Panama City - St Petersburg

Left Panama City early morning going thru the small Bays on the ICW not very many other boats so every Dolphin in sight was ridding our wake. I mean they were making a b line for the boat from every direction. They had us surrounded in front on both sides, jumping in the wake. The first 2 we noticed were with us for hours until we left the last bay before getting into a smaller ICW type ditch. We actually got tired of watching them. They all had pink bellies.

For some reason our auto pilot has not been working so we have been having to hand steer.

We arrived in Apalachicola and called the Marina. We had a reservation at Water Street Marina & Hotel. They pretended they could not find our reservation and asked us to wait to dock. Well they actually wanted to get pictures of us docking for their new brochure. They had us toasting and receiving wine upon arrival. We just wanted to get tied up. They were very friendly. They even offered us the hotel if we needed to make provisions.

Karen really liked Apalachicola they had some nice restaurants, antique stores and very friendly people.

We decided to go across the Gulf from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs. The weather forecast shower 5-10 from the SE over night and less than 2 foot seas. We had a great nights sleep the night before so we left about 2 pm. The estimated time in route was 20 hours at 8 mph. We filled with fuel and went out into the gulf at St. George Island cut. Soon after we saw a very large sea turtle right in our path. He was not budging so we had to steer around him. Nice 10 mph ES wind was blowing and about a 2 foot chop. It stayed like this for the next 8 hours. The moon was about 3 quarters full so it was a nice bright night. That's when things change a 35 mph wind kicked up from the east. About an hour later the 10 foot seas started rolling in right from the direction we were heading. Now we have never been offshore in this boat or any small boat in this size seas. Karen was so scared she could not look out the front of the boat while we were in those 10 footers. They lasted about 3 hours and then went down to 6 footers for about 3 hours. They were steep and not breaking. We had to tack back and forth and take the seas at a 45 degree angel and throttle back to about 6 mph. We were at the upper steering station and were not going down into the cabin. A few things came loose and started banging around but we stayed up at the helm until we got into the 6 footers. Then we went down and secured the loose items. We had our bail out bag at hand and our offshore life jackets on the whole time.

We arrived in Tarpon Springs after a 24 hour run. Checked into the Anclote Village Marina and went to bed about 5:30 pm. We slept till 7:30 am the next morning got up and started cleaning the boat and getting our office work done. A guy from the marina knocked on the boat and asked Karen if she would do a TV interview with channel 28 news. They interviewed her about the BP oil spill and what we had seen on our way from Texas. They did a second interview with her about the river traffic and the fact that there was not a No Wake zone past this marina.

We left the following afternoon and found a place to anchor along the Intercoastal for the night. Departed for the Tampa Bay area the next morning. Got checked into the Harborage Marina after checking out of another place across the bay. We are planning on staying put for a few weeks. Looks like a nice place to explore St. Petersburg. It's right downtown next door to University of Southern Florida , College of Marine Science and a big Coast Guard station. The town also has a trolley that takes you around all over for only 25 cents. The grocery and others shops are just two blocks away from the marina.

Pics are of

Cut into Gulf leaving Apalachicola
St Petersburg Skyline for Tampa Bay

SS Minnow in Apalachicola

Party boat at the Tiki Bar in Panama City Marriott

Margaritaville Restaurant in Panama City

Ron Bill & Karen at the Tiki Bar by Bay Point Marina in Panama City