We sailed with Dave and Maggie from Panama City to Crystal River over the course of a week. Highlights were stops in a swamp with lots of mosquitoes, Apalachicola, Carrabelle, an overnight trip of 120 miles to Crystal River and seeing the manatees up close. First up, though, was a low-tide shimmy under the 50-ft. bridge followed by a nice sail to a gorgeous anchorage with a beautiful sunset. Stopping in the swamp above Apalachicola on Monday night allowed us to have nearly a full day in the neat town the next day where we enjoyed both lunch and dinner ashore. We made an early departure on Wednesday to beat a storm into Carrabelle where we went to the Moorings of Carrabelle Marina. This was a great stop as they have a wonderful transient lounge where the kids were able to spend time while it poured; and the IGA is conveniently across the street. We prepared Thanksgiving dinner aboard featuring a 3 lb. Boneless Turkey Roast and all the trimmings. Dave and Maggie brought the appropriate wine direct from California! We had our hot-leftovers lunch and began our crossing about 1:00pm on Thanksgiving Day with the promise of northerly wind, clear skies and a full moon. On the overnight in 20 knot winds and six to eight foot seas everybody got seasick but Bobbie. The boat is really a nice ride in waves of that size. Everybody but Bobbie got a good deal of sleep. When Jim woke up, he thought that the boat motion was way down as it was so comfortable in the sea berth with the lea cloths out. On standing though, he would find that the boat was moving around a great deal. We arrived off of the entrance to Crystal River about 10:00am on Friday at low tide with a strong offshore wind. The Gulf is very shallow here with 10 foot depths stretching out more than 12 miles. We hit bottom and had to anchor for four hours waiting for the wind to go down and the tide to come in. Once at the marina in Crystal River, Bobbie got a good nap while Dave and Maggie took their turn in the galley. On Saturday we took the dinghy out into the canals and found the manatees. They are large but slow and gentle. It was nice to paddle up to them so that we could get close without scaring them off. One more night aboard then we left at 5:45am to drive Dave and Maggie back to Pensacola, which was now a 370-mile each way drive. We dropped them at Maggie's cousin's house which is conveniently near the Pensacola Airport. They were living in a home with blue plastic on the roof (like most of their neighbors) and told of moving most of their stuff into the living room--least damaged in the house. We said our good-byes about noon and turned right around and headed back to Crystal River. We had a great Thanksgiving this year. After doing laundry, getting groceries and returning the rental car on Monday morning, we were ready to ride the high tide out past the shallow entrance waters. We sailed on down to where we rejoined the ICW and then motored here to Caladesi Island State Park northwest of Tampa. It is a nice marina on an undeveloped island. We decided it was time to rest so we sat here, walked the beach and the nature trail, updated the website, watched every sunset and generally relaxed. And to cap it all off, Bobbie's 2nd cousin (from her hometown in Iowa) lives in Tampa and brought her husband and their houseguests over on the ferry to visit. We've had a great month of visiting but now it's time to move on. We'll start slowly south on Monday, December 6th. -- Jim & Bobbie
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