I almost hesitate to say it but I have decided to be bold and say that spring has finally sprung. For the past 10 days the weather has been glorious here on the Northern Gulf Coast and we have been enjoying it.
With friends aboard we left our friendly winter home, Port St. Joe Marina, on the first day of spring and had a beautiful ride outside to Panama City. For you non-boaters out there the term “outside” means that a boat travels in the large body of water (in this case the Gulf of Mexico) as opposed to traveling in the ICW which is generally more protected. It’s nice to run outside because it is often (but not always) a shorter distance and there aren’t any “no wake zones”; it can be rough out there as well so we try to pick & choose our days and that day was glorious. The forecast however was for deteriorating weather so we decided to forego a planned return visit to Crooked Island, where the photos below were snapped, (see entry dated March 13, 2010) and head on into a marina in Panama City. This proved to be a VERY good decision.
The next morning was windy and cloudy with rain in the forecast. Our friends, Pete & Linda, had driven down and thanks to a little help from friends on "Eagle One" we had already positioned a car in Panama City with an eye to playing automobile hopscotch across the Panhandle. By doing this we could ensure that their car would be available when they were ready to drive home. Accordingly we took advantage of the rainy day to send the boys back to PSJ to manage a car switcheroo. While they were gone the front came through and we saw nearly 3 foot waves in the marina, most definitely this was not the sort of day to go “outside”!! Heck, for a while it was so rough that we didn't feel comfortable trying to get off the boat and to the dock. Thank goodness that extreme only lasted for 3-4 hours before things began to calm down.
After a long layover at PC waiting for the winds to settle down we enjoyed a nice ride across Choctawhatchee Bay (see entry dated January 19, 2010) before taking another lay day in Fort Walton and then enjoying a beautiful anchorage near Pensacola. Continuing west we had a fun lunch at Lu-Lu’s (a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet's "Crazy Sista", Lucy) and a spectacular anchorage in one of our favorite places, Ingram Bayou, before Pete & Linda had to leave us and head back to work.
After a calm run up Mobile Bay we arrived in Fairhope, AL (one of our favorite places, in fact we might just move here when we grow up) for a quick visit with our old friends the Kelley's. Reluctantly we left there on Wednesday and ran across to the West side of Mobile Bay to fuel up and wait out a day of bad weather before we begin our trek North on the Tenn-Tom. I had hoped to snag a courtesy car for a visit to see the spring blooms at Bellingrath Gardens while we were here in Dog River but none was available so we amused ourselves by fighting off noseeums (which were biting like the devil) and watching this pelican fish for his dinner.
We are set to head North tomorrow, hopefully the rains will hold off for another week and we will have an easy run with very little current as we head up to Columbus, MS where we hope to leave the boat while we go to Boise and visit the girls
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