Santa Rosa Island (aka Pensacola Beach)

Santa Rosa is the barrier island off the city of Pensacola, FL. Barrier islands, usually long and narrow provide protection for the mainland from waves and wind by forming a "sound", the body of water between the island and the mainland. There are lots of barrier islands in Florida and the ICW runs in the sounds with channels cut through the land to join the sounds together. Santa Rosa Island, which includes the village of Pensacola Beach, is a beauty. Friends Kathy and Jeff, along with many other property owners, lost their vacation condo in Hurrican Ivan (2004). Five years later, their replacement condo is complete and gorgeous with Kathy and Jeff currently adding the finishing touches. The 3 story condo is built on concrete pillars sunk 35 feet into the ground. The lower level garage has "breakaway" walls designed to give way to a storm surge letting the water flow through. There are many beautiful expensive homes on the island, all hoping to survive the next big one, I suppose. The eastern end of the island is 7 miles of National Seashore, the road running through it was broken up by Ivan and tossed into the dunes in pieces, but has been repaved. Driving this road with the beautiful dunes, sea grass, and blue water was what convinced Jeff and Kathy to buy here. There are a couple of small marinas on the island and we stayed 3 nights at Sabine Marina, nice facilites and good price, just 3 miles from the condo. in the lower right corner of the arial shot. It's the first marina we've been in for a long time with no other loopers around. In the river system, we were all travelling the same linear path, but now there are so many marinas and anchorages to choose from that we are all scattered about.

The first morning we were here we rode our bikes to the condo and walked on the beach. The sand here is white, sugary and quite perfect. It was a beautiful morning and it's finally sinking in that we are really in Florida. We hopped into Fran the Van, and went to LuLu's for lunch. Friends Peter and DiDi were there with Moon Beam at the dock. After a delicious "cheeseburger in paradise", we drove to the lengendary Florabama Lounge on the Gulf coast at the Florida Alabama border.

You have to see it to really get the picture, but the buildings appear to be built of scrap lumber and driftwood on concrete. The room with the music stage (and they are known for their music) lost its

roof in Ivan.

I'm surprised the whole thing didn't blow all the way to Kentucky, but the roof has been creatively replaced with a large tarp over a sturdy PVC pipe and duct tape frame. The funny thing is that it sits among high rise condos and million dollar homes. The patrons are an eclectic mix and at the 5 pm show we were some of the youngest !! Here's some pictures of the Florabama, note the bras hung from the ceiling in the music room, we didn't add ours, there were plenty.

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a home cooked meal with (left to right) Kathy, Jeff, Diane (our hostess), Evelyn and John. The meal was delicious and we were grateful for the friendship and hospitality we were shown.

On Friday, it was time to move on, and Jeff and Kathy came aboard to ride with us to Navarre Beach, the village on the other end of Santa Rosa Island. We had a pleasant ride and a good lunch at another restaurant whose name I cannot recall. John and Evelyn met us at the restaurant and gave Jeff and Kathy a ride home. Steve and I are settled in for the night, trying to figure out how far we want to go before Monday when a storm is predicted. We've enjoyed some really pleasant weather for the past month, so I suppose we are due for a weather delay.

Here's our e-mail address mainship34@gmail.com. When you readers add a comment or question, we don't get your e-mail address, but we wanted to let John Halter know that we are not at this time coveting twin engines. We like the advantages of a single engine (protected prop, less $$$ for fuel and maintenence etc.). Steve has learned how to pilot our current vessel quite well, even though it is a SINT (single inboard, no thrusters, my acronym). IF we ever get a bigger boat, however, we'd like it to have a bow thruster along with the single engine.