Road Trip

Duh! Those are the only kind of people who get married.

Look out little sailboat!

We took a drive today after church. We drove down to Apalachacola Florida. We are thinking of moving Morgan down there at the end of the month. We also looked at Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe. We will see. It was fun to see some more of Florida.

Look at the picture above of the sailboat anchored in front of the barge. I wouldn't want to be on board that one. Made me nervous, and I was in the car.


Hey Rachel, I saw this (picture #1) in the library and thought of you. Maybe you should check it out. Actually, it was mom's idea. I am much to nice to think of something like that.


We were walking the docks in Apalachacola and ran into some other cruisers (Mike and Amanda) who we had met in Ocean Springs MS a month ago. They are planing on leaving there tomorrow morning. Maybe we will catch up with them again somewhere else.

Mike

Marina in Parker Florida

Morgan docked in Panama City.

All of the above pictures are of the marina that we are at in Parker Florida, a suburb of Panama City. Today was another fantastic day. I am glad not everyone knows how great it feels to live on a boat in Florida in March. Otherwise it would be so crowed down here you couldn't move. The weather was fantastic today, we had grilled fish for supper. I don't think I could be any happier right now.

I think I will start sanding the deck tomorrow in preparation for painting. I can't wait to get it painted so the outside of Morgan will look as good as the inside. We spent so much time refitting the interior, but not much on the outside. Once I get this done I will be as proud of the way she looks on the outside as I am of her interior.

I submitted an article to Small Craft Advisor magazine this week. I hope they print it. Time will tell. I am thinking of writing a follow up article for Living Aboard magazine to the one they published before and see if they will print it. I am half way through with one I am going to submit to Good Old Boat about Morgan's refit.

Life is good,

Mike

14 Days Straight

Me on the beach looking goofy, I don't know what I was thinking.

Ah! laying on the bow in shorts, listening to XM, with cold drink in hand, flying the spinnaker. It doesn't get any better than that.

The weather man said today was the 14th day straight of high temps over 70. That is what I have been looking for, and how sweet it is. We have met some really nice people since we have been here. Lots of people living on their boats down here. It seems funny to be in a place where you are not an odd ball for living aboard. I like it.

We found block ice today! It took almost a week to find. It lasts so much longer than cubed ice. We can go two weeks without having to buy ice to keep the cooler cold if we have block, every other day if we use cubed. We are finding where everything is around here now. We rented a car last Friday, and drove back to Ocean Springs to get our car.

I have been working on making screens for the hatches the last couple of days. It amazes me how fast time flies. I read once about a cruiser who was asked "What do you do all day?" His answer was "I don't know, but it takes me all day.". That's how I feel. I start the day with a goal, I get about half of it done and wonder where the day went. I am not complaining mind you. I am loving it.

First Boarding

We got to St Andrews bay (Panama City, FL) just before dark on Tuesday. The next morning we were having breakfast (bacon, eggs, and hash browns MMMMMMMM) when Sharon saw a boat approaching. It turned out to be a customs boat. They came along side and asked how many were on board. I told them just two. He then asked if we had any firearms aboard. I said yes, one. He told me they were going to board us, and for both of us to stand in the cockpit. After smacking our boat with theirs, two of them boarded us, while one stayed with their boat. He asked where the firearm was, we told him, he went down and looked at it, unloaded it, then asked to see our documentation. I gave him my drivers license, gun license, and boat registration, Sharon gave him her license. They wrote everything down, said have a good day, and got on their boat and took off. We saw them ten minutes later, with another boat stopped. I knew I was legal to carry in Florida, but I was still nervous. I told one of them that this was the first time we had ever been boarded. He told me it will happen more and more the further south we go. Yeha.
We are at Smugglers Cove Marina. It is a decent place, and very affordable. I think we will stay here for awhile, and do some work on the boat. Before we left Kentucky lake I bought paint to paint the topside, but it got to cold for me to do it. It is plenty warm here. We have been in shorts and tee shirts for awhile now. I had to break out a fan the other day. It is perfect weather to me, not too hot, not too cold.


OK, I give up. I just tried for 45 minutes to upload pics for this post. Blogspot software is so screwed up it has to be ran by the government. That is the only explanation for how a business can have such bad service, and survive (like the post office).

WOW! WHAT A DAY!

It's warm where I am.

Destin harbour.

Destin harbourwalk

Cool pic in the gulf today.

We left Destin this morning, and headed on the outside over to Panama City. It was our fist time in unprotected waters. When we came over from New Orleans, we were in the Mississippi Sound, which is the gulf with barrier islands. No islands this time, so the motion was different. We had a really good sail. We sailed 55 miles in 11 hours. It was fantastic. We made it into St. Andrews bay just before dark. The tide was going out as we were coming in, so it slowed us down to about 2.5 miles per hour. We are anchored a little ways in right now.
Destin was a lot of fun, but expensive. It is beautiful, but set up more for tourists. We couldn't find anyplace to shower, and had to walk a long ways to get groceries. But on the beautiful scale, it was about a 10.
The water once we got out into the gulf was just gorgeous, a kind of turquoise. We only saw a couple of dolphins today. We are going to check out a marina tomorrow that is supposed to be nice AND affordable, we shall see. They say they have showers, laundry, new docks, and a grocery across the street. Sounds to good to be true.

My first sunburn of the year

                                 Traveling along the ICW between Mobile Bay and Pensacol

                          An old sailboat washed up near Pensacola                         

                                              Morgan at anchor near Pensacola.

                                          Me investigating washed up sailboat.

Rosie beached as we took a walk.

I put sun screen on my face this morning, but not my neck. So now I am a redneck. Sharon says I have been for a long time. Tomorrow I will remember to put it all over. We had a very good day today. Motorsailed some, and sailed some. Beautiful day. We should make Destin tomorrow. We anchored about 4pm, and are just kicking back and getting ready to grill some hot dogs. Sharon is being cantankerous right now (don't know if I spelled that right). Anybody know how to keep a woman in line? Any help would be appreciated, as I have been trying now for almost 29 years with no luck. She thinks I am being a back seat driver while she is cooking supper. I'm just trying to be helpful. Sort of.

Oh well , you'll get that on a small boat.
Mike

We made it to Florida!

We are anchored just outside Pensacola Bay. Last night we anchored in Mobile Bay. It was a good trip through the ICW today. Once we anchored, we took Rosie over to the outer peninsula, and went for a walk on the beach. What a joy it is to be here. The weather is great, sunny and warm. We may spend a few days here, as it is really nice. Then we will work our way over to Destin. The new solar panel seems to be working out quite well. We also bought a third battery while in Ocean Springs, so we have a bit more electric available now. I will write more later, right now it's time to grill.

                          You probably can't read the sign, but it says Welcome to Florida

Sailing in the gulf

Mike