Panhandling

On we go across the Florida panhandle. Our travel day when we left Pensacola was a good one. We slipped across a calm Santa Rosa Sound where we watched an amphibious ultralight take off and then land in our wake upon completion of his flight.

Probably fun but not for me.

We ended our 53 mile day by stopping someplace new for us. Destin. We pulled off the GICW, passed under the bridge and played chicken with a pontoon boat as we entered the narrow throat of a channel into Destin Harbor.

                         
Around the dredge, through the bridge and make a hard left.

The pontoon is right where we need to be. There is a sandbar just to our right.

The pontoon yielded and we slid into the wider portion of the harbor and found a place to drop the hook for the night.

 Aiming for the wider section of the harbor.

 Anchored looking back at the entrance.

Destin harbor is a busy place with fishing boats. Tour boats. Jet skis. And a variety of rental boats traversing the area. Fortunately we were here in the off season so it wasn't too bad. We dropped the dinghy in the drink and went over to have dinner at a place called Harbor Docks Restaurant where we had a seat looking out at Tourist. Dinner was good and we returned to the boat in the dark. Once back we decided to take advantage of the warm (finally!) weather and have an after dinner cocktail in the cockpit before turning in.

Wednesday we woke up to 60 degrees outside temps! This is more like it. We pulled the anchor and made our way back to the GICW and began to traverse a glassy smooth Choctawhatchee Bay.

It doesn't get any better!

This day will forever be known as dolphin day. We had more than we could count following us and playing in our wake. One of them jumped up beside the cockpit and when he came back down his splash covered the entire dinghy and part of the cockpit.
Pam was like an owl with her head turning in every direction. I'm sure she had something to say to each one of them as they surfaced. We had this show at least half way across the bay. Even got a few photos.

Having fun in our wake.

All too soon we came to the end of the bay and our show as we entered West Bay Creek. Back in the spring this so called creek suffered a few bank failures as a result of the torrential rainfall that occurred when we got stuck in Pensacola. The repairs were still going on as we passed through.

Repaired bank.

Crane on a barge for digging out the channel.

Big drainage control project along the creek.

Before long we entered West Bay and neared our destination for the day of St. Andrews Marina in Panama City where we planned on staying for a couple of nights to let a small front move through.

 The sign is probably the fanciest part of the marina!

St. Andrews is a working marina and home to a small fishing fleet that comes and goes throughout the day and night. They have a decent ships store and a laundry reminiscent of the Bahamas (1 washer, 1 dryer and almost outside) that Pam had to share with the fishermen.  They do have floating docks and fuel that is low priced and fresh since the fishing fleet fuels from the same pumps.

Although not the snazziest of facilities we like it because it is close to several good restaurants. We even tried lunch at the floating restaurant in the marina.

Just the Cook floating restaurant. Actually it was pretty good and there is free beer in the cooler on the dock!

When we pulled in there was a boat at the end of our dock that the marina said was having some trouble. We saw people from time to time on the boat but didn't want to interfere with efforts to get repaired. Then that old saying of you better behave because you don't know who's watching came true.
That evening the folks from the other boat walked past our boat as we were returning from dinner and made comment about our gold looper burgee on the bow of Tourist. We started talking and when it came to introductions I thought that we were all going to fall over. We said we were from Galena, Ill. and they said that they were from Elizabeth which is just a short distance from Galena. Also it is where Pam lived for a period while growing up. I recognized their family name but Pam and the couple recognized each other. Truly a small world.
It was a fun meeting that enabled the former Elizabethans to briefly catch up on each others lives.

   Bruce & Brenda Trost as they pull away from St. Andrew's.

Other than laundry we enjoyed our stay at St. Andrew's. We walked about a mile to a grocery store and back and we had dinner one night at the Captain's Table before the temperatures plummeted from 58 on Thursday morning to 30 on Friday! Certainly not cold by home standards but with a wind off the water it was bone chilling.

Tourist from the fishing docks. We were right in the line of fire when one of the boats would come or go!

Part of the fleet.

Pam thought we could use this wheel barrow for our trip to the store!

A blurry picture of the raw oysters we had at the Captain's Table.

Like I stated earlier it was 30 degrees Friday when we got up. It was still cold when we unplugged from the shore power and tried to get the power cord to retract into the boat. The 50 amp cord for Tourist is heavy any time and when it's cold it's as stiff as if it were on Viagra! Reluctantly it retracted into the tub to warm up.

Fortunately the sun was out which keeps our flybridge comfortable as the sun magnifies while coming through the isinglass. Our travel took us across East Bay and into another ditch before joining the Apalachicola River. Travel was good and today we had a couple of boats behind us a few miles as we all made our way to Apalachicola.
Our initial plan was to anchor but I think as I get older I'm getting softer. After listening to the forecast the decision was made to pull in for the night and take advantage of shore power once again when we reached Apalachicola.
We arrived mid afternoon and got situated. Where we docked is a few blocks from the marina office so the dockhand gave us a ride in his car and they gave us a golf cart for the ride back. Just leave it on the dock with the keys in it was the response I got when I asked if they wanted us to return it later on.
Nice!
We cleaned up and had dinner at Boss Oyster before turning in for the night.

Saw this fixer upper on the ride to Apalachicola.

Passed the White City free docks in the middle of nowhere.

Enjoyed the scenery along the way.

And were rewarded with this double eagle sighting across from our dock in Apalachicola.

Saturday morning wasn't quite as cold as had been forecast. At 39 degrees it was like a heat wave had moved in. We cast off the lines and made our way into Apalachee Bay and though St. Georges Sound before heading into Carrabelle to top off the fuel tanks at C-Quarter's Marina. Once completed we went back out to position ourselves behind Dog Island before beginning our trip across the open waters of the Gulf. The forecast looked good as the winds diminished throughout the day. It was a pretty sunset as we turned in for a few hours of shut eye.

 Sunset over Dog Island.