Spectre Island

Awoke this morning to find the wind still howling, as forecast. So we accepted the fact that we would be here another day. Not that it is a bad place to be, with miles of snowy white beach all to ourselves!

At least, we thought we would have it to ourselves. It was Monday, a workday for most folks, and the weather was cool, overcast, and very windy. But at around 1300 hours a brave soul showed up with his kite sail kit. He was alone, and struggled for a good while to get his kite inflated and flying. But soon he was whipping across the waves. He was not nearly as good as some of the guys that were here yesterday, but he made some halfhearted attempts at getting airborne. He lasted all of 45 minutes before packing it in. I don’t know if he was just too cold, frustrated, or both.

As he was leaving we noticed the wind dropping a bit. The waves were also getting smaller. We had a serious itch to move on so pounced on the chance to get out of here a day early. In short order we had the anchor up and were motoring out to the ICW.

It was only about three hours to Spectre Island, our next planned anchorage. We considered stopping in Navarre for our traditional provisioning stop at the Winn Dixie there. It is easy to get to… just drop anchor right off the beach and walk across the street. But, we did not need much, and planned on spending the night in Ft. Walton tomorrow, so would get groceries there.

Since we didn’t get underway until just after 1400 hours, it was dark by the time we arrived at Spectre. But radar showed no other boats there, and we have been here so many times it was easy to make my way in. Anchor down and set and we were having our evening libations by 1800 hours.

We had a very peaceful night. It was nice not to hear the wind howling through the aluminum framework on the bridge. There were minimal flight operations at nearby Hurlbert Field, very unusual, and I only heard a couple of MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft departing in the night. No gunnery practice at the range, either

No pictures to post yet, as we still don’t have good enough internet access.