Meandering Magees: Pensacola to Panama City

Day 60 - Saturday, November 5
1741 miles

We decided to stay another day in Pensacola so Wednesday we we took an Uber ride to the Pensacola Naval Station to watch the Blue Angels practice and visit the Naval Aviation Museum. We sat in yellow camp chairs just back from the runway with hundreds of others. On Tuesday we watched the planes from the boat as they circled over us while coming into Pensacola Bay, but this time we got a narrated, up close view. And the narrator had a good sense of humor along with good information. We learned it is the 70th anniversary of the Blue Angels. And when the planes fly in a formation there is 18 inches of separation between a wing and another cockpit. Probably the lasting memory of the practice session was the "sneaky pass". Appropriately named because as we were told to watch a maneuver out in front of us, one of the planes zoomed (and I mean zoomed) directly over us coming from behind. The noise was enough to rattle our eardrums and to say we were startled is an understatement!

After the show we walked into the museum, along with those hundreds of other spectators. The museum was free and was large enough that we didn't feel crowded. Most of the people went to the Blue Angels section as the pilots came to sign autographs. We did not and so found ourselves the only ones in a little theater showing a documentary on WWII Treasures in Lake Michigan. Having grown up on that beautiful shore, and never hearing anything about World War II being remotely connected to Lake Michigan, we had to check it out. The short version is: the Navy needed to train pilots to land on aircraft carriers, but all of the vessels were engaged in the war. A cruise ship based in Chicago called the See And Bee was refitted with a flat top, renamed the Wolverine and thousands of pilots that flew in the Pacific theater, taking off and landing on carriers, learned how to do so on the waters of Lake Michigan.

A separate building called Hanger One had displays about NASA, the Coast Guard, naval aviation during the Vietnam War and a Marine One helicopter. With more planes outside, the entire museum complex had a very large representation of naval aircraft.

Staying an extra day also gave us the opportunity to watch and hear the Trump rally being held across the marina from us. We were on the backside of the amphitheater so weren't able to see the stage but could hear the speeches and see the crowd. The red, white and blue fireworks show at the end was terrific. We gave it several blasts of our boat horn.
Here is another bit of trivia that will only come in handy in a game of Trivial Pursuit -
There are 5 things that define a large city: the presence of a symphony, ballet company, art museum, a full-time theater and an opera company. Pensacola is the only city between Mobile and Tampa to have all 5. We were told this by a waiter who is a ballet dancer.

I voted for Palafox Marina in Pensacola as our easiest and quickest docking. A sea wall in front blocked the wind so we slid right into our slip. The dock master was there and was expert with the ropes. We were tied up and hooked up in record time. He carried in his pocket a card with all the info we would need - wifi password and gate code - and said we didn't need to pay until we left. That saved me a walk to the office. You have to be thankful for the little things . . .

Thursday we traveled with Lucky Ducks to Baytown Marina at the Sandestin resort near Destin, Florida. It was a 6 hour trip as there were only a few open spaces in the intracoastal that we could run fast. Otherwise we were back to the 10 mph that has become our "groove".

We had hoped to cross the Gulf to Dunedin (near Tarpon Springs) on Friday, but the winds and waves didn't cooperate. So Friday we moved farther along the Panhandle to Panama City. We could run a little bit at the beginning of the trip in the Choctawhatchee Bay (with a name like that, we know we are not in Kansas anymore, Toto) but when we entered the West Bay Creek part of the intracoastal, we felt like we were back on the rivers. It was that narrow and sparsely populated.
But it is much more fun looking for dolphins since we entered salt water than we had looking for debris in the Mississippi. Flipper loves playing in our wake and we love watching him!

True North passed 4 other Looper boats on her way to Panama City. And there were 3 Looper boats in front of us. We docked at St. Andrews Marina in the historic district. Walking distance to a grocery store, numerous restaurants and bars, and a nice park that is getting ready for Christmas. We will leave here on Sunday to go to Carrabelle. Every Looper, when crossing the Gulf, leaves from either Apalachicola or Carrabelle. And boats don't go until Eddy's Weather Wag says it is OK. Eddy is a Looper who monitors 3 different weather sites and we signed up for his daily email updates on the "weather window" needed to cross. (Eddy was one of the 3 boats in front of us and is in our marina.) Go-Fast boats (Looper terminology, of which we are one) can cross in daylight hours. We think it will take us 6-7 hours. A large percentage of Loop boats are trawlers that can only travel 7-8 mph and they do an overnight crossing - 25 hours. So the weather window has to take in account conditions at the start, middle, and end of the trip. Unfortunately, as of today, it may be next Friday before the wind and waves will allow us to feel comfortable crossing. We don't need the waves to be under 2 ft, as many boats do, but we also don't want to pound big waves for 6 hours. Mike is also monitoring several weather sites and he and Greg will ultimately make the call on go or no go.