Carrabelle, FL, 12-17-2014

December 17^th, Wednesday

After two days of making our way from Panama City, FL to Carrabelle, hot showers were the first thing on the to do list, followed by complimentary continental breakfast (waffles, gravy, sausage and cereal.)

Carrabelle is a small town, population about 2700 people. While we didn’t have the chance to enjoy them, Carrabelle is known for its oysters.

Oh, and one other thing. Carrabelle is one of the most popular places to begin the journey across the Gulf to south Florida. Why so popular?  It is the nearest town to Dog Island pass which provides the shortest route across the Gulf.  It is also the place where boats wait for a fair-weather window to make the Gulf crossing. Sometimes this wait can be considerable. We heard stories about folks waiting in Carrabelle for 5 weeks. As a matter of fact, on Tim’s first trip, he spent 2 weeks here for just that reason.

Unfortunately, there is not much to do in Carrabelle for an extended stay, so we were reluctant to leave Panama City until some fair weather was on the horizon.  Tim spent the day prepping the boat for the crossing, making sure all the systems worked and the safety equipment was checked over. Kathy walked through town to the Post Office, where she had to wait until the worker guy got back from his one hour lunch break between 11:30 and 12:30.

On the way back to the marina, she stopped and took pictures of the world’s smallest police station.  According to the City of Carrabelle website:

The World's Smallest Police Station" came into being on March 10, 1963.  The city had been having problems with tourists making unauthorized long distance phone calls on its police phone.  The phone was located in a call box that was bolted to a building at the corner of U.S. 98 and Tallahassee Street.  Johnnie Mirabella, St. Joe Telephone's lone Carrabelle employee at the time, first tried moving the call box to another building, but the illegal calls continued.

Mirabella noticed that the policeman would get drenched while answering phone calls when it was raining.  So when the telephone company decided to replace its worn out phone booth in front of Burda's Pharmacy with a new one, he decided to solve both problems at once by putting the police phone in the old booth.

With the help of Curly Messer, who was a deputy sheriff at the time, Mirabella moved the phone booth to its current site on U.S. 98 under the chinaberry tree.  The booth did protect the officers from the elements, but some people still snuck into it to make long distance calls.  Eventually the dial was removed from the phone, making it impossible for tourists to make calls.

The World's Smallest Police Station

 

When back at the marina, we met a couple who had been at the Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler, back in October.  On the second night of the Rendezvous, he had a heart attack on his boat, and, also, fell and hit his head. 
 

There were 5 medical professionals who came from their boats, on the same dock, and answered the cries for help.  Within about 30 seconds, he was receiving CPR, the AED (automatic electronic defibrillator) applied and the paramedics called. His life was saved and he made it to the hospital. There, he had several stents put in, by-pass surgery and an aneurism repaired. He is now, just a few months later, back on the waterway completing the loop. We tell you this story in the hope you might consider taking CPR classes.  You may save someone’s life. 

We capped our day with a fish dinner at a small restaurant, and returned to the boat to rest for our journey across the Gulf in the morning.