Gulfport day two

Gulfport is slowly coming back from Katrina.  The marina is a state of the art fixed pier place.  There are towers on every dock that hold the electrical and power equipment, to put them above the storm surge.  Isaac’s surge covered the docks, but did not do harm.  There are several nice restaurants within walking distance, and we ate at the Half Shell last night.  Good meal!  We are directly across from the Coast Guard station, and there are two 80 foot cutters docked, with machine guns at the ready.  Is there something I don’t k now??  We will stay here one more night, and head to Orange Beach. 

Gulfport small craft harbor

Knights in Gulfport?

USCG at the ready

 

Gulfport

I caught a few more trout this morning, and we then headed for Gulfport. The marina here is new, post Katrina. It is very nice, and we will explore this evening.

We survived Isaac!

Ready for Isaac!

Rabbit bayou

Trout dinner!

Well, we are going back to Orange beach.  Isaac followed us to Houma, and we are no worse off!  We took the opportunity to have some work done at Seabrook Marine in New Orleans.  The work is complete, and we set sail around noon today.  We are anchored in Rabbit Bayou now.  It is calm, and a beautiful evening.  We arrived around 4:00, and splashed the dinghy.  I caught five trout and one red.  After a great meal, with both white and red wine, we are off to visit the sandman!  A cold front is scheduled to move in, so we will make tracks in the AM. 

 

Chased home!

Iaasac is now headed to Gulfport, and appears to be moving west.   Discretion being the better part of valor, we are headed home.

Hurricane Issac

Due to the uncertainty about the path of the hurricane, we decided to bug out. We are anchored at Cat Island, and will head for Seabrook Marina tomorrow. Too bad as we had planned to spend labor day week cruising the area.  We had our last meal ( for a while) at Villagio's last night.  It was great, and then listened to good live music at the boat bar.  Oh well.  We have a few matianence items to do at Seabrook.   It is beautiful at anchor- no indication a storm is brewing!

Back at The Wharf

Alexis and I spent a very pleasant night at anchor in Big Sabine next to Santa Rosa Island.  A beautiful sunset.  On the way back to The Wharf this morning we crossed paths with Kevin Belanger from Houma  aboard the Genesis.  We chatted on the VHF, and he will be staying several slips from us at The Wharf.  Small world!  This has been a great week trip, and we return to Houma via land yacht tomorrow.  We did have two casualties-the forward head, and the washer/dryer died this trip.  Time to break out several BOAT (bust out another thousand) units.  The joys of boat ownership....

The Wharf

St. Andrews Bay

Well we had a great couple of days at Bay Point Marina.  The marina has a nice pool, pub and spa on premises.  We utilised all three!  Janet and Stanwood treated us to a great meal at Firefly restaurant in Panama City Beach.  The food was great and our waitress was from Russia, and darling.  Besides our driver taking the beach road (tons of people and sights), a great night.  Last night, the 4th, we ate at the pub and then watched fireworks galore.  Stanwood and Janet departed this morning, and we are now anchored in St Andrews Bay for the night.  Beautiful weather so far!

Bay Point Marina

Panama City pass

St Andrews Bay

St Andrews bay had the clearest water of the trip for swimming

It is a popular spot

Panama City has lots  of vessel traffic.  Note the military ship to the left