Day 96
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, 12/16/20, Steve had already been awake and checking his weather sites. Turns out one last band of rain from the cold front that blew through on Tuesday night was due to hit our area around 8:00 AM, so we put off leaving until that rain passed us. Even after it passed, the weather did not clear up for us as hoped. In fact, for most of that day, we traveled in gray, cloudy, dreary conditions with some chilly breezes thrown in for good measure. (NOT our favorite cruising weather!) Trying to get decent pictures on a day like this one was impossible, unfortunately. Around late morning, FOG actually began to move in as we cruised the ICW north of Ono Island, AL, Perdido Key, FL, through Big Lagoon, and into Pensacola Bay. I continued to be dismayed by all the lingering hurricane damage in the area. We passed several sunken sailboats with only their masts visible above the surface of the water.
As we moved farther into Pensacola Bay, I finally got what I’d been hoping for! Four dolphins joined us by surfing in our wake on the rear port side of the boat! I was like a kid on Christmas morning watching them. I have always loved dolphins, so this up close and personal with just us was a special treat. The dolphins stayed right along side our boat, darting and spinning just beneath the surface of the very clear water, then suddenly leaping into the air to simultaneously take a breath and delight us humans. One of the four was a baby dolphin that swam right next to its mother and mimicked her moves. So precious! I swear they rolled over onto their sides and looked up at me as often as I looked down at them. I got a great video of this show that I posted on our Facebook pages, but unfortunately don’t have enough internet strength from the marina wifi to include it in this blog.
When we weren’t being followed by dolphins, we were often surrounded by pelicans bobbing in the water everywhere. The big birds would sit in the path of our boat until the last minute before rising up off the water and taking flight to move out of our way. As we passed Fort Pickens, the ICW opened up to the gulf for about a mile. Just that small opening caused the normally smooth waters in the ICW to become turbulent and choppy, with swirling eddies all around us, which made steering challenging for Steve, and just simply standing challenging for me!
Through the day we cruised through Pensacola Bay, then north of Pensacola Beach, into Santa Rosa Sound, and finally into Chocktawhatchie Bay. During this trip we passed north (on the sound side) of our beloved Navarre Beach, FL, a longtime favorite family vacation spot that we try to visit annually, and after which the hailing port on Legacy’s transom is named. It was odd seeing all the buildings from the north side, rather than the south (beach) side, which is our normal view. It was also interesting to sail UNDER the bridges we’d so often driven OVER in the past.
The wind was up, so instead of anchoring we called Two George’s Marina in Shalimar, FL (near Fort Walton) and confirmed they had transient space available for us that night. We lucked-out and they had one slip available! As we neared that marina, we passed a young man in a wet-suit riding a hydrofoil surfboard and kite setup gliding across the water really close to our boat. We commented on the incredible muscles and core-body strength one would need to successfully hydrofoil and decided we might want to stick to just watching others do it, rather than trying it out for ourselves.
Even though we had no rain throughout the day, the dark skies and chilly temps got kind of depressing. As we pulled into our transient slip in Two Georges marina that afternoon, we hoped for better cruising weather in the days to come. It’s a whole lot more enjoyable when the sun’s shining!
Position: N 30° 26.164, W 86° 35.063
Distance traveled: 69.7 SM
Total distance traveled: 1737 SM
Total marina nights: 81
Total nights at anchor: 15
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27