Day 52

Grant woke early today and left at about 7am. Tabbie was up late the night before completing some Internet stuff, so Grant let her sleep in. (Like she wouldn’t have anyway!!) We passed into the Eastern Time Zone today. We crossed the Choctawhatchee Bay in the morning which ended up to be very choppy due to winds associated with a cold front that is hitting the area. We have to put most of our stuff on the ground, off the shelves and into the sinks to avoid it flying everywhere. Once across the bay we entered a man made channel that was fortunately very protected against the wind and we were able to travel faster and straighter! The canal spilled out into West bay and then into St. Andrews bay which is where Panama City is located. There was a boat that was about 3 miles behind us for the entire trip, and we couldn’t quite make it out, but it ended up being a friend of ours from – of all places – Demopolis! Phillip Smith and “Angel” his boat pulled into the marina just after we did. It is good to see familiar faces along the trip!

We pulled into Panama City around 3:00 and are staying at a marina that was highly recommended by Jim and Sheila. This marina is run by the county and was highly suggested by many other boaters.

While arriving to the marina we did experience some rude boaters, which seem to be the norm in the gulf area. While pulling into the bay, which by the way posted NO Wake, we had a guy fly by us and pull right up to the fuel dock. He just couldn’t wait 2 minutes. There was enough room for everyone. Then he proceeds to get off and smoke on the fuel dock. How smart do they get? He ended up being only a transient. Thank goodness. We took 183 gallons of fuel, with one tank only having 3 gallons left in it! Now that Grant has a GPS he can determine the exact mileage between fuel-ups and what our fuel economy is. This was the test to find out the most accurate fuel consumption to determine if we can make a gulf crossing safely. We are going to be close…. Thank goodness the gas was cheap here. Under 2 dollars. The cheapest yet. While at the gas dock we also saw these racing type boats pull up and get gas. They were painted all yellow with numbers running along the top and sides. We thought that they were racing each other. Come to find out, their job is to test Mercury boat engines. So all day everyday, they speed across the bay and into the gulf, working these motors until they break. Then they bring them into get looked at and take on another engine. Where can we get a job like that? We saw several of them come in to gas a few times.

Panama City is a nice, quaint, town. The only thing bad about it, is that it is COLD! We drop to about 25 degrees at night and we are back to wearing our winter jackets and mittens outside. We took a walk and went to eat at Hunt’s Oyster bar and felt like we were in MN. We hear that there is no snow there either. It is supposed to remain this cold for a few days. We are thinking about staying here and waiting it out. Grant hit the sack early today but Tabbie stayed up late looking for jobs in the Tampa area. The market looks good and she has been getting positive responses back. A few interviews tentatively set….