Panama City, FL

Sunday

We left Pencola around 8 am after the fog had improved.  As we were heading out of the bay to start up the ICW again, we received a phone call from our friend and buddy boat Kerm, his wife Chris had another flare up of shingles and they were at a local hospital so that it could be checked out.  What a bummer for Chris!! Not knowing how long every thing would take we decided to continue on.  We did speak with Kerm around noon and her shingles had flared again plus they were infected. Double bummer. They will stay at Pensacola today and hope to start back on the water in the am, depending how Chris is.  We sure hope she is feeling better soon.

We had not gone too far this morning when were were hailed by Resolute a 24 foot Nimble Nomad from Boyne City Michigan.  We had last seen Kathy and Charlie back in Kentucky, it was good to learn that they were headed in the same direction, so we traveled together for the remainder of the day. Also about the same time that Resolute hailed, our friends Mary and John  ( “the fast ones “ ) from Mackinaw City hailed us as well.  It was good to see them and chat with them for a few minutes before they sped by.

Not sure what this was, we think it was some sort of radar dome.

The day ended around 2 pm at a free dock in Ft. Walton Beach.  As we were chatting with Kathy and Charlie and trying to figure out how we could get to a West Marine a couple walked down the dock to look at the boats that had just came in.  After chatting with them and explaining what we were in need of they very kindly offered to drive us to the West Marine that was a couple of miles away ( not the less than one mile as we had read in the guidebook.)  They also drove us over the ICW to Destin which gave us a different perspective of the waterway that you see when you are on it.  We are seeing lots of white sand beaches and palm trees.  It is true that we have meet some of the nicest people along the way. Thank You Matt and Deanna we really appreciated it.

Monday

Started out this am shortly after the sun came up as we had 70 some miles to do to get to Panama City.  We had to cross three bays to get to Panama City, the first one was over 25 miles.  It was a perfect day, sunny in the 70’s and flat water. Resolute was behind us all day and we have been very entertained by the many porpoises as they like to swim along side of the boats. It was awesome and we really enjoyed the show! There was a river section of the ICW where the were no palm trees but lots of pine trees, it reminded us of northern Michigan.  Also along that stretch we were passed by another boat from Michigan.  So here we are in in a stretch of Florida that resembles northern Michigan with three boats from cities in northern Michigan; Mackinaw City, Bone City and Bay City.  It truly is a small world at times.

We had reservations at the Panama City marina on the north side of the bay near down town.  Resolute was headed to a marina along the south side of the bay in Panama City Beach.  So in the middle of the last bay we parted company.  Once we were tied up and washed the boat down we enjoyed a nice sunset as we are facing the ocean pass which is about 4 miles away.

The porpoises were quite a sight.

This area of the ICW is called the "Grand Canyon"  and it did look like a miniature Grand Canyon.

Taken while sitting on the bridge.

Tomorrow is laundry and boat project day.  John has all the parts to repair the bow flag pole,  He also noticed that the auto pilot pump may have a problem which he is going to look at.   There was talk of a possible dinghy ride to the other side of the bay to check out Panama City Beach.

John & Mary

Pensacola, FL

Friday morning we started off to cross Mobile Bay along with Southern Belle after waiting until about 8 am as there were small craft warnings out until 9 am.  The crossing was not too bad and John even saw a couple of dolphins.   When we got to the other side we started our journey down the ICW.  We had decided that we would stop at Homeport Marina for the night while Southern Belle decided to push on a bit further.  Once we arrived at the marina we discovered that due to chop the boat was covered with salt spray residue.  We gave it a good wash down.   This marina is  adjacent to the restaurant LuLu’s which is owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister.  We had a nice evening with a variety of entertainment as there was a song writers festival that evening.

The Dock at Lulu's

The beach area at Lulu's.

Some colorful condos near Lulu's

We started our journey again Saturday morning in rain and clouds and as the day progressed we added wind to the mix.  It was interesting getting across Pensacola Bay as it is another large bay with a pass into the ocean that was quiet rough.  At one point John noticed that the bow flag pole was bent back at a 45 degree angle.  He wanted to go out and secure the Looper flag but Mary told him that she would tackle him if he tried to leave the bridge. The flag did make in to port where John removed it and will wait until he can get to a West Marine for a replacement,


We had talked to Southern Belle and they chose not to cross Pensacola Bay due to the waves and were going to stay on the other side of the bay.  Our marina for the evening was called Palafox Harbor right in down town Pencsacola.  We walked through down town and also past many historic homes, it’s a pretty city, even in the rain. 

Very large catamaran.

Rainy day at the park.

Pelican in the park.

A cloudy sunset.

It took awhile to figure out that this was actually an oil drilling rig. It was docked right next to the marina restocking supplies and was quite impressive.


John & Mary

Mobile, AL Part Two

Wednesday morning we awoke to a cloudy morning with an outside temperature of 76˚ with a high in the 80’and some rain predicted.  We had signed up for the courtesy car with Chris from Southern Belle and headed off to a local Grocery store because both her and Mary said they were tired of Wal Mart.  Well  it turned out they both missed Wal Mart so we headed to the other side of town.  This worked out well as John needed to get a water pressure drain opener at Lowes and we needed to mail some items.  It turns out you can drop off mail at a UPS store, who knew?

Neat looking sail boat

After we got back and put everything away we met up with some of the other Loopers staying at the marina.  There were quite a few who we have met along the way and at the Rendezvous.  John worked on the port rear scupper which has always drained slow but had gotten worse lately.  It didn’t take long for him to get wet but he had some moderate success before the opener burst and he got really soaked.

We had decided to rent a car to see more of Mobile but by the time we were able to get picked up it was getting dark.  Before 5:00 pm would you believe.  We had a nice young  man just out of college pick us up and we asked him about some good places to go for sea food.  He told us about a place in down town Mobile that when we walked in thought it was a college kid’s bar.  It turns out it has been around since 1938 and we had an excellent meal.

View from our slip at Dog River Marina

Thursday morning we experienced sever temperature culture shock.  The wind had shifted to the North and it was only in the 50’s.  We were on the end of a long pier and the wind was just pounding us on the stern.  John dug out the fender boards that came with the boat and we added extra lines. 

Battleship Alabama

Grandpa trying to be like Opa

We toured the Battleship Alabama which was quite interesting.  It was amazing to see all the machinery and systems on the ship, especially since it will be 70 years old next year. After touring the ship for a couple of hours we headed to Fairhope which is on he East side of Moible Bay.  As we were walking around we hear ”John – Mary” , we looked over and Wayne and Francine from My Way were waving at us from a passing van.  We first met them in Grafton, IL and have bumped into them at many other spots along the way.  We had a nice lunch with them before looking at more of the shops in Fairhope.

We took a scenic drive back to Mobile to return the car.  After returning to the marina we went over to the marina next door to say good byes to Dickie and Dixie who we first met in Mackinaw City just as we were getting ready to start our trip. They are almost done with there trip and were headed back to Louisiana in a day or so.  Really nice people and we were very happy to see them again. Also stopped in to say farewell to our friends on the boat Kadadi as they will be leaving their boat and going back to Canada for the holidays.  Sure hope we meet up with them again somewhere along the way. 

Missing you all and looking forward to seeing some of you over the holidays,

Mary and John

Mobile, AL

Wednesday
After our final two long and boring days on the Tenn-Tom we are at Dog River Marina in Mobile.  We are having our first experience with tides and salt water.  Not so sure we are fond of either.  I guess it's something we will need to get used to for the next six months or so.   One thing nice is that it is November 16th and the temperature outside is 75˚, this before 6am.

Monday
John called the lock early (before daybreak) and the lock master said that he had two down bound tows on their way and if we waited for first light he would have to lock them through first.  So we alerted the other boats and in less than 15 minutes we were all on our way.  The lock gates were open and we had the green light.  This was our last lock until next May or June when we hit the Erie Canal.  We are optimistic that it will be repaired and open by then.

It was a gray and rainy but warm all day.   We anchored in Tenas River with Southern Belle without any problems other than they hooked a big log on their first anchor attempt.

Tuesday
We awoke to another gray and warm day with patchy fog.  We had off and on rain most of the day.  It was especially rainy and foggy as we went through Mobile Harbor.  After passing through the busy commercial harbor we were in the very large Mobile Bay.  Even though it is a large open bay it is quite shallow and you need to follow a well marked channel so you don't run aground.  We did pass some shrimp trawlers out in the bay.  We are seeing lots of different types of boats that we don't see up in northern Michigan.

Our first pelican

Spanish moss on a tree along the Tenn-Tom

Crane

Cranes 

Exavator

Boom Lift

We thought our grandkids would enjoy all this heavy equipment.

Some of the ships seen going through Mobile Harbor

Shrimp boat.

We filled up the fuel tanks and got a free nights dockage.  This is what is called a working marina, lots of boats around in various states of repair or disrepair depending on how you look at it.  It does have it's own West Marine on site which John has taken advantage of already.  We are meeting up with many other Loopers that we saw at the Rendezvous.  Looper's are really  like a band of Gypsy's moving south at varying paces.

Passport & Southern Belle at the fuel dock.

It already has her name on it, Christmas????

John & Mary

Bobby's Fish Camp

Short trip today only 28 miles and we arrived at Bobby's Fish Camp early.  We had a lot of tow traffic along this stretch,  almost as busy as the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Bobby's has been around  for a long time.  He passed away last year but his daughter is running every thing now.  There is a restaurant that was not scheduled to be open today but she said as long as we have four boats with eight people wanting dinner she would open it up for us. The speciality is catfish.  The dock where we are tied to for the evening is 150 feet long,  right along the river,  we have read on other blogs that at times as many as 17 boats have been rafted to this one rickety dock.  You probably get the idea by now there is not many places to either anchor or tie up along this stretch.  This river is mostly used for commercial traffic and in the fall some pleasure crafts  heading south to Florida.

This Tow was behind us by 1/2 mile all day, we let it pass just before docking at Bobby's.

Laura Jane, Bobby's daughter opened up the the restaurant and cooked dinner for the eight of us that were tied up at the dock.  John had the catfish and Mary had shrimp and stuffed crab.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their dinner and were especially grateful that they opened up just for us.

Mary & John