Greetings from a stormy Panama City

We are back in Florida! Still central time, but Florida anyway. Our home state....

Good evening everyone from a rather stormy Panama City, where we are waiting out some weather. But first, to get caught up.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our drive was a bit farther than we had anticipated, but it was great to see Mary and family. We had an awesome time. 2,000 miles on the rental car was bit of a ride, but totally worth it.

Photo:

Friday watching an OU football game with the crowd. Lots of fun!

We returned from OK on Sunday and used Monday to return the car and provision. We met up with our looper friends as well as they made it to Mobile on Sunday am.

From here on, this blog is in two sections, the first being issues and dilemmas and the second being our trip from Mobile thus far.

Part 1:

Things were maybe going just a tad too smooth. And perhaps, we weren't paying attention to our schedule so well.

As noted, we arrived back on Sunday, we used Monday to provisions and took off on Tuesday for Orange Beach. Now, maybe I jinxed things by getting excited that we were so close to getting our gold Burgee. I was going to wait until after the crossing, but had some idle time and ordered it on Monday.

On Tuesday, when we arrived at our marina in Orange Beach, we lost our bow thrusters. Ugghhh.. The marina was actually a full service shop so they checked everything out and assessed that we needed a motor. No surprise. It could have gone out at the last marina where we had 9 days to get it fixed, but no.....!

Anyways, they would get with the manufacturer and we could get it installed in Niceville at their sister marina about 75 miles away, it got us further along and they were a Beneteau Dealer.

Great- from Orange Beach, we spent two days in Destin, thinking our next stop would be Niceville. Except the manufacturer was being very slow to respond and our days in Destin were done. Our last night, the marina called and told us it would be $2,000 to have the motor expedited, in which we responded- send it to Cortez and we will fix it at home.

Knowing that we weren't heading to Niceville, our next stop was Panama City so we headed there. This is now Friday. On our way, the marina calls us and tells us that they can have the motor by Monday for an install. Hmm, it delays us 3 days, but it would be nice to have the thrusters back. But we are also more than halfway to Panama City. They needed an answer in an hour which left me no time to look for another marina closer to our current location to send it to. So, again- just send it to Cortez.

Aside from Thrusters, we are starting to do the date math. I really wanted to do the Big Bend of Florida on our way home. It adds stops- and days--

We have a drop dead date to be back in Sarasota --with our without the boat-- December 13th so we can fly out on the 14th to the northeast for a Trahan family Christmas.

The math wasn't working. However we cross over from the panhandle to the west coast of Florida, we need a good weather window to go anywhere and our next window was going to be Tuesday. Taking the Bend, we needed two more good windows. If everything lined up, we could make it home by the 13th. 3 days to cross, two days down the coast- and home. But, we would do all that and have no time to visit anything and lots of stress. Not worth it this trip.

Now the options became

1. Take the boat back to NIceville and leave it for the holidays and they can fix it and we can have time to finish the trip the way we want to. Except- we have a jam packed full early January of which some of our plans include MaD.

2. We just make hay and get back home, meaning we have one very long crossing from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs or Clearwater. About 170 miles. 17 miles an hour is a good run for us so that is 10 hours. There is 10.5 hours of daylight, plus 30 on either side. It's a big day! If the weather gods are really good to us, Mike can do 20 and that would be a huge help. Isn't it funny, 3 miles per hour in a car mean almost nothing- in a boat- everything!

At this point, we have decided that the thruster, instead of being a jinx, was a sign and a bit of a push, that we aren't supposed to do The Bend this time. Maybe we can do a redo, up as far as Steinhatchee anyways in February and see "old Florida"

Hopefully, we aren't wrong about the sign!🤞😅😬

Weather has shifted and now, we have a tentative crossing window on Monday so our plan is to head to Carrabelle tomorrow and head back to the west coast somewhere between Tarpon Springs and Clearwater on Monday.

Our trip tomorrow may be interesting as it is a full 70 miles on the ICW and there is still unsettled air. But, it has to get better. We have literally had thunderstorms non stop since 4:30 am- 15 hours and counting.

On a good note: We have hooked back up with our delivery captain friend Wes and his crew (the owners of the boat). It's been fun to get back on his train- so to speak- They will probably beat us by a landslide on Monday, but all good. It's been fun to hang with them again.

Once on the west coast, we will take a day of rest and then probably push on to Gulfport before heading home. We may actually be home by next friday. Less than a week! But man, I've already jinxed it once!!!

Photos:

Mike should be the artist here, but you get the drift. In the first picture, the crossing is much closer to the shore and only 85 miles to get to Steinhatchee and then you work your way down the coast. But its shallow for quite a while so no hugging the coast.

The second is where you go straight to Tarpon or Clearwater

Part 2-

Our actual adventures the last few days.

Tuesday we left Turner Marina, crossed Mobile Bay and went down the ICW to get to the Orange Beach,AL area.

Our marina was across from Orange Beach, so we really didn't get to see the beach. Plus, it was really cold. We did go to their tiki bar for dinner , which was completely enclosed in plastic. It was very quiet, but we enjoyed talking with the staff.

Photos:

• 1-3. Tiki Bar at the marina

• 4. back in the gulf for sure

• 5. A mini Trahan house

• 5 and 9 Tows! We thought they were a thing of the past!😳. We are beyond Mobile... They were easy though. Just normal passing. That first sight was definitely a What???? Though

• 6 and 7- just a development that is up and coming. Houses were a little strange.

• 10. This is a chart in Mobile Bay. The little cuts are actually channels that get you through the shallows in the bay over to the ICW.. There are no markers, you need to rely on the charts.

Photos:

• 1 and 2- white beaches

• 3. The emerald coast

• 4 a compound

• 5 and 6 we are close to a militairy base

Wednesday, we headed for Destin where we were staying at Harbor walk. The slip was very centrally located in the middle fo their harbor village and we were looking forward to some live music and maybe some good food.

We pulled in and our slip was right behind Margaritaville. We thought we might actually regret our decision. Live music was one thing, but Margaritaville until 2:00 am. Hmmmm.

We had nothing to worry about. It was dead. The entire place was dead.. dead..dead.. we were the only people in the restaurant that we had dinner at. Margaritaville was shut down by 10:00 pm, which was understandable, because it was empty! No night life, no day life and no live music for sure. Oh well.... I'm sure in the summer, or even as we get closer to Christmas its a whole different story. Who knows, maybe the cold added to it.

Across from the village walk, was a sandbar that had the most beautiful white sand. It was really gorgeous. This whole area has sand that would put Siesta to shame. If it hadn't been so cold, we would have taken the tender out the next day, but it was very cold.

Photos:

The first two are actually from our marina at Orange Beach.

The rest are of our channel and view from the " nature " side of the boat . Just beautiful ! Amazing how it was lit up at night just by the sand.

Photos:

• 1 -2. A very empty Margaritaville restaurant. Second pic is from our boat- looking through a cruise ship and into the another part of the restaurant.

• The rest - except the last are of the very empty village....

• I just don't even understand this one. It's across the street🤔

Cold has been a theme since Chicago. I think I have worn sandals less than 5 times and a few of those times, shouldn't have. Mike has not had shorts on for an eternity....At this point, he is definitely chasing 80!!😎

We did have lunch with Mike's cousins Dee & Tomas Dubie that live in Santa Rosa Beach-right next to Destin- and it was really great to see them and get caught up. It had been a long time.

The restaurant was an Irish restaurant and quite eclectic. It is said that the restaurant has millions of dollars hanging from the walls and ceiling. I guess a Bill Counter comes in once a year and somehow figures out a value so that they can pay tax on all of their dollar bills. Gotta love Uncle Sam.

Photos::

• 1 and 2- read the signs carefully. Hint- the second one appears as you open the door.

• 3-5- its eclectic

• 6. Look. Inside the bus they have parked out front.

• 7. Inside their gift shop

Friday, we made our way to Panama City. The bay was a little "sporty" and there was a fair amount of debris, including an entire tree in the middle of the ICW. But, there was weather coming and we knew it, so we left by 7:15 am and arrived by noon time. Just as the weather was starting to really kick up. Big winds, lots of rain all day and thunderstorms starting at about 4:30 this am. Not that I woke up or anything. 😅. Today there is still plenty of rain and the storms are off in the distance, but we can hear them..

Photos:

• 1-2 and 6 . I know 6- I just can't get it to move. This app is just a little buggy. Anyways, 1 is going into the ditch after Chockawhatcee bay and 1 and 2 are in the ditch. Check out 2

• 3 - A bad day for that boat

• 4 and 5 we had some coast guard vessels following a submersible as we entered Panama City. We didn't get to see it surface, but it was fun watching the boats follow it. We of course, needed to stay clear of it and not cross paths.

• 7 Mike isn't the only one that doesn't want to wake up.

• 8. Wake them up, take them up on the fly bridge and then wrap them in blankets to keep them warm. It has continually been bloody cold since Chicago. The dogs have faired much better in being kept warm then we have. Eisenglass might have been a plus for this last part of our trip. 🥶

Mike keeps complaining about these early mornings, but when we get to Carrabelle, we will finally be in EST zone time. Our 6:30 am departure will be like 7:30. What a treat!

The rain and the storms just haven't stopped. Its been super stormy all day. The dogs have only been out twice as of 5:30 and have no desire to go anywhere. I guess it is a great down day before two very long ones. At least it's not freezing rain.

Photo:

A rainy night in Georgia-- or Panama City.....

Tomorrow we will head to Carrabelle, and stay there until we cross to Tarpon Springs or Clearwater - or somewhere in between- which should be Monday or Tuesday but as of now, Monday is looking good.

After that, it's just a couple of hops and we will be home sweet home ... Hard to believe. But no Jinxing it, so I'm not concentrating on that. 😅😜. I already jinxed it once. I ordered the gold burgee and the thrusters went out the next day 🤦‍♀️😅.

That is it for today. Have a great and dry weekend everyone!