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Originally we were going to spend a week at home before returning to GTB. As is usually the case that plan changed. My Dad went in to have a spot on his ear checked out and found out it was cancerous. A few phone calls and he had an appointment at Mayo…

One of the reasons we chose GTB for the summer is the proximity to home. A relatively easy 8 hour drive and we’re there. Fortunately our timing worked out so we could attend Grandson Luke’s high school graduation ceremony. Way to go Luke!A big smile fr…

With a feeling of disappointment we pulled out of Grand Harbor. Fortunately Pickwick Lake was as beautiful as ever and quickly took us to a happy place once again.Grand Harbor Sunrise.Homes of all shapes and sizes line the lakeside.A few…

Columbus Marina (www.columbusmarina.com) is always one of our favorite stops along the Tombigbee. Friendly staff headed up by T. Caldwell. A good stop to re-provision. Competitive fuel and dockage prices. And a number of good restaurants in the area. U…

Finally after a 4 night stay in Pensacola we got the lines untied and continued our Westward journey. Down Pensacola Bay to the GICW, past Ft. Pickens and the inlet leading out into the Gulf. We stayed inside and followed the channel to Ingram Bayou wh…

After two days in Apalachicola it was time to move on. For the first few miles we fought a strong outgoing tide. Once the Apalachicola River turned North the tide switched and we had a nice shove from behind.

We passed through the Apalachicola RR Bridge which is normally open.

We also passed this fishing shack along the GICW.

And of course the token sunken boat.

No markers required. Just stay between the trees!

Just past White City we turned south toward Port St. Joe and their marina. A turn that we had never made in our previous times through this area.

Shortly after the turn we came upon these two vessels. I’m not sure what they were used for although based on the number of clothes hangers hanging on the top deck I’d say that diving was a part of their history.

Another couple of derelicts lined our way to Port St. Joe.

Five miles after we turned off the GICW we arrived at Port St. Joe Marina. A cute (Pam’s word) little marina that every fall attracts the Looper crowd. After stopping here I can see why. A nice clean marina with a good restaurant and a town within walking distance that has the ameneties that a cruiser desires.
Our stay here proved once again what a small world the boating community is. We ran into two boats that we had crossed paths with at Legacy in the past. M/V Spiritus and M/V Emery El.

Port St. Joe Marina.

The view from our stern.

Pam with Eddie and Linda from M/V Spititus.

Needing to take advantage of the good weather we moved on the next day retracing the five miles to the GICW and continuing on to Panama City where we made a brief stop for fuel before traveling another 15 miles to an anchorage off of Choctwahatchie Bay. Fortunately the forecast was accurate and the wind dropped after sunset providing us with one of the best nights on the hook that we’ve had on this trip.

Back between the trees.

Waiting for work.

Past the port of Panama City.

Up again earlier than we’re accustomed to since we changed time zones yesterday, we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise at our anchorage off Choctwahatchie Bay.

We wondered what this dock was for since no house was visible?

At first I wondered what was wrong with the boat then I looked up to see what the noise was.

Fort Walton Beach and their free dock was our destination today. We arrived in time to check out the Indian festival taking place in the adjacent park and stroll around town. By now the wind had picked up from the Southeast providing our dock with a bit of chop. No worries though, the dock is built well. The only problem is the ignorant boaters who ignore the no wake zone that the dock resides in.

Part of the ceremony at the festival.

Tourist at the free dock.

Spotted this guy warning the bird not to do anything stupid!

The forecast for Monday was for increasing winds throughout the morning and severe weather on Tuesday and Wednesday. With that in mind we got out of Dodge early and headed to Pensacola where we planned on riding out the storms. As we travelled the breeze picked up and the fog set in reducing visibility to 1/2 mile. Fortunately the plotter and the radar were working and we made it into Palafox Pier Marina in Pensacola by 10 am.

This guy was taking advantage of the breeze to dry out.

We passed these soldiers running along the beach.

Looking behind us betrays the view over our bow.

Our early arrival enabled us to take a brief stroll around the downtown area before the weather set in. They’ve done a good job of restoring the older buildings and bringing in a variety of shops and businesses.

This corner featured 4 Airstream trailers made into small diners each offering a different variety of food.

Near to the marina was this oil rig being worked on.

Pam with the marina behind her.

Monday was primarily windy with a few showers late in the day. After midnight all hell broke loose. High winds, Non-stop rain, and endless lightning. At times being on Tourist was like being a contestant in a rodeo. The severe weather lasted all Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. In all they reported over 2 feet of rain had fallen causing flash flooding all over the area. 5″ fell between 9 and 10 pm Tuesday alone. Supposedly this was more rainfall than in all of hurricane Ivan. Over 44,000 lightning strikes were recorded in one hour on Tuesday. And we lost power at the marina for nearly 20 hours. Unfortunately one woman lost her life due to the flooding.

Here are a few pics of the aftermath;

Waves outside the marina.

Pumping out the neighbors dinghy.

As I write this it’s raining again but not with the intensity of last night. Hopefully by tomorrow the weather will improve and we can keep on moving on.

Lunch with Leo & Jean in Venice.

The main drag in Venice. Not 5th Ave. in Naples but very nice.

View of the ICW and Fisherman’s Wharf Marina from the Hatchett Bridge.

Strangely enough we slipped next to a 55′ Hampton that we considered buying a few years ago.

We left Venice on Easter Sunday and headed north on the ICW past Sarasota and on to Tampa Bay which we decided to cross while conditions were good. As we entered the channel on the north side of the bay we caught up to a familiar looking boat with an unfamiliar name.  I hailed the captain on the vhf and confirmed that it was formerly March Winds IV which had been slipped behind us at Legacy for a couple of winters. The new owners were quite proud of their new vessel and seemed like they would take care of her the way Gary and Linda did.

Former March Winds IV under way near St. Pete Beach.

We decided to pull into an anchorage that turned out to be not the best but you’ll have that once in awhile.
Pam wasted no time in getting out the Holiday Mimosa’s so we could toast Easter.

Happy Easter

We followed up the drinks with our now traditional holiday meal while on Tourist of Cornish Hens.

Yumm!

Our night was bumpy as the anchorage didn’t protect us as well as advertised. We were happy to get going the next morning and had a peaceful ride up to Clearwater where we took on fuel. Did laundry and walked to Publix.

A happy Pamster.

Hiking back from Publix.

Tourist at Clearwater Municipal.

The big day is upon us. Crossing day and the weather looks good. Forecast wave height of 2 foot or less most of the way with possible 2 footers near East Pass at the end of our day. Off we go.

Sunrise over Clearwater.

Heading out Clearwater Pass.

Once out in the Gulf the forecast seemed to be accurate. We had 1′ to 2′ on the nose which was very comfortable for Tourist. As an additional bonus we experienced very few crab pots after leaving Clearwater. I put Tourist up on plane and cruised along around 17 to 18 knots most of the way with the exception of an hour and a half of running at 8.5 knots for lunch and to save a drop of fuel.

Looking ahead on the Gulf.

The view behind.

Pam taking a nap.

You’ll notice the stuff under the table by Pam in the above picture. Even with the good forecast we take all chairs, tables. and any other loose items out of the cockpit and secure them elsewhere.
Once again the wisdom of this extra precaution paid off. About 20 miles from our destination the wind picked up and started coming at us from the port beam raising the waves to 3′ to 4′. Yuk! Not unsafe but certainly not comfortable. A little throttle play and we found a speed that didn’t beat up the boat, just threw water over the bridge periodically.
Part way through the last 20 miles I noticed the burgee on the bow of the boat had come loose and was only holding on at one eyelet. I immediately slowed down and turned into the waves. Pam took the helm after refusing to go out on the bow (imagine that!) which left me to retrieve the burgee. Back inside we once again got under way and made it through East Pass and around the corner to our anchorage behind Dog Island. 172 miles for the day. Time for a drink!

Safe and sound on the hook.

We shared the anchorage with 2 other boats that night and in the morning got under way. First stop C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle for fuel before going on to Apalachicola.

Pulling the anchor.

Tannin colored water going into Carrabelle.

Hazy travel day on St. George Sound.

Coming into Apalachicola.

Boss Oyster Bar restaurant where we later had dinner.

Tourist secure at the dock.

Pam and our new friend Sean at Froggy Level Bar at Boss Oyster Bar Restaurant.

Apalachicola. Originally we were going to only stay one night but changed our minds. We had only spent one night here in all our times of going this way and when we explored the town it was a Sunday morning. Nothing was open. Duh! This time we would see what this neat little town had to offer.
I’ll offer up some scenes from around town.

Shops were open with the usual selection of items that you find in tourist towns. My favorite was one that had an abundance of all things nautical just scattered around as though they just dropped them as they brought them through the door.

Apalachicola has had it’s ups and downs like so many small towns. It seems that it is on an uptick once again because of tourism and the shrimp boats. As for the Apalachicola oysters. The folks are waiting to harvest them once again. Supposedly back following the BP oil spill everyone was warned that the oil was coming and it would ruin the oyster beds. As a result the beds were over harvested and of course the oil never came. Now they are about a year away from being able to get the beds back in a rotation much like a farmer and his crops.
Did we have raw oysters. You betcha! But they came from Virginia.

It’s getting time to empty the dock box and point Tourist to the North. Our destination for the summer is somewhere in the Kentucky Lakes area. We don’t have any particular schedule as to when we want to arrive there but I know from past experience that once we’re underway it’s hard for me to stop and smell the roses until we reach our destination.
Before we left we had time to take in one more Art Walk in downtown Ft. Myers which started with dinner at Ichiban.

 This young lady was more than happy to strike a pose for the camera.

 By now Bill was in need of support.

 Not to be left out the NSA had a drone watching the festivities.

 We were amazed at how this VW came through the wall unscathed.

 There was even an aerial show in the middle of town.

 This guy was performing spray paint art. And oh yeah. We hit the Cigar Bar.

 A few days later we got Bill, Mary, & Ted to pose for a family picture before they headed back to Canada.

For the past couple of years we have been wanting to return to a German restaurant we had eaten at one of the first years we wintered here. Luckily Rich & Diane (M/V RiDi) asked us to join them and Bob and Linda  (M/V Erika Lyn) for dinner. It was buffet style and did not disappoint. Yumm!

 Pam surprised Diane on her birthday with flowers.

As I stated earlier we are planning on boating in the Kentucky Lake area this summer. Good plan but it does present a logistical problem. What to do with the car? Answer: move it to Kentucky. So we did. We got a rental from Enterprise and Saturday morning we took off. Me in the rental and Pam in our car. Up I-75 we went. All was well until we got to Tampa and then it stopped. Bumper to bumper, sometimes moving, sometimes stopped. We wasted time in this mess until Ocala where we decided to go cross country. Past Tallahassee and into the panhandle where we bunked for the night. The next day we cruised through Dothan, Al. home of the National Peanut Festival! On to Montgomery and Birmingham. Through Nashville and into Kentucky.

 Pam in my rearview mirror somewhere in northern Florida.

Rest area near Huntsville, Alabama.

 We dropped the car off in a lonely parking lot to await our return.

 The view of our summer marina.

After dropping the car we did a U-turn and headed back to Florida.

 Of course no road trip for us is complete without multiple stops at Pilot for their coffee.

 We found this cow in southern Georgia. The same place we ran into a guy smacking a pipe into the bed of his pick-up truck. Turns out he was killing a rattlesnake that was in the bed of the truck! No Lie!

 Monday afternoon we arrived back at Legacy after 1926 miles and stayed awake long enough to take this shot of the full moon.

 Wednesday came and it was time to go. One last shot of the marina and Highpoint condo’s.

 Our first night we made it to Cayo Costa and decided to hang it up for a couple of nights.

 The second afternoon rain moved in and curtailed our tanning.

Future Harley rider? Happy Birthday Kate!

One week ago we untied Tourist from the dock and headed east along the Caloosahatchie River. Our destination, River Forest Yachting Center located in the middle of nowhere between LaBelle and Moorehaven. Two towns that are not likely to pop into your m…

We arrived back at Tourist in time to get prepped for a quick visit from my daughter Angela and her husband Doug. They, like so many others had had enough of winter and found a couple of days to escape. Happy to be off the plane and in warmer weat…