Port St. Joe - 1/7/11 & 1/8/11

Friday - 1/7/11

A few more boat chores while we are waiting for the rendezvous to begin. I installed new speakers on the helm so we could have music while traveling then returned the rental car to Panama City with the help of our looper friend Bill Langford who drove over from Steinhatchee with his wife Charlotte to attend the festivities. The social hour and BBQ was great. The evening was topped off with the Langfords' and Johnsons' stopping by the Quest for docktails.

Saturday - 1/8/11

The day began at 8:30 a.m. with a group breakfast and then the seminars started. Tom Conrad, a member who does daily weather musings on the gulf crossing, talked about different things to consider when making the crossing. We had a class by the U.S. Coast Guard regarding various legal items to be aware of as well as the proper procedures when reporting activity which was followed by the weatherman for a local TV station talking about the coming weather patterns and what it will mean for our travels. One of our favorite presenters at Joe Wheeler, Ken Farthing, gave us information from Tarpon Springs to Key West. The afternoon was spent getting our new 2011 Coast Guard inspection. Something I learned from it was that your y valve on the sanitation system must be totally locked out in Florida when you are within 12 miles of the Gulf shores. Otherwise it is a 3 mile limit on the East coast. Every state must have different rules we need to obey. In the evening we had a low country shrimp boil that was good but had a significant bite to it. The evening entertainment was a bingo game where everyone ended up winning a prize. Mine was a gift certificate to a local pub called The Thirsty Goat. The evening ended with 4 looper couples on Quest for another round of beverages.