Panama City Bound
14 November 2014
David
After one last visit with Sandy and a Bon Voyage meal with Jena and Dreux we were ready to head for Panama City. Since we were going to be sailing at night and I had not got around to checking the running lights I figured it might be a good time. Well one of my very expensive, 5 year old, guarenteed waterpoof, will never burn out in my lifetime LED lights had leaked was corroded and would not work. Great, we will be stuck in Mississippi for a week with the cold front coming. Luckily there was a marine hardware store 4 blocks away that was open on Veterans Day. Within 2 hours we were 50 dollars poorer but had 2 brand new LED Aqua signal lights on the bow and were ready to go. We motored to Ship Island and anchored just off the old fort at sunset and enjoyed our first night at anchor. Winds were forecast to shift to the west then northwest after midnight so we (I) got up at 2 AM and we were sailing out of the Ship Island Channel by 3 on our way to Panama City. The wind shifted to the north and picked up to 10-12 knots around daybreak and once the auto pilot was set we had a straight course to our destination on a beam reach. With several visits from the local dolphin pods we averaged 5.5 to 6 knots. We were past Mobile and the oil rigs/supply boat activities by sunset. As advertised, the winds picked up in the evening to 15- 18 knots flying along at 7+ knots the rest of the way we arrived at the Panama City jetties by 8AM Thursday doing the 170 miles in 29 hours. Tired and glad to be going in, I started the diesel going into the pass and guess what? no raw water coming out of the exaust. With rock jetties coming up on both sides, an out going tide, and wind about 40 degrees off the port bow we were just barely able to sail through the pass where the course changed. We were able to sail right up to the marina, turn into the wind, drop the sails and run the engine for less than 3 minutes while getting into a slip. Captain Ron would have been very proud. We're in Panama City Marina slip 611.