Dolphins, Jets and Sailing in Florida

12-3     We left Turner Marine this morning and sailed a very short distance out to the shipping channel. After reaching green can #60 we were able to take a direct track to the Gulf Inter-coastal Waterway at red can #124. Of course the wind was against us all the way to Ingram Bayou. We anchored in Ingram at about 3 pm and shortly thereafter the fog rolled in heavy. Sailing vessels Brisa and Kalani  were not so lucky. We used horns and lights to help guide them into the anchorage. All ended well as they were able to make it in and anchor without issues. My nightly chore was changing out the fuel filters. Karen and I noticed that the engine decreased rams at least twice yesterday. The only times we’ve had these issues it’s been a partially clogged fuel filter.  In the evening we had 16 ounce PBR, polish sausage and sauerkraut dinner and we were sleeping by 9 pm. I don’t know how I forgot to mention we saw our first dolphins. Karen was so excited, it was great to see her that worked up. I assumed she would be excited but I didn’t realize how much. As we both said it’s hard for us to believe that we’re seeing dolphins from our own boat. We always thought the day would come but today it’s here.

Karen gets very excited while trying to capture the dolphins on Camera 

Nice to see the Sail full of wind and pulling us to our destination
7.2 knots jib only. Thanks Roger!

12-4    Fog cleared overnight and we awoke to clear sunshine and 58 degrees. Off we are and of course motoring. The great news is that the motor ran all day without any issues. The bad news is the wind was against us all day. Another good thing is that eastern Alabama into the panhandle of Florida is very pretty and there’s many things to look at, great scenery. Karen was Face-booking and Tweeting all morning. She actually cried upon entering Florida. I think she honestly thought we’d never make it. She said the tears were tears of joy and I agree but I think it also had something to do with a text message from Hannah. I’ll need to pry a little to find out. The only thing that separates Last Mango from the ocean is a little strip of land which is nice because it keep the wave action down considerably.

Foggy evening on the water. Fog just starting to clear

Karen captured the picture out the port while cooking.
Anchorage off of Eglin Air Force Base

As I mentioned before Karen is completely infatuated with the dolphins however I found that the Blue Angels are a close second. Today near Pensacola we had a short airshow as the Angels buzzed around in the tight formation. Many other military jets were flying about all day long.

Karen got these on the camera. Harder than you think
 to capture on the camera

Nice to finally be here.

I’m typing this as we motor to our next anchorage of Navarre Florida. Sounds like we can dinghy from this anchorage and do a little shopping for food if we want tonight. 1500 hours: There’s been a change in plans because we made good time and continued about 7 miles further to Manatee Point. This is a nice anchorage separated from the ocean by about 400 yards of sand dune. This sand dune is the property of Eglin Air Force Base so we can only visit the beach if we want to spend some time in the brig. There has been times on back on the Illinois River that I think Karen would have chosen the brig but not now. She seems to be enjoying the trip much more which makes both of us happy. After a dinner of Chicken Parmesan Karen and I are looking at weather and possible crossing routes from the Panhandle to the West coast of Florida. For us it looks as though Monday or Tuesday are the days. We’ll see if the weather continues to cooperate. Just so everyone knows a sailboat or any boat with a deeper draft can’t run the coastline the whole way around the panhandle due to water depth. For this reason we’re forced to cut straight across the gulf. The distances look like 150 to 180 miles. I’m looking forward to sailing a bit and it appears as though the weather will cooperate. Let’s hope. Hopefully we’ll not be sleeping by 9 tonight.  

12-5   We left Manatee Point after a restless night. Why restless you ask, well large weapons being fired quite a lot during the night. Sounded like cannons and large machine guns. I imagine they we performing night drills of some type. On top of that the VHF radio was active with tow captains and some type of workers. We leave the radio on at night in case we or someone else has an issue during the night. Anchors can drag, lines can break and we want to know if some boat is heading our way. It happens. 

Karen did a great job getting this photo

Apparently I have a habit of making people walk for
long periods of time. Grant making fun of me as his feet are
sore and swollen.

People thought I was cheap. This guys is actually trolling for fish.
Look closely and you'll see the lines.

Today we viewed another airshow and more dolphins. There are times I think Karen’s going to fall overboard. She’s getting close to touching them. We were also able to sail a bit today. We’ve been motoring east in the gulf intercostal waterway and the wind has been coming from the East. This afternoon it was coming from the South east and we were making 6.5 knots top. We arrived early at our Scattered Woods anchorage which is near Santa Rosa beach and M/V As The Crow Flies brought their dinghy over and picked us up. We went and had a couple of beers on the deck of the Bayside Inn and spread our feet on their nice white sand beach.

Beautiful moonrise over Scattered Woods anchorage.

Part of Panama City's Christmas Display.

12-6    We woke up this morning to thick fog making it dangerous to leave the anchorage. Karen made bacon, eggs and potato cakes and I watched the loons, horned grebes and brown pelicans play in the anchorage. By 9:30 the fog cleared and we started motoring east on the gulf intercostal waterway again. An hour or two into the trip we were able to put up the jib and sail a bit. It was nice to shutdown the motor and move along through the water by sail only. We had just crossed under the Panama City bridge and the fog settled in like a curtain. What made matters worse is that my radio crapped out while talking with M/V As The Crow Flies. We motored into St. Andrews Marina under chart plotter only as we couldn’t see more than 100 feet in front of Last Mango. The marina and staff were great as they assisted us through the fog and into our slip. Since we were at this marina we missed the Panama City Christmas parade but enjoyed their local park which was decked out for Christmas. We went out and had a birthday dinner of pizza and beer for Grant of M/V As The Crow Flies at Enzo’s Pizza (Highly Recommended if in Panama City). At about 2200 a cold front moved through with a north wind and wiped out the fog. We slept the night at dock listening to the wind howl and the clanking halyards of other sailboats.

Up the mast checking connections.

Another Karen excited dolphin shot.

12-7   Pearl Harbor Day was clear and sunny since the fog was blown out last night. I took a 5 mile bike ride to West Marine for supplies to fix the radio. It was a good workout since Apple Maps took me the scenic route. Made it back to the boat and after all the running around I found a bad ground on the radio. Karen told me check the wires on the radio, I did not listen. Easy fix and we ate lunch before leaving. The wind was still blowing at 15 with gusts to 20 and we sailed the whole way to our next anchorage. It really wasn’t too far but it was still great to sail. Our anchorage turned out to be fairly small but we fit in just fine. We ate dinner and went to sleep listening to the howl of loons and the hoots of an unseen owl. We also had to listen to the rubbing of our anchor bridal all night. I’ll need to look at that someday. 

Scuttled Shrimp boat around the corner from our anchorage.

Saul Creek anchorage early this morning.

2-8 We took off early this morning right after sunrise since we had a long trek today and wanted to make it to our anchorage before dark. The winds were still blowing from the NNE and we sailed under jib alone with speeds reaching 7.2 knots while watching military jets exercising around us. Fantastic!

We made it to our anchorage shortly before sunset. The anchorage is called Saul Creek #2 and is very remote and dark. No cell coverage and not a soul to be seen anywhere.

Karen's next house on the water.

The Hole In The Wall restaurant just got a Iowa Hawkeye hat today.

Christmas in Apalachicola

12-9   Morning came with 47 degrees in Last Mango. Sun coming up and a chill in the air. The chill went away as fast as the sun rose. We were off to Apalachicola to meet up with S/V Fracas. Upon arriving at the Marina we decided to spend the night her rather than anchor out. Staying at the marina will allow us a power connection which will enable us to have heat which is great since they're forecasting a low of 33 degrees tonight. We enjoyed our day here in Apalachicola it’s a nice quaint town, at least what we’ve seen of it. Tomorrow we hope to cross the Gulf to the West coast of Florida.