| Date: | Sunday, August 31, 2003 |
| Today's Route: | Destin, FL to Sun Harbor Marina, Panama City, FL |
| Today's Mileage: | 58 |
| Total Mileage: | 1377 |
| Hours for the day: 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM | 6 Hours |
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| Leaving Destin.
Destin is a very popular fish destination. Here are some of the fish
caught in these waters: Pompano, Whiting, Channel Bass,
Sheepshead, Blue Runner, Bluefish, Sail Cat, Spanish Mackerel, King
Mackerel, Cobia, Bonito, Jack Crevalle, King Mackerel, Spanish Mackerel,
Bonito, Cobia ad Schoolie Dolphin Grouper, Amber jack, Scamp, Trigger
fish, Snapper and Cobia White Marlin, Blue Marlin, Sailfish, Dolphin and
Wahoo. Fishing in the Choctawhatchee Bay and its bayous is good
year-round. You can expect to catch Speckled Sea Trout, Sheepshead, White
Trout, Channel Bass, Red fish, Sail Cat, Bluefish, and Flounder; also,
Blue Crabs can be found along the shore of the bay. Destin is known
as the billfish capital of the Gulf because of the highly productive
trolling areas southwest of Destin. |
Captain Steve - at the helm. |
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Max! |
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| Kim and Max showing off his catfish at Panama City. We were told by the dockmaster that no one eats the saltwater variety of catfish. | |
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Kim cleaning the catfish. |
Kim sauteed the catfish which we had for dinner. Boy was it good. We don't know what that guy was talking about but he was dead wrong! |
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This guy filets fish (these are red snapper) for the charter boats. |
While enroute from Destin to Panama City, the starboard engine started losing power. This is a picture of one of the Raycors, the main fuel filter. There was a lot of gunk at the bowl at the bottom which caused the problem.. It's now the Labor Day weekend and everything is closed. We had to wait until Tuesday for parts. Meanwhile, Kim took a cab to the airport and flew back to Fort Lauderdale. Brad rented a car and drove Max home who took two weeks off from school to take this terrific trip. I stayed with the boat. |
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| On Tuesday, I ordered fuel filters for the main Raycors, the secondary fuel filters (above) and the generator Raycor. I spent several hours changing all the filters and got everything perfectly running. A mechanic was not available until the following Friday, so I did it myself. Fortunately, I brought an entire suitcase of tools. | After getting all the engines running, I noticed a small leak in the fuel pressure switch. So I ordered one, the supplier delivered it to the marina and I changed that too. Everything is okay now, Brad returns from Atlanta and we are ready to leave first thing Wednesday morning. |