GLORY DAYS ON THE GREAT LOOP: APALACHICOLA

DAY 166 FRI. DEC.9, 2011

DEP. PANAMA CITY (mm290) 07:05; ARR. SCIPIO CREEK MARINA (mm 351) APALACHICOLLA 3:10

AM 40* COOL, OVERCAST, W. NE 5.

D. 62.41 sm / 3120.21

We left Panama City without GEMINI. They met friends from Steve’s AF base and stayed an extra day, so it was just GLORY DAYS and ADAGIO. We continued across St. Andrews Bay to Wetappo Creek (mm 310), into Lake Wimico (mm 335), 5 miles across, and into the Apalachicola River at mm 340. From there it was another 11 miles to our destination at Scipio Creek marina. The ride was smooth in spite of the wind, as we were in well protected and very shallow water. In many of the areas we saw a lot of men “tonging” for oysters from their small shallow draft oyster boats. We are now into some really rural areas. The last three stops, while not booming metropolises, compared to Apalachicola, were big. The main source of income here is oysters, commercial fishing and shrimping, definitely not tourism. That said, we liked it here, especially “Pappa Joe’s Oyster Bar,” right at the marina. Good food, plenty of it, and oysters served 15 different ways, from ice cold on the half shell, $6.95/doz., to oyster stew, $7.95/ bowl, to fried, baked, stuffed, steamed, etc. The first thing we did after tying up the boat was to have a doz. raw oysters and a cold beer. It was so nice here, we stayed for 2 days, took lots of pictures, and ate lots of oysters, and were joined by good friend John Rosso.