St. Mark's Florida

Carrabelle was very quiet, we were able to rest at the marina. In the morning, we left the dock in glassy calm conditions at 7:30 am, thinking we could make an overnight run to Steinhatchee or even Tarpon Springs. The throttle is giving us trouble again, this time, it won’t hold at higher rpms. The timing for a long run won’t work at slower speeds so we head for St. Mark’s instead.

Good Morning Carrabelle

Morning calm in Carrabelle

Heading out of Carrabelle

Carrabelle Shrimp Boat

Carrabelle Shipwreck

As we move along the Gulf the temperature rises. We have to work at limiting our sun exposure so out comes our wide rim hats, long sleeve shirts and sunscreen with spf 50. An umbrella helps keep us in the shade. We spot the St. Mark’s lighthouse from far offshore; a beacon that leads us into the river. We make our way up the channel in windy, choppy conditions. The channel is very narrow with switchbacks. It is five miles up the St. Marks River to Shields Marina.

St. Mark's Lighthouse

Dave Sitting in the Shade

At marker red 36 we run hard aground. To say it’s a shock is an understatement. One minute we are moving along nicely, the next we are sitting on a sand spit. We learned later, markers 36 and 37A were missing. As we bobbed on that sand bar, contemplating our options, a small power boat with a young family passed us by. They were hugging green marker number 35, obviously they knew about the missing markers and the shoaling. The captain spotted us, quickly slowed his engine and turned around. He asked if we were aground then said he would pull us off. His wife, the Admiral, helped tie us off to their boat. Their young daughter was placed in the bow for safety. It took two tries but he was able to get Mystic back into deeper water and we were on our way again very quickly. We tried to compensate them but they refused, telling us that they had run aground twice in one day and had to be rescued. They just wanted to pay the favor forward. As quickly as they were there, they were gone!

Our Guardian Angel Ship! They pulled us off the shoal!

Missing bouy Red 36

Missing Bouy Green 37A

There's a shoal out there...trust me!

St. Mark’s is a tiny little town. We expected a tiny little mom and pop marina at Shields but it’s a huge place with a modern building and a well stocked ships store. Maxine helped us check in. She is an older woman who moves very slowly, telling us she has back pain which causes her to have trouble thinking clearly. It is obvious that she is hurting. She tells us our rate with 30 amp hookup $38.00, and sends us to slip 58. We got the wifi code and a bathroom key but she warned us that if we didn’t return the key it would be a charge of $5.00. There is laundry here but we are too tired to consider spending time doing laundry. We want to explore and then relax.

Shields Marina

Mystic docked at Shields Marina

We took a walk into town where we found two bars and a little grocery store called Bo Lynn’s Market. We stopped in for a loaf of french bread to go with dinner but found only sandwich bread. Bo Lynn was at the register. She must be 80 years old, very beautiful, refined and soft spoken. She offered to heat frozen garlic bread in the microwave for us. We decide to buy a pint of Blue Bell ice cream instead. We wanted to support Bo Lynn and our priorities prevailed. Ice cream is a huge treat!

Bo Lynn's Market

Tikki Hut

Riverside Cafe

Cooter Stew Cafe

The neat thing about St. Mark’s is that we are in fresh water here. The Wakulla Springs are nearby, which have the largest flow of fresh spring water in the world. We've run across some pretty cool stuff this adventure. When we got back to the boat we headed to bed early, too tired to even take a shower. The alarm was set for 5:00 am.

In the morning, we showered and shoved off by 8:00 am. Marv’s weather buoy report warned us of 10-15 mph head winds and 3-4 1/2 foot seas. We left anyway, with Plan A, B & C in place. Plan A was to make our course directly for Steinhatchee at 121 degrees for 48 miles. Plan B was to meander closer to the shoreline for a longer but milder day. Plan C was to listen to Marv and turn back for a day off.  We made the five mile trek back down the St. Mark’s river, carefully avoiding the shoal at marker 36, in a head wind that just kept growing as we get closer to the Gulf. By the time we are a few miles into the Gulf we realized it is too much to continue with Plan A or Plan B. We turned back and made our way up the St. Marks River to the anchorage just off of Shields Marina. As we motored along, the USCG came over the radio with a Pon Pon emergency. An airboat had overturned in a river close by. Two people were in the water. We listened to the rescue which took about two hours and included a Coast Guard helicopter, smoke flares and a good samaritan. 

We are anchored just off of Shields Marina in a wide spot in the river. It is a lovely spot. We are tucked between a fishing trawler and two small sailboats. We decided to work on projects. Dave messed with the throttle issue and I sanded the teak on the toe rail. Dave figured out that he can crimp the throttle cable casing to slow the throttle slipping at higher rpms. It works well. He’ll have to come up with something permanent though. When he was done he helped me finish up the teak and we prepared to kayak ashore to use the wifi. Suddenly, two officers from the local sheriff's office pull up to Mystic in a patrol boat. They chat with us about our journey then mention that there is a tug that uses the river. They told us that you never know when the tug will come by this corner and advised us to sneak back off the channel. Dave kayaked our stern anchor closer to shore and dropped it. We let out the bow line and pulled ourselves back on the stern anchor. We were tucked in nicely now, out of the way.

Mystic tucked in the corner of a bend on St. Mark's River

Kayaking St. Mark's River

Mystic anchored on St. Mark's River

Later, we kayaked back down the river to the city park and walked up to Shields Marina to get wifi. There was a nice spot to sit, with picnic tables in the shade. We checked the weather and sent emails. On our way back to the park we stopped at the Tikki hut at the Riverside Cafe for a beer. This is a great little bar for such a tiny little town. As we chatted with the bartender the song Brandy played in the background. It filled us with nostalgia as we thought of our friends Yolanda and Scott! The song holds a favorite memory for the four of us!

We are in midge (no seeum) country here! No seeums are abundant and voracious. We close Mystic up tight and head to bed early. Tomorrow we will try to cross to Tarpon Springs.