2 Days to Panama City

After seeing a weather window where the winds died down to 20 mph, we left P'cola on Sunday April 21.  We waited until the big sportsfishermen in front of us left to head into the Gulf.  He had participated in a fishing tournament in P'cola for cobia.  We were not familiar with cobia, so we bought some at the local fresh fish market (along with lots of scallops).

The winds were again from the east at 15-20 mph, as they have been on our entire trip from New Orleans.  Pensacola Bay was forecast to be "choppy to rough", so we were a bit uneasy heading out into this.  Turns out the boat rode very well, even though there were a lot of whitecaps on the water with 1-3' waves. With our 10 mph speed, the winds over the deck were 30 mph & lots of sea spray again.



Just east of Ft Walton Beach on GIWW.  Note narrow
channel with shallow water close by.

As we passed the towns which we knew so well (having driven by car through here for years), we were surprised how shallow & narrow the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway became.  If we weren't watching our course thru the channel buoys, we'd be stuck until the next high tide!
As we entered Choctawahatchee Bay, the winds finally started dying down, and the travel became enjoyable.  Lots of dolphins joined us for the trip across the Bay.

We anchored for the night at the east end of the Bay & enjoyed the sunset & the quiet.

This is why we cruise.

On Monday we had a late start, since we only had 40 miles to travel.  As we entered St Andrew Bay near Panama City, the commercial traffic increased, and we saw some Navy ships coming in from the Gulf.



Navy deep sea dive ship,
 based in Panama City.

Container ship coming from
Gulf of Mexico. Stay out of
the channel!










We entered the extremely narrow channel into Grand Lagoon & found our destination - Bay Point Marina.  As we were approaching the fuel dock, our port engine quit & Sue couldn't re-start it.  I envisioned us hard aground on the sand shoals for the rest of the week.  We finally re-started the engine from the engine room & made it to our assigned slip.  Guess it's time again for the engine mechanic to make a visit.

We secured the boat, gave it a good fresh water wash-down, and started the 5:00 hour early.  Grilled our cobia fish on the back deck & felt good about making it this far east.  We'll keep the boat in Panama City for a month while we take care of family business.

More lazy pelicans.

Channel into marina.  Let's see.......
red right return, then zig or zag.