December 15, 2016 – Thursday
We had a wonderful day, as so many others, we started the day with one of our Blue Heron friends.
After breakfast, Rick and I had coffee with Tanya Binford, author of Crossing the Wake. We discussed possible anchorages and marinas for the next portion of our adventure and she shared many of her loop adventures with us. After coffee, her friends joined us for lunch at Lulu’s. Lulu’s is owned by Jimmy Buffett’s sister, Lucy.
As fate would have it, in the late afternoon, M/V Bob Tale pulled into the slip next to ours. Owners Jean and Paul are a delight and it was great to have time to visit with them.
December 16, 2016 – Friday
We were up at 5:15 am preparing for our departure, at 6:15 am Paul and Jean are up, wishing us Merry Christmas and giving us a push off. The sunrise was beautiful.
Views from the Gulf Intracostal Waterway
The weather forecast for today was, winds from the south with waves one foot or less, instead, the winds came from the north-north-east, the direction we were going, with waves between 1.5 to 2.5 feet. That meant a day of rough riding and trying to stay on top of the waves. Tonight we are at the public dock of Fort Wald0n Beach, on the Emerald Coast in western Florida.
The dock is part of the city park which has a statue of a brown pelican, one of our favorite birds, as well as Christmas decorations.
If all goes well, tomorrow we will be Panama City Beach, FL.