Harrison Bayou and Apalachicola

We pulled away from the Ft. Walton City dock at 7:15 am. Ted and Sue, aboard My Dream, left 15 minutes earlier. Garry was staying behind. He'd forgotten his passport in Mobile. He planned to rent a car and drive back to grab it. He would stay at Ft. Walton an extra day.

We were headed east across the top of the Gulf of Mexico to Harrison Bayou to anchor for the night. First we crossed the Chocawhatchee Bay 30 miles then entered the “Grand Canyon” Canal cut, another 20 miles. Fighter planes flew above us. The Canyon was lined with beautiful white sugar sand.

Fighter Planes above while crossing the Chocawhatchee Bay

Dave at the helm

Beth enjoying the sunshine

Head wind all day but the sun is shining

White Sand shoreline in the Grand Canyon Canal

Beautiful waterway

Mystic heading down the Grand Canyon Canal

Airboat ride on the canal

We popped out of the canal into West Bay, just outside of Panama City. It took us 9 hours and 40 minutes to travel 58.7 miles from Ft. Walton to Harrison Bayou where we anchored for the night. We arrived well before sunset at this lovely bay sheltered from the south winds. Dave kept an eye on MX Mariner and Active Captain on his phone while I steered us in. We dropped anchor in 12 feet of water. Several pairs of dolphins swam in the bay in front of us, back and forth, back and forth; all I could think was, “What’s in YOUR backyard?” We watched a lovely sunset to the west. then a beautiful orange full moon rose to the east. We were moving too much to get a good photo but we sat back and just enjoyed the moment.

We took our time pulling the anchor in the morning. Our goal was Port St. Joe, about 50 miles away. The wind was out of the east about 5-10 mph, the temperature was 68F; another beautiful day! We watched Elgin Air Force flyboys dance in the sky above us. They put on a cool show for a good hour!

At precisely 10:40 am, a very loud alarm went off. Dave handed me the tiller and dove below. Thinking it was the carbon monoxide detector, he pulled the batteries but the terrible noise continued. It took him about 20 seconds to realize it was our two VHF radios simultaneously sounding the monthly emergency alarm test. I was at the tiller, holding my breath in sheer terror! Once Dave turned the radios off, the alarm stopped. I let out the air I’d been holding and began gasping for breath, hyperventilating in the process. Dave took one look at me, grabbed the tiller and asked, “Are you ok?” My desperate response was, “NO, I think I’m going to pass out!” I sat down and put my head between my knees until the lightheaded feeling passed. So what the heck was that?  It's called vasovagal response. It is the most common cause of fainting. The vagus nerve happens to be very sensitive. When it is overstimulated it triggers the fight or flight response. In my case, it is the flight thing. I literally go into shock, my blood pressure drops, my heart rate slows and I stop breathing. It’s basically my body playing dead until the danger passes. It happens at really weird times, like today, when I had the crap scared out of me by an emergency radio check! It’s a good thing we know how to bring me back from the dead!

Things settled down after the big alarm. We went from West Bay to East Bay, past Panama City then entered the Gulf County Canal on the ICW. It is pretty, but really just a canal running through a pine and cypress forest. We expected to see a lot of wildlife but only ran across osprey, eagles and one lonely alligator swimming up stream. There are very few homes here, however there were several sunken boats. We dubbed it the boat cemetery canal.

Mystic entering the Gulf Coast Canal

Canal Gator

Osprey

Two Osprey at Nest

We were making great progress and there was a lot of light left in the day so we passed by the canal that would take us to Port St. Joe, aiming instead for White City which is not far and has a free dock. When we arrived, we considered stopping but the dock appeared to be full. As we passed, we saw Ted and Sue Cole on My Dream tying up. We waved, surprised that we’d caught up with them. We pressed on and crossed Lake Wimico before coming to Saul Creek where there was a good anchorage we had as a backup in case we needed it. Once we saw the creek we realized it wouldn’t work for us. It was very nice but too narrow. We were worried about having enough room to spin on the anchor.

Port St. Joe 5 miles

Ghost Tree Lake Wimico

Trees growing on water ~ Lake Wimico

We'd come so far that we were only five miles from Apalachicola so we pressed on to the anchorage just off of downtown. We arrived exhausted after our 11 plus hour, 71 mile journey. Tomorrow we will explore Apalachicola. We expected to stay for two nights. Little did we know, we'd be there for four whole days!

Sunset on Apalachicola