Day 111, November 20th, 2009
We had hoped to leave at 7:00 but awoke to fog. It wouldn't have been possible to see any debris in the ditch so we waited until the fog cleared - about an hour. Then we were off again.
It was a short ride to the end of the ditch and the little fishing town of Apalachicola. We would have liked to stop there and had a look around as its meant to be historical and pretty, however, the weather forecast indicated bad weather closing in and we wanted to beat it to Carrabelle.
Carrabelle is the jumping off point to cross to Tarpan Springs. Its very shallow in the NE corner of the gulf and John and I had hoped to do the "Big Bend" in one hop of 30 hours. The others were vacillating! There was much discussion and some anxiety over the decision. Anyway, it looked as if the weather might be good for a crossing Monday/Tuesday, so we pushed onto Carrabelle, arriving around 3:00. The current was in our favor across a lake coming out of the ditch and we clocked 8.2 speed over ground! That really helped.
Pat and Diane had run out of propane that morning so they chose to go straight to a marina.
John and I went into town and got fuel and water. Paul and Sue headed straight for Carrabelle Beach as it was a lovely warm day and the wind was forecast out of the north overnight so they would be sheltered there.
Just as we got close to the gas dock John noticed a change in the sound of the exhaust and engine. I took the helm and he told me to shut the engine down. We were right in the channel but fortunately no other traffic. He'd opened the engine cover and found no water in the strainer - no coolant! Not good. He came back to the helm and restarted the engine and we limped towards the gas dock. Something must have got caught and covered the water intake because all of a sudden it cleared and the engine sounded fine and the water came back into the strainer. A few harrowing minutes!!!
Once fueled up we went back to Carrabelle Beach and anchored with Paul and Sue. Had a drink together and said goodnight just after dark. We were glad to have arrived safely to Carrabelle before dark. We'd wondered whether that was stretching it when we'd left that morning.
We had hoped to leave at 7:00 but awoke to fog. It wouldn't have been possible to see any debris in the ditch so we waited until the fog cleared - about an hour. Then we were off again.
It was a short ride to the end of the ditch and the little fishing town of Apalachicola. We would have liked to stop there and had a look around as its meant to be historical and pretty, however, the weather forecast indicated bad weather closing in and we wanted to beat it to Carrabelle.
Carrabelle is the jumping off point to cross to Tarpan Springs. Its very shallow in the NE corner of the gulf and John and I had hoped to do the "Big Bend" in one hop of 30 hours. The others were vacillating! There was much discussion and some anxiety over the decision. Anyway, it looked as if the weather might be good for a crossing Monday/Tuesday, so we pushed onto Carrabelle, arriving around 3:00. The current was in our favor across a lake coming out of the ditch and we clocked 8.2 speed over ground! That really helped.
Pat and Diane had run out of propane that morning so they chose to go straight to a marina.
John and I went into town and got fuel and water. Paul and Sue headed straight for Carrabelle Beach as it was a lovely warm day and the wind was forecast out of the north overnight so they would be sheltered there.
Just as we got close to the gas dock John noticed a change in the sound of the exhaust and engine. I took the helm and he told me to shut the engine down. We were right in the channel but fortunately no other traffic. He'd opened the engine cover and found no water in the strainer - no coolant! Not good. He came back to the helm and restarted the engine and we limped towards the gas dock. Something must have got caught and covered the water intake because all of a sudden it cleared and the engine sounded fine and the water came back into the strainer. A few harrowing minutes!!!
Once fueled up we went back to Carrabelle Beach and anchored with Paul and Sue. Had a drink together and said goodnight just after dark. We were glad to have arrived safely to Carrabelle before dark. We'd wondered whether that was stretching it when we'd left that morning.
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