We have gone to many different places, and lots of them have had beaches. At the beaches before we got to Florida, sometimes we would have a walk, or a sunset stroll, maybe we would go wading since the tide went out, but we never would get to really swim. I think that is because of two things: it was too cold for swimming, and the swimsuits were just packed away in vacuum-sealed bags. Once we got to Florida we anchored a lot, at Destin, Panama City, Big Lagoon near Pensacola. But at all those places, we never really got to go swimming, until Port St. Joe and Eagle Harbor. Next to our marina in Port St. Joe, there was a beach that we tried fishing at, with no luck. We did get our swimsuits out, and waded along that beach. I didn’t really get in, I just felt more comfortable wading, but Marguerite went all the way in. I 
would of thought it was too cold, but I guess not. Later we sailed (motored) across the bay to Eagle Harbor where we slept the night.
The next day, Marguerite and me went, with the help of our dad, to a shallow area where we could try to fish. We didn’t catch anything, but it was fun since Marguerite and I got to try our hand at rowing the dinghy. We went back to the boat to grab our lunch, then headed to the beach. We hiked across the peninsula to get to the Gulf side, and hunted for shells there. I did find some cool shells, I also found a small sand dollar. When we went back to the bay side, a paddle board and kayak rental place caught our eye. We went to check it out and ended up getting 2! We were going to get 1 for 2 hours, but the man said that we could rent 2 stand-up paddle boards for 1 hour, which ended up being nice, since after an hour we were getting cold and ready to head back. I loved paddling, even though I fell off a couple of times. I even jumped off once, to show Marguerite what her fall looked like to me. The next day we traveled to another anchorage, and motored to the beach twice, went on a 10 minute hike to get to the beach, and hung out. We also caught the sunset from the beach. On the way back, I spotted something bright and circular out in the water. I waded in to grab it, and sure enough, it was a sand dollar! I didn’t find out until later, but that sand dollar was a little brown, which means when I found it, it was either alive or recently died. Sadly, neither sand dollar stayed whole forever, but the first, smaller, more fragile dollar didn’t even get to the boat.
After we left Port St. Joe, we went to Panama City. We stayed in a marina most of the time, but twice we went somewhere else to anchor for a night. One of those places was Shell Island. No, it wasn’t really an island, but that’s the name of the area. We were stuck doing school work for a while, and all the pontoon boats coming to anchor were starting to get on my nerves. Finally, I finished my math. Marguerite and I hopped into swimsuits, slathered on sunscreen and dropped the swim ladder. We climbed on to the swim platform, poised to jump. Nope, not ready yet. We spent the next 5-10 minutes arguing who would jump in first. We tried to climb the arch. Nope, to slippery. Finally, after many mock jumps, I gathered my courage and hopped in. It was cold! Marguerite and I tried to experiment by jumping in different places, but we had to get out quicker than anticipated. A while later, we packed up beach supplies in our dinghy. Snorkels, flippers, goggles, you name it. Then we rowed to shore. The bay side was still too cold for us, so we trekked to the gulf side. The water actually was pretty nice over there! We played in the waves before going back to our dinghy to grab supplies. Then we swam around, looking at the bottom through our goggles. Later, we climbed out of the water and built sand structures. Back on the other side, we got our snorkels on, and watched a hermit crab under the water. Then, Marguerite and I decided we were up for the challenge and pulled our flippers on (hard to walk on in sand, or anywhere), and decided to swim back to our boat. Our bodies adapted to the water, and it was a nice swim.
I think that the beach is a important part of our sailing adventure. It is exciting for all of us, from the enjoying the sand and surf, to getting the dinghy of our boat, to motoring to shore.