AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Pensacola Florida to Panama City Florida

Nov 6^th – It was a cool and cloudy day and the time changed overnight so now it’s going to get darker even earlier than normal. We left Pensacola in the morning and travelled 51 miles to Destin Florida and anchored in the bay. The wind was blowing directly through our front window and Maria was dressed like an Eskimo … I’m sure no one would think she’s a Canadian especially the Tow that saw our Canadian Flag and said “Go Jays Go”. While we travelled we had 2 dolphins jump up by my bow pulpit as I was passing the tow … they scared the s**t out of me! I thought the tow flipped up a log in front of us … and then I realized the dolphins must be playing a joke on me ;) Destin looks like a party town … there are sportfish yachts everywhere. We have live entertainment just on the shore from where we are anchored thus we’re sitting with a cold one listening to the great tunes while I BBQ dinner.

Nov 7^th – It was an extremely windy, warm and sunny day. We stayed at our Destin anchorage due to the high winds. The salt plays havoc with your stainless steel thus Maria decided to wash all the stainless steel as I followed with a coat of wax to protect it from the salt water. I can see that this salt water is going to initiate a rigorous exercise program consisting of washing the boat regularly to remove the layer of salt that seems to build up during our daily runs. It’s not difficult to wash off the salt with high pressure water at a marina, however it is challenging to remove the salt with a wash down pump with mediocre pressure … plus it uses the fresh water from our holding tank. Fun, Fun and more Fun! We used the day to plan our next stops and to do some boat cleaning. Eddy’s Weather Wag says that there may be a crossing window on Thursday / Friday to cross from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs which is about 170 mile crossing. We are currently setting ourselves up to take advantage of this crossing window if the weather does what it’s supposed to do.

Nov 8^th – It was a windy cool cloudy day. We left our Destin anchorage this morning since we’d like to make it to Carrabelle for Thursday night’s crossing. We travelled 65 miles today through some choppy waters to Panama City marina. We saw lots of dolphins today and Maria thinks she actually got a good picture of one. Once we arrived I washed all the salt off the boat while Maria caught up on the laundry. We saw the Blue Angels (Jets) practising above us which was cool. We just relaxed afterwards while our US friends watched their election results. Tomorrow they’ll have a new President.