Reaching Florida's West Coast

We posted our last update as we were traveling through Mobile Bay on December 9th enroute to the Gulf coast. Mobile Bay can be very unpleasant to cross in moderate to high winds because it is so big and shallow, but we only experienced a light chop on the three-hour journey across the bay.  Once we got back into the Intracoastal Waterway, we encountered a lot of barge traffic which is always interesting since the Waterway isn't very wide and you are either meeting the barges head-to-head or having to go around them since they generally travel even slower than we do, although not by much!

We reached our anchorage at Ingram Bayou late Saturday afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings in the remaining daylight. Sunday we continued along the Waterway through Orange Beach, AL to one of our favorite anchorages, Mary Esther, just west of Destin, FL. Once again, we arrived late afternoon and enjoyed what we could of the scenery before it got dark. We also spent Monday at Mary Esther and made a trip across the sand dunes to the Gulf to see the ocean and look for seashells. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the beach and the sun (it had been cloudy, cool and breezy for the past few days) and collecting shells.

These are some funky condos on the waterway in the Orange Beach area. Look at that pure white sand!


This is the beach on the Gulf side of Mary Esther where we looked for seashells.


Just before we got back to the boat, we heard someone yelling at us from the road we had crossed to get to the Gulf side. We turned around and saw that it was some kind of policeman and he was motioning for us to walk over to where he was standing. When we reached him, he informed us that we were in a restricted area and asked for identification. Of course, we didn't have anything on us and told him our ID was on the boat. We asked if he wanted us to go get it and he said no, but he told us to follow him to his vehicle and he would run a background check on us.

When we got to the vehicle, he proceeded to tell us that we were on Air Force land and that being there was a ticketable offense. He said the Air Force was conducting exercises out there that day and that if the troops had encountered us, they would have treated us as "unfriendlies" and would have assumed that we were part of the exercise, taken us into custody, etc. We asked him why none of the land was posted (we hadn't seen a sign anywhere to indicate that we shouldn't be there) and he said that many of the signs had blown down in hurricanes and hadn't been replaced.  At any rate, he didn't give us a ticket, didn't run a background check and let us go back to the boat once he felt we had been properly warned. Needless to say, that will be our last trip to the Gulf at Mary Esther!

Tuesday we left early for the trip to Panama City to meet up with Mike & Mary Hall aboard "What Daze It" in Dolphin Bay. We arrived about 3:30 p.m., rafted next to them and spent a quiet evening on the boat. Wednesday morning we took Mike & Mary's car to get a few things at Wal-Mart as we were planning to leave around noon to go a short distance out into the Gulf to Crooked Island to anchor for the evening.

Crooked Island and much of the surrounding land is used by the Air Force to test drones and they announce on the VHF radio each day whether exercises are being conducted in the area. If they are, no boat traffic is allowed during that time. About 11:00 a.m. they announced that exercises would be conducted that day beginning about 1:15 p.m. Todd contacted them to ask when the exercises would be over and was told it would be about 3:30 p.m., so we left Dophin Bay around 1:30 p.m. and made our way out into the Gulf.

The trip took longer than we expected and we arrived at Crooked Island as the sun was setting. It was a little tricky getting into the anchorage, and even though Mike & Mary had been there before and we were following their old track, areas that had been deep before had shoaled and were very shallow now. So, we adjusted our course along the way, in semi-darkness, and made it to the anchorage without incident, even though there were some tense moments along the way!

After getting anchored and taking the dogs to shore, we joined Mike & Mary for dinner and enjoyed a pleasant evening on the water. I putzed around the galley Thursday morning while the Captain did a little fishing and exploring in the dinghy. We then took a dinghy ride to the eastern end of Crooked Island to look for seashells. We found lots of small sand dollars but not much else of interest. The Captain left me on the beach and trolled his way back to the boat, hoping to catch some fish, while I walked back along the beach.

Shortly after returning to the boat, Mary decided to trim the back of Mike's hair/neck and offered to give the Captain a hair cut. Since his last hair cut was in Columbus, MS around the end of October, he was ready to lose some locks - and I must say, she did a very fine job! That evening, we shared some of Fred's famous seafood gumbo, accompanied by cornbread, with Mike & Mary on our boat and then turned in for the evening.

This is Mary Hall giving Todd a haircut on the bow of their boat with a view of Crooked Island in the background.


These are some of the seashells we gathered at Mary Esther and at Crooked Island.


Friday we went back out into the Gulf and made our way to Port St. Joe where we re-entered the Waterway and continued on to Apalachicola to get fuel. We then made our way to St. George Island where we anchored for the evening and retired around 8:30 p.m. in preparation for the Gulf crossing the next morning. Mike got us up five hours later (1:30 a.m. CST) and he and Todd took the dogs to shore. We then loaded the dinghy, got the anchor up and were on our way an hour later. Since we were now in the Eastern Time Zone, it was actually 3:30 a.m. when we left the anchorage and made our way through East Pass and out into the Gulf.

These are some shrimp boats we passed in the canal that leads from the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway at Port St. Joe.


The water was very calm through the pass and into the Gulf. As we got further from land, the seas picked up some and we had three or four hours of two- to three-foot seas but then it began to calm down again as we neared the western coast of Florida. After thirteen long hours, we reached Cedar Keys and anchored for the evening. We were all exhausted and went to bed shortly after eating dinner. Mike & Mary left us Sunday morning and continued south toward Tarpon Springs. They were planning to spend a couple of days there before going on to St. Petersburg where they will leave their boat, rent a car and drive to Key Largo to move a friend's boat from Key Largo to Panama City.  Since we were in no rush to get to St. Petersburg, we decided to spend a few days in Crystal River, about thirty miles south of Cedar Keys.

A beautiful sunset view of a sailboat passing by our anchorage at Cedar Keys.

This is the infamous and much talked about Mike and Mary Hall holding their Jack Russell terriers, HID (left) and M.E. (right). HID stands for Hearing Impaired Dog and M.E. are Mary's initials, pronouned Emmy.


Crystal River is a spring-fed freshwater river and is the largest manatee haven on the west coast of Florida with 17% (about 200) of the state's manatee population living along the river. The water is a uniform 72 degrees and the thirty-some natural springs pump an amazing 300 million gallons of water each day! We made our way through the ten mile long winding river channel and anchored in Kings Bay, a small freshwater lake, near the town of Crystal River.

Mo, the 72-year-old dynamo we originally met in September of 2005, and again this past September at Waterfall Cove on Pickwick Lake, had given us the names of some friends who live in Crystal River. We contacted Bob & Phyllis and introduced ourselves and were promptly invited to join them for dinner. However, we wanted to clean up and spend a quiet evening on the boat so we told Phyllis we would dinghy over to see them the next day.

Late Monday morning we took the dinghy over to meet Bob & Phyllis whose home is on one of the many canals surrounding Kings Bay. On the way, we met Hal who was headed back to his 54-foot steel hulled sailboat that is anchored in Kings Bay. Hal is also a friend of Bob & Phyllis and was on his way back from their house. In talking with Hal, we learned that he had essentially gutted the interior of his sailboat and has been working on redoing it over the past year - what a project! Sounds like he is almost finished, though, and has plans to meet some friends in the Exumas mid-March 2007.

After making our way to Bob & Phyllis' home and visiting with them for a while, we walked to a nearby restaurant to have lunch only to find that it was closed on Mondays. On our way back to their house we met Bob who was heading into town to run a few errands. We hopped in with him and he dropped us off at a local restaurant called Crackers and then re-joined us a short while later. While we ate lunch Bob told us stories about the many wonderful years he & Phyllis spent on their catamaran in Trinidad in the West Indies near the Venezualan coast. They have also spent time in the Exumas and Grenada, among many, many other places - an interesting and amazing lifestyle, to say the least!

When we returned to the house, we got in the dinghy and made our way back to the boat to check on Buddy. We then took a short dinghy ride around the Bay and had just returned to the boat when Bob stopped by in his 22-foot Bayliner for a few evening cocktails. We visited until dark when Bob headed back home and we settled in for a quiet evening on the boat.

We dinghied back over to Bob & Phyllis' Tuesday afternoon to borrow Bob's canoe and visit the natural springs called Three Sisters just down the canal from their house. Todd took his snorkeling gear and snorkeled in the crystal clear 72-degree water while I watched from the canoe (too cold for me!) What a beautiful area, though! Todd also wanted to swim with the manatees but we didn't see any in the immediate area or on the way back to the boat, although we had seen a few on the way over. What we did come across on the return trip, though, was a couple of porpoises. They were chasing fish, with the pelicans hovering over their heads, and we saw the fish jump out of the water and the porpoise caught the fish in its mouth in mid-air. Way cool, but over too quickly to get a photo of it!

The Captain snorkeling in the Three Sisters springs.


Another view of the Captain at Three Sisters. The water was truly spectacular!


These are a few of the manatees we saw in the water on our way to Bob and Phyllis' house.


Shortly after returning to the boat, Todd saw a bald eagle swoop down right in front of him on the starboard side of the boat and pluck a fish out of the water - just another of the many incredible sights we've experienced in this beautiful area! Bob stopped by in his Bayliner about 5:00 p.m. and told us that Hal wanted us to come over and tour his sailboat, so we dinghied over and spent a couple of hours visiting with them and talking about boating in the islands. These guys have experienced a lot and obviously know what they're talking about!

Phyllis has invited us to their home tomorrow (Wednesday) evening for Caribbean Jerk Chicken. We may leave Crystal River Thursday morning; if so, tomorrow will be a laundry and errand-running day while we have the opportunity. Bob & Phyllis have graciously offered the use of their vehicle and their washer and dryer, although we will probably end up going to a laundromat for the sake of expediency. Regardless, Bob & Phyllis have been more than generous and we are grateful to have made their acquaintance. We hope to keep in touch with them for many years to come!

Our next stop on the way to St. Petersburg will probably be Anclote Key near Tarpon Springs. We will anchor there for a night or two and possibly go into Tarpon Springs for a night before making the final leg of the journey to St. Petersburg. We will then stay on the boat in St. Petersburg until December 28th when we will meet up with Todd's sister Jennifer and go to her house in Orlando for a late Christmas and New Year. In the meantime, we want to wish all of our family, friends and acquaintances who are reading the blog and keeping up with our adventures a very Merry Christmas and a wonderfully prosperous and Happy New Year!!!