We had a lovely trip with Kate and Bud. We left Monday morning on their 48ft. power boat. We were taking their boat to Pensacola, to haul it out of the water for hurricane season. They are also going to have a bottom job. They will leave the boat there until the fall. Kate and Bud live in Arizona and were to leave Sun Harbor last Thursday, but unfortunately Kate was coming out of the boat and her shoe caught the edge and she tripped and broke her foot. The trip was delayed. Tom and I went along to help out.

We went down the ICW. It was extremely hot and humid. Kate and I stayed on the bottom, it was so noisy and the smell of diesel fuel made me feel sick. Kate said it didn't bother her. If you went up to the fly bridge you got the fresh air and the best view. Kate could hardly put any weight on her foot so we stayed at the back of the boat. I did go up to the fly bridge a few times.

There is a place along the way they call the cliffs. It is a spot that people take their boats for hurricanes. My advise is don't go there. When I was told about the cliffs I thought oh maybe that is like the bluffs in Scarborough where I am from. Those cliffs are thousands of feet high, but these cliffs are like snow banks. You would not get any protection from a storm from those cliffs. The ICW is narrow there, and you would not be able to get out of the way of boat traffic on the ICW. The area is very open all the way to Pensacola, with a thin strip of barrier islands between us and the ocean.

There were lots of houses on stilts, but if there was a hurricane I don't think they would be there afterwards. The houses looked new and huge, really beautiful. There aren't many trees. You will see a lot of dead trees. I think that is the damage from the last hurricane.

Our first night we were at Ft. Walton Beach. It was narrow in the ICW there. There were big barges going up the ICW the whole time we were there. The biggest we saw had four sections, you would not want to get in their way, I think stopping is out of the question for a barge. It is like a train, they can stop but it takes a long time. We were told that the storm surge from a hurricane a few years ago was 40 feet. It wiped out all the marina that we stayed at, now there is all new docks. It was a really nice marina, but there wasn't much in the way of shelter from a storm. They had locked gates at this marina. Not many marina's are locked in Florida where I have been. In Toronto all marinas are locked with fences around them.

We were given a wagon to wheel Kate down the long dock to the restaurant. Poor Kate felt rather silly but it sure beat walking on her sore foot.

Tuesday morning we got up around 6am, but had to wait while some storms passed. As we traveled you could see rain showers all around us. We must of had a lucky rabbit's foot because we went all the way and missed the rain.

We passed this huge military tower, and I have never seen a tower like that. It was huge with windows at the top. There were lots of radars all around.

We had a wonderful trip and saw many different things along the way, along with dolphins swimming beside the boat. They followed us for a long time in Pensacola Bay. You could see them under the water near the surface and then they would come up for air. At first they were jumping out of the water and splashing. I was so surprised that they could swim so quickly.

Also in Pensacola Bay we saw a huge military ship with a helicopter landing on it.

We were so lucky when we arrived at the boat yard in Pensacola. The staff at the marina helped us when we docked and carried all our stuff. Kate had a bit of a walk up the dock which was difficult as she had to go up this big ramp to the shore. A man at the boat yard drove Kate across the gravel to another truck that took all of us to the airport to pick up a rental car. Bud drove us back to Panama City. We stopped for dinner at Sonny's and it was really good. Bud and Kate had to pick up their car at our marina, and Tom drove the rental car to the Panama City Airport. As soon as Tom was back in the boat we had a thunder storm here.