Day 63 - Heinz 57 — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee TBD, daily high temperature 60*F

Tuesday will be our three week anniversary of being docked in Port St Joe. The temperature has taken a little dip. This was the temperature this morning. Feels like!

Monday is the day we will get our invoice from Robert. Our friends in Lake Bluff have a guessing game on the amount of the transmission repair bill. They have lots of commas and zeros in their estimates. We are afraid they are right. Robert the mechanic worked for a full week to remove and install the transmission and oil cooler. He also had his son Tim assist him from time to time.

After driving through Carrabelle and spending a few hours in Apalachicola it is clear that Port St Joe is by far the best location to be stranded. Carrabelle has almost nothing to offer and Apalachicola has lots of souvenir shops and restaurants but the tiny grocery store is out side of town. Not within walking distance. Port St Joe has a large grocery store, CVS, two sports stores, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and several restaurants within a 10 minute walk. There is also an Ace hardware, Dollar General, Post Office and farmer’s market within a 15 minute walk. Having a bar and restaurant within a one minute walk is OK too. So I am rationalizing having to stay here at least another week. At least we will get a low slip rate by getting the monthly rate.

If you are on the gulf coast keep this evacuation plan in mind.

Sunday night we were invited to a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner at the Methodist Church. It was a well attended event. A long table of food was set up buffet style. I had collard greens for the first time. They have a milder taste than what I expected. Lisa, the marina manager, was at the pot luck dinner. There was a church service at the nearby Baptist church but we did not attend that service. Eat and run. It was a very nice spread.

We have the rental car for one more day so we will take a drive to St. George Island and Point San Blas. I got up early to meet Terrill the charter sailboat captain at the coffee pot corner in the marina. Terrill and Robert hold court there each morning at 8:00 am. I’d say we had a chat but it is more geared to listening to Terrill tell his stories. I did get the opportunity to ask Terrill if I could borrow his pick up truck so I can return my rental car on Tuesday. No problem. A highlight on the return trip from Panama City will be a visit to Target.

The trip to St. George island made us think about crossing the gulf. We were looking straight across 170 miles to Tarpon Springs.

Life at the beach

Bonus photo – Dick and Candy Smith are the proud new owners of the red Flying Scot #5150 named Ketchup (Heinz 57). Congratulations!

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote for the day.

“I don’t know who named them swells. There’s nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.” – Hugo Vihlen