Carrabelle & Gulf of Mexico Crossing

Since our last post we have been to Port St Joe's, a very nice small town with a wonderful marina. There was a manatee that was injured at this marina, but was rescued the day before we got there.  They said it weighed approx. 1,000 lbs.  They can get as large as 13 feet and weigh as much as 3,000 lbs!  I guess that's why they call them "sea cows" slow moving and huge.

As we were going down the ICW,  I found this house that I thought was interesting, double click on this picture and look closely, yes that's a tree growing thru the middle. I wonder if that's a selling feature down here.

When we left Port St. Joe's, we headed for Apalachicola, where we spent 2 nights.  They are world renowned for their oysters.  I think Jim has eaten more than his share of oysters on the half shell, and he agrees they are the best.

From there we went to Carrabelle, they had a lighted boat parade the evening we were there. Carrabelle is the leaving point for the Gulf crossing that is necessary to get to Clearwater.  It is the part of the trip that I have been dreading.  We have been travelling with a trawler and a sailboat, they travel at about 7  1/2 knots (roughly 9 miles per hour).  Our boat can go real fast, about 35 mile per hour, but at a huge cost in fuel.  So we have opted to slow it down and conserve on the fuel cost. So back to my story of the Gulf crossing, running at 7  1/2  knots it took us 22 1/2 hours for the crossing.  I am not a fan of night boating in unfamiliar waters.  That was my big concern, then it was compounded by "pea soup fog" which never lifted.  We left Carrabelle at noon on Sunday, with the fog so heavy you could only see about 2 boat lengths in front of you.  It can be very eerie out there when you can't see, then night came, and it was inky black out!  No moon or stars, needless to say, I was very happy when daylight came, although the fog was still there, but not as thick.  We were not the lead boat, the trawler was first, and the sail boat and us were on either side but back  bit.  We kept each other on the radar, and used our instruments.  I am glad that part is over.

This will be our last entry until after the New Year.  We will be heading back home for the holidays on Thurs. We finally get to the warm part of Florida, and we leave to go back where it is cold. The attraction is obviously family and friends, whom we miss terribly.  Happy Holidays to everyone and we will continue with our adventures next year.

Gulf ICW and Panama City

It's an overcast day, and a bit on the chilly side.  Here are some pictures of Navy parachute maneuvers, a shrimp boat and another boat that I am not sure what it is.

We arrived in Panama City on Friday, it's cold here, last night the temps were around 29 degrees.  Today it reached a high of around 55, and the sun was out, which makes the cooler temps a little easier to take. We need to keep moving south, I know we will find the warmth sooner or later. Our plan is to head out to Port St. Joe's tomorrow. 

We had a problem with our battery charger, and had to replace it.  The last two days Jim and Ted worked on that. Ted and Nancy were nice enough to hang back with us and help us out, yeah!  I tried to get some pictures of the dolphins, so far no luck. I think once we get into warmer weather, they will come out of the water.

Pensacola, Florida

The weather is gray today, with rain on the way.  They are calling for 3 to 6 inches within the next couple of days.  We plan on staying put until Thursday. Yesterday we went to the Navy Museum, that is an amazing place.  They have planes from every war displayed.  This is also the home of the "Blue Angels".  They fly over the marina, practicing. Notice who is in the cockpit, he doesn't fit very well.  Too bad, he qualifies in every other way!

Here's "Snoopy" in his "Sopwith Camel".