December 3, 2019 – Around the Great Loop on the Answer

Week Twenty-Three: Pensacola to Panama City Beach, FL

The rain finally ended on Thursday and we left Friday to go to Pensacola…..our first stop in Florida. Although we were hoping for warm weather, that was not the case. We walked around town wearing fleece and long pants and I was also wearing gloves. Not a good introduction to our Florida adventure.

We stayed at Palafox Pier since we were advised that it would be a good place to view the Blue Angels Homecoming air show and was also an easy walk into town. As it turned out, we were able to view the air show sitting on the deck of the boat but we were really too far away to get the real impact of the show. Looks like we were misinformed on that one but it was an easy walk into the main part of town and we took advantage of that more than once. We did a brief tour on Friday while the pier was getting set up for the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Walk/Run. Large crowd and lots of pink!

Saturday we took a much longer walk and explored the rather large Farmers Market/Craft Fair. There were vendors lined up on both sides of the street for blocks and one interesting section ….. a separate row ….. was dedicated to businesses run by children. Parents were available for assistance but we were advised that the kids were independent business owners. There was a selection of homemade crafts, bakery items, and art projects. Young entrepreneurs at work!

We enjoyed the military history of the town and the large Naval presence on display. Since our nephew is currently in the Navy and one of my childhood friends went to Annapolis, made this his career and was stationed in Pensacola before he retired, the visit was more meaningful.

Congratulations to the marina since it was the best wifi, on the docks, that we experienced since we left. Someone does know how to get this accomplished.

On Sunday we left and headed towards Miramar Beach and stayed at Sandestin Baytowne Marina (no workable wifi). The marina is situated near the town center that has many shops, restaurants, our first Christmas tree, and a stage for live performances. We were entertained by a local group singing Beatles songs. They were OK but it’s hard to satisfy long time Beatles fans.

While we were there, one of the looper boats we met in The Wharf pulled in (this is their homeport) and crossed their wake. No one was there to congratulate them so we went over to greet/congratulate them and took photos with their gold looper flag so they could post on the AGLCA forum.

This was just one of many shorter stays as we traveled to our destination of Carrabelle for the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico.

The next day we left and went to Panama City Beach to stay at the Lighthouse Marina (again, non-existent wifi). Along the way we were still able to view the devastation from Hurricane Michael in Fall 2018. It appeared as though the towns were still cleaning up debris more than a year later. We have been advised that there is federal money available to help rebuild the towns but that there are no workers available to do the amount of work needed.

At Lighthouse Marina we could see the construction projects going on. In the past, the marina had a courtesy car and laundry and now, both are non-existent. There is another marina across the bridge (about a mile) that has an agreement for transients to come to their marina and use their restrooms with a shower and their one washer/dryer. We were scheduled to stay for three nights since a weather front of rain was moving in so the day before we left, we walked to the marina to do laundry as the next two on our list did not have working machines either. While the laundry was getting done, we walked around the town and realized that there was little on that side of the bridge and would need to walk in the other direction from Lighthouse to re-provision. Later that afternoon, I walked to Publix and with the help of my boat cart, I was able to purchase fresh supplies. In all, a total of 7.5 miles walked that day.

The weather projection for the next morning was no rain and reasonable wind so the plan was to head to Appalachicola.