CROSSING INTO THE SUNSHINE STATE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9 - After spending a lovely night at anchor rafted to Sundowner.  We woke to a beautiful dawn with dolphins feeding only feet from our boats.  We had a little breakfast and enjoyed the solitude of the setting before moving out to the next spot. 

Captain Jack...just being himself!

A dolphin scaring up some breakfast

We know this bird well, can Kennedy students identify?

Continued down the ICW (the Inter Coastal Waterway, same as GIWW but most people call it the ICW).  More cool houses, docks and marinas.

ICW view

This bird was drying his wings, they do that a lot.  What is it?

Bye bye Alabama, bring it on Florida!   We still have a long way to go but boy are we getting there.

And we have dolphins alongside once again.  They are so graceful, so amazing!

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This weekend is the annual Homecoming Air Show at the Pensacola Naval Base.  How lucky for us!  We were planning to anchor at Fort McRae, just off the Base but as we approached we saw a wall of fiberglass – literally boats of every size and shape were stuffed into that anchorage.  Seems the locals had the same idea and beat us to the spot.  Rather than wedge in, we decided to drop the hook in Big Lagoon near the shore of a long white sand beach that divides the Gulf from the ICW with the plan to move over to the other anchorage (that is in a NO WAKE zone) once the show is over and some of the folks go home.  Meanwhile planes are zooming through the air overhead and in front of us.  Truly there wasn’t a bad spot to anchor in the whole bay. The air show is a celebration of 100 years of flight at the Base.  It has been running since Friday during the daylight hours and we are catching the tail end of the last show.  Sundowner anchored next to us and we both took our dinghies to shore armed with blankets, some snacks and beverages.  We thought we’d take a beach walk and watch the Blue Angels when they take flight.  

We crossed over the dunes and put our toes in the Gulf – yay!!!  It felt so good, can’t believe we made it this far!! 

The Johns

Girlfriends...

Next thing we know the Blue Angels were flying directly over our heads.  Time to get back to the beach for the grand finale!  We started back across the dunes when all of a sudden we heard someone yell “Estreeeelittta”!  It was our friends Burke and Stell from Estrellita. 

They saw our boats there and they anchored and brought their dinghy in too.  Were we surprised to see them!  We all went back to the beach and put out our blanket and shared took in the acrobatics of the planes. 

It was an amazing show and it was so cool to be sitting there with this group of people taking it all in. 

The guys gawking at the planes

Our dinghies from WI, FL and SC

Beach party!

We just hung out and waited for the parade of boats to go by after it was over and then made our way into Fort McRae cove.  We anchored and this time Sundowner rafted to us and Estrellita anchored just in front of us. 

We hosted the 4 of them on Free Bird for cocktail hour and dinner.  We grilled a Pork Tenderloin and I threw some greens bean together.  The others contributed purple potatoes (yum!), brussel sprouts and fresh baked bread.  It was a feast and a good time was had by all.