As expected, the front blew in last night. Rain, rain, lightning and thunder, wind, and more wind. In fact, Floyd and I agreed that it was the worst we'd seen aboard the Tumbleweed. Yes, worse than what we rode out with Hurricane Ike. We were ever so glad we hadn't second guessed the weather man and really glad to be safe in this marina. We caught up the laundry...hey, its free here...and went to see "MILK". We have mail coming today and thought we'd see a couple more of the Oscar nominees. Then head east tomorrow.

Projects, we've got projects...this one is almost complete. Replacing the blue striping on the starboard side. Sunshine seems to have done some damage this winter. Easier said than done. But we think we've done the hardest section.

Finally a boat for me...Miss LiNDA...it's she a beauty?????

Quiz time...can you name this structure? Or do you have a clue as to what it might be??? We analyzed it up and down, back and forth. Could find no signs or postings that indicated what it was. Though it is certainly hard to miss and rather imposing, don't you think? For now we have dubbed it the "tall super secret, super imposing, super structure yet to be named". What would you call it?

After hours of checking and measuring, one check of the weather on Tuesday had us scrapping our plans. With thunderstorms and winds predicted, we decided against crossing the Choctawhatachee Bay until we could get better weather. We stopped at Fort Walton Beach at a real character marina. Home of the concrete boat which they are presently using as the marina office. It would appear that Joyce is living there as well. Notice the concrete hull in the photos. Interesting place...lots of boats that need lots of TLC.

We crossed into Florida (though are still in the same time zone as our Kansas friends) and anchored out on Monday night in a beautiful little cut off the Pensacola Bay area...nice to watch the sunset from the aft deck. We had our first lighthouse at our bow and white beaches on port and starboard. Floyd could see the anchor chain and was amazed that it came up clean. We were leisurely on our way at about 8:30.

On the road again....12:40 today we were on our way. Anchoring out tonight and planning to cross Choctawhatchee Bay tomorrow. We want to be in Port St Joe on Thursday to re-connect with friends we made last summer aboard Andante. We are charting, measuring, figuring and analyzing. Looking forward to crossing the Gulf and getting to warmer weather. The thermometer said 62 today. With the wind coming off the water, I was in my Uggs, long sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, winter coat and gloves. Mighty chilly, I'd say.