Florida, Finally!

Wow, what a difference sailing this side of Gulfport MS! We enjoyed calm waters and steady wind so that we could turn off our engines and actually sail. We loved watching the dolphins play along our boat in the blue water. Not only were conditions during the day more pleasant but we were finally able to escape the oppressive humidity that made night sailing so uncomfortable. This trip was definitely closer to our visions of what sailing would be like when we first started dreaming of buying a boat!

Our first stop was Pensacola, Florida where we anchored a few nights at English Navy Cove. We enjoyed the private airshow as the Blue Angels practiced overhead!

We took our dinghy to the quiet beach. There is a park here with trails running through it, but we stuck to the cooler shore. The wind picked up in the afternoon, and we had a little problem with our dinghy motor on the return, It was hard rowing back to our boat against the current and we could not seem to coordinate our efforts very well, but Chris managed to channel all his anger and frustration into the task and eventually got us safely back onboard LauraLee!

On the other side of the bay, we enjoyed lunch while watching (heart in mouth) a kid performing backflips off one of the very tall posts running along the pier. Wish I could have figured out how to post the video!

We also anchored out at Ft. Pickens where we met a territorial crab that gave Chris a chase. There were also a lot of birds, hermit crabs and live sand dollars. I had never seen one before that wasn’t bleached-white and dead in a tourist souvenir shop! I get pretty excited about all the marine life we see out here.

We eventually moved to a marina to fill up on water, grab some provisions and do laundry. We were not able to use the hookups due to a change by the marina to new pedestals. They were upgraded from GFCI to ELCI breakers to detect electrical leaks and unfortunately did not mesh with our Victron inverter. When we tried to plug into it, the entire pier lost power (sorry neighbors)! Not being able to use your a/c when you are in a protected marina without the breeze you get on anchor does not make for a very comfortable stay. But because of this little hiccup we were not charged for the one night we were there, an unrequested and unexpected blessing!

We took the free trolley from the marina area to the local hardware store with our list in hand only to discover it closes early on Saturdays and would not open again until Monday. Other than the free trolley that had a small, dedicated route, we did not find much in the form of public transportation or open stores operating on the weekend in our area, so we skipped a total reprovision and just grabbed free range eggs and a few exceptionally tasty vegetables at the farmer’s market. We then ate lunch at a streetside food court type place. We had learned from our trolley driver that things have changed a lot over the years. This vibrant, bustling community was once a sleepy, quiet little town where he and his friends would race around on their bicycles. He said that Pensacola now hosts a festival just about every weekend and is never short of attendees!

The weekend we were there Pensacola was hosting the Chicken and Pickle Festival which we had seen on our walk around town. It looked similar to the farmer’s market. There were pickle themed items sold among the scattering of stalls and long lines in front of a couple of food trucks selling chicken and beer. People were enjoying themselves and having a good time. The museum was doing living history tours which normally would have interested me but after the remoteness of anchoring out we found the crowds a little overwhelming! So, we hopped on the last trolley back to the marina.

While we were out running around, our phones died, which was a shame since that is where we had stored the gate code to the marina! We needed someone to let us in which gave us a chance to start a conversation with the very nice owner of a very nice mega-yacht. I don’t know the exact size of his boat, but just to give you an idea, his tender, at 37’ ft, is not much shorter than LaurAlee!

The next day we enjoyed a scenic sail from Pensacola to Shell Island which is a 7-mile-long barrier island you can only get to by boat. But because of the Shell Island Ferry and the pontoon rentals nearby it is not as isolated as it sounds. However, while there were plenty of kids partying in the shallow, clear water of the lagoon near their rented pontoon boats (probably celebrating the end of the school year), they all cleared out well before sunset and we didn’t see many people after that. The other thing we didn’t see was trash. Florida’s beaches are super clean! I wish my pictures did justice to how pretty Florida's beaches are. We loved our stay here and once the people left, the hermit crabs came out, skuttling around the shore in their beautiful, varied shells, not one looking the same as another.

Our next stop took us to Port St Joe where we again anchored out; I love anchoring out! At least when there is a breeze! We dinghied to shore to enjoy the beach and discovered a path, which we followed of course. Who doesn't love an unplanned walk? We were unaware that St. Joseph Peninsula State Park has a ¼ mile wooden boardwalk that takes you over the sand dunes to the pristine gulf beach just a bit further down the beach than where we were and ended up walking nearly a mile through exhausting soft sand down a path that eventually led to the foot of impassable rows of dunes. This in the heat of the day, without water, sunscreen or bug spray!

We climbed to the top of the first one with much difficulty only to realize there were more rows and we couldn't pass over them to the beach. But we did manage to lose Chris's phone in the attempt. I decided to try calling it with my phone only to discover that it too had been dropped somewhere along the way. We knew it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but we began sifting through the soft sand and by some incredible miracle were able to locate the one that Chris had dropped! We found mine further back on the trail where I had stopped to take a picture.

We were already tired and thirsty as we trekked back in the afternoon heat. I tried to take breaks whenever I found a bit of shade (not as frequently as you’d think), but the horseflies and bees kept me from lingering too long. Chris as usual saved the day. I was feeling nauseous, dizzy and likely to pass out from heat stroke, but he just kept pushing ahead whenever I rested. I watched his sunburned back as he got further and further away only to emerge 20 minutes later with water bottles in hand retrieved from the dinghy. My hero! What can I say, “Once a Marine, Always a Marine!”

I was almost as happy to finally see the shore as I was to see Chris with those water bottles and spent the rest of the day in a beach float tied to the dinghy while Chris did some metal detecting around the campground.

Since arriving in Florida, at every anchorage I tell Chris, “THIS IS MY FAVORITE!” because it just keeps getting better and better as we go along. But our next stop, Dog Island, really was IT! Partly because of weather, and partly because we loved it so much, we stayed way too long. So long, in fact, that not only did we run out of drinking water, but as we emptied our freshwater tanks, we filled up our black tanks to the point that we could no longer flush the toilet and knew it was time to pull anchor and head offshore.

On the upside, running out of water forced us to get our water maker working. This was a project we were dreading, but once we tackled it, we found that the previous owners had left all new parts from filters to O-rings; the only things missing were working batteries for the TDS meter! Chris volunteered to be our test taster and when he didn’t show any ill effects, we gratefully filled our empty tanks.

We saw hardly any people during our entire stay at Dog Island; a family that came over each day on their motorboat to enjoy the beach and fish and another sailing couple that stayed for a night. We spent our time here walking the beach and playing in the waves on the gulf side, swimming off the boat and snorkeling on the lagoon side. Chris rescued a couple starfish that had washed up on the beach, and we saw the now common sight of hermit crabs dotting the shore like a moving mosaic of seashells. It was beautiful and peaceful and part of me never wanted to leave, but I was also starting to feel very isolated. So it was with much excitement that we headed towards St Petersburg where I would be able to meet up with my sister!

I'll tell you all about our visit on our next post. Thanks for reading!

We love these blue wind tunnels that that the previous owners left on the boat for us. They pop onto your open hatches and funnel the wind into the living quarters which helps a lot with the heat while on anchor. And they fold up, kind of like an umbrella, so they are easy to store.