Oct 19, Destin, FL

We left Pensacola Bay and moved through more of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to Ft Walton and then on to the fishing harbor at Destin. Most of the Intercoastal Waterway here is wide water such as bays and rivers. There is a barrier island of Santa Rosa is on the south side and beyond the barrier island is the Gulf of Mexico.

High rise condominiums at Pensacola Beach.

The bays here are very beautiful and we see lots of dolphin as we motor along. Many small pods come in to take a look at us as we motor along and play in our wake.. We see one pod of over 50 dolphin swimming together.

There are several dolphin playing here.
They stayed with us for an hour.

Some jump almost completely out of the water.
They seem to be enjoying being 'pushed' along by KOKOMO II and play in the biggest part of our wake.

The barrier island is part military base and part State Park here.
Interesting tower. Maybe a military aircraft control tower?

This portion of the barrier island is very narrow.
The Gulf of Mexico is just over the small ridge.

The channel here is very close to the barrier island.

Approaching Ft Walton Beach.
The bridge is from the barrier island (right) to Ft Walton (left).

Approaching Destin.
The bridge is from the barrier island at Ft Walton Beach (right) to the barrier Island at Destin and spans the inlet to the Gulf of Mexico.

High rise condominiums at the Harborwalk Marina at Destin.

Harborwalk village has restaurants and shops.

Newer buildings of shops and restaurants seem pretty well occupied.

Our marina office. There are many commercial fishing, diving and sightseeing boats based here.

We are at the Harborwalk Marina in Destin where the docks are fixed and have no finger piers. We find it difficult for us to get on and off the boat. There is no internet. However, we are among the fishing fleet and very near the restaurants so this is the kind of marina we like in spite of the lack of easy docks and other facilities.

We did find the fishing boats left very early in the morning and some did not mind giving us some 'wake' as they left the harbor. This has been about our most active marina since Chicago. I think this would be a fun place to spend some time. We see boats based in Destin when we are in Mexico fishing for sailfish in Isla Mujeres. Interesting that Destin and Stuart are both fishing and boating centers.

This well protected harbor is large (almost two miles long by 1/2 mile wide) and is very close to inlet leading to the Gulf of Mexico. The harbor is home to the large Destin charter fishing fleet.

We have heard and read about the high rise development that has occurred on the barrier island at Destin and now we see the development around the harbor waterfront. This harbor is rated one of the 10 best in Florida and we can see that it is well protected and attractive from a boating standpoint. Destin is said to be the center of the 'Redneck Riviera'.