Barber's Marina

You can judge for yourself if the trip was worth it.  We meet several families who had made the trip to see the marina statues, the dinosaurs and Bamahenge.  It must be listed in tour guides of the area.

This charming fellow is popular with kids who visit the marina.

These monoliths are full size replicas.  It doesn't have a 100 percent of the stones
but enough that at the solstice you have the same light effect as /Stonehenge

The "stones" are made of well crafted fiberglass.

Another view.  This is one of the key ways

The explanation of Stonehenge and Bamahenge.

The marina is vast and currently full.  It also has a huge haulout-repair facility,, a huge indoor
dry storage, ship's store and super nice staff.
 

One of a series of lakes visible just off the road.

The back of one of the driftwood seats.  Sorry for the glare, this was the best
I could adjust for the sun being directly behind it.

The front of the crab chair.

One of a pair of creatures on either side of the road leading to the haul out area.

This cutie is a laddie's room decoration.

One of several fountains.

One of several driftwood benches.

Elephant bench located on one of the dock aprons.  The beautiful stone
walkway surrounds the dock areas.

Neptune's Fountain greets visitors are you approach the marina proper.

Part of  Neptune's fountain.

Closeup of Neptune 

The lady in the water is a statue that actually come out of the water
for hurricanes,  If you click for a closeup you can even see the strands of
hair so carefully painted on.

The lady greets those arriving my water.

The main building from the water side.

Main building from the boat.

This is one of the parking lots.  Beautifully landscaped as well as any
botanical garden.  All the grounds look this nice.  The road is also well groomed.

Seahorses greet you on another side road.

Stegosaurus  has been climbed on so much some of his spines were nissing. 

Full side view.

Giant sundial.

T-Rex coming at you from the woods!

T-Rex finds a buddy.

Another dino cutie!

A few of the boats make you wonder why they bother paying slip fees.
This boat was in horrible shape but I guess the owner has a creative mind.
He had fashioned a tiller from a tree branch.  The fitting was carefully milled
to fit around the rudder stock. 

On to Alabama

We left Pitt's Bayou about noon with the plan to make the outer mark about two.  If the forecast held true, that would put us at Perdido Pass's  outer mark just after sunrise.  We didn't want to go in without full light since it is a narrow pass with shoals in both sides.  The first 10 hours were perfect. The wind was moderate and we flew all 3 sails and made a respectable, planned speed.  Then the wind picked up and our speed was much better but the boat was still comfortable.  After a few hours of this speed however, we realized we would be there way too early so we doused the mizzen, reefed the main and jib to slow us down.  It didn't work since the wind increased too.  If we had been going farther, it would have been perfect but, Oh Well.  In the end we decided to heave-to for a few hours.  This made the boat wallow but we didn't like the alternative of diverting to Pensacola so we endured.  Finally we set full sail again  but about 10 miles out the wind died altogether so we pulled in sail and motored in. We arrived at our destination, Barber's Marina telling ourselves, "It better be worth it."  It was.  This is the nicest, cleanest marina we have ever visited.  It is very reasonably priced with the cleanest restrooms-showers.  The laundry room is also clean and well appointed, just like what a nice house would have.  This place is so interesting.  It is one of many holdings by the Barber group and no expense was spared in it's construction or ongoing maintenance.  The floating docks, vast areas, are all an exotic hardwood.  The pilings are solid and slips and fairways wide.  What really makes this place unique is the collection of antique outboards, driftwood art, various pieces of statuary around the marina proper and as we discovered with a short bike ride, even more unusual sculptures stretched out along the road leading up to the marina.  We had heard about them but never seen them.  Overall, the few hours of wallowing seas were worth it.

We had these Plexiglas windows added to our bimini so we could see sail shape
without having to get wet.  We have one on each side so it doesn't matter what tack
we're on.  There are shades, installed from inside the cockpit to provide shade.

Panama City Beach, condo alley.

Watson and Pitt Bayous

And now, for the rest of the story.

On the industrial side there were so many places.  This was a major
haulout and repair for working boats.  This is one of the slipways.

A good sized boat in dry dock

This unique schooner catamaran has caught David's eye over the years and
now we had the opportunity to check it out.  We strayed just a tad too close and
were stuck in the shallow.  The wind was blowing us onto the hard so we
had to use the dinghy to push us off. One of those "Hope no one was watching" moments.

Another view of the schooner.

The other side of the bayou.

We see where the Mercury test boats live.  We have watched these boats tear
up and down the ICW for years.

 

Miss Kera could use a good haul out.

The plant that has the call to work-lunch horn.

The  mountains of wood pulp waiting to turn into paper.

The same house that has the unique schooner-cat has this even
stranger looking proa  shaped hull cat.  

The only way to get to the steak house was to tie up on a muddy beach and take
a short hike through the woods to reach it.  Too yucky for regular shoes but
sea boots worked fine.  We tucked our jeans in the walking then  covered the boots
for dining.  We really wanted steak!

Exploring New Bayous

  After we left to try and make it to Perdido Pass we encountered strong currents and winds from the West, the direction we wanted to go.  We pressed on hoping the forecast sourtherlies would arrive but we were pounding the boat and ourselves and only making 2.8 kts even with power so we turned around.  Then the winds started to shift ever so slightly for the south and we decided to turn around to the west again.  Sadly, the 2 degree shift still wasn't enough to overcome the other forces and we turned once again to head back into St. Andrew's Bay.  We did at least see a gorgeous sunset and the stars were bright since the moon hadn't risen yet.  We made it back to the club and simply tied up, had a drink and went to bed.  The "Incident" that occurred in the morning involved our wanting to fill the water tanks and rinse the boat. The dock we were on had no water so we planned to move it to another dock that did.  In the process of backing  out, things went fine but as we approached the dock, I had no response to the helm when I shifted to neutral to slow the boat down.  I assumed it was something I was doing and tried to control the crash by hard reverse.  Turns out neutral and reverse only work if the cable is still connected.  The bump was so embarrassing but at least that one wasn't my fault.  Turns our the linkage failed but genius David found the problem, The problem that caused the problem and had parts on board to fix it.  All good, until we once again tried to get back to the dock with water.  I was again at the helm so he could jump off and use the lines to stop us.  I completely misjudged the approach and hit a corner that had no padding.  and it crunched fiberglass.  My only defense was that I couldn't see the dock as it was below my sightline and I was worried about the wind blowing us off before David could make the leap.  Excuses aren't good enough, though and the damage will require a lot of sanding and varnishing penance on my part!  The next day we knew the weather wasn't in our favor so we decided to explore some other bayous across from Pearl.  Once thing about change of plans forced on you, you might as enjoy the journey!  We explored a larger bayou, Watson,  that was a contrast writ large.  On one side are the typical, gorgeous waterfront homes and less than a mile across, is heavy industry.  Fun to explore.  Next was our intended stopping point for the night, the much smaller Pitt's Bayou.  Dennis, from the Irwin 52 had told us about a steak house that was worth visiting.  Steak sounded good so that's what we did although reaching it was a bit of an adventure.  A great day even if it wasn't what was in the original plan.

The broken link was easy to see.  He also identified that another part
was loose causing it to bump against the link and break it loose. 

The culprit of our woes!

2 new hose clamps, chafe gear and newly attached linkage
on the transmission got us back in the motoring business.

The break in the fiberglass.  It will have to be repaired when we get back
We both worked so hard to get the hull beautiful it really makes me sad.

Pearl Bayou

We still plan to go on an overnighter to Perdido Pass and plan to leave St. Andrew's Bay in a few hours to head east.  It will be a short 20 hour trip if all goes well but without a hotspot it may be a few days before I can post again.  We came to the yacht club for lunch and wifi.  Enjoy.

The wind was howling outside the bayou but the trees protected the
interior areas making the water mirror calm.

There were several creeks and inlets to explore.  Being in the middle
of the week, we had it to ourselves.

Marshy areas were plentiful along the creeks sides. We saw a lot of small
fish, and dolphins and birds hunting them.

The new green is so pretty among the older trees.

One end of one of the bayou arms.

This area is also a wildlife sanctuary and the AF has built platforms for
osprey.

Such a fabulous place to explore.

Our anchorage.

Beautiful clear day.