November 24-25, 2013 Pensacola Beach Marina

Woke this morning to a raging north wind and temps in the low forties.  What state are we in?  Went to flip the breaker that powers up the galley heater only to suddenly notice the AC main breaker was not powered.  Uh Oh.  This situation usually means we are only drawing 30 amps not 50 from dock side power!

 So on the coldest morning in recent memory with a 30 mph north wind whipping a fine mist off the water I bravely went out to wrestle with the 50 amp plug out of  the receptacle so I could try another.  Couldn't budge it off the first time. But I returned with my lock handling rubber gripper gloves and was able to twist it off and then plug it into a different 50 amp outlet.  Success!  We now have heat!

Yes, it  maybe the warmest part of the day and all but whats a little more warmth.  We're in Florida after all and since Florida's furnace seems to be malfunctioning I'm stepping up and providing as much heat as possible to help the poor state limp back to respectability as a warm place.

Making water

I brought the water maker back to full capacity by putting the newly replaced 3rd membrane back in line with the other two.  Fired it up and aside from a few tiny leaks which responded to the wrench, all is well!  So we made water, and did some laundry.

Pensacola Naval Air Museum

Field Trip and Arin E both rented cars and since we have time we headed off to the Pensacola Naval Air Museum which is in the Pensacola Naval Air Base.  We were told they check everyone's ID when entering the base.  Someone though forgot to bring along their purse so we spent a few seconds wondering if the whole car would be shunted off to a small interrogation garage.  But no, only Martha the driver had to show her drivers license and we were waved through.

Wonderful place!  We even ate a really good meal at the CUBI Cafe.  Could have spent many more hours in there but they do close around 5 pm and usher people out.

On the return trip we stopped at Joe Patti's  a stellar Florida Sea Food emporium.  We didn't purchase anything but the variety of sea food was pretty astounding.  All fresh and on ice.  Reminiscent of Pikes Place in Seattle.





We had an early night except for a quick discussion on the weather and when to leave.  Nothing much decided other than the winds are strong and the forecast keeps changing for the worse.  It looks like we'll be here for at least another few days.

Today, Monday we just hung around the boat most of the day.  I took a long walk around the vicinity but most establishments are closed up for the season and the Gulf was kicking up pretty good so walking on the beach wasn't pleasant.

The increasingly strong winds and temperatures in the 50's drove us inside for most of the day.  I did move our boat forward about 3 feet to keep a the swim platform from banging on the concrete pier pilings when the winds swing around to the northwest tonight.  They are blowing out of the east now which is keeping us off the dock.   And we'll have plenty of rain tonight too.  Just another day in paradise ...

We've had alter our Thanksgiving plans in light of the weather.  We were at first going to try and find a place here that was hosting a Thanksgiving Buffet.  Instead everyone seems to think just driving to Destin (about 90 minutes away) is a fabulous plan.  And since we have two cars I guess we'll be driving there.  Martha and Pat will be doing the driving.

Jeff and Bob are mulling over leaving on Thursday to head east.  The forecasts will become more refined on Wednesday so they may revise their plans.  We'll be discussing this tonight at our planing meeting at 5pm.

Captain Ron, the dock master from Baytown Marina in Destin called me again today and I gave him our latest plan which is simply, we'll be there Friday.  They have a Webcam so once we're situated we'll wave every once in a while.

Meanwhile we're keeping the heaters running.  And I felt we were totally prepared for Florida when we got the air conditioners back on line a few weeks ago!  Sheez ...