Florida's Panhandle & GIWW

The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway is a great route toward east. GIWW stretches from Carrabelle, Florida all the way to Texas. I have taken the Intercoastal from Mobile bay to Pensacola bay, continuing to Choctawhatchee bay by Fort Walton Beach & Destin. Right now heading toward St. Andrew bay and a stop by Panama City to pick up my friend Dee. Along the GIWW, there are beautiful white sandy beaches on the south shore & beautiful homes on the other side. The white beaches are amazing and one of the kind.
Since I got down to the Gulf, the wind has been east to south east and that's the direction I'm going! Unfortunately it has not been much of sailing yet. Yesterday however, I sailed for an hour heading northwest, 12-15 wind on reach doing 6.5kt and it felt great!
One of the downsides for a sailboats on the Intercoastal is all the bridges. Most bridges are around 65ft. But there are 2 bridges from Pensacola bay to Choctawhatchee bay that are only 49.9ft. The antenna on top of the mast touched both of the bridges & that's was very scary.
Another scary thing this morning was the fog. Visibility was maybe 100 feet and I could not see the midway bridge (64') till I got very close to it.
I will tell you one more last beautiful scary story and that will conclude this input. This morning at 7:30 I left last nights anchorage. Meanwhile I'm having my cup of tea & focusing on not running aground, a big fish jumps out of the water just next to the boat & that freaked me out. It was a dolphin trying to say good morning but she scared me! I end up getting friends with miss dolphin & invited her aboard on Earthling for a cup of tea, but she couldn't get on so she accompanied me swimming next to the boat for few minutes. :-)
Thanks for reading

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