I got up really early on Saturday morning - even though I had stayed up a bit too late Friday night having a little wine with a fellow cruiser. Unfortunately the weather forecast had changed and the winds and seas were not what I wanted for my first experience. I decided to hang out one more day as Sunday promised to be nearly perfect.
I was in need of ice so decided to take my first dinghy ride to town. The Panama City Marina is just a bit over a mile across from this anchorage - and the water was pretty calm. I got everything ready and loaded up the dinghy with my stuff in two layers of water proof bags. I actually had an easy go of it getting the motor on the dinghy this time and managed to do it in about 10 minutes. Of course, that crazy motor which had recently been fixed - would not stay running. Thankfully I had a nice gentleman come to my rescue who actually taught me how to take apart the carburetor and clean it. I only managed to drop one small piece in the water - and thankfully it wasn't critical :-) It was actually fun to learn how to do it and he was a very patient teacher who pretty much had me do it all while he instructed. I feel about 85% confident I could do it again next time - which I'm sure their will be a next time :-)
Well by now it was afternoon, but I was still determined to make my first dinghy ride to town. It was actually a blast, even though I was admittedly a little scared. It only took a few minutes to go across the bay and tie up at what I thought was the dinghy dock. My legs were shaky when I climbed off the dinghy to land. My mildewed "waterproof" tote bag had water dripping out the bottom - and I'm sure I was quite a site carrying it down the road wearing my very big sun hat. It had been a few days since I'd been ashore and I actually got a little dizzy walking in town. Unlucky for me most of downtown closed up by 2 p.m. on Saturday. Still I managed to find a place to have a quick hamburger and a huge glass of iced tea. I'll admit to sitting there being a little worried about my dinghy - and what I would do if it were gone when I returned. Unfortunately my iphone stopped working - although it didn't really look that wet :-( So I couldn't even call anyone I knew for help - as I had no phone numbers....
Thankfully Mr. Dinghy was right in the place where I'd left him - which was sort of in the way the place were people tie up their boats to use the ramp. I decided to row over to the fuel dock as it was just a short distance. The guys at the marina were very nice. I got four blocks of ice and a six pack of Corona and they even helped me load it into the dinghy - and took my trash :-) I gave them a good laugh as I couldn't get the thing started until I finally figured out I had forgotten to put the little red cord back on :-) The crazy thing still wouldn't stay running at a low rpm - so I had her revved up pretty good and the guy gave me a huge shove as I blasted her into gear and took off screaming :-) The bay was really choppy by this time - with white caps everywhere. I was worried about tipping over but the guys at the marina assured me it would be fine - and to just go fast! It was like a mile long roller coaster ride! I got totally soaked as the water splashed up over the little bow - but it was really fun! Unfortunately my little dinghy adventure for ice cost me about $300 as I now have to replace my iphone -- and I'm stuck here until Thursday waiting for it to arrive. My next purchase will be a real waterproof container for my phone. Later in the afternoon my friend took me for a ride in his much bigger faster dinghy which even more fun.
Yesterday I spent much of the morning trying to figure out how to get a replacement phone, then took my dinghy for a little spin just for fun. I had planned to go for a sail, but my friend came back from a trip to town with another six pack of Corona and we ended up hanging out instead. He was getting ready to can a bunch of meat and offered to show me how it's done. I had a great time -even though he made me wash out all the jars using a foot pump :-) We listened to some great cruising music and later he hung up the hammock for me and I had a lovely nap in the hammock while the pressure cooker/canner did it's work. We opened up a jar for a taste test and was it ever good!
I'm headed to the over to the beach anchorage today and may hang out there for a couple of days until I come back for my phone.
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About 3:30 this morning I was awakened by a howling thunderstorm. Hard to believe but after 8 months of traveling this was the first time we had a really bad storm while at anchor. Even harder to believe is that I was very calm about it. Just shut a few hatches, dug out my foulies and picked up a few things I'd left in the cockpit. I checked the weather radio and it described a front with 50 mph winds. I'm pretty sure I didn't get that much wind in my little bayou. I was tempted to dig out the wind speed instrument and check but it was raining too hard to go out without a really good reason. The wind didn't shift directions when the storm blew through so I wasn't too worried about the anchor getting free - ok maybe I was just a little :-) It all passed through in about 1/2 hour and I went back to my very wet bed! Not sure if I mentioned that the glass popped out on my $300 window repair. Guess I'll have to fix it myself this time. I couldn't do any worse than the professional :-) Yesterday evening around 6 p.m. I was busily trying to get my companion way bug screen in place as it was totally calm and the no seeum's were making an appearance. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something move - a beautiful large deer was standing near the water's edge. I quickly ducked below to get my binoculars. Soon another deer appeared. I positioned myself on the deck in my cozy chair binoculars in hand. Soon the deer wandered back into the forest. I took out my nature journal and began to note a description of the forest - abundant tall Cyprus trees, giant blooming magnolias, and native Florida palm trees. Only God could plant a landscape this beautiful. Soon another movement caught my eye. It was farther down the shore and was some sort of large cat. I couldn't get a solid view of it's markings - but it appeared to be a small bobcat. I watched him for few minutes before he too wandered off into the forest. Sometime later another much larger cat wandered onto the shore. He was huge! I haven't quite figured out what he was - but way too large to be a bobcat - possibly a Florida panther. I watched him for about a half hour - strolling quietly up and down the shore in the grasses. He was so very quiet. I Well I guess I should say on the water again :-) I left Panama City this morning quite early and headed over to Smack Bayou. It was raining a little, but I wanted to leave before: #1 - I lost my nerve , #2 - I had conference calls most of the day and #3 my slip rental was up and I didn't want to pay again. It's always hard to leave after staying in one place for several weeks - and especially so this time. |
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