Orange Beach to Ft Walton Beach

We asked for an extra 3 days moorage on our membership and Sportsman marina. They gave it to us. The weather was turning bad in Mississippi where we had left the van. So, we rented a car and drove 450 miles up to Iuka, Mississippi. We got up early and were on the road by 6:30 am and picked up the van at 1:00 pm. Then we turned around and drove both vehicles another 250 miles to Montgomery, AL. On Sunday, we were up early again and drove 250 miles to Panama City, FL where we had arranged storage for the van. Then we jumped in the rental car and drove another 200 miles back to Orange Beach, AL. It was a long two days, but the van is safe.

Now it was time to move the boat further east, but there was a storm coming in with 15 knot winds. Do we stay or do we go. The decision was made for us when Sportsman wanted to charge us $175.00 a day for the extended moorage. Ouch.

So, we took off heading east towards Florida. The nearest marina east of us that had transient moorage was 54 nautical miles away and we were leaving late due to returning the rental car and getting fuel at the Safe Harbor 25% discount. We left at 11:00 am. We are a slow boat, but can get up and go if we have to. We took the speed up to a little over 9 knots which is above the hull speed that the slow trawler type boat typically goes. The trip was uneventful except at the end. We had to cruise the last mile in the dark and pull into an unfamiliar marina. We called the marina in Fort Walton Beach and they said they saw us and would be on the dock to help us in. As we were trying to pull into the marina, we had 12 knot winds coming from the beam as we turned into our slip. Originally, we wanted to back in but the wind was overcoming our bow thruster. Then, the bow thruster quit. It was dicey with the wind blowing us down the fairway between docks of boats sideways. Finally, it blew us out of the fairway where we had enough maneuvering room to get use the engine and stern thruster to get us around. We had tripped the fuse to the bow thruster. Kevin went to the forward cabin while Bev was driving, reset the fuse, ran back to the helm and started down fairway again. Bev was busy resetting the fenders for a bow in tie with the dock on the starboard side. It was no longer twilight and the night was very dark due to the storm and low clouds. The picture below was taken with our night vision Wyze camera . Imagine coming into this marina in pitch black conditions with a dock hand on the dock holding a flashlight and high winds.

The bow thruster was working, kind of. It was very weak and will be investigated as to why in the morning. We got the boat lined up with the slip next to the one assigned to us and let the wind push us back to our slip where we tried to go in. Bev threw a line to the dock hand who was able to get it around a piling. Let’s digress for a moment, these are not floating docks. They are fixed docks where the fenders don’t line up with either the piling of the dock itself. The pilings are on the outside of the dock. We ended up using the rub rail as a fender as we finally got into position to tie up. Bev looped a stern line around the pole at the stern and we were in. Wow, our adrenalin was flowing, but we were in the slip. Then, the rain let loose. Oh, what a night.