Day 5: More Than We Bargained For

- October 2 -

Destin, Florida - Panama City, Florida

Boy oh boy!  What a day!  We ventured out of Destin, Florida today with white caps on the water and a breeze in there air.   We closed up our eisenglass as waves crashed crashed into our boat.  A few zippers wouldn't close all the way so the water was still trickling in.  The boat rocked, the waves crashed, today was gonna be a rougher day at sea.  Luckily, none of us get sea sick.   

Even though Jacob and I both had the thought that we should turn back we didn't share that thought with each other so we kept moving along.  I took a shot of tequila, liquid courage, to calm my nerves.  I have a tendency to worry too much otherwise I would have told Jacob that we should turn around.  I'm working on letting go of my worry so my intuition can be more accurate.

The waves were 2-4 feet high, not too big, Dream Catcher was handling them like a champ.  Oh, crap!  The grill.  It's connected to the railing on the bow of the boat.  The waves are too big for me to go to the front to remove it now.  All of a sudden the lid flies off and the grate crashes into the deck and slips into the water.  Ah!  The first valuable item to go overboard.  A few moments later I hear another crash, this time at the back of the boat.  The top of the swing gate is missing!  It must have fallen.  Hopefully, onto the dive platform.  I run over to the back of the boat to find it is in the water right at the edge of the platform.  I can reach it there.  As I head over the platform, a wave pushes it beneath the boat.  I scream STOP!!  I don't want it hitting our props.  Our props are fine, but the that piece sinks 25 feet below us in the Choctawhatchee Bay.  Ahhhhhh! I was so close to retrieving it.

Whoops!

How many more items will go over board before we make it to our destination, St. Thomas?  I wonder how much that piece will cost to replace, if it's even possible.  It'll probably have to be custom made.  At this point I suppose we don't need it and on the island we may need it even less.

We keep motoring along.  At this point we are to far along and monetarily invested in making it to Panama city so we don't even think about turning around.  Plus there is a small canal we'll go through and the water will be much calmer.  Jacob steps away from the helm for just a moment to use the restroom. Jayden and I faintly hear a beeping noise, but the only thing that we know beeps wasn't beeping.  Moments later I notice that the boat has significantly veered right and we are heading straight towards land.  I check with Jacob and he exclaims, "Oh Shit!"  He checks the autopilot.  That beeping we heard was the autopilot shutting off.  It got too wet!!  I sure hope it turns back on.  The rest of the run Jacob at to stay right at the wheel steering us.  It's a much harder way to travel for long distances, but he did it.  If our eisenglass would have properly sealed up we probably wouldn't have lost our autopilot.

We get a break from the rough waters as we go through West Bay Creek.  It was calm and beautiful through the creek, but once we reach West Bay Lake the chops start up again.  It's not as choppy as it was, but definitely not a smooth ride like our previous days.  We reach Panama city and raise our glasses; we made it!  It's time for a cocktail, Cheers Mates!