Dec. 10+ Boat Parade & More at Carrabelle

Friday, our first full day at Carrabelle was sunny but very cool. A group of local gentlemen were standing around a fire barrel and it didn't take Tom long to grab a cup of coffee and join them.  Kim provided details about a boat parade that would take place on Saturday night.  She asked us to participate as the marina needed one more boat to break a tie for the marina with the most boats in the parade. So it was off to the dollar store on our bicycles for decorations. We had a little tree to tie on the bow and a fiber optic tree for the inside but no lights. After several trips to the dollar store and some help from Don and Theresa we were ready!  We finished the day riding our bikes around town and hitting a few of the shops.  The boat parade was a first for us and great fun.  There were 19 boats of different sizes and Tom and I were both impressed with the extensive lights and decorations on some of them.  The celebration after the parade was held at C-Quarters and trophies were given out to the winners. To our surprise, and I think kindness of the judges, we won second place for boats larger than 36 foot.

Our boat lights - you can't see the tree on our roof

The pig with wings tied to our dingy

 Sharing our trophy with friends Don and Theresa who helped us decorate and rode with us in parade

Thursday December 9th - The beginning of an extended stay in Carabelle

Our three hour hop to Carrabelle from Apalachicola was a little stressful at first as the depth in the channel was only six foot. We had to be extremely mindful of our position between the markers and the crab pots along the edges. This was really apparent when we met a shrimp boat coming in and moved over from center to pass him. We noticed he really was not moving over from center so it was a close pass. When we moved over and the depth quickly dropped to four feet we had an instant lesson on why he wasn't moving!  Once out on the open waters of Apalalachicola Bay and headed for Carrabelle we could relax.
When we started down the Carrabelle channel we were back on our toes. We were told to follow the markers closely. It was a fair distance down the channel to C-Quarters marina and the scenery replicated a quaint fishing town. Except for a slight panic attack when I saw birds sitting on a protruding oyster bed in the middle of the channel, which just so happened to be directly behind the marina, all went well.  There was plenty of depth and room to maneuver.  Kim, from the marina, and our friends Don and Theresa (who were already there), provided plenty of guidance into our slip.
C-Quarters presented itself as a very relaxed, comfortable marina. It was an older building with a large deck with a picnic table and lots of rocking chairs.  Because the weather on the gulf would not cooperate we spent 7 days at C-Quarters instead of one and enjoyed every minute of it because of the relaxed, friendly atmosphere.