We got up and took Frank for his morning walk. Just as I was returning, I noticed the boat in front of us preparing to leave. I helped them depart and sat down for my morning coffee. I saw our sailboat neighbors and was chatting with them before we left. They still weren’t sure what to do about the mast and bridge height, so they decided to leave the boat here for a couple of days with permission from the city manager which runs the docks. We relaxed a bit then prepared to depart and pulled away, heading toward Destin.
Destin is located on Florida’s Emerald Coast, which gets its name from its beautiful, clear green water. Beaches here have extremely fine, soft sand and they have a boardwalk lined with food and entertainment venues. The trip didn’t take long, a little over an hour. The entrance into Destin harbor was a little tricky. There are buoys, but they were almost on top of one another but different colors, so I was confused. Just as we were about to pass a buoy, someone called out to me on the radio: “Klondike, you’d better get on the other side of that buoy!”. WTF!? I was about to pass on the left of the green, but they told me to go right of it. As I said, I was confused, but I followed their direction and we made our way further into the harbor, passing through five foot depths and less, until it started to get a bit deeper around ten feet. “Thank You!” I replied to the anonymous helper. We could see a few other boats anchored out where our charts showed as an anchorage. We made our way close, but not too close to the other boats and dropped anchor. We let out plenty of rode, as winds were expected to increase overnight, but not be overly raucous.
Once we secured and comfortable with our anchor being firmly set, we got on the dinghy and went to the beach on one side of the harbor next to a large hotel. The beach was indeed fine, soft sand. It was great to be on a beach again, and it was hot! It was almost eighty degrees and the beach was perfect. We hung out and tried to keep Frank discreet as we found out once on the beach that dogs are not allowed. We stayed off to the side and Frank laid down next to us, and nobody bothered us. We hung out there for a couple of hours, then made our way back to Klondike. Showers were taken and we prepared to go to the other side of the harbor where all of the bars and restaurants are. It was now happy hour time and we were ready to eat. Our first stop was Jackacudas Seafood. We shared some appetizers and chatted with the bartender for a bit. Apparently this is off-season for them, and the place was not busy. We then continued on to AJ’s, which had some live music and was a bit more lively, and we shared some sushi rolls. Afterward we walked along the boardwalk a bit, then went back to our boat. I took Frank for his nightly walk and returned, ready to retire for the evening.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we made a reservation at a dock in Panama City Beach. We hope to get there by 3pm, and were told to dock at their gas dock for the night and they will move us on Friday when they return to work. The weather looks good, so there should be no issues traveling tomorrow.