We Make Port St. Joe

Cutting Up with the Vernons

After an emotional departure from our Harbor Host friends, Carl & Greg Vernon, we left Panama City and headed toward Port St. Joe. The long term forecasts for a gulf crossing didn't look very promising for the next 5-7 days, but we decided that it was time to move on and explore new surroundings. Although it is somewhat off the beaten path, we had been to PSJ and PSJ Marina on two previous occasions with fellow loopers. The town is small, quaint, and easy to get around. Plus it has a Piggly Wiggly to which Jane could wear her "I Dig the Pig" tee-shirt Capt. Larry bought her before the one we regularly shopped at in Springfield, LA closed its doors. Talk about hog heaven!

Ellena & Jane

Ellena & Roy Getting Happy!

Hmmmmm! Tom's Dogs with Secret Sauce!

We left the Vernons' early and had good weather for the short 5-hour run to PSJ. But the forecast was for weather conditions to start to deteriorate around mid-afternoon, so to give us a little cushion, we put Bavarian Cream up on plane across the large East Bay. The eastern section of this body has some really skinny water, and although the channel is well marked, it was Capt. Larry's first test of navigating through a fairly narrow channel. Following the advice to look fore and aft to make sure one was in the channel, he hesitated when a couple of the buoys were considerably out of the straight line presented on the chart. Figuring that some tow had knocked the buoys off station, he started to proceed on the charted course, when he recalled a warning to always follow the lateral ATONs. He quickly put the boat back in the channel, passed the lateral marker on the proper side, and avoided running aground- at least for another day!

We entered Wetappo Creek and a man-made cut which provided some very scenic cruising, and leisurely followed this to the Gulf County Canal leading us out into St. Joseph Bay. By the time we arrived at the bay the wind had picked up to 15-20 kts. with gusts to 25 kts. Ugh! The short, open water ride to PSJ Marina was miserable. We knew the marina had some tight turning spaces and worried that it would be difficult to dock in the wind. When we called the marina to find out where they wanted us and get some help, they said that fellow loopers were waiting for us on the transient dock. Seems that Roy Short of Royel was following our progress and telephoned everyone to let them know we were arriving! We had 3 men to help us with the lines and Jane was playing her role as the "distressed damsel," and telling them all how wonderful they were. She could really get used to this! Anyway, thank you Roy!


We secured the boat, met our fellow loopers, and had happy hour on one of their boats.

Our first beautiful sunset!

Doing the ice detail