Wednesday 13 January 2021 Spectre Island Anchorage off Hurlburt USAFB
After getting underway a little
after 0700 this morning, we anchored at 1400 behind this island named for the
famous Spectre gunships which we can see flying over the island as I write this. The weather has cleared with no clouds in the
sky for the first time in days, and the calm water sparkles with the reflected
sun. The water is so clear compared to
the muddy rivers and Mobile Bay giving us a white wake for the first time of
this delivery that I can see our anchor on the bottom in 8-9 feet of water. We stopped the boat in
Santa Rosa Sound about an hour before we arrived to reset the Fortress anchor from its
mud position to the anticipated sand here at the island. As always, I use a snubber to hold the strain
from the anchor rode.
The GIWW runs on the other side (north)
of the island, and this favorable anchorage is between Santa Rosa Island (the
many miles long barrier island stretching from Fort Walton Beach to Pensacola)
and Spectre Island. It is approximately
seven steaming hours from home.
Windfinder.com shows winds
building from astern of us after noon tomorrow, but by then we should be across 23-mile long Choctawhatchee Bay and into the narrow 15-mile cut (called the Grand Canyon by
towboat people and locals) which leads into our home system of bays. Then we will run through our own West Bay and turn up to the NE heading into North Bay and into good old Fanning Bayou.
As we passed through Big Lagoon west of Pensacola, I was reminded of my salad days as a junior high school age kid helping to launch the family boat at Sherman Cove on the Naval Air Station which is on the northern shore to run across the lagoon to the north shore of the barrier island. The boat was filled with several kids a set of parents and all the supplies and sun cover Mom could cram in there. We often had accompanying boats with the families of Dad's friends from work. Once anchored a few yards off the beach, we would ferry all the shoreside base supplies ashore before beginning the water skiing events which ended when we waved into shore for lunch. Hot, tiered, sandy, and thoroughly satisfied with our activities for the day, we returned to Sherman remembering to duck for the very low bridge crossing its entrance to then watch or participate as our abilities dictated in the complex and oddly entertaining boat recovery dance Dad had devised to to re-trailer the boat. Today I noted the low bridge has been removed to allow taller boats to pass, and I was happy to see that the marina seems to be hurricane damage free and thriving for the military folks who can take advantage of it.
We have noted plenty of river flooding damage and even more direct hurricane damage everywhere along the Gulf coast.
As we finally near the end of
this jaunt, we are trying to get the accounts and inventory ready for Frank who
wants to immediately start using the boat.
Mary was hard at the inventory sheets today trying to figure out where various items had gotten to.
