October 22, 2015
We had a good night at English Navy Cove anchorage and woke
to another beautiful sunrise. There was
another dog on the beach, so Sasha had fun playing with her and trying to herd
her around a little. If only her friend,
Daisy, were here to share it with her, because they play together like no one
else.
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| Sunrise at English Navy Cove |
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| Park, pier, and boat ramp |
Our plan for the day was to head to the free city dock at
Fort Walton Beach, one of the suggestions from Bob and Barbie of The Bar
B. Since the dock is located close to
town, we wanted to get there fairly early so that we would have more time to
look around and see what was close by.
We pulled the anchor at around 8 a.m. and headed out.
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| Several tiny crabs no bigger than the tip of a finger came up on the anchor line |
Our wind gauge showed that the wind was still from the east
at 11-14 mph, so there was a only light chop most of the way, which made for
good cruising. We saw dolphins again,
and at one point had as many as 15 of them playing in our bow wave.
Part of Santa Rosa Island along our route is a prohibited
area used exclusively by the military.
We saw a military boat and some geared up soldiers in small inflatable
boats involved in some sort of training.
It reminded us of the Seal or Ranger training shows on TV. There was also an impressive-looking radar
dome surveying the entire area.
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| Military boat involved in training |
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| Soldiers in small inflatables or kayaks |
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| Radar dome |
Santa Rosa Sound gradually tapers down to an area called
“The Narrows”, where the shore on both sides is fairly close. As we cruised along this area toward our
destination, the shoreline on both sides became more developed.
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| The Ft Walton Beach/Destin area is supposed to have the whitest sand beaches anywhere |
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| A group of moms with strollers power walking |
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| Maybe a biology class on a field trip? |
We arrived at Fort Walton City Dock at around 12:30 p.m. We turned in between DM 6 and the no wake
sign and went to the west a short ways so that we could spin around to come
into the end of the dock into the wind.
We had no less than 6-8 ft under our keel the whole way. Second Noelle, a 35 ft Silverton, was already
docked at one end of the T, and her captain, Ray, came out to give us a hand
with our dock lines. As it turned out, he and his wife, Linda, are good friends with Bob and Barbie and were expecting
them to come in later in the afternoon.
The Fort Walton City Dock is part of a nice city park and
boat access ramp. It is located close to
the downtown area, so there is a Publix, as well as a number of restaurants and
shops within a few blocks. There is free
water and pump-out at the dock, so we took the opportunity to wash some of the
saltwater off of the boat since everything was beginning to feel gritty.
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| Ft Walton Beach Landing and Park |
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| Map of the town near the dock |
When The Bar B arrived, they rafted up with Second
Noel. After they got settled, we all
congregated on the flybridge of Second Noelle for docktails and
conversation. Then we all went out to
supper at Fokker’s Pub, a place Bob and Barbie had been to before. We had the thin crust brick oven pizza which
was very good. Then it was back to the
boat to take Sasha for a walk and late evening Frisbee session.
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| Lorelei IV, Second Noelle, and The Bar B |
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