Gulf Breeze to Panama City, Fl

     Tom and I were up at 5:00 to disconnect the lines, power cord and fill the boat with water.  We were at the fuel dock waiting for the attendant to arrive and fill us up so we could get an early start.  The weather had put us two days behind .  Why we feel that we are behind?  I don't know.  Maybe its just the way guys travel. Maybe its testosterone. Maybe its type A behaviour.  What I do know is that Beth can't understand it and finds it stressful!    I assured her that the weather reports indicated the white caps would settle down by mid morning.   Now , I know what you are thinking....oh! oh! Ralphie, you,ve done it again. What kind of mess did you get into this time?  Ha! Ha!  This time the forecast was right.  Just as predicted the large bays we crossed settled down from the "rough chop" to a light chop and the winds from 15 knots to 5.  It was smooth cruising.  Beth even took the helm!
     Of couse that didn't stop the mechanical gremlins from working!  Just as Beth took over control of the boat the starboard tach drive gave out, so we lost the synchronizer again.  Wouldn't you know it...more stress for Beth!  However,  your forward thinking captain had already prepared for this event.  Surprise! Surprise!  Since I knew the fix might be temporary I had taken the precaution of bringing both motors up manually to 1200 rpms so that if the tack quit both motors would still be in sink. Beth was relieved about this, but became increasingly concerned about what time we would arrive in Panama city.  She did not want to anchor in the dark and it was 90 miles away, and we would hit a time change and lose an hour of light, and we were unsure if there were any no wake zones, and  there were no good intermediate anchorages  and...and...and...Oh my ears were ringing!!!
     And....she was right!  It was getting late by the time we were approaching  Panama City.... but, I had a plan!   Simple.  Have you already guessed it?  I know RJ has!  If your late what do you do?.......STEP ON THE GAS!!   It was time to give Docs Holiday a warm up, so we throttled up to 2200 rpms giving us 17.6 knots. We pulled in to a beautiful well protected anchorage, set the anchor, cracked a couple of coldies and lit the barbecue before it got dark.      
  
 The trip across the bays, Choctawatchee, West Bay and St. Andrews Bay were delightful.  The sun was shining and although cold for the southerners, we Canadians were in our element.  We are used to drinking cold beer in the snow for heaven's sake.  At least we were in the sunshine!

                                          Government  Installation--but who's looking?

      The highlight of the trip was the cruise through the "Canyons".  Just leaving the Choctawatchee bay  the ICW winds through  several miles of steep 20 foot high sand hills.  The hills formed different shapes and as we went along we could see some that looked like castles, some had animal shapes and one that looked like a group of people with large bodies and little heads, standing together.  The sun with the winding river sent shadows across them which gave them motion.  In my Canadian head I thought, "must be the beer, eh!"

                                                                        ICW

                                          There's natural sand sculptures in them Hills                                  
                                                          

                                                               The  Canyons                                                                               
                                                                 
     Tomorrow, a big decision for us.  Do we go off shore, 198 miles from Panama City to Clearwater! Its giving 1 foot seas for over 24 hours then a front moves in and even Appalachicola bay is going to have 4 foot seas within the next 3 days.   If we go direct to Appalachicola or Carrabelle we will miss the window of opportunity and our trip is over for the next few weeks until I return from working in Beaumont.   Even if we wait, we will still have to find a weather window to make the crossing.  Carabelle to Tarpon springs is a little shorter (only 18 miles north of Clearwater) 16 hours vs.20
Decisions Decision Decisions.   What would you do?  (I know my sister in law,  Patty would say. "Screw this, take a plane!")
    
    
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