Onward to Apalachicola!

We made two visits to Apalachicola. One was by car with some other loopers in the Port St. Joe Marina. The other was by boat. Our looper friends had a car and wanted to show us around Apalachicola. So the day after we landed in PSJ, we had a road trip and got to see most of the landmarks, the marina that was recommended, and feast on some of the famous Apalachicola oysters and seafood. It was a great break. We ate at Boss Oyster's Oyster Republic, and the food could not have been better.

Lady Loopers as Boss Oyster

Is this like the Conch Republic?

We spent one more day in PSJ, reprovisioned the boat, bought some boat stuff, took a bike ride and chatted with fellow transients. The weather for our gulf crossing was not looking good until the end of the week, so we thought about staying put. However, a storm front was going to move through the area in two days, so if we wanted to not be stranded in PSJ, we would have to move on the next day. Conditions were very windy the following day, but we were running mostly in protected waters all the way to Apalachicola, so it didn't really bother us.

Riding another "ditch" to Apalach

Isolated but beautiful

We crossed the very shallow Lake Wimico with no problems and entered the Apalachicola River. We passed an eagle's rookery, turned through a bend, and found a mature bald eagle diving on a flock of common coots in the water. Every time the eagle dove, the flock would scatter and it apparently could not focus on a single bird and would come up empty. We drove the boat very close to the coots and our presence did not seem to phase the eagle which was apparently fixated with the chance at an easy meal.
 

An eagle's rookery

Tora! Tora! Tora!

 

 

 

Try, try again!

Close, but no cigar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Climbing for another dive