After our brief beach day at Shell Island, we took off for Wetappo Creek, a short 15 miles away. We sailed past Panama City which was absolutely devastated by Hurricane Michael.  Blue tarps were atop the remaining structures.  Trees were snapped like toothpicks, and the ones that still stood were bereft of their leaves.

Sailed past a salvage operation for MV North Star, a 261 foot almost-built vessel.  The storm ripped her from the shipyard across the channel onto her starboard side.

We arrived Wetappo Creek at 4:30 and were treated to a lovely sunset.

Wednesday morning, we departed the anchorage for Apalachicola.  Again, saw evidence of Michael’s destruction.

Arrived Apalachicola early afternoon and dropped the hook across from the town.  Super easy dinghy ride into town, and a great anchorage.  Walked around town and visited the local watering hole, the Ice House.  Charming place with really nice people.

Went out for another walkabout, and ran into another tavern around the corner.

Apalachicola is known for their oysters.  Oyster bars are abundant here, particularly for a town of ~2000 people.  And, no oyster bar is complete without hard likker:

Wanting to give equal love to the local brewery, we stopped at Oyster City for a pint.  Delicious stuff.

The folks at the Ice House invited us to their potluck for Thanksgiving.  There was live music, and a TON of food.

Apalachicola is a super charming town.  Last Friday, Santa came into town via shrimp boat.  There were lots of kids awaiting a picture with him.

At the very beginning of the video, you can see Forever Friday at anchor.

After 3 nights at anchor, we tied up to a long dock in town so we could use a dock cart for laundry and provisioning.  The Laundromat was disgusting, but got the job done.  We have been walking, eating and drinking our way through town while we wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf.  Many of the bars have live music, most of which has been pretty damn good.

Today, we have gnarly thunderstorms.  Temperature here in Apalachicola is a rainy 68.  We just heard it is sunny 82 degrees in Tarpon Springs.  We are hoping to get a weather window late Wednesday into Thursday for the 170 mile Gulf crossing.  Fingers crossed the weather is calm.

Will report again when we are safely on the West Coast of Florida in, hopefully, warmer weather.  M&M