Last night/morning in Apalachicola

Met up with fellow Loopers and we spent the last evening planning a 9am departure and share a little spirits. Theresa and Larry Valentine have 2 previous Gulf Crossings –we are grateful to have them leading the way. Sunday and Monday have been deemed by Tom Conrad, the muse of gulf weather, as a magical window to cross—little wave action, no winds and close to a full moon. While planning our adventure, we were watching a beautiful ketch (50 ft.-ish) come down the ICW with a great sunset behind it. They must not have been paying attention because suddenly they veered off the channel and got stuck. The keel of the ketch is such that this will mean a professional tow is in their future. I believe there was quite a bit of cussing going on that boat –it was high tide and after hours for the area marinas. They dingy-ed off when it got dark and it was still there this morning when we left out. They will be leaning in the mud by low tide. Lesson for me—you gotta pay attention –driving a boat is like driving a car. The Lauren Grace (or the Valentines--I have now learned you refer to fellow boaters by the name of their boat) and Sunny Days headed out for Dog Island right at 9am. It is a beautiful morning and the dolphins are out playing. We “anchored down” (for my Vandy buddies) at about 1pm. Terry will spend the afternoon checking out the generator and mechanical blah, blah.. and I will spend the time making sure all the loose objects aboard are tied down or put in cabinets. If we hit bad seas we don’t want them to become missiles. Then we nap so we can stay up all night for our gulf crossing adventure—napping in paradise should not be hard.



Stuck ketch ...they were probably watching the beautiful sunset 



Apalachicola Nome



Sunny Days and Lauren Grace