Century Club: PJ Kaiser

Well, we did it!

We finished the 6k mile trip and we couldn't be more thrilled!  The 60ish locks, a few dozen rivers, lakes, and tributaries, the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and 3 of the 5 Great Lakes were such a wonderfully awesome experience- not to mention the unforgettable people and sights we encountered along the way!

We rested at The Marina at Ortega Landing in Jacksonville for just a bit, then explored the JAX downtown area by dinghy and on foot before departing for colder climes (via aircraft) to meet family and friends for Thanksgiving.  Boy, do we have a LOT to be thankful for this year!!!

The weather was superb as we headed south across the Boca Ciega Bay and into Tampa Bay/Gulf of Mexico.  The Sunshine Skyway bridge was stunning against the bright sky and the blue water mesmerizing...

Sarasota is a lovely town (from the water, anyway) and we found a perfect anchor spot south of the city.  We had dinner under the twilight sky and marveled at the many stars that were visible despite being so close to civilization.

The following day, we wandered a few hours down to the Gasparilla Sound and found another lovely anchor spot.  The following morning, there were plenty of dolphin arouind the boat to see us off on the next leg of our journey to our anchorage on the Caloosahatchie River.  We got an early start the next morning, and made our way through a couple of blocks on the river and to Lake Okeechobee. This is a very interesting body of water, as it is considered a dying lake; vegetation and fertilization of surrounding agricultural areas have removed most of the oxygen from the lake. On January 1 through April 1, conservationist and the government are going to close the lake and try to revitalize it. We spent the night at a cute little marina in Indiantown, Florida. 
on Friday, we hung out at the marina and telework a bit, and did a little work on the boat. We left just after lunch and made our way down the rest of the river and over to Stuart Florida. After anchoring in the late afternoon in Stuart, we hadn't been there but half an hour or so when all of a sudden a fighter jet started doing maneuvers all around us. It was very cool to watch! Just after those maneuvers started then a Marine Corps Osprey flew by while other planes started doing aerial acrobatics.  A quick Google search told us that we had gotten there just in time for the 2021 Stuart airshow! It was steak and baked potato night for dinner on the boat and we enjoyed watching the planes fly around until early evening, followed by a fireworks show.
Saturday morning we awoke early and headed down the Indian River.  We kept our eyes peeled to the north sky and were able to watch the SpaceX satellite launch just after 7:30 in the morning. Very cool!

We left Destin in the early morning hours and went out into the Gulf of Mexico to cross over to Panama City Beach. It was a beautiful morning and the seas were very cooperative. Once we got to our destination, we fueled up and had plenty of daylight and time in our favor, so we proceeded to go to White City. We traversed a few bays, rivers and tributaries and found a wonderful anchor spot  where the Apalachicola River and the Gulf Canal intersect on Halloween evening. We checked out billions of stars and could not have had a nicer time. The next morning, we headed to Apalachicola. We got there early in the day and tied up to the city dock. From there, we went and explored the city, finding some good restaurants and a brewery. We also provisioned and found a seafood market that had some good deals. Since the price of staying at the city dock for the evening was two dollars a foot with no amenities (not good if you want to get tourist dollars in your city from boaters), we decided to just anchor across the river from the town. It was a lovely spot and the next morning, as I was  taking us out into the bay, there were pods of dolphin everywhere. Many of them followed us as we sped off into the distance. Early that afternoon we made it to Carrabelle, where we docked for the night and topped off our fuel tanks. The next morning, we trusted our many weather apps, which told us that it would be a good day for a Gulf crossing. We realized that they were not accurate as we found ourselves in 5 and 6 foot waves upon hitting the Gulf of Mexico. Our plan was to cross from Carrabelle to Crystal River and arrive there before dusk and were wondering if we shouldnt just make the crossing quicker by just going to Steinhatchie. However, the seas calmed before we were about a third of the way through our journey, thank God! Once we made it to Crystal River, we docked for the night. The next morning, we left for St Petersburg, where we met a bunch of friends for dinner and did touristy things for the next couple of days. The weather turned south on us and we had to stay for an extra day or two. That is not a bad thing when you are in St. Petersburg Florida, as there is plenty to do despite the weather. Our plan is to leave first thing in the morning and cross the bay going down into the intercoastal waterway once again.

We made it to Mobile just in time to dock the boat about 50 yards from where Robert DeNiro is filming his latest movie. We were docked at the Grand Mariner marina on the Dog River, just south of Mobile.  It was very interesting to watch the crew filming from various pontoon boats around a very large luxury yacht. The filming included a guy with water jet boots who, at one point, was not supposed to be wearing pants in his scene...The Director was shouting a lot of orders and there was lots of commotion. One of the featured cast members was filming her scene and they did at least 10 takes on a particular scene on the aft deck of the yacht. I think I probably memorized her lines after all of that. It was the last day of filming, and the luxury yacht left at some point in the night. On Friday, everything was nice and calm. We plan to spend the majority of next week in Pensacola, so we headed across the Mobile Bay to the Florida/Alabama line. Perdido key is a beautiful spot and is mostly made up of a state park, so there is little commercialization. We plan to anchor a couple of nights here and will move on to Pensacola, which is only a couple of hours cruise away