Florida Panhandle & across the Gulf

Our next stops included Pensacola, Destin, Apalachicola and Carrabella before we started our Gulf crossing.  
In Pensacola we stayed right downtown at the Parafox Pier Marina. They are clearly proud of their military presence and history here.  Lots of historic buildings and museums. 
The next day we traveled to Baytowne, just east of Destin and met Jim & Joan Potts.  They were super hosts and toured us around the area and we got to stick our toes in the sugar white sand and the gulf.  
The next long day we traveled 120 miles through the ICW and passed the areas that were hit by the hurricane in 2017.  In Panama City, there are no marinas left.  They were totaled and we were told they cannot rebuild until they finish cleaning up the basin where boats and docks are still sitting. In the Mexico Beach area, the hardest hit area where there is still lots of debris, we were unlucky enough to connect something underwater.  
Apalachicola (we love saying this now that we know how to pronounce it) is an awesome fishing town and the Oyster capital of the US.  An artsy and easy going town and tons of fishing.  Had a dinner of multiple types of oysters and watched the replays of the Gopher win.  Carrabella is 30 miles east of Apalachicola and the departure of many doing the gulf crossing.  Another small fishing town with lots of character.  
On the Loop our boat is considered a 'fast boat' as opposed to 'slow boats' which include trawlers and other single engine boats.  After our latest mishap, we are now a 'slow boat' until we can get some prop work done.  Our plans to do a gulf crossing during the day went out the window and we joined the group doing an overnight crossing.  
Gulf of Mexico crossing to Tampa/Bradenton area.  Weather and wave reports looked decent and we had a group leaving Carabella to various ports.  Left at 3 pm with 180 miles to go and plan to arrive mid-day the next day.  As it turned out, the winds picked up instead of declining and we had about 20 of the 23 travel hours in real bouncy/rocking conditions (that is not marine terminology but my nice version of the conditions- think twirling fair ride).  Once the sun was up, the weather was fabulous and we were glad to tie up in Riviera Dunes Marina.  This marina is run by Bill Chamberlain, our friend who originally worked at Lake City Marina in MN.  Riviera Dunes is a beautiful resort marina with obvious good management..  Will stay in the Tampa area for a bit.