New Orleans to Port St. Joe - Nov 2010 - Part III

11/16/10. Bad weather had us holed up again, this time in western St. Andrew’s Bay at the Sun Harbor Marina. We had hoped to get into Hathaway Marina, which is (was) just past the Hathaway Bridge that leads into the long ICW inland stretch to Choctawhatchee Bay (Destin & Fort Walton) area. Sun Harbor is on the northern side of St. Andrew’s and we wanted the south side for protection from stiff southern winds, 20 kts., several foot waves and lots of rain. We did have a very bumpy ride from late yesterday afternoon through late morning today. The winds are still obnoxious and there’s possibility of thunderstorms throughout the day, but it seems the main threat has subsided.

There’s less to do here as we’re far from really interesting areas. No doubt we got spoiled at Panama City Marina and then Port St. Joe Marina. They both had “historic downtown” areas with restaurants and shops, pretty bay views, and simply places to walk to as a distraction.

When we left Panama City Marina we sailed and motor sailed outside in the Gulf to Port St. Joe, our ultimate destination. Winds were a comfortable N/NE at roughly 10 kts., finding that we could “speed” along at 6.3 kts. on a near reach some of the way. That’s pretty good for Talisman; she’s old but still managing. And we enjoyed sailing for a change. It seems the gods of wind have not been too kind to us on this trip so far. We have been banking on doing better on the return home (New Orleans).

Port St. Joe Marina is delightful. The Marina offers what sailors usually look for – power, water, fuel, pump-out, restrooms and showers, boat store, WiFi, good depths on approach and within the marina, protection from weather, and friendly staff. But we also were surprised to receive a daily paper and even a muffin on Sunday. In addition, there are several “front porch” spots with seating and gas grill for use. And, besides the closeness to its cute little “historic downtown” (2-3 blocks), there’s also a full grocery store for serious provisioning (1- 1 1/2 blocks). Sometimes the fun at a marina has to do with the atmosphere, such as live-aboard sailors who like to chat it up, and/or a down-home restaurant/café that caters to local boaters. There were both at St. Joe’s and we had a good time hearing some of their stories.

Don’t miss the pictures of Lollygag in the slide presentation at the head of this posting. This uniquely manufactured boat (somebody put this together in a most interesting way) is outfitted for both the internal waterways of the U.S. (making the Loop, as they call it) and sailing outside. The mast is a wooden hinged mast that can fold down for the low bridges inland and straighten up for sailing.

We contemplated visiting Apalachicola, which is 20-30 min. away by car/taxi, but we ended up not opting for it due to weather reports advising bad weather on the way. Our understanding is that the town is quite unique, an old settlement with southern architecture and great food. Boaters can take the ICW, which represents 27 nm. Going outside in the Gulf would have almost doubled that (52 nm). Surely we’ll get there next time.

So we left Port St. Joe on Sun. 11/14 and headed for Big Lagoon. We had hoped to anchor instead on the eastern side of St. Andrew’s Bay at Redfish Point or Smack Bayou nearby. The weather sailing to St. Andrew’s was good: variable winds at 5-10 kts. But we knew to expect increasing (southerly) winds and storms. We wanted to stay close to the Gulf so that on Wed. 11/17 we could take advantage of a fair weather window to make it over to Destin Harbor. So we decided to book at Bay Point Marina for a few nights. Bay Point is a sister marina to St. Joe though very different. The overwhelming number of big yachts made our 36.5 ft. Pearson seem like a bug. We would have enjoyed it more had we not decided on a different route for the next several days.

Given weather conditions and another front scheduled for the area, we decided to move over to the northern and western portion of St. Andrew’s Bay. Traveling inland might bode better for the next few days. Hence our stay at Sun Harbor Marina to ride out the latest weather and position ourselves to transit the inland ICW to Choctawhatchee Bay. Our plan is to travel on Wed. 11/17 to Rocky Bayou or Boggy Bayou nearby where we plan to anchor. Both bayous are roughly just past the mid-point of Choctawhatchee in the northern part of that Bay. From there we would aim for the “Narrows” (Santa Rosa Sound, also ICW), hoping to make a stop at Fort Walton Beach at the beginning of the Sound. Here’s hoping to a continuingly exciting adventure!