October 21, 2015
Since we had to hurry Sasha along yesterday evening, we
promised her that we would take her to a park we had passed which was about 2
miles back. It was a very nice park with
a nice fishing pier and a sandy area on which to land the dinghy. We played Frisbee and then took a walk up the
park to see the scarecrow display. We
forgot to take a camera with us, but there were many clever themes, such as a
beekeeper, bride and groom, Sponge Bob, a scare Crow made of painted palm
fronds, and many others.
Ingram Bayou must be known for dolphins, because we had seen
2 dolphin sightseeing boats when we arrived, as well as a number of dolphins as
we were going in and setting our anchor.
On our way out to the park and then back, we saw many dolphins again. We took the dinghy up further into the Bayou
and saw that the left dogleg indeed widened and provided good wind and wake
protection, just as we had read in the guides.
There was a sailboat anchored there, so we slowed to idle speed so as
not to disturb their peaceful solitude.
There were several dolphins back this far as well, and one came so close
to Rob’s side of the dinghy that he felt a little nervous. We’ve always heard that dolphins are curious,
and this one sure did give Rob a good looking over.
We had already decided to do a short day to the Pensacola
area, so we took the time to have breakfast and enjoy the beautiful setting
before getting underway again.
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| Ingram Bayou - if you go around the bend to the left, it widens and is more protected |
We were only a short distance from the Florida border. We passed through a narrow no wake area lined
with houses and docks, and at the end of it we crossed the Florida line. Woo hoo!
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| These colorful houses reminded us of Curacao and Bonaire |
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| Too bad this wasn't open yet |
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| Florida! |
The GIWW ran through several bays and lagoons. Since there was a 15-20 mph wind from the
easterly directions, when we were in these larger bodies of water, there was
more wave action. Once again, Lorelei IV
performed very well, even when the course of the GIWW had us taking waves on
the beam (broadside). The only place we
noticed much rolling at all was when we went by the inlet between Big Lagoon
and Pensacola Bay. In this area the
swells were bigger, and since they were coming at our starboard side as we
passed by, we rolled quite a bit. On the
helm my empty 20 oz Bubba cup and a pair of top-heavy binoculars were the only
2 items that were in any danger of tumbling to the floor on one of more
pronounced rolls. No one got seasick at
all, but we agreed that we wouldn’t want any worse conditions for a longer
period of time, such as during the Crossing.
We actually had worse waves from a couple of boats that
passed close to us without slowing down a bit.
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| You can imagine the wake this guy was throwing off! |
We figured that we would have dolphins riding our bow wave
again, so Rob had gotten the Go Pro camera ready to capture some video. They sure look like they really enjoy it!
We had originally thought to anchor at Santa Rosa Island,
but when we got close, we thought that there might be too much wave action due
to the wind. Then we thought we might go
further into Pensacola Bay to a different anchorage, but as we were headed
toward it, we decided that it would take us further away from the GIWW than we
had thought. We decided to turn around
and head back into Santa Rosa Sound and either anchor if we found a good spot
or go to a marina. We were in the
restricted area near the Pensacola Naval Air Station during all these
maneuvers, so even though marine traffic is permitted, I’m sure someone was
keeping a close eye on things and may have wondered what we were doing.
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| There were a number of sailboats enjoying the windy day |
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| Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels |
Garmin Bluewater Charts on the iPad can be synced with
Active Captain so that the information and reviews on anchorages, marinas, and
other services can be viewed along the planned route as you are going
along. We looked at several reviews of
anchorages in the area and decided that English Navy Cove was worth swinging
by. It doesn’t have much protection from
south winds, but since the wind was from the east, the conditions were
good. There is a very nice park with
picnic pavilions, a fishing pier, and a boat access ramp right at the
anchorage, so there is easy access to shore.
We anchored in 12 ft of water west of the fishing pier so that we would
be out of the way of boat ramp traffic.
There was a sailboat already anchored nearby but there didn’t appear to
be anyone on it.
We could have gone straight to the beach with the dinghy,
but we took it to the dock near the boat ramp because we thought we might walk
a little ways to see if there was anything else nearby. The park was moderately busy, so we talked to
a nice lady who told us that it would be better if we took the dinghy further
east since most of town was a mile or two in that direction. Sasha got her beach and Frisbee time first
and thought it was wonderful!
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| The dry sand was the whitest sand we have seen anywhere |
After we wore her out a bit, we got back in the dinghy and
headed east. Since it was later in the
afternoon, the winds were starting to die down and the water was calmer. Since Rob had to switch gas tanks, we decided
to go to Santa Rosa Yacht Club to fill the empty tank and to ask about what was
nearby. The staff was very nice, gave us
directions, and let us leave our dinghy in one of the empty slips while we
walked into town. There was a Dollar
General and Ace Hardware within a quarter mile or so, but if we had really
needed groceries, there was a Publix within ½ to ¾ of a mile according to the
people we talked to. We went into the
Ace Hardware and bought some fittings that Rob needs to finish installing the
water maker, but then it was time to head back to boat since it was getting
close to sunset.
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| Pensacola Island is just across the Sound |
The park was hopping with activity now that more people were
done with their workdays. There were
more fisherman on the pier, several boats being put in or taken out at the boat
ramp, people enjoying the beach, and even an aerobics or cross-training class
making use of the parking lot and the larger pavilion. We enjoyed watching the activity while we
grilled burgers for supper.
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| Beautiful view of the lights at night |
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