We awoke this morning to cold weather and the boat covered with frost again. After Carlie’s walk we got the flybridge cleared of frost and got the anchor up and got underway about 7:30. The sun soon warmed the flybridge enclosure and we had a pleasant day cruising from the anchorage at mile 164 to Ft Walton Beach Yacht Basin at mile 222. When we arrived the wind was blowing about 20 mph from the east and there was about 1knot of current flowing westward. We backed into the first slip then realized that was the slip where Blue Max should go so that Eileen could have the finger pier on the starboard side of the boat. So we pulled out of the slip to back into the next slip to the east. This required a go around and another approach. We finally got docked and then helped Southern Comfort and Blue Max get situated. It is still quite windy tonight and the forecast is for strong west winds with showers and thunder showers tomorrow. We will evaluate this in the morning and decide whether to go or stay put. Everyone is getting anxious to move on to get to where we can cross the gulf around the elbow and make progress going south along the west coast of Florida.
Last night was the warmest night in quite a while, low in the mid-fifties. We rolled quite a bit in our slip and I had to go out about 2:00 am and add another spring line. We all got up early and checked our weather sources. The forecast seemed better than it did yesterday but still called for some strong winds and we had to cross Choctawhatchee Bay which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide with the wind coming down the bay. We decided to get started and consider the options when we got about ¼ of the way out into the bay. There was a marina we could enter if the wind proved too much. We had a nice run across the bay with only a moderate chop. Then we had about 17 miles of canal before we entered West Bay for the final run to Panama City. The sun finally came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. As we entered the last bay where Panama City is located the wind was strong but the marina is protected so getting in was not too much of a problem. As soon as we got situated and shared our drinks with the group we were going to walk into town to eat dinner but it started to rain so Muriel prepared dinner on the boat. This was a 70 mile day, one of our longer days, but it did not seem too bad. Tomorrow will be a 60 mile run to Apalachicola with a lot of the distance in canals which will not be affected by the wind. From there it is a 30 mile run to Carrabelle which is the jumping off point to cross 80 miles of open Gulf to Steinhatchee. Everyone is getting anxious about the weather for this crossing. Sometimes boats wait for over a week to get the weather window for the crossing.
Last night was the warmest night in quite a while, low in the mid-fifties. We rolled quite a bit in our slip and I had to go out about 2:00 am and add another spring line. We all got up early and checked our weather sources. The forecast seemed better than it did yesterday but still called for some strong winds and we had to cross Choctawhatchee Bay which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide with the wind coming down the bay. We decided to get started and consider the options when we got about ¼ of the way out into the bay. There was a marina we could enter if the wind proved too much. We had a nice run across the bay with only a moderate chop. Then we had about 17 miles of canal before we entered West Bay for the final run to Panama City. The sun finally came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. As we entered the last bay where Panama City is located the wind was strong but the marina is protected so getting in was not too much of a problem. As soon as we got situated and shared our drinks with the group we were going to walk into town to eat dinner but it started to rain so Muriel prepared dinner on the boat. This was a 70 mile day, one of our longer days, but it did not seem too bad. Tomorrow will be a 60 mile run to Apalachicola with a lot of the distance in canals which will not be affected by the wind. From there it is a 30 mile run to Carrabelle which is the jumping off point to cross 80 miles of open Gulf to Steinhatchee. Everyone is getting anxious about the weather for this crossing. Sometimes boats wait for over a week to get the weather window for the crossing.
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