The Big Debate

We weathered the storms Patricia threw at us.  The first couple of nights were pretty rocky at Apalachicola Marina.  The 30 mile an hour winds were coming in about the worst direction possible, but at least we were safe.  There were storms when we were here in the spring too when a nice man offered us to come up to his second story brick condo if we didn't feel safe.  He offered the same hospitality this time too, but he wasn't even going to be there.  He left to go out of town but left it unlocked for us.  Thankfully we never felt like we had to consider that, but what a nice offer.
We were all holed up in our boats all day Monday.  Tuesday was not as bad and our friends from Mexico Beach came and picked us up for lunch.  We went to St. George Island but couldn't find anything appealing that was open so we ended up at Papa Joe's here in town.  Oh well, the ride in their green Charger was fun!
Once the blue sky appeared late on Tuesday afternoon we were all itching to get off the boats although Rob and Naomi had trekked all the way to Ace Hardware in their foul weather gear.  We started off at The Bowery for two for one Happy Hour drinks and good music.  It was kind of late for this town when we headed off to The Hole in the Wall for dinner afterwards.  They immediately informed us that they did not have oysters.  The weather was too rough for them to harvest.  We stayed anyway and had a good short time there as they were ready to go home.  They gave us our last drink to have outside.  On Wednesday we went back earlier and had some obviously fresh oysters.
Of course the topic of conversation since we have been here is when does it look good to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater?  This is "Lorelei's" first time so they were going on our recommendations.  Silly fools!  Starting yesterday afternoon it was a debate between Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon crossing or Friday morning to Saturday morning crossing.  This morning we decided we would leave Apalachicola Marina around noon and head toward Dog Island.  It was closer to 12:30 p.m. by the time grocery shopping, laundry and battening down the hatches was done.  We pulled up to the fuel dock to fill up, pay for our stay, and pick up the last package that did get delivered on time.  We are leaving two expected packages behind that have not been delivered yet.
Dog Island is just beyond East Pass where we would head out into the Gulf.  Therefore we could take a look at it and decide from there.  A small sailboat left the marina this morning and called Bob when they got out to East Pass.  They said it was about two feet at the inlet and they would call again if they could when they got farther out.  We never heard from them but hope all is well in their crossing.  Who knows if it is the better decision, but some of us thought tomorrow looked slightly better.
Around 4:30 p.m. we dropped anchor in Shipping Cove behind Dog Island from the Gulf of Mexico.  At day break we plan to head across for our approximately 24 ride if weather is still as predicted.