Fourth Port Day in Apalachicola - Waiting for Weather Window

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 207 - October 24, 2017

Patty showered with the Helio on the cockpit while I was walking Baxter, and then when I returned, I did a somewhat abbreviated version of a shower too - well, I washed my hair, that is sort of an abbreviated shower, isn't it? And I ran out of hot water at that!  Back to coffee and toast for breakfast.  I wrote my blog for the day, and then off for another day for sightseeing in Apalachicola. Having Marc's golf cart certainly made it easier to get around!

We headed first for the Chestnut Street Cemetery. We had a brochure with a map and the names of some of the people buried there along with their stories, such as Mary Hickey, who slit her husband's throat and then killed herself. Unfortunately, the map was not very good and we did not find Mary's grave or many of the others listed, so we just walked around. 

Chestnut Street Cemetery

Many, but not all, of the gravestones were very old, with birth dates in the late 1700s and early 1800s. There were a lot of graves of soldiers who had fought in the Confederate States Army, with very little information other than their military service.  We did recognize some of the names on headstones or memorials, like David Raney and Thomas Orman, who were both born in 1799, and who were both notable cotton merchants who each built mansions before the Civil War!

Raney plot at Chestnut Street Cemetery - the small headstones are various family members

Thomas Orman headstone

One of the interesting structures in the cemetery is known as "The Chimney," and according to the brochure, nobody knows who erected it, when, or why, but for generations, Apalachicola youth have had to climb to the top to leave childhood behind!

"The Chimney" in the Chestnut Street Cemetery

Many of the headstones of those less wealthy than the Raneys and Ormans have not stood up to time and the salt air well, and are difficult or impossible to read. Many of the plots at one time had wrought iron fences and gates, but now they are almost all rusty and falling down, with apparently nobody left to notice or care.

Rusty gate and falling down fence around one family plot

After touring the cemetery, went to the Piggly Wiggly supermarket for some shopping, and on our way back to the boat for drinks and lunch, stopped to look at a few of the great homes in Apalachicola.

Love the porches and widow's walk on this one!

This house was being painted when I took this photo - it is a great house with a widow's walk and a turret!

After lunch, we went back downtown, and our first stop was a funky antique / junk shop called "The Tin Shed." The Tin Shed has a lot of bona fide maritime antiques, mingled with a lot of cheap junk! It is a fun place to spend a little time looking around!

The Tin Shed

A little bit of the merchandise greets visitors just inside the door!

Colorful display of floats at The Tin Shed

After The Tin Shed we proceeded along Water Street. There were more than fifty identical three story brick buildings built in 1838 as cotton warehouses along the waterfront, of which only two survive today, the others having been destroyed by fires, hurricanes or lack of maintenance. One is used today as the Apalachicola City Hall, and the other is used as the Apalachicola Center for History, Culture and Art. We did not go into City Hall but we did go into the Center for History, Culture and Art.  There is a very old, very long Indian dugout canoe on exhibit, which was interesting, but the main exhibits were many posters with photos and text submitted by citizens on what they thought was necessary to sustain or revive Apalachicola.

City Hall sign on former cotton warehouse

The last thing we did downtown was, naturally, to go back to The Old Time Soda Fountain for some more ice cream!

When we got back to the marina, our friends Cecil and Danny Hazen from Cape Coral were just arriving on their trawler Desperado. We had first met the Hazens back on the Trent-Severn and again at Demopolis waiting out Hurricane Nate, and we traveled from Demopolis to Mobile more or less with the Hazens, so we made plans to go out to dinner together!  Somebody had recommended The Station, a new oyster raw bar, to them, so that is where we went, and we had a very nice evening with our friends! And we never get tired of raw iced oysters on the half shell!

Pat, Danny, Patty and Cecil at The Station Raw Bar

The Hazens will be leaving tomorrow for Clearwater, which will take them something like 22 hours in their trawler. They apparently have more stamina than we do! We plan to visit them in Cape Coral when we get down there!

We have arranged with Marc to haul us out tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to repair our trim tabs, install the Stingray3 fin on the Honda outboard, and to install a new 11 pitch prop, which Marc thinks collectively will allow us to get Daydream on the plane for the crossing of the Big Bend. We sure hope he is right!