Day 40 Nov 23, 50 miles to Port St Joe Marina, Port St Joe FL

Saddi is ready.....watch my new game Riley and Max....it's slide down the ramp....bet you two didn't think I would ever learn to do that....  If you were here I'd teach you a trick or two....

Ramp in place...see those bolts

Slide on down...catch me...

Beautiful Day ....54 degrees...no wind...we are leaving at 8:30AM and traveling with The Last Resort and Loopy Kiwi

Bay Point Marina Channel

We follow our bread crumbs back to St. Andrew Bay.  It is like glass out here.  You can see the cut to the Gulf of Mexico which is considered one of the best deep water channels on the Gulf Coast.  But, today we will follow our breadcrumbs back to the ICW at St 290 and follow a very interesting path.  If you are into fishing....this is considered "the place".  Our marina was full convertibles with "tuna towers".

Panama City Beach

We enter East Bay which is shallow at the Dupoint Bridge.  But the channel is marked so you just stay in it until you reach ST 328 and enter the Gulf County Canal which cuts off 90 degrees south and goes 5 nautical miles southwest from the Waterway to Port St. Joe on St. Joseph Bay....depth is 12 feet and we are now on Eastern Time!!!!

Dupoint Bridge

A little geography lesson....The  Panhandle of Florida is from Carrabelle to Pensacola.  We travel the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway which meanders along for a couple of hundred miles.  On our port you see civilization and starboard is the barrier islands...nothing.  Hard to believe you are in Florida where million dollar homes line the waterway and we are in the middle of nowhere.  As we got closer where we were in line with Mexico Beach we found some fish camps along the waterway.  How many miles do they drive to find a grocery store?????

Entering the canal..which way do we go

 

Fish Camps in style

The canal has no navigation markers and our GPS goes to a line.  We meet a houseboat with a bunch of guys and a fishing boat tied on...Have they been fishing, hunting or cruising...no VHF.

Lots of dophins jumping and playing on East Bay.  They are so much fun to watch and try to capture on film.

See the Dophins

We tell The Last Resort and Loopy Kiwi good-bye at the Gulf County Cutoff.  They are headed to Apalachicola and the crossing.  We have a two day window as of now.  Don and Freya have to return to Canada (health plan) early December and Phil and Carolyn have to return to New Zealand shortly.  Plan to meet up with both boats before the Bahamas as they are great folks to be with.

Gulf County Cutoff

 

Good-bye Don and Freya

Good-bye Phil and Carolyn

We head to Port St. Joe where we will be a week.  Want to experience St. Joseph Bay and the barrier islands.  Dinghy will be cleaned up and off we will go (on a "glass" day)  We follow the cut under the bridge, navigate the channel until we reach the marina.  The marina is protected from the gulf with break waters.  We are on the transient dock....dock hands arrive...wind in our favor.....tied up...Saddi's swim platform ramp will be used.....no more sliding down the ramp.

Port St Joe Marina

Time for Tocos and the"Sunset".  Really nice day.....

Isn't that pretty