We cruised to Florida on the ICW today and we're anchored next to an uninhabited beach on the Gulf at Perdido Key just before Pensacola.

It was great fun for us to see the dolphins jumping our wake again. They picked us up in all the bays of the ICW and surfed the wake happily, making small jumps frequently. Once we were picked up by 2 adults and a baby dolphin. The adults jumped and the baby just surfed.




At the anchorage, we're rafted together with Loose Stones again so we're swinging on one anchor. We had to use their anchor because it has about 50 ft. of heavy chain before the anchor. Ours is an all rope anchor rode so we couldn't get it to hold in the soft mud and I didn't want to get out our Fortress anchoe for mud. . The anchorage is on the inside of the barrier islands that form the ICW here. The low lying key is just visible as a line behind the boats and the Gulf is just beyond it.

We dinghied in to the inside of the key and walked across the dunes to the Gulf shore beach. It had been cloudy when we were cruising today, but by the time we got to the beach, it was a beautiful and sunny. This is one of those sugar sand beaches and there are no roads to get here, so only people from boats get to this beach.

We had literally miles of beach all to ourselves. There were a few footprints above the high tide line, but not many. Of course, the dogs loved it. Both dogs are getting old and both were "dog tired" by the time we walked a long way out and back on the beach and then dinghied back to the anchorage.

Of course, Kathy added to her shell collection with these finds from the beach.













We'll go on to Sandestin tomorrow on our way to Apalachicola, FL. It currently looks like we may be able to make the long overnight passage across the Gulf on Saturday.