Pensacola to Panama City

Well, once again we pulled into a marina for 2 nights and ended up staying 4. We pretty much knew this would happen based on the forecast and Pensacola is not a bad place to be stuck. We've had a few questions about what makes it a go or no-go day. If we have to cross large bodies of water like Pensacola bay we hope to avoid strong winds, rain without storms is not much of a problem. Pictures below show a typical no-go day...

Pretty Uncomfortable.

Pretty Dangerous.

When we left Pensacola Thursday morning (the 19th) the bay had calmed down to a light chop. Very do-able conditions. Once down the bay we turned east into Santa Rosa sound and had a pretty stiff breeze on our bow most of the day. Nothing uncomfortable, just some spray over the rail now and then. Pretty cool looking until you remember you have to clean all the salt off at the end of the day.

Pensacola Bay looking south.

 As we traveled east toward Ft. Walton we were treated to a private airshow along the way. OK maybe not private or an airshow but this area has several military bases and you can see just about anything in the inventory flying at some point. We saw several pairs of the new F-22 Raptor (too quick for pictures) as well as the V-22 Osprey and C-130 as we tooled along.

C-130 

V-22

End of the day found us in an anchorage just NE of Destin FL called Joe's Bayou. There were nice homes all around the waterfront but no one came out and yelled at us for anchoring in their backyard. I hear this can be a problem in other parts of Florida.

Next morning we continued east on Choctawhatchee Bay heading toward Panama City. We had a slight "issue" that morning as we were getting underway. For some reason I had turned off the autopilot the night before, I don't normally do this. Well, as we were heading out the narrow channel toward the bay I engaged the pilot and the boat started turning hard to the right...toward the shallows. I quickly dis-engaged the pilot but the boat was starting to shudder as it rubbed the sandy bottom. Putting the engines in neutral the boat floated through the shallow area and we were soon back in deeper water and on our way. Looking at the chartplotter the boat icon was moving along "backward"??? Light bulb finally went off at this point and a quick check of the real compass showed the autopilot was reading almost 180 degrees in the wrong direction. We were able to re-calibrate the electronic compass later in the afternoon when we hit calmer waters and all is back to normal, lesson learned!

At the eastern end of Choctawatchee Bay is an area they call the grand canyon. It's not really a canyon but a canal cut to connect to West Bay near Panama City. It's 25 miles of nothing but a welcome calm after the choppy bay.

Entrance from the bay.

The Grand Canyon.

Billboard???

Once into West Bay we calibrated the compass and head to the North side of the bay and a quite anchorage for the night. The next morning was a short run to St. Andrews Bay and Panama City Marina. This time we booked a weeks stay since the Gulf wasn't looking to calm down anytime soon and marinas farther east were filling up with boats waiting to cross. We rented a car for a couple of days and re-stocked the boat and Jill finally got a haircut! We also got the dinghy down and explored the area a bit. One day we headed over to Shell Island where....we had issue 2. Almost to the island the motor quit. I was able to re-start it but it wouldn't keep running. Since we were drifting toward the shallows I thought it was a good time to try out our Tow Boat US membership (kinda like AAA for boats). A quick phone call and the nice fella said he would be there in 20 minutes. Since we were in shallow water I had to row against the wind and current to get us out to deeper water. Once there I began looking over the motor and found that the propane fuel line had unscrewed a bit from the engine. Tightened it up and we were back in business!! Another call to cancel the tow and we decided to head back and find a bar....Lesson #2, again, no harm no foul.

Jill and I made a nice Thanksgiving feast on the boat yesterday and enjoyed docktails with fellow loopers for sunset. A very nice holiday but we do miss spending time with family & friends.

The marina is all decorated for Christmas and next weekend is the lighted boat parade but it's time to get moving. Tomorrow we will head off shore for the short run to Port St. Joe. The plan is to spend a couple of nights there and be in a better position for the crossing. Right now Monday or Tuesday is looking very promising for calm waters on the Gulf. Stay tuned to the tracker and hopefully you'll see us heading toward Dunedin early next week. It will be an overnight run so you night-owls can have something to do all night!!