Jett (my grandson)stayed all night with us on Friday night. so we could be ready for our sailboat ride to downtown Chattanooga and stage for the beginning of our journey. Brian Fortney , Dallas Brooks with his two children Carson and Dallas Jr. Along with Jett and I. The day started at 9:30 and headed to the Chickamauga Dam Lock with our guests. Easy tie up and we were delighted to see our boat buddies sticker on the pin in the lock. Sailing Caretta is already in Grenada and headed back this year sometime. The kids had a ball climbing over the boat, driving the boat and playing. We traveled past Williams Island and back to the riverside docks by the bluffs in Chattanooga right at downtown. It was a pretty chilly day but we all enjoyed it. We took Jett home to get some rest for the ball tournament on Sunday.

Woke to a beautiful morning at Midway Marina. Headed toward Fulton Lock to start our day of locking through some locks today! Fulton lock is 391.1 MM on the TTB and 4 more to go on the tenn tom! While waiting on the lock to open (after the fulton lock), Andrea decided to blow some bubbles from the bow of her boat lol. They are so pretty catching the sun and shimmering until they touch the muddy dark waters of the TTB and disappearing forever. We met some other boaters on the way up the TTB headed toward Pickwick lake. One sailboat and several other motorboats. Most boaters are courteous and nice others not so much(esp the motor boaters when they see a sailboat). Not sure why.

Loving the beautiful blue skies and the beautiful scenery that we see everyday on the water. It is nice to just sit out on the boat and soak up all the nature surrounding us. Peace and quiet with little traffic. Enjoy our pictures.

Started out at 6 this morning trying to beat a barge to the lock. We did it! We went through the first of four locks today! The one rope system Steve rigged up for me works great. Caretta uses the same system. The boat stays put and it’s easy to tie on and off. The first lock was Aberdeen and it went so quick and smooth. They opened up for us we tied off near the center of the port side wall and sat back to watch the water rise and lift us up to the top of the lock! When the gates opened and the horn blew I loosed there line pushed off the bow and stern and the Moose is Loose!! We did have a couple of visitors while we waited and while we were in the lock. A water snake was on one of the pins and a cool little bird hung out on the rigging while we were waiting on the lock to lock through.

The second lock is the Amory lock 13.5 miles from Aberdeen lock.

The third lock was the Wilkins lock. Followed by the Fulton lock and Midway marina.

Well it was a little rough and rainy for several days so not a whole lot going on until Friday the 27th. We had a good day so we loaded up the bicycles with Andrea and Barry the scooter gang! We stopped and ate at a place that served a great breakfast, the french toast turned out to be cinnamon toast lol so i just ate it as toast but it was so sweet I only got one slice down. It was called the Breakfast Table Cafe also called the Red Rooster Cafe. Ran the sidewalks all the way down to the Publix and picked up two or three things we could carry on the bikes. The traffick in Destin is just as busy and packed as the traffic in Ft Myers( race track central). We ran the sidewalks and took the beach road to the end of the destin beach island area. There are some very beautiful homes there as we rode our bikes through water sand that was on the sidewalks. We rode back to the main street and to a place called the Marine Chandlery, they had some cool stuff for fishing and boating(small store). The owner there told us to eat at the restaurant called Beauchamps, and it was wonderful. l had a Snapper Destin which was wonderful so if you go to that restaurant make sure you try it. The restaurant is named after three dogs the owner had. It has a great view of Destin Harbor and has a cool little beach at the restaurant with chairs and places for the kids to play. We just pulled our dinghys up on the beach and ate there after we went back to the boat put the bikes up and got dressed for Beauchamps.

Today we sat through some gnarly storms and at 4:00 we motored over to shell island to get a jump on our outside passage to Destin. Due to weather our trip to Pensacola has been shortened to Destin. We are too high to get under Destin Bridge so we will stay on outside in inlet area with marinas and some waterside shops. Stay tuned tomorrow for more details in Destin trip!

Good Morning everyone! Today is Sunday and we are up and rolling to get to Steves moms house for lunch. It was a delicious lunch and i got to meet little Holly the dachsund and Betty a friend of Lindas that is helping them out. She was kind enough to let Steve and I use her car to go get my pedicure and groceries then she drove us back to our boat. After we all went to eat at Las Rancheros in the rain! Had a great time and we cant express our appreciation enough to Betti for being such a help and a good friend today! We stood at the wet docks under the roof of the walkway pavilion and waited until the rain stopped and we dinghied back to the boat to relax watch the lights come on in the city and watch the huge container ship be escorted in with two pilot ships. We are awaiting a good weather window to sail to Pensacola. Goodnight everyone. Fair winds my friends!

We stayed on the boat today due to the weather but after 2 it suddenly just calmed and the waves went down. It was too late to make lunch with Steves mom so we went to eat Mexican at Las Antojitos close to the marina with Barry and Andrea. And then we went to an ice cream shop called Sweet Feed where they pour cream on a cold plate and make ice cream in rolls and you can choose what toppings or choose a flavor of the day. It was very good! SO if you are ever in St Andrews or Panama City Beach make a stop here it will be worth your time. Good night everyone have a wonderful night.

So i am back in St Andrews cooked breakfast and am getting ready to go in to do laundry at the cool little marina here. I went in and the people there were so nice and let me sit at a table inside with my computer while my clothes washed and dried.It is a cool little marina store with unsweet tea and treats if i want while i slave away at my laundry lol. Andrea and Barry are meeting with her brother today and we were supposed to go to Steve’s moms but she does not feel well today so we shall wait for tomorrow to go see her. It was like old times in 2011 when I first came to St Andrews and did the same thing then. After my day of laundry chores I called Steve we took the laundry back to the boat and got ready to go eat at Uncle Ernies. We had a wonderful time listening to the music, eating a great steak and watching a beautiful sunset! check out the pictures below and stay tuned friends!

Ok so woke up still mad at myself for missing my hot fudge sundae at the soda shop, but I need to get home. Jett my grandson is playing all star games and I want to catch some games. So this fall “I will be back!!“ for hot fudge sundae!! Was a lazy easy day up the ICW toward St Andrews Bay marina. As we sailed past pelicans and dolphins we arrived at the DuPont bridge ( HWY 98) at high tide which allowed Caretta to go under at 49 ft mast but we would have hit the bridge at 52’ . Sooo we anchored out waited for 1:30 AM low tide that dropped 3 ft and motored to the other side of the bridge anchored out and waited for the morning light to go into St Andrews Bay.

Arrived in Apalachacola at 10:30 AM this morning and went in to eat lunch at the “station” and rode our bikes to Oyster City and left them with the guys while we checked out the cool shops. I missed the soda shop (my fault) it closed at five and we are leaving tomorrow so I’m mad and that’s all I have to say about that!!