Pensacola, Fl to Panama City, Fl

Total Miles Traveled 947

We left Pensacola early 11-12-17 to get across Pensacola Bay before the wind started pushing up the waves.   We stopped at the city dock at Ft. Walton Beach, Florida with our friends on Viridian, George and Meg.  It was about 2 blocks to a Publix grocery so we picked up a few things and was greeted at the dock by one of the locals when we returned.

We helped Viridian leave the dock early the following morning, they are heading for Panama City and we are stopping at Niceville to visit friends from Terre Haute.  We left the dock around 9 a.m. and cruised across part of the Choctawhatchee Bay to the Bluewater Marina near Niceville, Fl.

When we arrived at the marina, we needed to do a little laundry; I think this is the first laundromat we have used that had a tree growing through the floor.

We had a great visit with our friends Brad and Nancy and an awesome meal at McGuire’s Irish Pub in Destin.  Thanks guys, we’re  looking forward to visiting you again in the spring.

Our next stop is an anchorage at Shell Island near Panama City, Fl.  This is one of our favorite anchorages along the panhandle of Florida. 

We took the dinghy to the island, if you look close on the horizon, you can see Moni Jean at anchor.

We walked the beach, ate lunch, and tried to find a few treasures with our metal detector.  We didn’t see another sole on the beach all afternoon.

On our first day I heard a loud noise, thinking it was a plane I was looking in the sky, then caught this out of the corner of my eye. 

Our anchorage is not far from Tyndall Air Force Base, home of the 325^th Fighter Wing of the Air Combat Command.  Tyndall is the home of the world’s first Raptor F-22A squadron.  We had some great flyovers, some pulled straight up vertical until out of sight.