Some notes on our trip so far.

When we left Mobile Alabama it was cold for the time of year. That had been our experience the entire time we were in Mobile. We titled our trip leg to Panama City the "Freeze your buns off sail". The route down the Mobile ship channel was very easy. We only encountered two ships the entire 25 miles. When we sailed in Galveston Bay the ship traffic was much heavier. Once we reached Dauphin Island and the entrance to Mobile Bay we saw a whole bunch of oil platforms. They are not marked on the charts but stick out and are easily avoided. A person we met in Mobile that had left before us called to tell us about them and said you would have to be a moron to run into them, even at night. We had some dolphin visits in the bay. It seems like they are coming up next to the boat to look at the people. They are as interested in us as we are them.

On the course to Panama City we sailed mostly at night. The sky was as clear as can be and we could see stars all the way down to the horizon. They were so bright that you had to keep looking at them to make sure it wasn't another boat or ship. We were traveling from about 10-25 miles off the coast. Most of the way we could see lights on shore from the radio towers. When we passed Pensacola we could clearly see the Pensacola light flashing. In the morning as we approached Panama City we could see the highrise condos from about 16 miles out. They look so close but it still took another 3 hours for us to get there. The pass into Panama City was an easy one to transit, well marked with plenty of depth. The Panama City marina was very easy to get into. The restrooms and showers were very clean, it was upscale compared to the bathroom and showers at Turner Marine in Mobile.

On the trip leg to Clearwater the winds were mostly behind us and the seas were making the boat roll from side to side. No one got sick or even a little queasy but you had to plan your moves between the rolling. The first night out I was on watch from midnight to 4 AM. I was watching a couple of fishing boats off the port side to keep track of where they were going. I looked forward and there was a bright yellow light right in from of the bow. My heart really started to race, in other words it scared the crap out of me. there are huge yellow weather buoys out there and I knew there was one on our route. I looked through the binoculars but still couldn't make out what it was and it was getting bigger. I turned off the auto pilot and started taking evasive action. That's when I realized it was the moon cresting. I just sat there and laughed, what a relief. The next night I checked the Garmin to see when the moon rose and when it came up I was happy to see it.

We could see the lights from Clearwater from about 25 miles off. Sandy said she kept seeing this huge string of lights but could not figure out what it was. It turned out to be the Clearwater Causeway bridge. We were headed right for it which was a good thing because we had to go under it to get to the Clearwater marina. The Clearwater inlet was also very easy to enter and has a well marked channel all the way to the marina. We were in Clearwater for a week and walked around to see the sights. The beach was beautiful and crowded with spring breakers. Dale especially liked the hard bodies. Can't say that I minded them either! We ate the local grouper catch at a seafood restaurant right on the beach. The weekend after David arrived there was a huge beach volleyball tournament going on. There were at least 100 volleyball nets set up. The prize money for first place was $5000.

One the way to Marathon the wind was also from behind but we were able to sail 95% of the way. The boat motion was very rolly at some points. We had many more dolphin visits on this leg. We traveled from 15-20 miles offshore. There are lots of shoaling down around Marco Island and Cape Sable and we wanted to be sure and miss that tour. We crossed Florida Bay at night and had to be right on our navigation course to miss several shoaling area that come to within 2 feet of the surface. The wind wasn't giving us much speed if we kept on our course so we motored for about 7 hours. When daylight arrived it was raining but the visibility was still good so we didn't have any problem picking out the buoys. If it wasn't for the rope in the prop incident it would have been a good, but rolly, passage.

We spent a couple of nights on the sea wall at the Marathon City marina. David was supposed to leave on Friday the 19th but his father went into the hospital with heart problems on Thursday morning. He was able to change he flight arrangements and fly out that afternoon. Dale had to catch a shuttle to the Miami airport at 3:30 AM on Friday morning for a 7:00 AM flight.

We moved off the seawall and onto a mooring buoy Friday around noon. We are pretty close to the dinghy dock so it isn't a long dinghy ride. Some of the boats on moorings are up to a half mile away. We will be relaxing and exploring here for at least a month. We have to be north of Morehead City, NC by June 30th to satisfy our insurance requirements of being out of the hurricane zone during hurricane season.