We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was a little different this year, considering our circumstances, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. The holiday also came at the perfect time, with the cold front that took over the entire country.

Once we departed from Juana’s Pagodas in Navarre Beach, we made a 20 nautical mile jump over to Destin for one night, where we had just enough time to provision for our Thanksgiving meal. We originally intended to split Thanksgiving sides up between ourselves and our buddy boat, Slacker, until a fellow Looper invited us to their home right as we were on our way to the grocery store. Lucky for us, they even had dock space for us to keep our boats!

From Destin, we moved about 50 nautical miles to the home of Loopers Chris and Cheri in Panama City Beach. This 50-mile stretch took us through a canal known as “The Ditch,” which connects Destin to Panama City through an inside track, rather than needing to go out into the Gulf. We were grateful for this route, considering the next few days would bring strong winds. 

I’m pretty sure we’ve seen more dolphins in our short time in the panhandle than we saw the entire way up the East Coast. What’s also different now, compared to the East Coast, is that Ripley has actually noticed the dolphins swimming by our boat and has taken on a new role of dolphin watch. Upon arriving in Panama City, we pulled into a secluded neighborhood, tucked away from said winds. After securing our lines to the dock and getting settled, we checked our logbook and noticed we had hit 4,000 nautical miles in our trip so far!

We can’t thank Chris and Cheri enough for allowing us to use their car for a few errands and their home for laundry and hot showers while we were stationed in Panama City Beach for five days. It’s amazing how many people we’ve crossed paths with who are beyond generous. Between fellow Loopers and harbor hosts, or marina staff and locals who support our journey, it truly is the people who make all these places so memorable. 

On Sunday, we departed Panama City Beach and made our way over to Apalachicola, where we will hang out for a few days while we wait for a weather window to make the Gulf crossing. When Loopers reach Carrabelle, they have to decide on how they want to get through the “Big Bend” of Florida. Option A is a 130 or so mile crossing down to Tarpon Springs or beyond, which can require a 24-plus-hour window depending on the speed of your boat. Option B is to take the “Big Bend” route, which goes from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee, Steinhatchee to Cedar Key or Crystal River, and finally another jump to Tarpon Springs. There is no right or wrong decision; however, there are pros and cons to each. We’ll break these down in next week’s post as we take on our own Gulf crossing.

Cheers to continuing this great adventure!