Cruising with Camelot

11/13/15 – 11/??/15 Destin and Panama City, FL

11/13/15 Destin FL

We headed back out into the Gulf Intracoastal on a beautiful day. For the most part, the gulf side of this area is very built up and commercial. While the mainland side was more residential until you get to the big cities.

Gulf side of the bay

Mainland side of the bay

Destin is a beach town. It is very colorful and I wish we had been able to stay awhile and check it out, but we are now trying to get on our way so that we will be ready when there is an adequate weather window for our 18 hour trip across the Gulf of Mexico.

Right Shoreline at the entrance

11/14/15 11/??/15 Panama City FL

So we are off to our next port of call, Panama City. The first part of this trip was through a canal that dumped us into the Choctawhatchee Bay. This portion of the intracoastal was not built up nearly as much as the last.

Panama City is a rather small but convenient city. You can walk to a few eateries and some shopping. The municipal marina where we stayed was among the many government buildings quite close to the water.

Entrance to Panama City Marina

After being here for several days we had a water regulator break, and Ken bought two more and replaced it twice. Both parts were defective. We are now working off of our water tank until we can get somewhere and pick up one from a different manufacturer.

Our stay here has been extended since the next planned stop, Apalachicola, has been full of boats. They are all waiting for a weather window to make the trip across the Gulf.

We wound up renting a car and decided to check out the Gulf Coast. So we headed over to Panama City Beach. It is really quite large. We spent the day driving around and even did a little trip to the water. We found a neat restaurant - Sharky’s, and enjoyed a nice dinner.