Day 14 - Saturday, November 10th, 2007

Barnacle II Cruise Day 14 – Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Leaving Baytown Marina, Sandestin, FL

Everyone was up early drinking coffee. We decided to take another walkabout around the village to find breakfast. We were successful in our quest, and had a really good meal at the Broken Egg Café. Vickie found her Starbucks, too…so everyone was happy.

We were underway by 8:30 to Panama City, the last leg of this trip. Sometime on this excursion we’ll cross over the 1200 mile mark. That is pretty good for the leisurely run that we’ve made for the last 2 weeks. And we didn’t really hurt ourselves too badly doing it.

Between 9:30 and 10:00, we had three pods of dolphin come up to us to say ‘hello’. One containing a bull, mom and baby stayed and played in our wake for five minutes or so. Such beautiful creatures.

We left the more open water of Choctawhatchee Bay for the inland ditch again. This time the cut is 16 nautical miles long before it opens up again in the west end of St. Andrews Bay by Panama City. Then we should have another 13 or 14 miles to go to get to the slip where Barnacle will stay for two to three weeks.

We made it to Bay Pointe Marina in Panama City Beach a little after 2:00. By 2:30 we had the dinghy offloaded and the outboard motor attached. The big boat was re-secured and attached to shore power by 3:00. Vickie and I both did a load of laundry so we wouldn’t leave dirty clothes on the boat…and Kenn can keep up with his this week until I get back next Saturday.

We took a shuttle over to the Marriott to have dinner at their restaurant. The food was excellent, the bar next door was playing 70’s and 80’s disco music, but it worked in that atmosphere. A great way to cap off a wonderful two week trip.

Kenn will get started on some clean-up and scheduled maintenance on the boat this next week while the rest of us go home to work. Kenn and I owe many thanks to Barney and Vickie for this opportunity. It has been a wonderful experience, and I have gotten to revisit areas that I had seen on boat deliveries that I was a part of in the late 80’s and 90’s. A lot of the scenery is still the same, but many places have changed and grown with the times. For Kenn this has been, and continues to be, the dream of a lifetime. In Vickie's words, we pulled out of our home marina, turned left and kept going.