TERI ANN: Panama City

11/3/14

It was another cold windy morning in Florida. We have to keep moving to get to Palm Beach where the weather always seems to be perfect. We left Fort Walton and headed out to cross Choctawhatchee Bay. The bay is large and we heard can get rough when it's windy. The waves were pretty big because of the wind, but it was no problem because we were taking them on the bow, but the boat did get covered in salt spray. (Still better than spider poop!)

We then went through 16 miles of the waterway that is a land cut known as the "Grand Canyon". That was a nice change as we were completely blocked from all wind and waves. We saw two dredges on barges working to keep this section of the waterway open and deep enough for navigation.

After the Grand Canyon the waterway opened up into West Bay. By then the wind had died and the bay was like glass. Four dolphins came right over to the boat to play in the wake. There was a baby among them, and it looked like they were teaching him how to play in a boat wake. Then we saw test boats from Mercury Racing buzzing around wide open across the bay. I'd like to ask them why the 15 Mercury on our dinghy is so hard to start. I don't think they tested it enough, but it does run great wide open.

We went to Panama City Marina. Shortly after getting secured in our slip we were treated to an air show. Several different types of military jets were flying overhead. The Blue Angels have their big homecoming show in Pensacola next weekend, so I think we saw jets practicing for the show.

Today's history lesson on how Panama City, Florida got it's name:

The original name of the town was Harrison. Its developer, George Mortimer West, gave the town its present name because it was on a direct line between Chicago and Panama City, Panama, in Central America. The name change took place during the building of the Panama Canal, as a way to link the area to an ongoing media interest, in hopes of promoting real estate development in Bay County.

Next we'll head to Port St. Joe.

Entering the Grand Canyon section and a dredge working to keep the waterway open.