Day 53 - Apalach, Tupelo Honey and Ice

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee TBD, daily high temperature 84*F

The day began with good news and bad news, the transmission clutch and cooler were supposed to arrive today. If they do, installation should take place Friday and Saturday. We will then need a weather window to do the sea trial upon completion of the work, but winds are estimated to be 15 to 25 knots with small craft warnings and occasional seas up to 9 feet through at least next Tuesday. We again need to implement the “be flexible and have a sense of humor mentality”. Glad we have a rental car.

While the Simons’ were visiting the Smiths in Mount Dora, Florida the Arnold’s visited Apalachicola or as the locals say Apalach.

Dick and Candy Smith, John and Priscilla Simons

The locals in Port St. Joe tell you Apalach is a smaller town with not much to see and do. I guess we must have gone to the wrong town. Apalach had several historical sites like the Maritime Museum, the Dr. John Gorrie museum – more on this later – and a nice down town with many interesting “tourist trap” stores. Apalach has an interesting history. At one point in the mid 1800’s it was the third largest sea port on the Gulf of Mexico. Shipping cotton, oysters and Cyprus timber were big industries, each with their time as leading businesses. Sponges had their day in the sun until the beds were overused and destroyed. Harvesting oysters and shrimp are still big business. Andy is standing beside one of many piles of oyster shells found near the harbor. These shells are used in road construction, are often seen being used as ground fill and used instead of rock and stone for driveways, along the shore, etc.

At about 2,750 residents, according to the former newspaper owner and current unique items gift store owner, the town has about one third the population it did in its hay day in the mid 1800’s.

Apalach and St. George Island were the sites for three movies: Ulee’s Gold staring Peter Fonda; Coast Line starring Josh Brolin; and Little Sweetheart starring John Hurst.

Have you ever thought about how the technology for making ice came about? It happened in Apalach in the mid-1800s. The technology was developed and patented by Dr. John Gorrie who was a physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian. Dr. Gorrie’s medical research involved the study of tropical diseases including Yellow Fever and Malaria. At that time the theory that “bad air” caused diseases, was a prevalent theory. Dr. Gorrie urged draining the swamps to reduce the “bad air’, which had an immediate, but unrecognized impact Gorrie and the medical community missed the fact these diseases were born by mosquitos found in hot and humid climates, not by “bad air. Gorrie focused instead on the cooling of sickrooms with ice in a basin suspended from the ceiling. Cool air, being heavier, flowed down across the patient, sheltered by netting around the bed, and through an opening near the floor. Gorrie also missed the fact that the netting protected the patient from the disease carrying mosquitos. Since it was necessary to transport ice by boat from the northern lakes at great expense to implement this procedure, Gorrie experimented with making artificial ice. After 1845, he gave up his medical practice to pursue refrigeration projects. On May 6, 1851, Gorrie was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice. Impoverished, Gorrie sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed when his partner died. Humiliated by criticism from northern ice suppliers and thus competitors, financially ruined, and his health broken, Gorrie died in seclusion on June 29, 1855.

Another claim to fame for Apalach is being one of the few sources for Tupelo Honey. Honeybees produce tupelo honey from the flowers of the white tupelo tree which is found in southeastern swamps bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Tupelo honey is light-colored and has buttery undertones and a fresh, slightly lemony finish to its flavor. High-grade tupelo honey is expensive compared to other honeys. Its forage plant has a relatively small geographic distribution, and honey producers must strip their hives of other honey just before putting their beehives into the swamps where tupelo trees bloom. They must then monitor the hives daily until the tupelo bloom starts. Even a few days’ worth of other honey in the comb destroys one of tupelo honey’s valuable characteristics, its resistance to crystallization. No other honey, no matter what the claim, can do this. The crop this year is very limited due to weather changes and thus more expensive. We did not buy any.

Another “find” was the relatively new Oyster City Brewing Company. This microbrewery has been in business for about eighteen months and as Marilyn, the bar tender explained “we can’t keep up with distribution demands for the keg business”. I had an excellent Red Snapper IPA made with red beets.

We bumped into three loop boats as the docked at the Apalachicola Marina: Robbin’s Nest, Ocean Dancer and Tranquility. The last time we met Ocean Dancer and Tranquility was in Fairhope. They are preparing for a long stay as we all wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf. There was more to see, do and learn, but Andy and I returned to CL to view a beautiful sunset over the Gulf, wait for increased winds, lower temperatures and to plan our next excursion.

The Simons attended the Scottish Festival and Highland Games in Mount Dora. The Scot’s play simple games. They tip logs, run around carrying a 60 pound stone, toss a bag of grain over a bar using a pitchfork and toss an empty keg of beer over a pole. They have men and moman’s competitions.

That Haggis is some good eatin’

Other Scottish stuff – bagpipers

The bagpipe band. Click on the link below to hear the bagpipe music.

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Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote for the day.

“How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?”
Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea