Day 198 Steinhatchee .. John wants to live here.

According to my Captain, "this quiet little town has everything - a river and the Gulf along with a forest and wild llife." The locals say that people are either fishing or just passing through. We are the later. Needed a couple food articles, so we took the long way to the small grocery store so we could see what there was to see here. Not a lot in commercial terms. The town's original name was Deadman's Bay and appeared on Spanish maps as early as the 1500's, but their history actually started back in 12000 BC with pre-historic man. In the 1800's, the name changed to Steinhatchee, which was derived from the Native American "esteen hatchee" meaning river (hatchee) of man (esteen). The Stein in Steinhatchee is pronounced as if it were spelled steen. Industries have come and gone like logging, sponge diving, pirating, and of course, their infamous period of drug smuggling. Remember the Steinhatchee Seven? Actually, the name was a misnomer because most of the seven people that were busted in that case weren't from here. They were from St. Petersburg. Also there were waaay more than "7" Steinhatchee residents involved in the marijuana trade back in the '70's. Now the main industries are fishing, shrimping or crabbing. We can vouch for the crabbing and fishing since we had to dodge lots of crab traps and little fishing boats on the way in - even in the channel. After our walk, we washed all the salt off the boat and just relaxed. That's the beauty of this place, it's just comfortable. Had a good meal at Fiddler's Restaurant then strolled around the immediate street looking at Christmas lights. Tomorrow we are off to an anchorage near Cedar Key...unless John changes his mind and we stay another day to absorb more of this peaceful place. (Announcing a new addition to our family - Colt, our beautiful new grand puppy courtesy of Madi and Cam.)