7/8 - 7/16.....Hanging around the panhandle

7/8 - We had some early morning showers, then it cleared to a great day. We picked up the anchor @ 10:00am heading west. Cruised on past the Pensacola land cut and anchored in the Big Lagoon area @ 3:00pm. Went to the beach for "happy hour".

7/9 - Still on the hook. Boat cleaning day (inside and out) - then a lazy afternoon.

7/10 - Lazy morning, picked up the hook @ 10:00am and turned around to head back east. We anchored in Little Sabine Bay/Pensacola Beach (we will be here through the weekend for the Blue Angels show on Saturday). We had cocktails and dinner on board with Ken & Karen (the couple that bought the former "Conched Out Too" - the President 41 we had before this boat, now named "Chardonnay").

7/11 - Pretty morning and great day (we found out later that this was the calm before the storms). Joe & Janet Miller (from Ocean Springs) arrived on their boat "Miller's Time" around noon, just in time to enjoy the "dress rehearsal" for Saturdays air show. We invited the girls down for the weekend and they arrived with their entourage around 4:30pm. Amy & Leah with our grandsons Tyler, Brayden & Cole; boyfriends Chuck & Scott with Charlie, Madison & Katherine. If you're trying to keep track, that's 4 more adults, 5 teenagers, a 7 year old and us. Believe it or not, the logistics all worked out great - Cole slept on board with us and the rest slept at the hotel both nights; Ken & Karen got us parking passes for their cars, use of the condo swimming pool and also loaned us their kayaks to help with water transportation; the Millers loaned us their dinghy to help with the "water taxi shuttle" and we were set for the weekend. The 2 other boats we were waiting for came in. My sister Annette, her husband Barney Beebe (on m/v Journey) with my brother Paul & girlfriend Jeanie on board. The other boat with friends Richard & Trisha (on m/v Christine Noelle). We rafted up the 4 trawlers together for the afternoon so that we could all visit. "Journey" & "Christine Noelle" untied to set their anchors for the night. We cooked hamburgers for our crew and after dinner and a fun visit, Bill shuttled them back, so that they could head to the hotel for the night.

7/12 - We were all ready for a great day but woke up to clouds and a morning of scattered thunderstorms. We picked up the girls and their crew @ 8:30am. It cleared a bit, the other 2 boats came back to raft up for the day and we all got to enjoy some time in the water waiting for the Blue Angels Air Show to start. We had a great spot set up on the shallow shoal area with umbrellas, chairs, ice chests, etc. Janet had some great pictures of the raft up, but at some point she jumped in the water with the camera in her pocket - oh well! The show was delayed due to the weather, and around 1:00pm all hell broke loose (actually the _ _ _ _ hit the fan!!!!) WINDS, RAIN, MAJOR LIGHTNING - What a nightmare!!! There were people on the boats and scattered everywhere in the water. As the winds picked up and swapped around, boats started dragging anchor and stuff was flying everywhere. We untied "Journey" and "Christine Noelle" to lessen the pressure on our anchor (we had the only one down). Although our anchor didn't drag, our position change caused some very tense moments for us and the boats around us. Three hours later the winds, etc. finally started to subside, and we got word that the show was canceled and rescheduled for Sunday. We had dinner on board with our crew and afterwards, Bill loaded up the 2 dinghies and shuttled them back to the condo around 9:30pm. What a day - tomorrow could only be better!!

7/13 - We had a much better forecast and is was a clear and sunny morning. The water shuttle (Bill) picked up the kids @ 9:30am. It was a beautiful morning, not many people made it back into Little Sabine Bay for the show. I'm sure some of them will ever get on a boat again (we heard there were several reports of lightning hits and people in the hospital being treated). We set up our spot back on the shoal to wait for the show. It was a FANTASTIC show!!! The pre-show acrobatic planes were unbelievable and the Blue Angels gave all of us chills! Afterwards, we were all just hanging out, talking about the show when Bill looked at the sky to the north (not good!) We all went back to the boats for him to check the radar (much worse than it looked!), and we realized we were going to get hammered again. Since "Miller's Time", "Journey" & "Christine Noelle" were not rafted up to us, the first chaos was getting 10 people off of our boat, into 2 dinghies and back to shore to their cars before the worst of the storm hit. They made it, Bill didn't. It was a repeat of Saturday, except I was on the boat alone (well, me and Sassy - help that she is). It was raining so hard that I couldn't find him on the water, at all. I finally was able to contact the Hopkins on "Christine Noelle" (they were closer to the shore and in Bill's return path). After a while, they spotted him against the shore (the prop spun out on our dinghy motor and since the lightning was so fierce , he beached both dinghies and hunkered down under the bow) The winds were 30+ knots and I knew that was too much pressure on the anchor. I cranked the engines (actually I could only get one started) and eased up on the hook. After the weather calmed, Bill finally made it back to the boat. What a day!!! A little later, everyone from the 4 boats gathered on "Conched Out Too" for cocktails and to trade war stories from the day. It was an early evening and we went to bed exhausted.

7/14 - Everything on board was soaked, every towel, all rugs & crap was everywhere, but the sky was clear - the radar and forecast looked good. We started the clean-up process, then we picked up the hook @ 9:30am, all 4 boats headed to Sportsman Marina/Orange Beach. We spent the afternoon washing and drying the mountains of wet stuff. We had dinner on board with the Miller's and called it a day and had a peaceful night tied to the pilings.

7/15 - Barney loaned us his truck to run errands and re-supply, then "Conched Out Too" and "Miller's Time" headed back east to Big Lagoon for the afternoon and night. Great, great, great! No winds, no rain and most of all, no lightning! Afternoon spent on the beach on the gulf side - beautiful! Fantastic steak dinner on board, compliments of Joe & Janet, then we called it a night.

7/16 - We are going to hang here for a while longer. Joe & Janet on "Miller's Time" pulled out to head back home. They made it to Dauphin Island today and will make the rest of the run to Ocean Springs tomorrow. Bill had an afternoon business meeting on board with 2 of his associates. Afterwards, we all loaded up into Charles' center console and went to the "Oyster Bar" in Perdido. We had a great dinner and visit, then a nice run on the water back to our boat (it felt like we were flying in Charles' boat - we're not used to going that fast on the water).

A few pictures to follow later.