Florida: Carrabelle (Day 3)

Day 156
No Boat Travel

Clark and I planned to walk up to use the washroom then return to the boat so I could give him a haircut and then grab showers. That plan was changed almost as soon as we stepped off the boat. When we walked up to the "head", one of the men stopped Clark with a replacement flagpole in hand for the bow of our boat. That made an instant change to the course of our day.

When we moved the boat from Apalachicola to Carrabelle, Clark and I suddenly heard a "clink". Fortunately Clark immediately realized that the burgee flag was missing from the bow of the boat. I took the helm and he ran to see if he could find the flag. He came back with the AGLCA flag attached to the broken stem of the flagpole. The metal rod that was presented to us first thing this morning was the offering from one of the locals as a replacement for our broken flagpole.

The metal rod replacement was taller and thicker than the one that snapped off, and it required holes be drilled and hardware be added to connect the flag to the new pole. Thus our morning turned into a search for hardware to transform the rod into a flagpole. As we discussed the project with the guys at the marina, one of the "good ole boys" made a joke "How many rednecks does it take to engineer a flagpole?"

AGLCA flagpole project

After a real quick breakfast, we headed off on our bicycles to a hardware store down the street. The recommendation from the guys at the marina was that we visit Carrabelle Junction while we were there. Carrabelle Junction is a 1950's style malt shop and a step back in time. Even though it was only 11:00 a.m., I had a yummy vanilla milk shake and Clark had an ice cream cone.

Carrabelle Junction Malt Shop

Carrabelle Junction Malt Shop inside

Carrabelle Junction Malt Shop inside

Carrabelle Junction Malt Shop inside

Since we had our bikes out, we wanted to explore town but I thought we should return to the marina and conclude our flagpole project and then come out again afterwards to tour the area. Four holes drilled in our metal rod combined with the screws and hooks purchased at the hardware store resulted in a brand new flagpole at the bow of Sea Moss.

While waiting for the flagpole repair job to be completed, I sat in one of the many rocking chairs by the marina office and chatted with one of the other boaters staying there.  The marina has a lot of character and a lot of characters hang out there.

View of C-Quarters Marina from street

 I learned that the 1940 Ford Deluxe car was called the Business Coupe because of its extra large trunk space for product samples.

1940 Ford Deluxe Business Coupe
in parking lot of C-quarters marina

View of C-Quarters Marina from across the water
Sea Moss is in one of the slips near the marina office

We ate lunch on board and then set out to explore. When we were out earlier, we found the visitor's center and got some leads on places to go. We headed to the Carrabelle History Museum as our first stop. On the way to the museum we found the "World's Smallest Police Station" which has been noted in Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley's Believe It or Not.

World's Smallest Police Station
in Carrabelle, FL

Carrabelle History Museum entrance

The curator of the museum greeted us as we entered the museum and told us that the museum had three things that could not be found in any other museum in Franklin County. First, the museum had proof of Indians living in the Carrabelle, Florida area circa 150 to 900 A.D. in the form of Carrabelle Punctated pottery shards. Second, the museum had the remains of a huge metal kettle used during the Civil War to manufacture salt. Since salt was desperately needed during the war and a form of currency, Carrabelle played an important role for the Confederates. Third the original "World's Smallest Police Station" was on display; the one we had seen on the street earlier today was a modern replacement of the original that requires refurbishment.

Original "World's Smallest Police Station"

After leaving this museum the proprietor suggested we visit the town's World War II museum. I did not realize the role that Florida beaches and Carrabelle in particular played in the D-Day invasion. Carrabelle was used as a training site for the big event.

Display at the Museum
Showing Training for D-Day Invasion

 Later when Clark and I were biking around we found a plaque marking where the training actually took place.

D-Day Training Site

Next on our places to visit was 604 SE Ave F in town where a retired artist has built a house, a lighthouse, and a tower out of concrete and glass bottles. They are lit at night but we only saw them in daylight.

Glass Bottle Cabin

Glass Bottle House - inside view

Glass Bottle Lighthouse

After leaving the glass bottle house and glass bottle lighthouse, we passed by this guy on one street corner.

Pirate Statue

As we biked back towards the boat Clark suggested that we go out and see the Crooked River Lighthouse about two miles out of town, so we just kept going out of town and over the bridge. About half way to the lighthouse park at Carrabelle Beach, we found a bike trail.

View from the Bike Trail

Passing Carrabelle Beach on the way to the Lighthouse

We got to the lighthouse park sooner than I expected. A small museum is on premises set up in the reproduction of the lighthouse keeper's house. The original house was sold and moved years earlier.

Crooked River Lighthouse

Lighthouse Keeper's House

 The park closed at 5:00. We arrived there around 4:15 or so. As we toured the area, we learned that for $5 each we could climb up to the top of the lighthouse. However, the woman at the museum did not want to let us go up because it was close to 4:30 and park closing time. I cajoled her into letting Clark run up to the top of the lighthouse where he got a few good pictures.

Lighthouse Lens

View from Base of Lighthouse Looking Up

Apalachicola National Forest as seen from top of lighthouse

Looking out towards Dog Island from the top of the lighthouse

I knew I could not keep up with Clark and make it up and down the lighthouse before the 5:00 closing time, so I just let him run up there on his own.  He went up at 4:25 and was back down with a number of pictures within 15 minutes.

We headed back to our marina with a planned stop at The Moorings marina to see who was around.

Looper Boats at The Moorings Marina

The big question remains ... when should we take on the challenge of crossing the Gulf? We talked to One Bay at a Time and Plane 2 Sea before heading back to our marina. We seem to have some target dates coming up with potential for crossing. Which day should we choose? Will the windows actually materialize?

As the sun set we headed back to our marina to drop off our bikes.

Sunset at the Marina

When we were out exploring, we decided to head over to the IGA grocery store to buy a pizza to bring back to the boat for dinner. IGA offers cooked pizza from their deli department which was actually pretty decent as pizza goes.

After dinner I gave Clark that haircut that got postponed and we headed up for our showers that had been delayed as well.  Before heading into the shower, I threw two loads of wash in. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake since when I turned on the shower almost no water came out as it was all being consumed filling the washing machines. I had to wait for water until the washers were both full of water to get enough water for my shower.

With the laundry done and the water reprovisioned with food and water, we are ready to go when the weather window allows. We'll be reading the AGLCA forum "Eddy's Weather Wag" report carefully tomorrow to get Eddy's perspective on safe crossing target dates.

Note: regarding yesterday's post. . . the microwave appears to be fixed as it no longer growls when I use it. Clark did an excellent job of addressing the problem (as always)!