FLORIDA! We made it to Florida and are staying in Pensacola tonight. Temps in the 70s today and lows in the high 50s tonight. There are strong winds forecast for tomorrow and again Sunday, but we’re in the Intercoastal Waterway now, so the waves and wind should not bother us very much. Mobile Bay was big enough to have serious waves, but we left early this morning and were out of the bay before any waves developed. On the way through Mobile Bay, we met a monstrous oil platform rig which had been refloated and was running under it’s own power like a ship that was a city block square and a city block high. It’s hard to gauge the size from this picture, but there is a 35 ft. Coastguard patrol boat on the right side next to it as an escort (between our bow rail and the oil rig). You might have to click on this picture, which loads a bigger size picture) to even see the Coast Guard boat.

The Intercoastal Waterway is a nicely marked, well dredged canal connecting the many bays and natural tide channels behind the barrier islands along the coast. The picture is the ICW leaving Mobile and the restaurant along the side of the canal is “Lulu’s” (jimmy Buffet’s sister). It was 10 AM when we passed, so we didn’t stop in for lunch, but it’s supposed to be very good food. Most of the barrier islands here are National Seashore islands of white sand, salt marshes, pine trees and palm trees. If we had time and nice weather, I’d love to go anchor close to them and walk the beaches, but we expect plenty of that in December and January farther south and in the Keys.

Here we are in shirtsleeve weather and our daughter, Ann, is moving to her new house in Chicago tomorrow (12/1) and they expect a foot of snow. Sorry Ann! At least the new house is beautiful. I hope Mike can make it down to help, and maybe bring his snow blower. I did service the snow blowers before we left in October and they should run fine.

We plan to stay here tomorrow and go to Ft. Walton Beach and Destin on Saturday. With gale force winds forecast for Sunday, we’ll probably stay an extra day there too. Currently, we’re about one day ahead of schedule on our Cruise Plan.