the Gulf of Mexico
07 November 2016 | Destin
Joanne
At 6:22 the anchor was up and we were on our way. Unfortunately the wind was coming from the direction we were heading. The forecast was for East 13-18 knots decreasing by noon. As we left thru the pass out to the Gulf the seas were steep and confused as the tide was ebbing against the waves coming in. Shortly out into the Gulf we were in 3'-5' seas and winds a steady 15 knots. Our headway was minimal motoring so we put the main out and steadied quite a bit. We had 53 miles to go so lots of tacks to keep us close to our track. The time change also meant sundown 16:55. The seas built over the day with a constant 18-20 knots east wind. We sailed thru large areas of "pink water" that turned out to be thousands of jellyfish. We were also treated to several pods of dolphins that seemed as curious about us as we were of them. Unbelievably at about 15:30 the wind dropped and as we approached the Destin approach the sea was calm.
We entered the channel just as the sun set. There were lots of dolphins and right in the center of the channel were 8 kids playing in the water with the Dolphins. Not exactly smart in the center of a busy channel! We anchored just before total darkness in front of the bridge in a small Basin.