In Panama City After Another Great Day!

Today was awesome!  We got up early.  Well, Trevor got up super early and made coffee.  Then I crawled out of bed just in time to untie from the parents' boat and take off.  We left the Choctawhatchee Bay and entered "the ditch".  It's a long, narrow canal-type thing.  But there are parts that are surprisingly neat! 
Florida's Grand Canyon:

Never expected to see that in Florida.  I liked it.
Another really cool thing (even more cool than the scenery) was the current.  We lucked into a current going the same way as us.  In fact, it was racing that way.  We generally go about 5-6 mph when we're motoring.  This morning, we were hauling ass at 7.6 mph.  We even got up to 8 at one point!  I think that's as fast as this boat has ever been (unless it was on a truck once), definitely as fast as I've ever had it.  It was awesome!  Here's photographic proof of our record-breaking speed:

Whoohooo!  So we booked it down the ditch. 
Once we got out of the ditch, we entered West Bay.  It was pretty, but nothing new or spectacular.

However, I did see about 8 dolphins through the course of the day.  Most of them were pretty far off, but a few were really close.  One swam right down the edge of the boat.  Later, there were two or three of them right next to us!  It was great!  If only they would stop for a minute and let me take a picture.
When we got closer to the Panama City Marina, we came across about 10 or 15 sailboats.  They must have been having a regatta today.  They're so pretty all lined up with their sails hoisted and filled.

Not as pretty as our rainbow sail, of course, but still really awesome.  It looks like a catalog picture or something!
Then we pulled into the marina.  It was different from anywhere else we've ever been, just posts to tie up to, and a little half-pier between boats to get to land.  It was tricky to figure out the right lengths for our lines so we wouldn't hit the posts, but were also close enough to get off the boat.  We managed, but our power cord was too short.  If I'd backed the boat in, we would have been fine, but I didn't have the nerve.  Backing up is tricky.  The marina was nice enough to let us borrow their 50-ft cord for the night.  At some point I need to get another 25-ft cord to add to our current one.  Then we'll be fine.  Gotta do some shopping.
Then we all had showers!  Yay!  It was one of the best showers of the trip.  It's a weird life when the highlight of your day is a shower, but we are living weird lives right now.
I also bought a Florida fishing license.  I've been itching to fish since we hit salt water.  I borrowed Dad's rod and reel.  It just had a little green rubber thing, so I didn't think I had a chance of catching anything.  I was wrong!  I caught 3 black snapper in a matter of minutes!  They were small, so I tossed them back.  Also wasn't in the mood to clean and cook fish for dinner.  Once we get to bigger water, and I start catching awesome fish, though.  Oh yeah!  I'm pretty excited about that!

 And then we had an AMAZING sunset. 

Yep, just another day in paradise.