Port St Joe Marina

The last few days of November were fantastic cruising days....warm sunny weather, calm water, and great sights along the way. After leaving our anchorage at Choctawhatchee Bay, we entered the "Grand Canyon", a 20 mile cut that someone apparently thought bore a resemblance to the Grand Canyon with white sand banks.

The canyon opened into another large bay with a pelican on every channel marker.

and then........the dolphins (and credit to Steve for snapping these good pictures)


After this fantastic day of cruising, we dropped the hook at Smack Bayou, a beautiful cozy little cove, named for the noise the dolphins make as they smack up against your boat hull. We didn't hear any smacks, but we did see dolphins on our dinghy ride across St. Andrew Sound to the Panama City Marina, where we bought $5 worth of dinghy gas, parked at the dinghy dock and walked about a half mile to a grocery store. We came across this lovely little town park, but other than that, there wasn't much happenin' at the marina or in the town, so we were glad of our choice to anchor out.

We got back to the boat in time to hear the Vikings/Bears game on Sirius radio...another victory for the Vikes...and enjoy the city lights from across the sound. Here are a couple of pics of the anchorage taken as we left in the morning.

By noon we were in Wetappo Creek a narrow, winding river.

Just when we thought we were all done with tows and barges, here one came around the corner. It was pretty tight, but we made it past.

Our destination was Port St. Joe (PSJ) Marina, which is five miles off the ICW to the south, on the coast, but protected by a barrier island. We had met Patsy and Ray (off PatsyRay) at Demopolis; they are the harbor hosts for the marina and they encourage all cruisers to stop there. It seemed like a great place to sit out the storm being predicted and has turned out to be just that. We turned off the ICW into the Gulf County Canal, passed a few fisherman and saw these shrimp boats at anchor.

We entered St. Joseph Bay and soon were at the fuel dock where Ray and Patsy welcomed us. We got settled on the transient dock, showered and prepared a quick appetizer for the large (30+ cruisers) social hour organized by Ray and Patsy. The PSJ Marina advertises as the friendliest marina on the Emerald Coast, and is one of our favorites by far. Today we went by car with Patsy and Ray to Apalachicola to have lunch with Tom and Diane (Noah Genda) and ended up meeting 2 other cruising couples, both from Minnesota. We had our first taste of oysters (cooked, not raw), and lots of fun. We returned to PSJ and walked through town...the Piggly Wiggly is only 2 blocks away! The storm has finally arrived and the marina manager is walking the docks, making sure everyone's lines and fenders are secure. We've had a great dinner of locally caught shrimp and are snug in our boat as the rain pours and the wind blows. Tomorrow's prediction includes gale warnings, small craft advisories, winds up to 40 knots (46 mph), seas 13-17 feet on the gulf, and several inches of rain. The ICW waters we have been traveling are called "protected waters". No one is leaving here by boat until the weather improves as the next section of our journey takes us out of the "protected waters" and off shore into the Gulf to cross the "big bend". The boats all leave for the crossing from either Apalachicola or Carabelle and both are only a days journey from here. The accomodations here are such that we will stay and enjoy them until mother nature decides its time to go.