Nov 21st - April 3rd, 2012: Clearwater FL to Charleston, SC

      When we left Clearwater, FL we travelled a few miles down the west coast of Florida to Fort Myers, than took a left turn on the Caloosahatchee River to LaBelle, Fl. Teresa's Mom and Stepdad live here and we left GREAT ESCAPE for the months of December, January and February.
    On March 1st, we got underway and crossed Lake Okeechobee in the center of the state.  Our first stop was a little marina about 8 miles east of the lake called Indiantown.  As we crossed the lake, I noted a strange sound coming from the starboard engine.  To make a long story short (and it pains me to repeat it) we had to stay in Indiantown for almost three weeks making engine repairs.
   Underway again on March 21st, we stopped at Titusville, Fl and than headed toward Jacksonville.  We had an overnight stay in St. Augustine and had a chance to meet with our Canadian friends the Tovel's  before they headed back north to Toronto.  From St. Augustine we continued to the St. Johns River and than headed south toward our hometown of Green Cove Springs.
    We arrived in Green Cove on March 25th and spent 4 days taking care of personal business, restocking the boat and saying good-bye to friends for the summer.
   On March 30th, we began the final stretch on Loop #2, heading toward the Intracoastal Waterway with stops in Fernandia Beach, FL, Brunswick, GA, Savannah, GA  and today north of Charleston SC harbor. 
   The last couple of months have been spent enjoying the Holidays, enjoying get togethers with friends and family, and just relaxing.  We're ready for this final run to the Chesapeake, hoping to arrive in the Norfolk VA area around April 20th. 

Enjoying dinner with friends Skip and Sharon Moore
in Clearwater, FL

Kelly Cromer on board GREAT ESCAPE with his buddy Shipmate

The Clearwater, FL skyline

Teresa's mom Bailey joined us in Clearwater for the trip to LaBelle.
We now had three dogs on board with her Portuguese water dog Jessie

The Sarasota, FL waterfront

The inn at Cabbage Key just north of Fort Meyer's on the west coast

Deb and John Blom, good neighbors in Green Cove Springs,
at Deb's birthday dinner (hence the tiara)

Friends Maggie and Sam Short visiting from Charlottsville, VA for the Daytona 500

Everett Grey Koncius enjoying a portion of his first Christmas

Celebrating Jack and Emma Delarm's 50th wedding anniversary
  with their daughter Krist and grandson Troy

Enjoying a dinner in LaBelle with Teresa's Mom and Stepdad
as well as friends Evelyn and Al Love

Underway from LaBelle with fog on the river

In Indiantown, we had a dinner on board with Teresa's highschool
friends Yvonne and Dan Moncrief

The dockmaster in Indiantown marina

Teresa's Mom Bailey visited Indiantown with her girlfriends Mary, Betty
and Ike (who won our March Madness tournament this year)

This 80 foot Burger yacht stayed in Indiantown
prior to crossing Lake Okeechobee

Some trouble on the Intracoastal just north of Daytona

A warship in dry-dock near the Mayport Naval Base

The Landing in downtown Jacksonville

This little beauty belongs to the new owner of the
Jacksonville Jaguars

The city dock in Green Cove Springs

Having dinner onboard with Deb and John Blom and Ruby Parrish

Sunrise in Green Cove as we got underway

The Jacksonville skyline heading into town

Wild horses on Jekyll Island, GA

These shrimp boats are actually floating, but there is a significant
tidal change in the Georgia Intra-coastal

Mufasa on dolphin lookout during a windy day  

The Battery in Charleston

Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor

Nov 13th - Nov 21: Panama City to Clearwater

  There is not to much to update at this time.  From Panama City we moved on to Apalachicola, FL.  Apalachicola provides about 10% of all the oysters eaten in this country and we certainly did our best to contribute.  Donald made a two day trip back to Green Cove Springs and the Orlando area for personal business.  Returning to Apalachicola, we moved on to Carrabelle, FL which is our departure point for crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater in the Tampa Bay area.
    We had to wait in Carrabelle for a weather opportunity to cross the Gulf.  Being on the water for about 14 hours and at night means you want to make sure the weather cooperates. It has been very windy for the last couple of days, resulting in some higher seas.  It looks like the winds are suppose to calm sufficiently on Sunday or Monday night which will allow us to make the 150 NM crossing.  Until then, we are relaxing.
   On Sunday afternoon, after much hand wringing over the weather, 9 boats left Carrabelle to cross the Gulf.  We all made it without incident.  For GREAT ESCAPE, it was a 19 hour 33 minute journey covering 169 nautical miles.  We are resting now and will spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with our great friends Skip and Sharron Moore.

The porpoise have been providing entertainment during
our underway periods.  This guy was doing somersaults alongside.

One of many osprey we have seen along the trip

Shrimp boats alongside the pier in Apalachicola

This bush in downtown Apalachicola was
particularly attractive to butterflies

This majestic fellow was posing on a channel marker
heading into Carrabelle

To pass some time in Carrabelle, there has been some
fishing off the bow.The Boyz are there to help 

Mufasa checking out the fish in the bucket

"Hey Bro, look what's in there"

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

Approaching Clearwater FL

Nov 7th - Nov 12th: Mobile, AL to Panama City, FL

On Monday the 7th, we left Mobile, AL and headed east toward Florida.  Mobile Bay is a large, shallow body of water and about halfway down the Bay we noted a large yacht doing circles in a very shallow area.  When we passed, the yacht fell in behind us and asked if we were going to Pensacola.  We explained we were but did not intend to arrive there until the next day.  He asked if he could follow us because he had no electronics, no charts and his  compass was not acting properly.  This was a delivery captain taking this 63 foot Broward to the Pensacola area for sale.  Talk about God looking out for the welfare of small children and fools.  He followed us for about 20 miles through the shallow water and when we reached the ICW decided we were not traveling fast enough so it was see ya.  Hopefully he found someone else to follow the rest of the way.

We spent Monday evening at anchor in Robert's Bayou, a very nice cove in Josephine, AL with a dock to take the Boyz ashore and a local tavern we could dinghy to for an afternoon beverage.

The next day we headed toward Pensacola to stay at the Naval Air Station Marina.  When we were close to the marina, we observed the Blue Angles practicing for the Veteran's Day Air show.  A great treat.  Wednesday we did a little walking tour of downtown Pensacola.  That afternoon, we got to see the Blue Angles practicing again although it was overcast with a front moving in.  The next day north winds were blowing at around 35 knots and we decided it was a good day to stay put.

  

From Pensacola we made our way to Fort Walton Beach, which has a nice city dock where boaters can spend the night.  The weather had cleared and there was a beautiful sunset.

From Fort Walton Beach, it was on to Panama City.  During this section there were many, many dolphin swimming along the side of GREAT ESCAPE.  Mufasa is fascinated - he can't figure out why we don't stop and try to hook these big fish !!

Next we will continue eastward toward Apalachicola and Carrebelle.

This is the Broward that asked to follow us across
the shallow, unmarked portion of Mobile Bay.

Robert's Bayou

The local tavern.

The channel accessing the bayou was a little narrow but deep

Now we really know we are in Florida

Blue Angles practicing

One of the downtown Pensacola pelicans - the one on the left

The downtown area

Although Navy and Marina Corps pelicans got center stage,
the other services were displayed as well

Pensacola had many churches.  This was the oldest we could find

St. Michael's Church

Practicing the second day.  They were flying right over
the marina as you can see by the sailboat masts

GREAT ESCAPE in the Air Station marina

Sunset in Fort Walton Beach

On alert !!

Swimming companions

Approaching Panama City