Day 21 onward to Panama City, FL

 The anchorage 10 miles east of Destin, FL was great.  The only problem was that the wid died completely overnight, and we slept a little restlessly without the AC running.  Not bad enough, however, to force one of us to get up and start the generator...

We were greated with a beautiful sunrise! You can see how smooth the water was, and the anchor rope was just hanging down completely loose.  We were in about 7 feet of water with 60 feet of chain followed by 30 feet of rope.  All of the chain was just lying in the mud and the rope was slack - really no wind or current at all. We started out at 7:00 am with about 50 miles to go to Panama City.  We had about 30 miles in the "ditch" or man-made waterway with 10 miles of beautiful bays on either end of the trip.

The glassy water continued for most of the trip, which meant that the ditch with tall pine trees on both sides was quite warm. The dredge spoil on either side was often quite sandy with very little vegetation due to the rapid erosion (see off white area on right bank).

When we exited the ditch, we still had prefectly smooth water in the first bay that we passed through. Fortunately, the breeze finally picked up to a gentle 7 knot SSW wind, and the last hour and a half were really pleasant. The fluffy white clouds in all of the pictures show how beautiful the sky was for all of our trip.

The absolute highlight of today's trip was the dolphin that frolicked in our bow wave. We were going from a bay and entering the ditch (totally manmade waterway) when we saw these dolphins rushing toward us. Attracting dolphin is not new to us since they like to ride in our bow wave, but what was unusual was the clarity of the water.  When this happens in the "muddy" water of the Texas coast, you can only see the dolphin when they break the surface. In the much clearer waters east of the Mississippi delta, we could easily see the dolphin underwater as well. Hope that you enjoy the video!

   Otherwise, we arrived in Panama City and were safely docked by 1:45 pm.  The city marina is right downtown and next to the city hall and the exhibition center.  The adjacent old downtown has been nicely restored, and we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant there.  We left before it started, but on Monday nights at 7:00 pm, this restaurant hosts the "Life, Love, Learn and Beer" Bible (?) Study Group for a local church...

   Tomorrow, the adventure continues.