Pier Pressure - A brutal storm rips a floating beachside store from its moorings, sending it and its occupants out to sea

A brutal storm rips a floating beachside store from its moorings, sending it and its occupants out to sea. It was around 6:30 on a June morning in 2023, and a Facebook post caught Boyd Jordan's eye. Shell Isle Mercantile, a floating store that sold beachgoing fare-sunglasses, inflatables, food, umbrellas-had been ripped from its moorings on Shell Island, just off Florida's northern Gulf Coast, by a storm the night before and had floated 3 miles across the bay to Panama City.

- By Eric Raskin - Photography by Eric Martin

It was around 6:30 on a June morning in 2023, and a Facebook post caught Boyd Jordan's eye. Shell Isle Mercantile, a floating store that sold beachgoing fare-sunglasses, inflatables, food, umbrellas-had been ripped from its moorings on Shell Island, just off Florida's northern Gulf Coast, by a storm the night before and had floated 3 miles across the bay to Panama City.

Jordan, a boat repairman by trade, called his buddy Chris Bourque, the store's owner, and offered to help corral the pink one-room shack and tow it back. Jordan borrowed a friend's motorboat, while Bourque manned a less muscular pontoon boat.