Carrabelle, Florida

We spent a few days in Carrabelle waiting for weather. It is one of those very small towns, often referred to as old Florida. I am coming to understand that this means no high-rises. Historically, it was a fishing village and a lumber town with turpentine distilleries. It is waiting to be re-discovered and developed, but in the meantime has a good grocery store, art galleries, hardware store, marine store, a few restaurants and the famous “World’s Smallest Police Station”. The station is also a geo-cache so I added another to my short list of “found caches”.

We stayed at C-Quarters Marina. It is well known for its harbour mistress, Captain Kim, who gives weather and sea condition advice for boaters crossing the gulf. There is a small shop jammed with all kinds of fishing gear. They sell bait to commercial and sport fishers and can sell up to $1,000 an hour during the busy season from a huge walk in freezer. When I say huge it was probably 800 square feet.

C-Quarters is also known for its two-story covered deck where people gather to visit and chat. A larger cooler is filled with ice and beer is pretty much self-serve. Kim stays until the beer is gone and has been known to drive some of the regulars home. A banner on the wall proclaims proudly proclaims “Team Deplorable”. A hang-over from the 2016 election that saw Hillary Clinton’s unfortunate remarks become the rallying cry that swung undecided voters to Trump.

All together it was a nice stop with everything within walking distance. Good thing as the finger piers were so short and narrow we would have had great difficulty off-loading the scooters without dropping them in the water. We had noticed when we first arrived that at low tide there was very little water under our stern so we moved forward in the slip. Several other boats with us actually rested on their bottoms during low tide. One got stuck when we tried to leave at 4 a.m.