9 December, 2019 What is with this FOG

Interesting route map?    Significant shoaling results in the curved stay away from land loop.  31 Sm, 5.3 engine hours

Warm--66 degrees, wind shifted westerly and nearly calm at sunrise.  Preparing to get underway--dense fog enveloped us.  Forecasted fog, but was to be north of I-10 which is a ways from here.  So we sit.

Destin Harbor--before it got thick

Really poor sleep last night until about 0130.  Wind really picked up on it’s final hours of the blow.  Showers and thunderstorms added to the uncertainty of our anchorage.  My anchor alarm nearly constant; seemed like a loss of gps signal?  There was enough ambient light to ID our references and we remained firmly attached to the sea bed, but swinging +- 60 degrees with the gusts.  Stayed up in the helm area till the  disturbance moved on.  Windy our wind app predicted direction and magnitude shift around 0100-0300.  The change in fact happened, velocity dropped below 10 mph, we went to sleep soundly till almost 0600.

U/w 0800--gentle west breeze in harbor, gave way to a smooth swell entering Destin inlet then nearly pancake flat in the bay.  Visibility deceiving, like being IFR in a big puffy cloud.  Probably good 1-2 miles visibility as I could make out the reds and greens headed north back to the ICW.  It was easy to be disorientated, because there were no visual references as we turned East.  Following the electronic navigation devices, mag compass to hold/steer course and the radar at 1.5 mile range we eased along at 7mph for an hour.    Sun burnt off the fog around 0935.

Birds are holding take-off due to fog

We pulled into Baytowne MARINA --we be in tall cotton now.  Surrounded by country clubs and mega yachts , even breathing the air cost more than I wanted to pay.  Beautiful marina with $3.00/foot plus electric transit slips,  also allowing use of many of the resort amenities.  We saw a extremely large sport fisher depart ; dock hand said it belonged to Emeril Lagasse.   Serenity did not need diesel but topped off with almost 15 gallons, filled the water tank and dumped trash.  We really needed ice, sole purpose for stopping.  $3.00/bag.  But the dock hand after I tipped him (I rarely do ‘cause we generally do it ourselves) but this lad was friendly and helpful; said "I can just go get you a big bucket of ice--no charge"!  I am digging it.  He returns in the golf cart with a 30 gallon white trash can full of ice.  Wahoo--good stuff.

We checked the weather--big blow coming Wednesday and Thursday so we cast off and cruised another two hours to an anchorage in East Choctawhatchee Bay.  (map)  Anchoring in 7 feet at 1420, we are exposed to N, E and west winds; forecast for southerly breezes tonight.  Sea water temp 67 deg.   We are near the canal that connects this bay with Panama City.  It is about 40 miles with no anchorages so we are camping here tonight.

1050 Sm, 1249.2 Hobbs.