AN END TO A SUPER CRUISING ADVENTURE

Well, another cruising season has come to a close.  We are happy to be coming home, but sure do miss this islands already!  We left St. George Island at sunrise and motor sailed for a little while. The winds were out of the south at 12-15 kts.  I was at the helm and out of nowhere we heard a clunk! and the transmission slipped out of gear.  Ed was down below and came up immediately to diagnose.  We had the sails up, so we didn't have to stop.  Ed went down to the engine compartment and looked and listened while I put the boat into forward, neutral and reverse.  Ed determined it was the transmission.  It intermittently will go into forward, so we went on.  We were thankful we were in a sailboat and there was a breeze.

We were heading into Apalachicola and Ed says, huh...There's a house in the middle of the channel!

It was!  A floating house.  We had met Rob at St. Andrews Marina a couple of years ago, he builds these.

Steered by a smaller boat hipped up to the houseboat

An outboart on the back

We motor sailed at idle speed to avoid the knocking in the transmission and kept going, rather smoothly.  We stopped in White City, at a free dock.  It was a nice floating dock, at a city park, adjacent to a boat ramp.  We tied up and relaxed the rest of the evening.

I took a picture of this guy from the cockpit.  He was resting on the lifeline on the bow

Manatee at the floating dock

Picture taken from the fishing dock

Park pavillion

Ewe!! Tons of black grasshoppers

We had originally planned on taking our time getting back to the marina, but due to the new transmission problem, we thought it best to just keep our fingers crossed and keep going.  Once out of the "ditch" and into St. Joseph Bay we were able to sail all the way down the coast to St. Andrews Pass.  The transmission worked when we needed it to and got into the marina without difficulty. 

Shrimp boat working

St. Andrews Pass...home!

We will stay in this little piece of paradise for the summer and see where our next adventure takes us!

Have a great summer everyone! Thanks for following us on Manatee's adventure.