The trip across Mobile Bay was very uneventful – it was smooth motoring. We entered the safe waters of the intra-costal waterway. After seeing a few of our friends tucked behind little islands, we found ourselves a tiny piece of land with four feet of water surrounding it. This became our home for the evening – another beautiful sunset. The following day we motored east only a couple of hours and stayed inbetween two islands just south of Pensacola. We were treated to a fabulous air show compliments of the Navy’s Blue Angels. We found out that they practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We found this spot beautiful, the water was crystal clear with white sugary sand. We anchored the boat in a shallow spot near shore. The water temperature was about 73 degrees, so we took the opportunity to scrub the bottom. Lori was a little nervous because there was a large number of jelly fish, but we managed to stay clear with no stings. After scrubbing the boat, a local boater offered to take Clayton with him on a trip to the store for groceries and Florida fishing licenses. We walked the grounds, this was the location of an old fort, and I believe McCrae, which was used in the Spanish American War and WWI. The gun tubs and several underground bunkers were still clearly visible although the dock had given way to mother nature many years ago. We left this tranquil anchorage, taking advantage of the shallow draft of the catamaran and after having watched locals, we were able to go East on our chosen coarse rather than circle the islands to the west, making the trip that much shorter.

As we headed across the entrance to Pensacola Bay, the weather was cool and rainy. We came across multiple boats parasailing. We thought it was odd that there were so many people interested in parasailing in this kind of weather, when we noted that they weren’t tourists, but Navy pilots in training, learning how to parachute into the sea.

We headed back into the Intracoastal Waterway towards Panama City. We went into the Panama City Marina. Once docked we got on our bikes to ride “a few miles” into town to a boat shop that had a clevis pin that we needed to replace. The “few miles” turned into more like eight. The length was frustrating, but more of a concern because we knew we wouldn’t make it back to the boat before dark. We managed to find the store – which actually had moved further down the road. Once there, we found out that we could have gotten there by boat – probably a 20 minute ride by water. Oh well – the exercise was good. We managed to get back to riding on sidewalks before the sun had truly set and felt safe from traffic. As we got to the downtown area we came across the last Friday night festival of the year. We enjoyed walking through an antique car show, lots of different venders and many of the shops were open. In the morning, we were going to catch the local bus to the grocery store when a local boater overhead us and insisted we take his truck to the grocery store. We were able to reprovision and get back to the boat before noon – so we decided to head to Apalachacola.

We anchored in Apalachacola Bay just before sunset. In the morning we were getting ready to go to shore and the sailor behind us offered to take us in with him. As we were rowing and he had a motor, we took him up on his offer. The three of us strolled through town, picked up a few groceries and had lunch. We were looking for seafood to take back to the boat, seeing all the big fishing boats tied up to the docks. We found out that all the commercial fish houses would not sell to the public and we would have to go several miles outside of town. We walked into the chamber of commerce and the gentleman asked what he could do for us? Clay immediately told him if he could get us some shrimp we’d be happy. He picked up the phone and then instructed us to go to the commercial fish house a block away, they’d help us out. Well, we ended up with 5 pounds of shrimp. Needless to say we had the guy with us for a shrimp feast, then froze the rest and eat a lot of fish for the next while. Lori also got several blue claw crabs by throwing a string with a chicken neck over the side of the boat. That was good eaten, but a lot of work!

The next morning we headed for Carabelle. Carabelle is the launching point for people crossing the Gulf to Tarpon Springs. We had decided we wanted to see some of the Panhandle, so we went from Carabelle to Steinhatchee. We anchored at both spots, trying to take in the flavor of the towns – small fishing villages. When we left Steinhatchee we were headed towards Cedar Key. The weather forecast was calling for bad weather, and Cedar Key was an unprotected area, we decided to head further south to the Florida Barge Canal. We anchored there overnight with two other boats. We headed out early the next morning to Crystal River. The first part of the trip was on the rough side, but we knew once we got out and started headed South, the waters would calm. We found a slip in Crystal River and spent the afternoon and evening with our friends Jerry and Gail. It was fun to visit with them and to see the new home they are building. We saw several manatees. It would be fun to kayak there and see the manatees close up.

After saying goodbye to our friends, we headed to Tarpon Springs. We got to stay at the end of the fuel dock and walk about two miles in to town – paying $2/ft. Later, we found out that the City Dock right down town only charged $1/ft. Oh well – it’s only money – and we did get some exercises. We did enjoy the night life of Tarpon Springs – had a great Greek dinner and took a piece of Baklava back to the boat to enjoy later.

Early in the morning, we headed South again towards Tampa Bay. The weather forecast was calling for the weather to steady head downhill in the next few days. We made the decision to cross Tampa Bay this afternoon rather than wait until morning because the seas were to get much rougher and we would be stuck for several days. As we approached the Bay Clay asked if I wanted to wait, checking the XM Weather – I said let’s go for it. Well, I think we both wished we would have waited. While the weather itself wasn’t bad, we had 18 to 20 knots of wind opposing an ebb tide creating large steep waves. The motion of the boat was very abrupt – with occasional waves washing over the cabin and pilothouse. With PFD’s on and foul weather gear and one very unhappy cat (makes strange noises when he’s upset) were forged on. We crossed the outflow to the southern side of the channel and then went west in the shallow water in the protection of the land. We entered the Intracoastal waterway in fading daylight and then followed the marked channel through two bridges and finally dropped anchor off the Coast Guard Station off Cortez. Shortly after we fell asleep we were awoken by the forecast severe weather, and even in our protected anchorage it became an interesting night.

We went to shore the next morning to visit the Maritime Museum that Clay has volunteered at over the past several years. It was good to see the guys and all the projects they are working on. The many pictures were took at the wooden boat show in Hessel were brought back to mind, looking at the resurrection of a Cris-Craft Utility Runabout being restored at the museum.

From Cortez we headed to Sarasota. We stopped for the afternoon and anchored off Marina Jack’s, enjoying the sun and clear water before heading to Siesta Key. We anchored off Historic Spanish Point for the night and in the morning Clay took the dingy in to see the guys there at the boat building program. After his visit, we headed in to Sunset Cove to Clay’s sisters condo dock.

We had a nice visit with Karen, got the boat secured as we were leaving it there while we went to Naples for Thanksgiving. Lori’s son Chris drove up from Naples to get us. We enjoyed a wonderful visit, enjoying family and friends and just eating up our time with our sweet little Annabelle. She really is special, or are we a little prejudiced?

The week after Thanksgiving we headed back to Sarasota with friend Gene Loguidice to bring the boat back to Naples, closing our loop. Clay appreciated the company of his good friend Gene and they enjoyed a pleasant motor cruise back to Naples, stopped for lunch at Cayo Costa and anchored just east of Ding Darling Preserve. The most exciting part of the two day trip was at the entrance to Gordon River at Naples where a number of dolphins were leaping out of large waves due to an ebb tide and onshore wind. They arrived back at the dock we left on April 1st, 2006 on Saturday December 2nd – completing the loop.