Turf to Surf

  Fog this morning, we didn’t get going until after 9 and I should have been more patient…. The large bay of Apalachicola, we caught up with 5 looper boats heading our way….most are getting into position to cross the Gulf of Mexico this week.  It was a short run today….. This is a sweet little town with everything within walking distance. No fancy shops, just the basics….fishing town.  We had dinner at this little fish place in town with new acquaintances all getting ready for the big crossing.  ~~~~~~ From here we will cross the Golf of Mexico, it is a milestone for loopers. An overnight crossing of 175 miles/18 hours. We are going directly to Clearwater from here. We should have a full moon and calm seas, conditions could not be more perfect.  We will be out of touch for a few days….🤞😬 

 We started out on a longer run today in wide bays.  We saw a few of these flocks of little black birds, but never close enough to get a good look. We finished our day back in a narrow ditch…..uneventful day. Long day but it was beautiful.  Our spot for the night, gorgeous but no wifi….we were in bed early.

 Beautiful morning with multiple pods of dolphins playing in our wake for miles at a time on and off during most of today’s trip. Never gets old. It’s almost like if you don’t pay attention to them, they will start jumping to get your attention.  Pulled up our anchor around 7:30 waiting for fog to lift. We left the big water around Destin and entered the “ditch”…man made waterway connecting to the bays around Panama City. Cloudy but calm day on the water. Our track for today only captured the last half of our trip. Richard figured out that when we are at anchorage our power drops too low for Nebo to start working, so our track starts when our engine got all our power back up to full.  We got settled in to our dock at Point South Bay Marina by early afternoon. This whole area is brand new, rebuilt since Michael devastated the area in 2018. They just reopened… Docktails with this fun group, and new acquaintance’s. Especially happy to see Gary and Elizabeth from No Agenda. T...

  Long day today, just over 7 hours….but a gorgeous day for cruising.  We had an early start….water was like glass. After 4 days of high winds it was a nice break.  Lovely going by all the resort, coastal towns.  But the highlight for us is always the dolphins. When you see them come towards the boat, I would run up to the bow and look down….and there they are just under the pulpit, swimming along with the boat.  Lot’s of grey in this picture but check the dolphin jump in our wake.  An other perfect day, tomorrow Panama City….

  Our track going to Perdido Key, good shelter between Island and sand bar, Military training airfield just north of us. We are pretty much in Pensacola.  Our eastbound trip on the ICW.  The anchorage, dolphins come to visit.  We took our dinghy to shore for a walk on the beach each day.  Beautiful sandy beach all to ourselves, boat access only.  The blue angels practicing, flight path taking them right overhead. They are loud…. Boats came and went during our 4 night stay here…but we had the pleasure of hosting these 2 couples for cocktails, fellow loopers and fellow Canadians……Jane and Ray on Pura Vida and Jim and Elaine on Jema. Sunrises …. Sunsets…. ~~~~~~ Tomorrow we head east towards Panama City to an anchorage we have picked out. 

  We had Red Rover hauled out today for some quick maintenance. Change of sacrificial metals compatible for salt water, power wash the slime off the bottom and replace and tighten the packaging on the rudder. Saunders boat yard was right next door and they were great.  The operation is pretty slick, they had us back in the water in just over an hour. Richard was even able to get a replacement raw water pump for our generator which he later replaced with great success…..he’s a keeper.