A 50 mile trip along the Coast of the Gulf

Destin Florida was a great stop. Although Beauty had a number of poop dots by the time we left.. We parked too close to a few boats that looked like boats were abandoned. I should say abandoned by humans and reclaimed by the birds.  We enjoyed our day in Destin. We took the jet ski over to the sandy beach and enjoyed some R&R.  I had posted on FB on the “Women Who Sail Group” that we were in Destin and a new friend reached out to us and said they were going to be in the area taking photos. They ended up meeting us on the sandbar and they are awesome people. 

Travis & Jen

We jet skied over to the beach across from Destin and enjoyed the afternoon watching the boats go by.

Sitting on the beach we watched the seagulls try and take over Sunny Lady

The pigeons enjoy their time on the beach with us.  Pecking at the sand for some scrumptious morsels.

Bryce took the diesel cans in to top off the tank.  I think he just wanted to jet-ski..

The birds have their own poopy boat to set on why must they poop on my boat!

The following late morning we pulled out of Destin.  We had another 50 mile run to Panama City. That means we had another  7 hour sail ahead of us.  Of course the weather info was completely wrong for us.  We ended up with winds on our bow and waves just off our starboard side bow.  It was a bit messy.  We needed our sails up to help to stabilize Beauty.  Bryce went up and put the pulleys on the storm track and brought the headsail to the center of the boat and the mainsail was in full bloom with the tacking we had to do. With that said, the tacking increased the amount of time it took to get to Panama City.   

About an hour or so before dusk we were visited by a family of dauphins.  The waves had calmed completely down and the water became translucent.  We could see the dolphins swimming under the water near the bow.  They were racing Beauty.

Panama City, Lower Grand Lagoon bay

We arrived in Panama City after dark nearing 6:30 p.m. What a great channel to come into. This is a shipping channel used for the Military and freighters.  Coming in wasn’t so bad a night.  It’s nice and wide to come into.  We just followed the blinking red/green buoys. The tricky point came near the entrance to the cut into Lower Grand Lagoon bay.  We had to keep the red buoy on the starboard side; yet the beach was within 25 feet to the portside.  No green bowie on the portside only the beach.  This is a great deep area to be in. We didn’t see anything less than 20 ft.  Our Garmin once again lead us through a tight spot at night.

We sat on the bow in the cool breeze enjoying our coffee.  I was still waking up.. LOL

When we woke up this morning we noticed the range maker and this is an old pontoon boat made into a fishing boat. It has all kinds of nets hanging from it.

Apparently he used these nets to capture some fish..

We are taking shelter here with the high winds coming in today. They reached nearly 30 mph with the gust blowing. I must say this is a perfect place to be with easterly or southerly winds.  First we were able to sit on the bow with our morning coffee and watched the ships go out to sea.

This FSF is called the Sea Fighter. A Military vessel.  One of those new fangled power cats with low radar signature.

This is a vessel coming back into the bay just shortly after they left. The Gulf is a bit of a mess right now.  Here you can see the narrow channel coming into Lower Grand Lagoon bay.  The entrance is between the point and the red marker. 

The little blue boat is a scuba boat going out.  The decks are lined with tanks.  I bet they are not out long. 

Bryce went on a garbage run and more diesel.  The place where he takes trash to is a State Park. They have a nice big dipsy dumpster.The sandy beach we are near is part of the State Park.

After Bryce came back we figured we would go out and explore the area. That’s the State Park. The waves further to the west in the bay were reaching a foot so we didn’t want to go to far.

Turpentine Still is very cool. This saw mill is missing the steam engine, but you get the idea of how it runs.

Bryce is standing in front of the turpentine still.

We then took a stroll on the beach.  I found a Christmas tree floating against the shoreline.

This reminds me of a pin cushion. LOL  Thinking it must be a Sea Urchin.  There are hundreds of types, but the deciding factor it is an urchin is the 5 symmetrical radiating patterns (5 patterns of 4 lines).

As we strolled along the beach, instead of collecting shells, I will deliver the beauty of them through photos.

We had a few hour to relax before the storms approached us.   So we brought the chairs over to relax in the late afternoon.

This photo shows how protected we are.   If you like to anchor, this is a great anchorage.

This is our anchorage. It is perfect! You can track us an the evening. We post our anchorages every night.  www.trackmytour.com/35L17

As always thank you for following us.