December 4 & 5, 2009 Ft. Walton Beach to Panama City

December 4 & 5, 2009

Fort Walton Beach and Panama City

Today I am writing while we are underway. We hope to go 70 miles today to Panama city. We left Legendary Brooks Bridge Marina at 7:30 this morning and traversed Choctawhatchee Bay – a big bay with NW winds blowing at 15-20 mph and waves at 2-3 feet. We are now in “the ditch” that has been cut out of cypress marshes/swamps and are grateful to be out of the wind.

Yesterday was a waaaay more eventful day. We started out of Bear Point Marina in Orange Beach at 8:30 with an anticipated 60 miles to go. We had been warned about the channel here and not to miss it. Well, guess what – we MISSED it and spent some quality time on a sandbar. A local mariner and his son came out in their boat, “The Other Woman”, from Bear Point to try to pull us out. We gave him one of our long ropes and he tried to pull us off but we were really stuck. The rope snapped twice and the first time I had my foot on the rope trying to hold it out from our anchor. As it snapped back, my left foot took the punishment. The second time the rope snapped I was NOWHERE near it. Our good Samaritans had to give up and took nothing but a “Thank You” and encouraged us to help someone else along the way.

We had also called Boat U.S. for a tow. That’s when we found out that although Mark had signed us up for maximum service we were not covered for salt water. The folks at Boat U.S. still covered us and Mark called immediately to upgrade our coverage. The tow boat got there and we put a harness around the front cleats and with a little zig-zagging, we were finally off the sandbar. The Boat U.S. captain said that he pulls 3-5 boats out of the same place every week. He has reported it to the Coast Guard, but nothing has happened since. It doesn’t help that the green reflective marker is missing from the first channel marker. Mark still feels bad because the channel is well-marked on his charts but apparently he was going to cut the corner and looked away for a bit. The navigator was on the front of the boat putting away fenders and ropes before we picked up speed. We had no leaks down below, but we do have a slight vibration in the props. Other than that Grateful is running like the grand old lady she is. After seeing this sailboat, we guessed it could have been much worse.

After that low light we had a high light!! Dolphins came to swim with Grateful – they must have known we needed our spirits lifted. It was two adults and a baby and they ran with us at 8.5 knots for about five minutes right at our portside door. We tried to capture their images, but as you can see…. At one point, one of the adults turned on it side and looked at us and “smiled”. It was super cool!!

Other sights included this unusually constructed tower in a restricted area on Santa Rosa Island. The sugar sand is so white, it reminded us of snow. By the way we read that we left rain and possible snow showers in Mobile. Without the sunshine here we have been chilly – outside 40-52, and inside the upper cockpit we have been about 55 degrees. We have been told that Tarpon Springs is where Florida starts staying warm all of the time. The panhandle has seasonal temperatures.

Freeport managed to stay relaxed through all our excitement. He is a good traveler, however, he is asking to go for walks more frequently now that we are underway again. Oh, and the left foot was not unveiled until it was time to go to bed. It is swollen and bruised from the little toe to second toe, but nothing broken. I was able to get it into my shoe this morning and I am still getting around – just a little slower.

Well I need to finish the story of our day. We did have a little more excitement. Two boats that we had met in Mobile motored past us yesterday before we got out of Bear Point. Today we caught up to them. Apparently last night they were tired and it was getting dark so they decided to anchor near a bridge out of the channel. They failed to take the tidal conditions into account as it was high tide. We found them sitting on the bottom with the water a foot below their water lines. After waiting for a tow/barge to go by in this very narrow channel, Mark decided he would try to help. Twice we angled our way into rope-throwing distance of one of the boats while still keeping in at least 8 feet of water. The first time I couldn’t get the rope tied on time before Mark needed to back out, but the second time I got the rope tied down. Mark had to fight the tidal current and wind and back out quickly. The rope snapped – I heard it coming and had moved. The boat we were trying to help did not budge. We had to leave the boats there. Boat U.S. said they would have to wait until the tide came up before they could help – around 6:00 this evening.

Dolphins danced again with Grateful – don’t know if we’ll ever get tired of it.