November 18, 2024 Fairhope Docks, Fly Creek to The Wharf, Orange Beach 29.3 NM, 7.4 kn, 4:14 h. Following our friends on Jubillee III with Kingdom falling in behind, we departed Fairhope Docks about 6:20 AM. The forecast called for 3-4 foot waves which fortunately, we never encountered.They were closer to 1 – 2 feet which made for a pleasant cruise. We saw our first dolphins of our loop! What awesome and graceful creatures! We arrived safely to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and cruised past Lulu’s to our home at The Wharf in Orange Beach, for the next month or so while we travel back to Ohio for Thanksgiving and to Winter Park for Christmas parades, babysitting and birthday celebrations. Our first cruise on the intracoastal called for another celebration with Jolie, Kevin, Julie and Bill at Yoho Rum and Tacos about 200 steps from our dock. Their 12-6 happy hours could spoil us for the next month! While at The Wharf, we enjoyed bike rides through Gulf State Park to the beach, live music at several local venues and lots of looper camaraderie. Doug’s cousin Erik and his lovely wife, Tiffany joined us for dinner at Villagio’s and we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with them. We had so much fun that they came back to join us for dinner again after Thanksgiving along with Doug’s sister and brother-in-law who joined us aboard for 5 days after Thanksgiving. We didn’t get to cruise as much as we would have liked with our them but we had a blast exploring Orange Beach, including a fun afternoon at the FloraBama and decorating Hiatus Too with Christmas lights! When we returned from our trip to Winter park, we met some new loopers and caught up with some others we’d met in the past, discovered a Speakeasy and finished up maintenance and electrical work in preparation for our next leg down the gulf coast.

December 12, 2024 The Wharf, Orange Beach, AL to Pensacola Marine Center, FL. 25.7 NM, 7.7 kn, 3:35 h. So excited to be back to cruising, we departed The Wharf bright and early. We arrived in Pensacola in time for a nice bike ride and wonderful lunch at The Fish House, followed by a stroll through the Palafox historic area. We made a stop at Joe Patti’s Seafood on our way back to the marina and were overwhelmed by the many choices available and decided to make dinner reservations rather than fix dinner aboard. On our second attempt to leave the marina (we had found ourselves inadvertently locked in without a gate code!) we made it to Pearl and Horn for dinner and it was worth the effort. One of our top 2 meals on the loop so far! We would highly recommend if you are ever in the Pensacola area. Thank goodness Harbor Host, Ben, had stopped by. our boat earlier in the day and left us his card! We were able to call him for the code to get in and out of the marina.

December 13, 2024 Pensacola Marine Center to Baytowne Marina Sandestin 54.9 NM, 9 kn, 6:06 h. The morning started out a little sporty with some 2-3 foot waves splashing over the bow as we cruised across the bay. The seas calmed as we came into the intracoastal and Choctawhatchee Bay was like glass. We had a learning experience at our first piling dockage. Fortunately, after the dockhand and dockmaster were also unable to lasso the piling (I did feel a bit less incompetent after that), we switched slip to one with shorter pilings and successfully tied up for the night in time to explore and have a happy hour snack. We enjoyed live music later at the Marina Bar & Grill and then went to hear/see the dueling pianos at Rum Runners at Baytowne Wharf Village. It was an entertaining and fun evening!

December 14, 2024 Baytowne Marina Sandestin to Emerald Harbor Panama City 49.4 NM, 8.7 kn, 5:55 h. My lucky day! Doug took care of looping all of lines back around the pilings to the boat to make for our easiest departure ever. We had a great cruise and Seth & John made tying up at Emerald Harbor a breeze. We had a delicious and interesting lunch experience within a short walk from our dock at Gene’s Oyster House. AND there was a Christmas lighted boat parade that we went to before a wonderful dinner at Ferrucci’s.