Monday, April 18, 2011 - Bay Point Marina, Panama City, FL

On Thursday, March 31, 2011, our friends, Joel and Mary McChesney flew into Ft Myers and found their way to our boat at Snook Bight Marina. They were joining us for an adventure traveling up the west coast of Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico. Some of you may remember that they were with us for a time last winter as we explored Key West and the Dry Tortugas. We celebrated their arrival and Maureen’s birthday by sharing a five-star meal at the marina’s Bayfront Bistro. It was the first time Gale and Maureen had enjoyed anything more than drinks at this restaurant but, we declared, it wouldn’t be the last. 


April 1st found us up early and making preparations to leave the marina. By 9:45 am we were on our way to Cabbage Key – a favorite spot to take guests for a beer or a bite to eat. Since our destination was more than 30 miles away, we enjoyed lunch on the boat as we traveled. Our anchorage for the night was suggested by our friends on Life’s 2 Short, Todd and Brenda, and turned out to be a wonderful hurricane hole near Pt. Blanco and Cayo Costa Island.  
We felt so protected and secluded from the rest of the world. Our trip to Cabbage Key was fun, as always. We walked around the grounds a bit, climbed the wooden water tower and had a couple of beers before going back to Blue Heron for our dinner. The guys were very happy to have some time to fish beforehand and had no trouble at all catching enough sea trout to feed the four of us that evening. 
 

On Saturday, April 2nd, Gale and Maureen had made an appointment to meet a realtor at noon at Gasparilla Marina near Englewood. Joanne, the realtor, took the four of us to several properties in the area where we checked out some of the waterfront condos available. At the end of the day, we had enough time to make it to our favorite anchorage near Englewood Beach where we spent two weeks in March with Mark and Marge.
 

On Sunday, April 3rd, we traveled 80 miles to Clearwater – much of it on Gulf waters instead of the protected ICW. Since it was such a nice evening and no bad weather or winds were forecast, we anchored in the Gulf as close to shore as possible. It was a pleasant night with a light breeze.

On Monday, April 4th, we set our sights on Crystal River. It woud be a long passage, but with good southeasterly winds ( 6 to 20 knots ), we did not expect any difficulty making the 90-mile trip since we were leaving at 7 am and we had at least 12 hours of daylight ahead of us. That is, if everything went well . . .

Before arriving in Tarpon Springs where we planned to get fuel that morning, we called our friends, Russ and Cindy in Tampa, and asked them about any anchorages between Tarpon Springs and Crystal River. We knew there was some thunderstorm activity forecast for after midnight and needed the information before we left. Russ advised us that there was no safe anchorage between those two places – if we couldn’t make it to Crystal River by nightfall, he strongly suggested that we stay in Tarpon Springs until the weather passed.

We decided to make the passage. With the stiff breeze and the motor, we easily averaged 7 knots and our GPS indicated that we would make it to our anchorage just before sunset. Things were going along fine until we snagged a crab pot on our lower unit early in the afternoon. Joel and Gale were able to unwrap the line but could not free it entirely as it was wedged in pretty good. We still had the wind with us, so we turned off the motor and chose to sail the rest of the way. Gale was concerned about having enough power to get up the river once we arrived at Crystal River so the guys took some time to mount the outboard motor from the dinghy on the motor mount Gale had recently installed on the back of Blue Heron for emergency purposes. Without going into a lot of detail, we had a mishap with the dinghy as the guys tried lowering it to work on the lower unit while under sail. The dinghy caught a wave and dumped most of its contents into the sea! Now, there was no motor on the dinghy so we couldn’t go back for the floating items by dinghy. The only option left was to fire up the engine and hope we wouldn’t cause any damage to the lower unit with the dangling line. Oh, yeah, and it was getting very late in the day, too.

As they say: “All’s Well That Ends Well.” The prop turned just fine and there was no entanglement. We were able to retrieve most of the items that were dumped overboard. The outboard motor worked well as our backup engine. The spotlight on board helped us to make our way up ten miles of Crystal River as we lit up the channel markers for our Captain. The predicted thunderstorms held off and at 10 pm we were anchored safely near several other boats. We were so exhausted, we didn’t even bother making dinner. We each had a drink and a few snacks before latching down the hatches and going to bed. The thunderstorm made its appearance early the next morning and we spent several hours waiting for the weather to clear. Later in the afternoon, we explored the area by dinghy and got the lay of the land for the next day.

 

On Wednesday, April 6th, with wet suits, masks, snorkels and fins, we set out to find the manatees and to snorkel at Three Sisters Spring. This time of year most of the manatees had already left for other places, but we were lucky to find about 30 or so feeding in a small cove. We did not get in the water with them there but, rather, just turned off the motor and drifted quietly in the area. Snorkeling at the spring was another highlight of the day. We will definitely come back another time, preferably in January or February, to swim with the manatees.

We returned Joel and Mary’s snorkel gear and wet suits to the dive shop around 4 pm. Roderick, the guy at the shop, was a very helpful fellow. He even offered to let us use his truck to pick up groceries since he thought it was too far to walk. We accepted his offer for the next morning, but for this afternoon, we were all ready for a sandwich and a beer at the bar and grill next door to the dive shop.

 
After listening to the weather, we decided that we would cross the Gulf on Thursday and Friday, April 7th and 8th. Before pulling up anchor Thursday morning, we took the dinghy to the dive shop where Mary and Maureen grabbed the keys to Roderick’s truck and went to town for groceries. In the meantime, Joel and Gale headed over to Pete’s Pier to fuel up the dinghy and find some bait. Gale also came home with a very long fishing pole that was on sale for $20. By 11 am, we were all back on Blue Heron with our purchases and ready to pull up the hook to begin our crossing. It was interesting to see the river by daylight and a lot less stressful than coming in the other night in the dark. In fact, we were so relaxed and not paying too much attention to details, when we found ourselves outside the channel and stuck in the mud!! Gale tried getting in the water and pushing the boat off but the mud was so thick, he was just sucked down and could not get any footing. We lowered the dinghy and Gale was able to use it to nose Blue Heron out of the muck and back to the channel.
 

The actual crossing took 24 hours. There wasn’t much wind so we motored the entire way. The headsail helped us during the night for awhile but didn’t give us too much of a boost. Things did get a little “sloggy” and we were all very happy to get off the Gulf and into protected waters at Appalachicola around 11 am Friday morning. We continued westward along the ICW until we arrived at Port St. Joe Marina at 4:40 pm and settled into our slip for the night. Here we all enjoyed the “famous” Appalachicola oysters at the marina’s bar and grill.

Saturday morning we took some time to walk downtown and pick up a few items. Gale was anxious to replace the phone that quit working a couple of weeks ago when he went swimming with it while our grandsons were visiting. We happened to stop at Port St. Joe’s Verizon store on an “off day.” The only person who knew how to activate phones or help with problems called in sick that morning so the owner was there with another person who didn’t know much more than she did. After much frustration and a lot of time, Maureen walked out with the phone. Thankfully, it was working. After fueling up, we left Port St. Joe at 12:20 pm, and headed to Panama City where we took a slip at Bay Point Marina, the sister marina to Port St. Joe.

Joel and Mary were scheduled to fly out of Mobile on Tuesday morning, April 12th. Instead of continuing up the waterway, we decided to relax in Panama City, enjoy the pool and our time in the slip, do some laundry and get some fishing and beach time in. It was a very nice couple of days.

 

We were up very early Tuesday morning and on our way to Mobile in the rental car at 6 am. After dropping Joel and Mary off at the airport, we turned around and headed to Clearwater where we stayed with Craig and Dawn for a few days and looked at real estate in the areas of St. Pete, Englewood and Punta Gorda. We checked out quite a few properties and even came close to making an offer on a condo in Englewood, but in the end, decided the timing was not right for us. We enjoyed four wonderful evenings with Craig and Dawn then headed back to Panama City on Saturday, April 16th.