Stats for November 15, 2018

Origin:  Pensacola Free Wall

Destination:  Fort Walton Beach 

Distance:  42.1 miles

Speed:  9.3 mph

Time on the Move:  4 hours and 31 minutes

After our LONG, COLD adventure in Pensacola, we were thrilled to wake up to sunshine!!  But it was freezing, freezing cold.  Somehow the kids ended up cuddling in our bed watching PBS appisodes first thing, and I see exactly how freezing Hayley was. 

We were just thankful we didn’t get a knock in the middle of the night asking us to move our boat, and we didn’t want to push it much into the morning.  We were up and at em early and trying to figure out how we were going to maneuver out of this little clown car spot we got ourselves into.  The wind loves to blow our boat around because of our totally enclosed flybridge, and today it wanted to blow us right back into the spot we were parked in.  There was a pile and dock about 10 feet behind us and an angled concrete wall about 7 feet in front of us.  It totally makes me think about that scene from Austin Powers where he gets the golf cart stuck in the hallway and goes back and forth a million times to try to turn around.  Luckily it did not take us a million times, just 20 or so, and we only suffered 1 minor scrape on the swim platform before we got out of there.

After getting out of the spot, getting out of that tight channel with the wind was another huge relief.  And then we were back into Pensacola Bay.  And it was windy.  It was the kind of day where I tried not to think about the waves because they were 2 footers or so, but they were coming behind us, for the most part, so we couldn’t feel them much.  There was only a 20 minute stretch or so where we took them on our beam and we rocked back and forth, before we were more protected in the channel.

Before too long we were nearing our destination, but we headed to fill up with diesel fuel first.  There was a fishing boat already on the fuel dock and they gave us some bait so we could try fishing.  I think the boys had plenty of fun digging through the bucket and picking up the minnows, shrimp, and tiny crabs!!

We bought every bit of diesel the dock had and then headed to our destination for the night, the Fort Walton Free Dock.  There was already a looper there, so we met some new friends after they helped catch our lines.  Barb and Jay are from Canada and traveling on The Blessing.  Of course we can’t say their boat name without sounding like Uncle Louis in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, so I’m sure they love us.  We love the fact that they searched all over for their boat and planned on taking a year to figure out how to drive it before they actually started the loop, seeing as they have never owned a boat before.  However, after they spent a few days with a captain, Barb said she didn’t think they needed to wait a year and they should just do it now…INNTW?!

We bundled up (again) and headed out to check out the town.  We found a playground (surprise) and a brewery (surprise).  Perfect kind of evening!!

On the way home we spent all of our cash at a library book sale, checked out these Indian Mounds nearby, and then caught the very end of a beautiful sunset.  

We ended the evening with a birthday celebration!!  Even though it was very cold, Mike said we could count it as his birthday since it was so sunny!!

Thanks for reading about our adventures!!