is with family back home. Yet, that Thanksgiving was particularly memorable for me. It was just the two of us, the weather was perfect, the small turkey just fit in the roaster, and it was a crispy golden brown by dinnertime. While dinner was cooking, we dinghied all over the harbor and visited the beautiful beach for a walk. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Click here to see a post from our Favors Great Loop Blog.

That holiday dinner is what I was remembering as we cruised to Destin this time, six and a half years later. Last time we were here, for whatever reason, we only dinghied around the harbor and walked the beautiful beach. We didn’t venture ashore where all the activity was. So, our mission for this visit was to spend time on shore seeing what we missed before.

We are cruising the Panhandle off-season this year. The busy tourist time here is summer when people in southern Florida head north to beat the heat). So, we didn’t have to fight crowds of people while walking through town or wait long to get into a restaurant. I’d say we timed it about right. Destin is a colorful resort town with lots of water-related activities at one’s disposal. Fishing tournaments and events are a good example of what Destin has to offer and we noticed many water toys available to rent. Not hard to understand why tourists love this town.

After two amazing nights on the hook in Destin’s harbor, we headed out (below) to complete the last leg of our Panhandle cruise.

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A 15-mile cruise to a well-protected cove next to Perdido Key – McRee Cove

The barrier island between Orange Beach, Alabama, and Pensacola Bay is called Perdido Key – Pensacola Bay inlet and Santa Rose Island are directly east of Perdido Key. Following the War of 1812 three major forts were built to strengthen the United States defenses in this Pensacola Bay area – one being Fort McRee built at the eastern tip of Perdido Key. Fort McRee is long gone, it was held by the Confederates during the Civil War until 1862 and was mostly destroyed. The property remained in the hands of the United States Navy until 1971 when a large portion of Perdido Key, and Santa Rosa Island, were turned over to the National Park Service, becoming Gulf Islands National Seashore.

We departed Orange Beach with only a 15-mile cruise to a well-protected cove next to Perdido Key, off of the Pensacola Bay inlet. We soon anchored in 8 feet of crystal clear water and surrounded by white sand embankments, it was the perfect setting for a two-day swing on the hook.

Because we were anchored within eyesight of the main inlet to Pensacola we were fortunate to be entertained by a small school of dolphins making their daily fishing rounds, from the inlet, through the cove. As the dolphins chased by Kismet and fished for their dinner,Lisa and I prepared ours on the grill. Our simple dinner was followed by a game of cards on the back deck and finally, one of our favorite pastimes when we anchor out, we watched the day end with a gorgeous sunset.

The next day we decided on a short dinghy ride over to the tip of Perdido Key, plenty of areas, mostly beach, to hike around while scouting out remnants of Fort McRee. We found the anchorage area was occupied by two types of boaters, those that land, bow on the beach, and stay for the day, and those that drop a hook and stay for a couple of days or more. Because of Perdido Key’s close proximity to Pensacola Naval Air Station and the home of the Blue Angles, we heard this anchorage can become a busy place when the Blue Angles are practicing their routine. We love watching the Blue Angels but had no such luck on our two-day stay. The anchorage is very peaceful and quiet, however, if you plan to go, I’d suggest arriving on a weekday versus the weekend for a less crowded anchoring experience.

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After a smooth cruise through Mobile Bay, from Eastern Shore Marina, we made a port-side turn into the protected Intra-Coastal Waterway where we soon passed our first tug and tow (above).

The first landmark we see on the ICW is Lulu’s Cafe (below). Not stopping there this time though as we were both in a hurry to get settled into our night’s anchorage.

Returning to Ingram Bayou…

Ingram Bayou is one of our favorite anchorages, this will be our third time stopping here. The afternoon was spent by first hanging by some scarves to block the heat of the sun while we settled into lounge on the back deck of Kismet. We watched a few dolphins herding their day’s catch-up along the shore. After playing a few games and soaking in the beauty of the bayou we retired for a peaceful sleep on the hook.

Morning brought a whole new perspective to Ingram Bayou (below).

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Staying at Orange Beach Marina so that we can take a day to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum. We arrived late afternoon, got settled then borrowed the marina’s loaner car to take a tour of the area and visit one of the beautiful beaches.

Some folks stopped by (above) that knew us because they also own a Ranger Tug. It’s a small world!

The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida – A Must-See Museum!

On our third cruise through the Florida Panhandle, nine years after we heard about the museum during our first Great Loop adventure, we made plans to tour the best aviation museum in the world.

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Boaterhoming Our Way to Fairhope Alabama

After leaving Joe Wheeler State Park after the AGLCA rendezvous we headed south with Fairhope Alabama as our intended launch site. However, after a late start and a long day’s drive, we called it quits when we got to Greenville, Alabama, and found this rustic RV park about a mile off I-65. Stopping here for the night gave us the opportunity to arrive at Fairhope early in the day. The park was quiet except for an evening symphony of cricket chirping in a swamp nearby.

We have been by this way twice before and each time stayed at Eastern Shores Marina in Fairhope, Alabama. We ran into Ed, the harbormaster, at the AGLCA rendezvous a few days ago and made arrangements then to secure a slip and check into good launch sites. He suggested the Fairhope Yacht Club across the inlet, since he is a member he offered to go over there with us when we arrived to use their ramp (above).

Finally! Back in the water.

It’s a small world because we ran into another MTOA members, Ken and Ann Shanley, on Charis (below), they were staying on the yacht club docks, just across from Eastern Shore Marina. The Shanley’s are in the middle of their Great Loop adventure.

The first time we were in Fairhope was just months after Katrina hit the Mobile Bay area, in December of 2005. We remember the high waterline mark lining the walls of the office back then. The second time we were there, in 2007, the water line was preserved as it is today (above and below).

Debbie (below), was a bright spot in our morning when we visited the marina office. She went over the chart on the wall and gave us a few good anchoring spots in the panhandle. She knows her stuff! One of the reasons we love staying at Eastern Shore Marina is the staff is so helpful and accommodating. Another reason we like this marina so much is it is chock full of genuinely rustic, old south character, we find this atmosphere missing from some of the newer marinas we visit.

One of the reasons we decided on Fairhope for a launch spot for this year’s fall cruise is because of family. My brother Jem, his wife, Patti, and his extended family moved to Fairhope about four years ago and whenever we can visit with them is precious time spent.

My beautiful niece, Jena (above-left). My brother, Jem, and I (below).

My handsome nephew, Jay, Jim, me, my brother’s wife Patti, and my brother, Jem (below).

Jim took me to a TOPLESS BEACH today!

One thing we had never done before when staying at Eastern Shore was to take a dinghy ride up Fly Creek, starting just around the bend from the marina. It was such a nice day and we were enjoying the fresh, warm air we decided to launch the dinghy and head up the creek. The dinghy ride began immediately with the “Topless Beach” (above). What followed was a spectacular windy creek with a few boats and all levels of party shacks, my term, don’t know what locals call them, lining the shore. The party shacks I am referring to are open-air tiki-type huts probably used to cool off down by the creek when it’s hot. Some were basic in accommodations, with hammocks and coolers. Others were decked out with bars, electric fans, big-screen TVs, and comfortable furniture. The creek seemed to go on forever and finally, we decided to turn back, we think we only got about halfway. So, if you are staying at Eastern Shore Marina, don’t miss this fun dinghy ride.

We loved the Boater’s Lounge at the marina.

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