Third 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 206 - October 23, 2017

Today was and tomorrow will be our days for being typical tourists in Apalachicola! After coffee and another "Sunday breakfast on Monday" (sliced white potatoes, bacon and fried eggs) and writing the blog, we hopped in the golf cart Marc Grove has loaned us and headed downtown! Our first stop was the Apalachicola Chamber Visitors Center, where we got a map and a fistful of brochures! We sat down on a bench outside to orient ourselves, and then headed off!

Our first, and longest, stop was the history Raney House Museum. This is one of only two antebellum homes remaining in Apalachicola.  David Raney came to Apalachicola in 1834 from Virginia, and quickly established himself as a cotton trader.  David built the house in 1838 at the corner of Market Street and F Avenue. It was originally a rather plain house built in the Federal style, and later, the front door was moved and Doric columns in the Greek Revival style were added, The house sits on a bluff, where David could look out over his eleven cotton warehouses on Water Street!  David and wife Harriet raised their family there, including three sons, all of whom fought for the Confederacy, and amazingly, all three lived to return home. The Raney family continued to own and reside in the home until 1914, when it was sold to a physician, and it was purchased by the City of Apalachicola in 1973. 

Historic Raney House Museum

Our guide was Judy McFarland, who took us through every room in the house and the separate semi-attached kitchen.  The kitchen had a covered breezeway,that could be quickly knocked away in event of a fire! A fair amount of the furnishings and other contents, including paintings, are original. She did an outstanding job of explaining everything we were seeing, and bringing the Raney family to life for us! The tour is free, but they accept donations, and we did our small part in that regard!

Our guide Judy McFarland in the parlor of the Raney House Museum

After the tour was over, we decided we needed some - you guessed it - ice cream!  So we headed to a shop downtown called, fittingly, The Old Time Soda Fountain. We would have gone to the other antebellum home, The Orman House, which is now owned by Florida State Parks, but by the time we were done with our ice cream, it was too late in the day to make their tour hours, and since they are only open Thursday through Monday and we are planning to move on to Dog Island on Thursday for a Friday crossing of the Gulf, we will probably not get to see this.

We walked around a bit, but Patty was not really in a shopping mood - as she says, our goal in life is to get rid of junk, not to add to the collection! I did poke my nose into the Oyster City Brewing Company brewery, but just to snap a quick photo! I really have enjoyed their beers at our several dinners out!

Oyster City Brewing Company brewery

Our last tourist stop for the day was the Apalachicola Maritime Museum. This Museum features several tour boat cruises, but since Marc had given us a great boat tour, we passed on their tour boat tours. The museum also has a limited display of artifacts. The most interesting artifact the museum owns is not on site yet! It is a stern wheeler paddle boat donated to the museum by the late Debbie Reynolds! We watched a video of the restoration in progress, and walked around to look at the other artifacts on display. My attention was drawn to a board showing a large number of useful knots. Patty and I have both been struggling with the bowline, which I had once known how to tie - I used it to secure the lines to our crab pots for years -  but I cannot for the life of me figure it out now! I took this photo of the venerable bowline, but however much I study it, I cannot duplicate it!  If you run into us somewhere along the line, please instruct us on this knot. And yes, we know "Make a loop. Then the rabbit comes up through the hole, goes around the tree and back down the hole." Damned if we can make that work!

The bowline - looks simple, no?

After the Maritime Museum, it was time to head back to the boat for sundowners before heading out for dinner! So far, we have had dinner at Up the Creek and the Oyster City Brewing Company Taproom, both of which were very good. Today we decided to head to Boss Oyster. At every restaurant, we have started with a dozen (or more) raw oysters on the half shell with lemon, horseradish and Crystal hot sauce. The oysters at Boss Oyster, and all the other restaurants, were not Apalachicola oysters, since none are available right now. But the Boss Oyster oysters were served on ice and were nice and cold, and were shucked so they were completely detached from the shell, so we gave them a" thumbs up" on the oysters. Unfortunately, the rest of the dinner, a basked of fried scallops and a basked of lemon pepper grilled shrimp, were mediocre at best, although the cheese grits were good. Where they really fell down in my estimation was their beer selection - with a great local brewery like Oyster City Brewery, their beer selection was limited to national brands available anywhere, and not even very good national brands!

Boss Oyster on Water Street

Platter of raw oysters on the half shell! I had eaten one before we decided this deserved a picture!

Our table at Boss Oyster was on the deck, and we were once again treated to a great after- sunset view out over the Apalachicola River!

View from our table at dinner.

Tomorrow is another day of sightseeing, as there is still plenty left to occupy our time here! Marc has also ordered a new 11 pitch prop to help solve our planing issue, and the current plan is to pull Daydream on Wednesday to install the prop, try to fix the trim tabs, and install the Stingray3 fin (sort of a Doelfin / Permatrim work-alike).  We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will get Daydream up on a plane, because it would be LONG day crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Steinhatchee at the speed we have been cruising!