New Blog Name

Since we have decided to keep the name Blue Moon as our new boat's name, I've created a new blog to reflect this.  The new blog site is
bluemoonsails.blogspot.com
 I plan to post something in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned for some pictures of updates we've made so far.

Home Safe and Sound

We arrived to our home slip on Monday night.  This was great timing since the flooding storms hit that night.  There has been a tremendous amount of devestation in the several counties of the Florida Panhandle.  Our particular neighborhood has been spared but not too far away, folks were not so lucky.  We were oblivious to the damage since we didn't see it until our daughter in Australia asked if we were ok.  What a shock to see what we had missed.  Fortunately, Blue Moon is water tight and we are in the process of emptying her lockers and trying to figure out exactly how we want her to be equipped and make her our floating home.  We love to have visits so drop on by!  Once I finish this update, I'll try changing the blog name to reflect Blue Moon.  Hopefully I'll be able to link this blog to the new one.  Thanks for sharing our adventure.

Suz captured this picture as we sailed by headed home.

Blue Moon at the Fort Walton Yacht Club.  Home safe and sound and ready for her next adventure.

More Panama City and Homeward Bound

The city marina in Panama City is always a good place to visit.  I even managed to put the boat in the slip with only a minor panic attack.  The egress was not so great but I wasn't driving.  Good to share the blame on booboos.  She is going to take a lot of learning and we're paying tuition to the school of "Oh @@##".  Other than that, we had a lot of fun meeting the other boats.  One thing being ashore allows is for eating out and letting someone else wash dishes, always a popular option with the ladies of the group.  Close by are Bayou Joe's, a fixture on Masalina Bayou and Cassandra's a great diner in the heart of old PC and a short walk from the boats.

This pair was singing outside the boat for a long while. It was fun to watch their antics.

Craig modeling the Fling Tshirt.  I'm impressed with how nice he has kept it.  Ours seemed to have a combination of food, dirt and oil stains.

The shirts were designed with some of our favorite spots on them.

Breakfast at Cassandra's

This is for our neighbor Steve.  He does like a good rum.

Lady Chateau from Minnesota was across from us at the marina then passed us on our way home.

She is over 80 feet and had an aft deck for her toys and the crane to lower them to the dock.  I really can't conceive of the money needed for this type of boat.

The port of Panama City is adding infrastructure to handle to ships that will be coming through the enlarged Panama Canal.

Under the Hathaway Bridge and entering West Bay.

Navy hydrofoil.

Hydrofoils huge fans.  It is nothing something that can sneak up on you.

Capn Dave at the helm.

Mariah, Suz and Sam on board, sail with us home.  I guess they aren't sick of us yet!

When they put in the new bridge, they turned half of the old draw bridge into a fishing pier.

Watching the world go by.

Entering our home bay.  Almost home.

Panama City and the Spring Fling

We made it through the pass into Saint Andrew's Bay about 6 and tucked in behind Shell Island.  We had light long enough to get things secure and have a nice sunset bowl of burgoo.  We were now down to our last bottle of wine and made it a celebration of being back in the panhandle.  Not being part of the party boater crowd, we were not prepared for the zoo atmosphere that showed up the next day.  Hundreds of boats of all sizes and typed came to enjoy a Saturday of sunshine and great beaches on the barrier island.  We did manage to snag a bunch of little ice cream cups from the entrepreneurs selling them to the crowd.  After that we moved about a quarter mile further along to escape some of the noise and have room for the boats coming to join us.  One of the super fun things we do as a part of the Fort Walton Yacht Club is go on organized, week-long cruises either to the east or west of Fort Walton Beach.  This year the group headed east and happened to be going the same time we were coming home.  While we couldn't join for the entire trip, we did enjoy a bit of it.  Several boats left the pass at Destin and sailed down to our spot and either rafted up or anchored nearby.  It is always fun to share stories and food with good friends.  Doing it on our boats is just icing on the cake of life!
The next day we pulled up anchor and went the grueling 5 miles to the Panama City Marina to join the rest of the group so more stories, food and drink.  What a rough life!

We joined the hordes of tourist going over to the island.  It used to have a population of private homes then the state bought the land and made it a state park.  We thought all the houses were abandoned until we saw the private property sign and the deck with new items on it.

This is the same house.  It seems to weather the storms well.  I'm not sure how old it is but it's old.

This was about a mile or so on down the beach and it did look abandoned.

Handsome man on the beach.  Our area is famous for the sugar-sand beaches. 

Blue Moon at anchor behind Shell Island.

There used to be ferry service to the island and this was the portal.  Not sure if still an active service.

Powered wing.  Looks fun and scary at the same time.  There was a large contingent  of these folks as well as para-sailors.

The path from the sound to the gulf through the dunes.

This was just a small slice of the boats crowed around us.

Anything floating seemed to find their way to our spot.

One good thing the park service does is work to protect the endangered species trying to survive on the barrier islands.  Sadly, it requires human cooperation, not always in good supply.

Sunset tradition is blowing of the conch.  Our friend and fellow flinger, CeCe does the honors.

Crossing The Gulf of Mexico

This was a wonderfully amazing crossing for many reasons.  First, it was bringing Blue Moon to her home waters, second it was FLAT for over 200 miles-something we had never experienced, we ran through a pod of hunting dolphins and then a flock of migrating birds and finally-Nothing Broke, also an unusual occurance.  In short, for about 34 hours we sailed or motored-sail in relative civility.  I can definitely get used to this!

Leaving land behind.  Clearwater Bridge with the sun.

This boat of tourist out deep sea fishing had to be loving the flat seas.

Leaving land behind for a while.

One of the flock of little birds who came for a visit.  They were all over the boat's lines.  They just seemed to want a place to rest before they flew on north.

This little one was more tired than shy.  that is David's jacket sleeve he's on.

It was a huge pod of dolphin, always exciting to see.  They never paid us any attention, just kept swirling around their prey.  We sailed through the middle of them and they were still in a frenzy after we were several hundred yards further on.

Watching the horizon.

Nice legs.  Sorry, I can't seem to make him stand up straight!

The emblem on our sails for Pearson 424.  The trident with the storm symbol is for Pearson's in general.

Setting sun on the gulf.  No green flash but still beautiful to behold.

The reflection on our dodger just reflected more beauty.

This tug pushing a barge passed us about 2 am on his way to Crystal River.  He had to be loving the flat seas too.

On To Clearwater

We ran a few more errands before we had to turn in the car then took leisurely showers before finally shoving off from the Field Club.  I might as well admit that I made a mess of our backing out.  Nothing was ruined but my ego was severely damaged.  I could do a fair job with Sanctuary but Blue Moon is so different.  Lots of learning and practising in my future.  I can bring her alongside a dock but backing is still eluding me.  From there we motored up to the Manatee River.  We wanted an early start the next day so we decided to anchor rather than go up to the Bradenton YC.  We really like the club but this is still a delivery trip and we need to push on.  We were joined in the anchorage by several other boats.  One was a large ketch full of partiers.  They had a great time judging by the laughing.  Since they were quiet (or passed out) by the time we went to bed, no problem.  David showed me how to use the windlass to raise anchor and I was successful so my ego was a bit restored.  It was a dull, dreary morning so the sunshine causeway bridge did not live up to its name.  Things cleared by mid-day but not enough to make seeing water depths easy on our approach to the Clearwater YC.  We bumped once but didn't stick.  There was no room at the club so we have anchored off a ways.  I spent a while talking with a nice, knowledgeable, and most of all patient person at the Island Time office.  He helped me figure out the correct settings to make the now functioning bullet work.  If I can keep from boogering it up, I'll have wifi whenever I can hit a hotspot.  Currently I'm hitting on the club's signal.  With a router on board, I've been able to work on the computer and David has used our new tablet.  This really is easy to get used to!!  The boat also has a whole-boat inverter so when we're generating enough power with the engine or wind or solar, we have powered outlets.  We plan to replace the aging solar panels eventually which will make cruising even simpler.  We plan to leave early tomorrow (high tide to avoid bumps on the way out) and head to the panhandle.  The winds will be too light for much sailing but we will be able to motor.  The mizzen should help keep the boat comfortable.  Here's hoping so anyway.  We're not sure where we'll land so keep checking!

I love this beach house.  Not sure why, just do.  You'll see it in previous posts.

Spring break on an island in the channel.  Looked like fun.

The pair were feeding the babies in the nest.  Very cool to see.  They must be used to boaters since they basically ignored us.

Pink is a favorite color down here.  Must have inspired that Aerosmith song.

Katy and Ric from our club passed us on their way down to the Morgan Invasion at Davis YC.  They have been working on their Morgan 38 for a long time so it was great to see them enjoying the fruits of their labors.

Up to The Field Club

We had a truly spectacular crossing of the lower gulf.  We went directly to the Boca Grande pass then through several bridges up to the Field Club.  It is one of the most elegant clubs in all the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs.  They are always friendly and welcoming.  The ride up was beyond our greatest expectations from the boat.  We sat in our enclosure with about  20 degrees of heel (leaning over) with a steady 20 knot wind and making a steady 7.5-8.5 knots of boat speed.  If we had put in all the side curtains we would have been dryer when we were hit with a rain squall but it did serve to wash out the cockpit.  We have been used to the luxury of a cockpit shower to clean up messes so it is on the short list of improvements.  The bimini also leaks from some lack of flashing and the waterproofing showing its age.  One is easily fixed with 303 waterproofing but the other is a bigger issue.  We are considering redesigning the entire cockpit dodger/bimini/enclosure to suit us.  If anyone wants to buy a full enclosure, let us know!  It isn't so bad that it will be at the top of the list, but it's one of the items.  Other than the minor inconvenience, it was a fast, comfortable ride.  We had planned on coming in at San Carlos bay near Fort Myers but we passed that up in the dark and kept on going.  We crossed into the ICW about dawn and motored on north.  With over 180 miles covered in 29 hours, we were pleased!  Suz and Sam bid us farewell on Saturday.  We truly, truly appreciated all their help.  We took advantage of a cheap car rental rate to have wheels for the two days we were there.  We took good advantage of the opportunity.  During our stay we replaced the AC pump; jury rigged a fiddle for the front of the nav table; made the mainsheet winch work better, chipped a ton of cetol off the jib travelers to make them work; repaired a drawer front that came off; reattached a bit of strip lighting in the v-berth; figured out the pullman berths in the main cabin; rearranged our clothes in the forward cabin; bought food; did laundry; went to Mass on Easter; and tightened the connection for the wifi bullet.  I still couldn't make it work but it had the right sequence of lights.  Most of these items on the boat are merely irritants and all the great features of Blue Moon still have us thrilled with our choice.

David had to climb the mizzen mast to reach the wifi extender.  It is the long, straight antenna on the spreader.  The radar and TV antenna are on the front of the mast.  Yep, we have tv if there is anything broadcasting.  In our home waters, that means nothing since we have no broadcast channels.

Suz spread out things from the cockpit to dry.  She called it our Chinese Laundry!