Apalachicola, FL - October 13-18, 2013

We arrived in Apalachicola on Sunday night and decided to stay a couple days.  We stopped for a day on our last trip through but it wasn't enough to explore all we wanted to see.  After spending a couple nights in the anchorage across from the waterfront, we were invited to tie up to the dock at the Apalachicola Maritime Museum which we gratefully accepted.

 

 

We highly recommend a visit there to learn about the maritime history of the area, take a boat tour or rent a kayak, and of course you have to tour the primary exhibit of the museum, the 58' Hershoff design wooden ketch named the Heritage of Apalachicola. You'll find much more information on their website http://www.ammfl.org/. Thank you George Floyd and your super nice manager, Jenni, for your gracious hospitality. We look forward to returning soon.

 

 

We took a ride on the whaler to take in the sites of the waterfront.

 

 

This was the view from the bow of the Archimedes while moored at the Museum. 

Nice front yard view.  Don't you agree?

 

 

Look closely at this boat.  That is a motorcycle up on the deck...right next to a second dinghy.

Wish THAT was ME!

 

Liquor, pottery, marine supplies...

You can find it all at the Honey Hole right on the waterfront!

 

 

 

 

 

 You sure don't see this everyday on the water!  That is a house, complete with potted plant moving somewhere to the other side of the bridge!

Just after sunrise Friday morning, we departed Apalachicola heading for St. Marks.

 

Solar Panel Collection Data - October 12th

Sea School is over and it is time to get our heads back into preparing the Arc for our upcoming solar passage around Florida.  We left Panama City Saturday, Oct 12th, heading to St. Marks with intentions of completing as many items as possible on our  long list of projects in the little time we have left when we get back to St. Marks.





Carter weighed anchor and we left the peaceful Massalina Bayou about noon after completely charging since we decided to run on the sun for a while to test the new idler pulley on the electric drive.  Last week Carter made some changes to the electric motor system by upgrading the chain from #40 to #50 and installing and idler pulley so he could adjust the tension better. It works great however the additional pulley does make the chain drive a little noisier. Ultimately, Carter says he would like to make it a belt drive which would make it considerably quieter and slightly more efficient but unfortunately that is just not in the budget right now. What we have works and there are a lot higher priorities to direct our limited resources toward.

Carter also decided to run some tests on the flap tracker that morning to look at it's performance and the results where very interesting. We had a good opportunity to make some comparisons between the panels laying flat and then in the tracking position. Obviously they are going to collect more energy when tilted toward the sun but we were curious just what the differences would be.

We had already taken some data when we made small tweeks during the day to get the panel angles better as the boat and sun moved while we were traveling and we typically found we could achieve anywhere from a 10-30% increase in energy input from these small adjustments. But this morning before we left, Carter did some comparisons between the panels being flat and then angled toward the sun while we where charging the batteries before we left Massalina Bayou. The results where impressive.

At 8:00 am, with the panels level like they would be laying on the deck of a typical boat, our main array, (3KW) was collecting 8.7 amps. Then we angled the array toward the rising sun and it increased to 33.9amps.

At 9:00 am we were collecting 16.5 amps in the level position and 39.6 amps when we tilted the panels.

Below is a picture of the charge controller readout for the 9:00 am reading in the tracking position. The In and Out reading on the screen are the difference created by the MPPT charge controller optimizing the solar input to the battery. Also displayed is the solar input rate of 2KW at that moment and the total for the day of .8 KWH collected so far that morning.

At 10:00 am we were collecting 27.3 amps in the level position and 44.5 amps when we tilted the panels.

After that some clouds moved in so the solar input became inconsistent and we were busy getting ready to leave but we were happy for the chance to get some good data.

Several things to note about this informal test. The sky was consistently clear while we did it so that variable was fairly constant although the sun was rising so there where minor variations during the change from flat to angled. Also, the boat position was relatively constant although there was some movement during the test but for the most part the length of the boat stayed very close to being on a North/South axis, but not quite. This would make no difference in the flat position but did hurt us a little in the angled position as we didn't quite have an optimum angle for the panels to the sun. But all in all it was a good morning and good condition to gather this data that we had been wanting to see for a while. 

Obviously, angling the panels toward the sun is going to help collect more energy but we were very pleased to see just how big a difference it could make. Every day is different, depending on our heading and the sun's angle in the sky but we think it's safe to say that on average the flap tracker easily doubles and, at the extreme, can triple our energy input to the propulsion system as we travel using solar. 

After weighing anchor, we proceeded along our way towards St. Marks.  By evening, we were well into the ditch between St. Andrews East Bay and Apalachicola. Just before sunset we pulled over to  stop for dinner. Then we fired up Big Ben for some night running and forged on to White City so we could tie up at a dock for the night and be close to Apalachicola.

Dinner was served on the veranda and was delicious as usual!  Pork steak cooked to perfection on the grill, au gratin potatoes, salad and garlic toast.   After dinner we continued on down the trail.

The next day we left White City early and forged on toward Apalachicola under diesel to make better time. 

The following are some sites along the way.



Interesting to see that the day markers are useful for more than just marking the channel!

The ospreys find they make good nests.

This is the probable owner of one of the nests above. 

He's up high keeping a sharp eye on his territory.

One of many fishing cabins you'll see along this section of the ICW.

Update - October 5th - 8th



Sunset at St. Andrews Marina

Saturday, October 5th

We ended up moving from St. Andrews Marina back to Massalina Bayou due to the threat of tropical storm Karen's arrival.  You just can't predict Mother Nature and therefore she must be respected. 

We had a very busy day preparing for the move. It was the first real day off Carter had since he started Sea School and with storm Karen on the way, we decided to take care of business before heading for cover in Massalina Bayou. 

Before leaving St. Andrews Sound, we stopped off at St. Andrews Marina and filled the water tanks, emptied the holding tank, washed the dirty laundry, and took a couple of on shore, long showers! St. Andrews Marina is a great facility with super clean showers and laundry facility and super nice people!   We highly recommend it.  Karen weakened long before reaching us and turned out to be a non-event but it's better to be safe than sorry and the dead calm bayou was a nice change from the bouncing sound. 

Sunday, October 6th

We packed up Sunday afternoon and headed out by car for Carter to participate in CleanEnergyCongress.org in Tallahassee.  This was an event sponsored by ReThink Energy Florida (ReThinkEnergyFlorida.org) and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE.org) for the purpose of developing a vision for Florida's Energy Future and policy recommendations to the legislature. Carter was flattered to be invited to participate as a delegate and said the experience was very enlightening. It really is amazing how screwed up and unfair the system is for consumers. Outdated Florida laws that blatantly protect the monopoly of investor owned utilities are stifling innovation and ruining the unique opportunity that the "Sunshine" state has to be a world leader in solar energy development.  

Tuesday, October 8th

Sea School is over and Carter has completed the courses to obtain his 50 ton Masters license. The only detail left is to get his Transportation Workers Identification Card, (TWIC), which he can't do until the Federal government opens up again but he has a year from the time he finished the school so hopefully the government will be open again by then. If not, not getting a captain's license probably won't matter.  We are eager for our return to St. Marks to complete a few more projects on the boat before embarking on the remainder of our solar powered passage around Florida!

St. Andrews Marina - Panama City - September 27, 2013

 Anchored out catching some rays by St. Andrews Marina in Panama City.

We started out here about a week ago when Carter began Sea School because it was close by and he could ride the bike to school but we were forced to leave when a strong Southerly wind whipped up and we ran for cover in Massalina Bayou. The Sea School instructor told us about it and graciously offered to give Carter a ride each day while we were there since it was considerably farther away from the school. Now that the wind has swung back around to the North  and the Sound has laid down a little we decided to come back. Massalina Bayou was an excellent anchorage but the internet didn't work very well there and the TV reception didn't come in at all. Plus it was about time to do some laundry so here we are again at the friendly St. Andrews Marina.

 

On our way over we spotted this Coast Guard patrol boat heading our way in the distance at breakneck speed, blue lights flashing. This is something we're starting to get use too but it's still a bit disconcerting and hard to resist the urge to "Hide the Rum".

 

They were a friendly and courteous bunch though and just wanted to ask us some  questions about the strange solar boat. Carter said it brought back memories of his own days on the 41312 in San Diego when he was a seaman in the Coast Guard. Only he said these new RIBs with twin outboards look like they'd be a lot more fun to drive than the old aluminum utility boat with inboard diesels that he was on.  

 

Another week or so of Sea School and we'll be headed back to St. Marks for several weeks to finish a few projects on the Arc before we head to Key West and beyond.

Panama City - Roberts Hall

The weather turned pretty nasty out as a cold front moved in with wind and rain making the anchorage at St. Andrews Marina rather inhospitable.  Carter's instructor at the sea school told him about a very sheltered anchorage in a place called Massalina Bayou and graciously offered to give him rides to class since it wasn't quite within bicycle riding distance like St. Andrews is. So we hoisted anchor and headed over Friday morning.

I made a new friend today in Panama City named  Peggy (pictured above with me).  I also got to meet a facebook friend from our last passage thru Panama City for the first time too, Carol (pictured below) always has a smile on her face.

 

Peggy invited me to one of her favorite places in Panama City called Roberts Hall to listen to a group of talented local musicians.  I was treated to a wonderful piece of history in this old town of Florida. 

 

Excerpts from their brochure:

 

"A group of citizens has taken on the challenge of restoring what was recently an eyesore through years of neglect, with the vision of returning it to its original state and usage."

 

 

" Roberts Hall is a beautifully restored historic building in the heart of Lynn Haven.  The two story structure was built by L. J. Roberts and completed in 1912.  It has housed many businesses throughout it's 100 year existence including a general store, dance hall/meeting hall, sewing room, and antique stores."

 

 

 Beautiful vintage quilts adorn the walls on the 1st floor. 

Possibly left behind from the days as a sewing room.

 

"The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (a fraternal organization) has met there since 1912 and bought the building in 1922.  They met upstairs once a week, held dances on many weekends, hosted fish fry's, and have donated to many different charities both local and national.  They rented the first floor to Lloyd's Country Store for 40+ years and that is how many residents remember the building."

 

 

 

 

"In 1948 the building was covered with a brick-print asphalt siding that had many younger generations thinking that it was a brick building.  Years of wear and neglect took its toll on the building and Hurricane Opal did some roof damage that caused some internal damage.  The Order members were aging and unable to do the repairs.  Many members of the community considered it an eyesore and it was very close to being condemned and torn down.  Then in 2007 a group of historic-minded people came forward to see if they could salvage and restore this beautiful old structure.  They joined the Order and began repairs in May of 2008.  The first floor is completed and restoration continues on the second floor."

 

 

Upstairs you'll find the dance hall is being restored. 

There are 6 beautiful murals on the walls. I was told the artist was paid $24 for his work.

 

 The stage upstairs in the process of renovation. 

I'm told Hank Williams, Sr. performed on this stage!

 

 

Some original pieces remain in the building. 

This is one of the first Pepsi coolers, as evidenced by the original color blue,

 most likely to have been used in the general store.

 

 

As a means of raising funds for the restoration, there is a slate of musical activities open to the public.  Visit their facebook page for more information. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roberts-Hall/519889941365612?ref=stream&hc_location=stream

 

Some local talent at "Open Mike".

 

Frank Lindamood with his resonator guitar. 

He could pick a mean banjo too!

Loved his music.

 

 

I had a great day goofing off in Panama City at Roberts Hall 

while Carter was slaving away at Sea School!

Life is good!

 

 

 



 

 

 

St. Marks to Panama City - for Sea School!

Tuesday, September 17

After 4 days of cleaning, provisioning and general maintenance of the boat we departed St. Marks this morning at approx. 8 AM. The open Gulf crossing the Apalachee Bay with 2-3 ft. seas was a little less than ideal but it was a good passage. 

 As always, the dolphins love us! 

Several pods swam along side us as we crossed the Apalachee Bay and into St. George Straight.

We anchored out about 15 miles short of Apalachicola in St. George Straight near the inlet to Carabelle. Radar got to run free on a deserted island and Carter and I took a whaler ride and a swim and then cooked some hamburgers on the grille. It was an idyllic sunset on a dead calm sea with a light easterly breeze and we relaxed after a long days run.

But our comfortable anchorage soon turned against us as the wind  unexpectedly shifted toward the North. A groundswell picked up in the sound, probably accentuated by our close proximity to the inlet and it was hitting us broadside. It started up about 10 pm and we rolled pretty violently most of the night with a few things flying off the shelves now and again. Carter was up constantly checking the anchor line and keeping an eye on things while I slept like a baby but we held fast and it finally laid down a little in the early morning hours so he got a little sleep.

Wednesday, September 18

We left our inhospitable anchorage early and got under way toward Apalachicola and the welcome section of ditch that connects to the east bay of St. Andrews Sound. The wind picked up again but we had  following seas and it was kind of a sleigh ride until we had to make our turn into the Apalachicola River and the ditch to St. Andrew Sound.  It was about 5 miles of broadside seas at 2-3 feet with 20 mph wind and was quite unpleasant until we hit the bridge at Apalachicola. What a relief.  Dead calm ditch for the rest of the day.

As predicted, we didn't quite make it to Panama City but we are only about 3 hours away, tucked into a nice anchorage called Lathrop Bayou just inside the East Bay.   We're about 15 miles from St. Andrews Marina so we should have time to get settled in tomorrow before Carter has to start his first night class of Sea School!

The Whaler is sporting a bimini top these days too.