Florida Panhandle

Our first stop on the Florida Panhandle was Big Sabine Point anchorage along Santa Rosa Island between Pensacola and Destin. It was a beautiful anchorage along the intracoastal and gave us access to a pristine white sand beach. We spent a day hanging on the beach and John actually went swimming in the ocean. After 2 nights at anchor, we headed to Destin and stayed at Harborwalk Marina, which offers up many shops and restaurants. Our slip was right next to Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville Restaurant. We didn’t eat there but got to listen to the music. The next morning we survived some severe weather that came thru…we were tucked in well in the marina. Once the storms passed we took off and headed to Panama City….following the rain the entire day. Spent 2 nights at Pointe South Marina, a beautiful new marina that was rebuilt after hurricane Michael destroyed it back in 2019. While there we used our portable shopping cart for the first time and walked over 5 miles (round trip) to a grocery store. It worked out well. We then headed east again and stopped at Saul Creek anchorage, just before Apalachicola - another beautiful and quiet anchorage tucked up in the river. John really likes being on anchor, and we have stopped in some beautiful spots on this trip! Next we travelled to C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle for the night and met with up other loopers who were also preparing for the Gulf crossing and had a fun dinner at Fathoms Oyster Bar & Live Music. According to gold looper Eddy Johnsen (a retired airline pilot who publishes Eddy’s Weather Wag for loopers), November 2022 was one of the worst months for doing the gulf crossing on record, so needless to say there were many boats who had spent a while in Carrabelle waiting for a good weather window. We have now been blessed with one of longest good weather windows on record in early December and decided to make the crossing doing the “Big Bend” which takes us to Steinhatchee, then Cedar Key, and then on to Tarpon Springs (vs. doing the overnight crossing from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs). As I type this, we are crossing the Gulf with 2 buddy boats (Miracle & Surface Interval). We are cruising at around 9 mph and it will be about an 8 hour trip. We can now see the East Coast of Florida and the job over the remaining 3+ hours is to avoid literally thousands of crab pots (if you hit one, it will wrap in your props/shafts and stop a boat dead in its tracks!). We have learned on this trip that we enjoy going slow and a side benefit is that it saves us a lot of money in fuel as well. Remember: it’s not a vacation – it’s an adventure!