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Built after Hurricane Opal,
Panama City Marina is big by panhandle standards. Manager
Chris Moser welcomes transients and provides water to cruisers
who would rather anchor in picturesque Massalina Bayou
behind the drawbridge. Massalina Bayou is quaint,
filled with sailboats, and home to two funky, open-air
restaurants - Bayou Joe's on the water, where you can tie up at the dock, and Hawk's Nest, on higher ground
with sweeping vistas.
We linger and soak up the atmosphere. Locals say the shopping mall wiped out most of the businesses, but the |
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old downtown (within walking distance) is rebounding with art galleries, antique shops, cafés, and restaurants.
If we had more cruising time, we'd check out desolate Crooked Island and Cape San Blas. Instead, we study the charts and dream of a day when we can continue our sail to Port St. Joe, Mexico Beach, Apalachicola, St. Marks, and Carrabelle, places where, as one native put it, the clothes are a little tighter and the people a little looser. The Panhandle may be Florida's forgotten coast, but once you've been there, it isn't easy to forget.
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