Dog Island

 We left Apalachicola once the tide and fog would allow.  This will always be a memorable part of the trip for us since we had to navigate around a dredging operation.  For almost and hour we eked by the miles long hose and the vessels at each end.  They were dredging the ICW channel and it could only be done with them in the channel.  That didn't leave much room for us and our keel.  We are grateful they are keeping the waterways navigable but our white knuckles joined our white hair!  We eventually passed and moved on to our anchorage at Dog Island to wait on good weather/sea conditions to cross the gulf.  This is an unusual place.  It is populated with a lot of vacation homes, some permanent residents and protected species of birds and mice.  The only way over is by a ferry or personal boat.  If you're curious, check it out on the internet.

I'm sure this was a shorebird print but we've never seen one

so perfectly shaped like an asterisk.

Blue Moon just offshore. You can see how close

we were able to get to the shallow by the color of the water.

The owners of this house had gone to the expense of pouring

a concrete drive from their boathouse to the water's edge.

The road from the ferry dock is only a sand path.

David keeping the dingy secured to the land so it won't float
 off with the tide and leave us stranded.

The houses on the far, western end of the  island.  This

is where we anchored for ease departure through the pass.

The island is a mix of beaches, scrub and marsh.

We walked about a mile on each side of the island and never

saw another person.  The poles bring electricity from

one end of the island to the other.  The eastern end is seven miles

from where we anchored and has most of the town including

a volunteer fire department.

One house had it's own water tower.  We're not sure

what the source of water for it comes from.