Feeling much better today and up and around at 6 am. Rental car will be here this morning and Steve and  i are headed to west marine and breakfast. We have to have a new GPS / chart plotter for our big water trip. Have learned a lot from our boating neighbors about etiquette, i have a few things to change that matter the other things i could care less about. Our VHF radio needs an outside speaker due to the fact that it was installed inside the cabin and to be safe it has to be heard at bridge. Big ships trying to contact you can’t if its inside cabin and you can’t hear them. Luckily there is two of us and if we are both on bridge we keep doors open to hear it. We bought our off shore safety vests with clips for harness to clip to boat in rough weather or just when we are on boat. We are preparing to go home tomorrow to take care of some mandatory things back home. Cant wait to see my son and my friends and my dogs. We rented a comfortable car to travel home in and i can even get my fishing rods in the back. lol I am bringing some things home that i realize that we don’t need. I have a list of things to bring back that i do need.

We spent today resting mostly due to the fact i was sick. We grilled out steak and i think i got the bad one i felt like crap all day long sick to my stomach. Well i guess you can tell that there is not a lot of interesting things to write about today, except the fact that Steve has been an excellent caregiver. Funny how life works like that.

I am so pleased at all the people checking out our blog, thank you! Steve and I have been here at St Andrews marina since Monday 26. Our next adventure is heading out into the gulf to Clearwater close to Tampa. This will be our first open water adventure no stopping no anchoring out just non stop to Tampa( remain in your harness at all times, no diving swimming or climbing mast until destination is reached). This is or first big crossing, from Panama City to Tampa, 36 hours nonstop. We are excited and looking forward to it. We have met shrimp boat captains, fish boat captains, cruisers capts, and sailors. Oh and barge captains. We have so much good information and these guys love to talk.

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Here is a small slideshow hope you like it! We really liked this town but we will be own our way tomorrow. 🙂 This camera does not take as good pictures as my I-Phone 😦

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Stayed in the marina today due to rainy weather and  just enjoyed each others company exploring the marina the town and watching movies. Perfect rainy day activities. Went to eat at Los Rancheros just a short walk to the restraint from the boat. Saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. watched a raccoon wander the fishing docs looking for something to get into.Hope you guys are liking the pics especially the one with my fingers in it, classic picture, lol.

CAPTAINS LOG: Rain today with 10-15 knot winds in gulf, staying in to rest.
Captain Steve out.:-)

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Good morning again everyone! Well i couldn’t let the pancake incident go so i tried them again this AM with complete success, beautiful light fluffy pancakes and delicious! I am at the store doing my laundry ( never ending chore when your boating). Cleaned the cabin and will go shopping or just sightseeing in the little town of St Andrews. Steve says he has plans for us today. Cant wait until tonight when they turn the Christmas lights on again to take  pictures. The weather is beautiful and warm, looks like its gonna be a great day again. Steve and i walked the town of St Andrews. Ate a great lunch at an Oyster Place, i love the atmosphere around this place. We walked to the park at dark and took pictures of the lights walked down to the bay beach and came back to the dock and hung out with some of the sailors. One of them has a catamaran tri hull and works with Nascar. I hope everyone had a great day today.

CAPTAINS LOG: Tried to get a job on shrimp boat, but they stay out for one week at a time. Will cont to attempt to become a temporary shrimp boat worker. 🙂

Good morning everyone! Steve and I have a beautiful day for sailing today, calm waters great winds and warm weather. Starteout with me attempting to create buttermilk pancakes, obviously I used too much buttermilk and they were flat and doughy, not like my regular pancakes. We got those down, you know anything tastes good with syrup. 🙂 needless to say that recipe has been revised! Our travel channel today is a swampy ditch with all kinds of neat vegetation on each side, Florida is beautiful. On the side of this channel in the sand there was one spot of that grass, you know the grass, the soft kind that squishes under your feet and feels so good. We can’t wait to get out and find us some. Panama City is our destination for food fuel and entertainment. Gonna take some time and enjoy the city. Signing off for now more later tonite. We just watched two bald eagles and a falcon fight over a fish on the bank. They were chasing each other thru the trees and dive bombing each other. Well Steve and I just got to see our first “Eagles -vs- Falcons” game. Hehehe. OK we finally made it to Panama City (actually St Andrew’s Marina in historic St Andrew0. We had plenty of help anchoring out at the marina, the people are friendly and we were immediately offered a ride to the stores when Steve mentioned we had to restock our food stores. Love the sailboats here, plenty of shrimp boats and charter fishing boats, and big cruisers. This town has so much old world charm, most of the buildings are restored and they have a wonderful park full of Christmas figures and lights to rival big city Christmas light shows,  a walkway to the ocean which we didn’t get to see the ocean a couple were busy at the end of the walkway and we didn’t want to disturb them. Will walk it tomorrow. Steve and i walked the sidewalks past the unique shops looking in the windows. We really like this town and the marina. People here are really friendly and helpful. We saw so many dolphins today, one dolphin came right up to the boat and swam under it. It was so beautiful, we were so excited we could have reached out and touched it! I think we have enjoyed seeing the dolphins the best, although we like to watch the dive bombing pelicans and the majestic bald eagles also. A young guy caught a weird fish here at the marina, i will try to post a picture maybe someone can tell me what it is. Our next step in our journey is out to the gulf to go to Port St Joe. We may have to stay here several days due to weather in the gulf since we can’t leave tomorrow and it is raining Tues. We are going to enjoy Panama City for a day or two. Another end to a wonderful day on the water!

CAPTAINS LOG: Logged 43 miles today, water was calm winds to 5 mph, water is still thin in lots of areas. Marina is very nice and very  close to a lot of restaurants, stores and entertainment. Good place to stay, 1.30 per foot for transient docks.

Today started out chilly with some 12-15 knot winds and some 1-3 foot waves. It is a beautiful cold day today. Steve has worked hard at the helm today with the boat pitching from side to side by the waves. The waves are relentless in their pounding against the hull. It has been an adventure today, but extremely cold. I have spent most of the day in the cabin warm and dry. Giving the capt a break when he needed one. The boat is harder to steer in rough water but it can be done, just another learning process. We are thoroughly enjoying our boat and getting more experience as we go! The waves were so big they were splashing over the bow. We have salt water all over the boat we will wash off tonite at the marina. We finally found a place to anchor about 3/4 mile from shore. The water was still thin but we managed to get anchored out, I will have to learn to drop anchor it’s easier than holding thingamajig in one position in high winds! Lesson number 1389 and counting. Loving this life :-). The winds howled all night whistling thru the riggings and making loud noises I didn’t know a boat could make. It sounded like King Triton was beating on my hull. We still slept soundly throughout the night. Our anchor held perfectly. The end to another great day on the water.

CAPTAINS LOG: Hard winds hard sail! Great anchorage!  MM 250 in Choctawhatchee Bay.  62 miles logged today. Dawn till dusk. Have a great day, Capt. Steve T1

“HAPPY THANKSGIVING”  to all my family, friends,and blog readers! I hope you have a wonderful one! Steve and I slept in got up at 8 and started getting ready to go eat Thanksgiving Dinner at Turner Marine with Linda and Pete. I went to take a shower and come back to boat to get things ready to go. We went to their boat which is out of the water for a bottom job and some other maintenance. You have to repaint and recoat the bottom of your boat every several years depending upon amount of time in salt or fresh water. I got a tour of their beautiful boat and was surprised at how much room it has it is awesome, and beautifully decorated. We drove to Turner marine and due to miscommunication the dinner had been yesterday. We got to meet some new people at this marina and learn about some great charts and more tips on where we are going. Boating people offer some wonderful tips and advice on what to do when on the water. One couple was from Canada and very friendly. Well needless to say we were all hungry and needed food. So we went back to Fairhope (the only place that had a restaurant open on Thanksgiving Day! The restaurant was called Tamaras, they had a buffet and endless champagne.Not a big champagne drinker i had the endless unsweet tea. The buffet was great all the food was wonderful. We felt like that family in christmas story waiting on the waiters to come out and sing “deck the halls with boughs of horry fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra” lol (even though it wasn’t Chinese food) After we ate we made it back to the marina where Linda and I left the guys and went to find the Rave theater and watch “Breaking Dawn Part II”. We loved it!  I am now sitting in the laundry room waiting on the slow dryer to finish my clothes then i am going to bed. I hope everyone had a day as wonderful as ours! Stay tuned!! 🙂