After our overly exciting travel from Panama City to Destin on April 10, we slept soundly at anchor, even with the creaking anchor bridle in the somewhat gusty conditions. After breakfast, we took the dinghy to shore. Last time we were in Destin we had trouble finding a place to tie up the dinghy--all the docks (and the entire shoreline is filled with docks) have "no docking" signs. We previously ended up docking at a gas filling dock; the folks at the associated restaurant said it would be fine for us stay there for a couple of hours while we ran errands. This time we found a tiny bit of beach at a shop that rents jet skis. They said we could leave the dinghy there for a bit.
Jason went to an auto parts store to look for a part to help remove the fuel filter. The girls and I went to a spear fishing shop to look for supplies to set up a hand line fishing rig to troll off the back of the boat when we sail. The man there was friendly and helpful and between his enthusiasm for the sport and the spear fishing videos playing I thought, now that looks like something I might like to try. We'll see. Meanwhile, we were able to secure the bungee and some dyneema cord to use for the hand line set up. We went to a fishing supply shop a few blocks away to get the rest of the gear. Its going to take a bit of effort to rig it all up--not sure we will be able to use it on the way to Pensacola tomorrow.
When we got back we did some school work. When Jason got a break from work, he started working on the fuel filter. It was a very frustrating experience that culminated in him going back to shore and taking an uber to West Marine to try and find additional supplies. Eventually he did it! We will see if this solves the dethrottling problem we noticed yesterday. Hopefully this means we can be on our way to Pensacola tomorrow (with, I hope, better weather conditions than yesterday--the forecast looks good but you can't really bet on a forecast).