10-17-16 The blind leading the blind and the White Whale

It was a long and somewhat boring travel day to Apalachicola. We were trying to decide on where to stay. Scipio Marina has a pump out (which we desperately needed) but the place is sadly in need of basic maintenance.  We considered pulling in there just for a pump out and moving on, but they closed too early.  We called the Apalachicola Marina and they don’t have a pump out and the person answering the phone told me there is no pump out in Apalachicola.  His integrity went right out the window as I knew Scipio did have one.  There were mixed reviews about the municipal marina, so we thought we would go take a look.  Boom! right there on the dock is a pump out.  We were directed by a local to go dock by the pump out.  We pull in and there was a man there to help us dock.  How nice, because there were no cleats only large pilings and a tall dock.  We got close and he put his hand out and I threw him a line that landed squarely across his arm.  He grabbed the line and pulled us in. As we got close we needed the stern pulled in. I suggested to him to wrap his line on a piling and I’ll throw the stern line.  He promptly dropped the unsecured line on the dock and went to the stern.  I once again threw the line.  I am getting good at throwing a line. It landed right on his arm and he pulled us in.  Once we were close, I scrambled precariously up to the dock and grabbed the line he dropped. The whole thing was kind of odd.  Scott and I couldn’t figure out why he just dropped the line.  Later he comes walking by with his service dog.  He said “Oh by the way I’m legally blind I couldn’t really see what I was doing, this here is my service dog”  OMG.  This poor creature had seen better days.  I reached down to pet him and noticed he had some serious issues with his eyes.  Seeing the gentleman was blind, I asked if he knew that his dog’s eyes have a problem.  He answered “Oh ya, he’s blind too”  The people you meet on this trip are amazing.

Next, a woman came on the dock and asked who we talked to about our reservations because her husband is on his way with their 48 foot boat to dock in this spot.  She was obviously perturbed.  Scott looked at her and said you don’t need reservations here. She quickly realized we didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Scott measured out the space and offered to move forward and hopefully he would make it in.  We were not going to move out completely as there were no other spots.  Pretty soon he shows up, it not only is a 48 footer, but it’s a huge Catamaran named “White Whale.”  It looked like it’s name. I give the guy credit because he squeezed in with only 2 feet to spare. Of course, we were all helping from the dock. The woman warmed up as she realized we were pretty decent people and she got what she wanted.  She took Scott to go get ice and proceeded to give him a little tour of the own.

We didn’t have time to explore the town and I am a bit sad about that, but the ocean Gods will only give us one more day to make our crossing.  Missing the town is nothing compared to have rough seas for 20 hours.

Thanks for reading.

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Picture of the day.