We had headed west from Pensacola on a relatively short cruise to Orange Beach, Alabama. Now, it was time to extend our range and head east on a cruise that would be more than eighty miles. Eighty miles - that doesn’t seem like much in an automobile. Just a little more than an hour of interstate driving. On the water, however, it’s quite a journey, especially in unfamiliar territory.
Baytowne Marina is a “destination marina”, which is basically a shopping and entertainment complex that has a marina as part of the attraction. We track our cruises on an app called Nebo, and you can see the route as a white line in the picture. The other colors are areas where we slowed down or stopped along the way. Our route would take us through a couple of bay crossings and past the cities of Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Fort Walton Beach, and Miramar Beach, with the pure white sand dunes protecting us from the Gulf of Mexico.
We left just before 11:00, following the now-familiar route back past Edgewater Yacht Sales and heading toward Pensacola Bay. Just before Pensacola Bay begins to open up, there is an inlet from the Gulf of Mexico that we had explored during our test ride in June. Inlets are always tricky - some of the most challenging waters for any boater. Why? Because the tremendous amount of water that flows in and out of them based on the tides, as well as the relatively shallow water, which combines to make big waves and strong currents. In fact, there are many popular channels on YouTube like this onethat video boats passing through popular Florida inlets. I decided to go out into the inlet to see how Elvin Ray handled the rougher water. My mistake was not warning Lisa, which was a rare moment of discontent for her.
After getting out of the inlet, I turned around and we were heading across Pensacola Bay, We rode into the middle of the bay, and took a little break to fix lunch on the water. In the middle of the bay, there was no need to anchor. After lunch, we continued on past Gulf Breeze and into the Santa Rosa Sound. The sound gradually narrows as we go past Fort Walton Beach and enter the Choctawhatchee Bay. This is a large bay crossing that was pretty calm as we came through. We crossed the bay, which led us to our destination marina. I radioed to let them know we were approaching and they gave us our slip assignment - a slip that was the most expensive we had ever paid: $4 per foot. It was 5 hours after we started, and it was time to eat. We got the boat connected to shore power and ready for the stay, then headed out to find some good food. On the way to the restaurant area, Lisa got some great sunset pictures. This was, however, still the peak of COVID-19, so options were limited. Most of the shops were closed, most of the restaurants had a wait. So, we settled for a pizza joint. Service wasn’t great, but the food was decent. After a nice walk, we headed back to the boat for what we thought would be a good night’s sleep. There’s an old sailor mantra “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” This would prove to be inaccurate in our case...
Add comment
Comments