The wind picked up over night and we swung all the way around with the tide change. At about 0400, the anchor alarm started blaring and we jumped up to check everything. Fortunately, everything was fine and I just didn’t account for the swing when I set the alarm. We went back to bed until the alarm (not the anchor alarm) woke us up at 0600.

The forecast called for patchy fog, so our plan was to try to leave at 0700, but sit and wait out the fog if there was any. We had about 65 miles to go today, so we had some buffer time. Fortunately, it was a beautifully clear morning with a gorgeous sunrise. I made a pot of strong coffee and we had the anchor up at 0656.

As we got underway, the starboard engine was running a little hotter than I would like. We shut down the engine and I went down below as Wendy drove. I put about 3/4 of a gallon of antifreeze in, started it back up, and it was back to normal.

As much as we tried, the Garmin plotter did NOT want us to take the ICW. It wanted us to out into the Gulf even though that route was 40 miles longer. As we left the bay, the water was low in several places. Even in the channel, we were reading 7.5 feet at the lowest. So, I kind of understand the Garmin, but c’mon man! Where’s your sense of adventure!

We had a brief showing of dolphins before getting into the cut through the swamp. It was a very peaceful run surrounded by nature. It was sad to see the broken boats and houses that various hurricanes had left behind. There were a lot of dreams left battered on the shore.

When we arrived at Apalachicola, we saw a sailboat grounded on the bar. Word to the wise…. do not cut the corner coming southbound on the ICW to turn up into Scopio Creek. Go past the red/green buoy. We spoke to the errant mariners later and our wake, small as it was at that point, shook them loose. They were thankful.

We pulled into the Scipio Creek Marina for some fuel and then walked the boat up a length to tie up for the week. When we fueled up, we noticed that we had left the generator on all day. Oops… that will hurt our mileage. After a quick wash down of the boat and ourselves, we walked into town to take a look.

Apalachicola is a wonderful little town full of little shops and restaurants. It is the off season, but the people were open and welcoming. We walked to the Piggly Wiggly for a few staples where a rando parrot perched on my shoulder for a minute like it was a totally normal thing to do outside of a grocery store. We ended the night with a wonderful dinner at Half Shell Dockside Oyster Bar & Grill and great live music by Josh Roach.