Monday and we’re still in Ft. Walton Beach at Ft. Walton Yacht Club. The club was closed today so it was pretty quiet. Although closed, club manager Tom brought us flowers. Said they were left over from an event and didn’t want them to go to waste – How nice is he??? It was pretty overcast and cold but the sun peeked out for just a little while late in the afternoon which prompted us to get Scout About down from her perch, put the motor on and take a late afternoon scout-about ride.

Tuesday at FWYC and, again, Tom brought us the local newspaper. Another overcast and cool day but Michael washed the boat and windows. Yeah! Feels and looks so good – all the salt washed away. Went to the club for “build your own taco” tonight. Very nice and well attended. Met Sallie and Charles who invited us to have dinner with them at the club tomorrow night.

Wednesday – we thought we would leave today for Apalachicola but decided to stay a bit longer. It’s a nice place to hang – the water is clear and although the weather is not warm it’s warmer and the folks here are very gracious.  We’re also close to shopping and have arranged to have some mail delivered to us. There’s a little weather front coming in on Friday so we felt like we would have to leave today to make it to Apalachicola by Friday OR we could stay here and leave on Saturday after the front comes through. We decided on the later. When we made plans for this trip we both agreed that we didn’t want to rush. We wanted to take our time. So our plan is to leave here on Saturday morning (weather permitting) for Pearl Bayou where we will anchor out. When we called St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club, in Panama City, Florida, to inquire about a guest slip they advised us that they lost all their docks in hurricane Michael. They still have a club house and we were told we could anchor out in front of the club and dinghy in. The locals told us that would not be a very good idea – not very protected. They advised us to go to Pearl Bayou. We will take their advice and anchor Saturday night then head to Apalachicola Sunday morning. Once in Apalachicola we will check the weather and make the decision about the “crossing”.  More to come….