Another good day on the water. Is that sounding monotonous. We left Shalimar at 8:00 and caught our friends in 2 if by C by about 9:00. We traveled to Panama City. The first part of the trip was about 30 miles of open water on Choctawhatchee Bay. After that we had 20 miles of intercoastal that was essentially a 200′ wide river the Corp must have dug when they created the GIWW. We got a boost of almost 1.5 mph in the GIWW with the tide going out to the Panama Inlet. There is no development along this stretch of the GIWW.
After we exited the 20 mile river (ditch) we were in West Bay and we had dolphins following the boat for a short time. I estimated there may have been 4 or 5 and only 1 jumped in the wake. Lenore did not see them but a little while later she saw one jump in the wake of 2 If By C. Hope to see more and maybe get some photos of this. The sun was out for most of the day but late afternoon is got partly sunny with more clouds than sun. We are near an Air Force base and the jets are pretty loud but not real frequent.
We will stay here two days because with the weather/winds kicking up on the gulf we may not have a weather window until next week. Still have not decided whether to stay in Apalachicola or Carrabelle to start the crossing. Carabell is about 15 miles further east on the coast and makes the crossing somewhat shorter, about 170 miles to Tarpon Springs.
The first picture is a buoy on the GIWW that the bird have done a number on. Can’t read the number but we know it is red from the nun shape. The second picture is the wharfs at Panama City with a container ship being unloaded. I like the cloud formation as the sun was getting ready to set on the Gulf.