We were feeling pretty accomplished with about 2400 nautical miles (2750 statute miles) under our belt and we were finished the inland river system! There's a funny thing about being on the Great Loop. When you start like a freshman on the Great Loop, you feel a bit like a fraud, at least until you are out of your familiar territory. For us, that was when we left Gore Bay, Ontario and crossed over into the United States. Then you start to feel fairly confident as a Looper, now a sophomore, especially as you start to conquer different waterways such as Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and the Mississippi River, to name a few. But most other Loopers you meet up to this point have gone much further than you and some of them are almost done. Now we have conquered the river system and we are starting the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GICW), and since the average loop is somewhere between 5250 and 6000 statute miles, we are just about half-way there and can safely call ourselves juniors. The sad thing about being juniors, is that we are seeing notifications of friends crossing their wake and we realize that we likely won't see them again. We were very excited for this new leg of our journey on the GICW and conquering Florida's Panhandle. Of course, the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico was an ominous passage that was getting closer and closer...! We cover our travels from Orange Beach to Apalachicola in this blog, which is also covered in the following three videos: Free Docks and Tripped Breakers (Orange Beach to Fort Walton), Fort Walton to Pearl Bayou in the Fog, and Why we Aborted our First Gulf Crossing Attempt.
Our first night in Orange Beach was spent at an anchorage called Ingram Bayou. In the morning we found it was very windy in the anchorage and the forecast indicated that the winds would be dropping in the afternoon so we decided to stick around for a while. The anchorage did not disappoint! The dolphins swam around on several occasions. You could hear the air wooshing out of their blow holes as they crested the surface. It was amazing being so close to these graceful mammals in their natural habitat! After a lazy morning waiting for the winds to calm down, we were anxious to get going. The first thing we noticed was that our stainless steal anchor chain had turned black! Also, the yellow paint of our 50 foot mark was almost gone! Our chain was in shock from the salt water!
We arrived at The Wharf and got a pump out and diesel before going to our slip. Getting into the slip was challenging. Cam had to stick the bow into the slip in front of us to line up and back into our narrow slip. Then the posts at the bow were so high that I could not throw the line over it. Tim from Adrift at Last beside us, handed me a boat hook and told me how to use it so I could loop the post while the dock hand held the boat close. I would need to practice doing that! We helped Off Leash get in and then Tim invited us for a tour of his 53 foot Selene that was for sale. I think we both decided that we liked the 43 foot Selene better but his boat sold the very next day!
Then we were invited to a Looper gathering at Pour. There were six other Looper boats there including Neverland, Pearl, Shandie, Selah Way, Beyond, Off Leash and us. Afterwards, we found an Italian Restaurant called Villagio Grille and we had a very nice meal there with Karen and Rob.
When we were at the AGLCA Rendezvous in Paris Landing, we booked Ben Stein from Panbo to be at our boat Saturday and Sunday to work on our electrical issue (tripping breakers on GFCI power towers). Meanwhile, Heather checked out all the stores in the complex adjacent to the marina. We really enjoyed seeing all their Christmas decorations, but with the combination of the warm weather and the date being November, it didn't really feel like Christmas to us. Heather ran into our Harbour Host, Sandra, and she generously offered to take us grocery shopping the next day. Sandra and her husband would be starting their loop in the spring. We had been planning a Thanksgiving dinner with Off Leash and Beyond for Thursday, so Rachel from Beyond came shopping too. Cam stayed at the boat continuing to work with Ben who also ended up coming back on Monday morning. The power issue was resolved (but not tested on a GFCI tower), Cam installed a battery charger for the generator and inverter battery, and Ben installed a new autopilot. Then Scott Whalley came by. We had met him at the Paris Landing Rendezvous as well. He's a marine surveyor, has a small marina, and does work on boats. He helped Cam replace the dock water pressure fitting and showed Cam how to grease the drive shaft.
That night we went to Lulu's for dinner. It is owned by Lucy Buffet, Jimmy Buffet's sister. It was pretty good and they had live music. After we got back we had a big planning session, anticipating a possible Gulf crossing for Monday or Tuesday the next week. It's a 4 or 5 day run to Carrabelle with some bad weather days mixed in so we decided we would need to leave on Wednesday. Our Thanksgiving dinner was bumped from Thursday to Tuesday but all parties were agreeable.
On Tuesday, Cam finally got out to the shops with me, but we didn't buy anything. Cam cleaned the sea strainers to clear out any river debris while I prepared to host Thanksgiving dinner on our boat. What a feast we had! Karen and Rob did a turkey in the Instant Pot, and brought green beans and home made cranberries. Rachel and Don brought potatoes, bread and wine. We made butternut squash, stuffing and gravy. For dessert there were two pies, apple and pumpkin, and Don ran out and got ice cream to go with the pies. It was a very nice evening.
Orange Beach to Fort Walton (see the video)
We did not have a great night and both of us felt like we had colds settled in by morning! Nonetheless, we pulled our lines and went to the fuel dock around 7 AM. It was a self-serve pumpout and then we were off heading east on a beautiful sunny morning. Once again, the dolphin sightings were plentiful! At one point, we were running along the Alabama-Florida border as it wrapped around Perdido Key before we fully crossed into Florida. The run was easy, comfortable, and long. We finally rounded the R6 marker and came into the free dock at Fort Walton with help from Karen and Rob. We started at the T-head and switched to an inside dock after checking the depths. You have to call the police station to get permission to stay there overnight and they take your registration number. We noticed that they kept a patrol car in the area all night. To be on the safe side, we further secured our boat with a cable and a padlock as we had heard that sometimes kids have fun by untying your lines but we had no trouble.
Karen and Rob met some Looper friends for dinner but we opted not to go since we were feeling a little under the weather. We learned that there was a Publix grocery store a couple of blocks away so Heather put on a mask and got some supplies. We enjoyed some Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner. It turned out that the restaurant that Karen and Rob went to was not very good so they came back and picked up the rest of the pumpkin pie to fill them up a bit more.
Fort Walton Beach to Pearl Bayou (see the video)
We both woke up feeling worse. Heather did a test and was positive for COVID! Ugh! We assumed that it was the same for Cam since we were both sick. Oh well, at least it's easy to quarantine yourselves as a couple on a boat and we had lots of cold supplies and masks on board. We carried on and left with a hopeful goal of Pearl Bayou, which is near Panama City. Once the engines warmed up and we were on Choctawhatchie Bay, we decided to go at speed. It was a little choppy and we wanted to get past it before it chopped up worse. However, it was hazy to start and progressed to pea soup fog so we slowed down. Most of the way across the bay was foggy, and the chop calmed right down. We were discussing possible anchorages at the east end of Choctawhatchie Bay because we didn't want to do the Grand Canyon cut in the fog, but the fog finally lifted. The cut was kind of boring. Grand Canyon was seriously overstated unless it was a comparison of length. It was more like a ditch. We picked our speed up again when we got to West Bay (St Andrew's Bay), as we were looking forward to reaching our destination so we could rest. Pearl Bayou was a great surprise. It was so calm that the water was perfectly reflective. We were exhausted from the day on the water on top of COVID. Rob came over delivering left over beans and cranberry from Thanksgiving to go with our dinner. Unfortunately, we had finished the squash so we didn't have anything to share in return.
Pearl Bayou is near the Tyndall Military Base so at 5 PM they played the Retreat followed by the American National anthem. The acoustics and the peacefulness of the anchorage made that very cool! We made an early night of it as we would be crossing over to Eastern Standard Time (EST) the next day, and therefore, losing an hour.
Pearl Bayou to Apalachicola (see the video)
We woke to a beautiful sunrise before the fog rolled in. It delayed our morning departure from 7 AM to 8:30 AM. It was clear when we got to the bay, so we picked up our speed to make up for lost time.
Our goal today was to make it to Apalachicola. When we read Eddy's Weather WAG, he was calling for a daytime Gulf crossing that day and an overnight crossing that night. He also said there would be no more crossing opportunities for at least the next five days. The crossing window we were aiming for had shifted. Most people do the Gulf crossing from Carrabelle, but it can be done from Apalachicola too so we adjusted our plans. We decided to see how were were doing when we got to Apalachicola and decide then if we were up to doing an overnight crossing that night, which would mean fuelling up in Apalachicola.
While we were underway, Heather got to work prepping food for the crossing. We continued to check the weather and it continued to look good. However, Karen had some concerns about fog that she was seeing in the forecast. Heather argued that you don't get low wind and waves without fog and we only needed a quarter mile visibility to get through the cut. To our surprise, the harbour at Apalachicola was completely fogged in with fog so thick that you couldn't possibly see well enough to cross safely into the Gulf through Government Cut, so that ended it for us. We went into Battery Park and tied up at a horrible pier. We tried to leave enough room for Off Leash, but they couldn't fit. We made room for them at the front, but it was too shallow for them. They couldn't go to the city docks yet because of a Santa Claus event so they rafted to us for a short while. After they left, we enjoyed the luxury of a shower. Dinner was easy since Heather had already prepared all the food. It was easy to go to bed at a reasonable time in our new timezone. We decided that it was a blessing that the heavy fog prevented our crossing because we were still sick and we truly needed the rest.
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