Days 183

Pensacola Yacht Club, FL - Fort Walton Beach FL

• Start 6:55 AM
• End 12:30PAM
• Underway 5:10 Hours
• Distance 36 miles
• Total Miles on Trip 3789
• Av Speed 7.1 knots
• Weather Cloudy , 62 Degrees, Wind 16 Knts N

WOW what a miserable time getting off the dock. We had 15 to 20 knot winds blowing us towards the boat dock next to us. Normally Angel and I can easily get the boat off the dock. This time it required Mark & Karen (Kay Dee) on the dock untying the boat, and holding us off the boat next to us. Angel was using a boat pole to push us away from it. It was not pretty and it was not fun.

Even with the wind it was a pleasant but chilly run from Pensacola to Fort Walton. Mark and Karen have been promising us "that it will be warmer in Florida". They are wrong, for this morning's run I needed to put on sweatpants and socks. I have really gotten use to shorts and flipflops.

Even though we are on the Gulf Coast, we are traveling on the Gulf Inter Costal Waterway (GICW). Traveling on the GICW we are in fairly well protected water. This ends in Carrabelle FL. From there we will have three days of traveling in the Gulf. Our plan was to leave Carrabelle on December 5th. Looking at the long term forecast we need leave Carrabelle by December 2nd. We will not have any problems doing this, but we will be running longer than we wanted to for a couple of days.

We just have to keep reminding ourselves, it is a plan not a schedule. To make it even more interesting Matt & Ilene (friends from NJ) are meeting us on the 4th. It makes it a little harder for them to plan their travel, because we are a moving target!

Angel & I took an Uber to Destin Harbor Boardwalk, and spent the afternoon acting like tourist. We would have taken the bikes if we could have gotten them off the boat. The slip we are in has finger piers that only go 1/3 of the way down the slip. They are also only 12" wide. There was no way to back into this slip, so the only way off the boat is to climb over the rail onto the narrow pier. We are both glad we are only here for one night.

Tomorrow we are going to Panama City.