PDQ OWNERS FORUM

Anyone sailing the Panama City area? Gina and I are considering retirement property in PCB and would like any input, good or bad.

Thanks,
Sam

Sam,

I'm very familiar with the Panama City area. I've sailed there many times with my family. The entrance to the bay is probably the easiest on the whole gulf coast. The beach on each side of the jetties is state park, and has beautiful sand dunes. Almost immediately after moving through the pass, there's a large lagoon that provides an excellent anchorage. The bay is very clean, and thus is one of the few clear-water bays in existence. Snorkeling and diving is not like the Bahamas, but it is relatively good, especially for children. Fishing is excellent, pretty much year-round.

St. Andrews Bay is very large, and eventually splits into East Bay and West Bay, both of which are also very large (15-20 miles?) and excellent places to sail. Most of the shoreline of both of these bays is owned by the feds, thus, there's minimal development and lots of pristine, remote places to visit. Trout and Red Fish fishing up these bays are excellent.

PC City Marina is the largest marina and has slips for catamarans. It's located at downtown Panama City. The downtown area is a sleepy place, with a few artsy shops, and a couple of good restaurants. There's also a lagoon there that has several marinas within it. The residential area around downtown is the classic huge oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from the limbs; old restored homes, some huge. During the summer, there is a free "music in park" concert every Thur. evening.

Panama City Beach, on the other hand, is not accessible by boat unless you anchor off shore and dinghy in on a calm day. It’s VERY touristy with all the trimmings that go with a tourist destination (boo coo traffic, noise, people everywhere, t-shirt shops, amusement parks). Because of the tourist magnet, however, there are a lot of outlet malls inland, especially between PC and Destin, further west.

Just a few miles inland, things get very rural, so the price of homes drop dramatically.

PC is an excellent jumping-off place for short cruises. St. Joe bay is about a half-day's sail away, and Apalachicola and St. Marks are and little further east down the panhandle. Both are fantastic places to visit.
In the other direction, is Destine, Pensacola, Perdido Bay (where I am), Mobile Bay, the Mississippi Sound, and New Orleans (which is accessible by boat via Lake Pontchartrain) all of which provide interesting places to visit. In other words, there are plenty of places to sail to all up and down the panhandle without having to do blue water. Marina and restaurant prices are stunningly cheaper that anywhere in south-Florida or the east coast.

From PC, Tampa Bay is about a 30 hr trip if you want to cross the gulf and head south.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to talk about this area. Ed