City of Panama City, why the repetition?

Don't understand why this area needs to substantiate that it is a City!? The sun prevails!  We left our comfy Hogstown Bayou (forgot to tell you that great name for our wind haven) on Sunday, Nov. 15, with no issues and headed to St. Andrews marina in the City of Panama City.  We are getting ever so much closer to the eastern part of the Panhandle of Florida. Interesting to note that when we brought the boat home from Florida in May 2012, Al and I departed for shore to return to Hendersonville for our day jobs, leaving this fine town of Panama City.  So nice to know that this time, we will just pass through and not have to leave for work!!

Sunday morning the sun is hiding behind the clouds and it is cool.  We are entering another cut (man made dug out ditch) that makes the ICW complete so we will travel 20 miles in a protected area, no wind, yeah!!

This is a unique area to cruise and is referred to as "The Grand Canyon".  It is flanked by high sand dunes that present a much different scenic view. But I get bored when not needed for navigating so I end up down below and do a thorough cleaning of the inside of the boat.  What better way to spend the time?  It is kinda fun to be bored with this!!

Monday dawns as another beautiful, sunny, breezy day as we rest in this marina. It is a very special day because Erik was born 27 years ago, so here I sit on the bow chatting on a 3-way family call.  We plan to head out tomorrow so a quick trip to another grocery is on the to do list.  But Florida marinas are more expensive and offer much less service so we will have minimal access to courtesy cars from now on.  But the looper magic prevails and people who love to cruise offer to be harbor hosts if they live close to marinas.  So my new friend Greg Vernon (that is Mrs. Vernon with an unusual first name) happily agrees to take a run to the store.  My focus is to stock up on Ginger Ale in case we find ourselves in choppy water again. 

A pretty little Night Heron is perched on the bimini of this sail boat.  Beautiful blue sky but there are predictions of weather changes.  We'll see about leaving here tomorrow for a new anchorage.