Sunset Cruise on the Hannah Marie

On Thursday evening of our trip, we set sail for a 2-hour tour of the port of Destin, the beautiful Emerald Coast, and the gulf in hopes of spotting dolphins in the sunset.

The first-mate on board the Hannah Marie was a gentleman named Glen Marler. At age 84, he was a very entertaining host who gave a very educational "talk" about the founding of Destin and the development of the harbour there. Interestingly, he is a descendant of one of the founders of the town. He spoke with great pride, but he made his opinion of the "developing" shoreline very clear. He wasn't particularly impressed with all the progress but preferred the original landscape without the skyscraper.

The captain pointed out beach houses in the harbour belonging to Garth Brooks, Tim & Faith, and John Grisham. Huge. John Grisham's house was just beautiful, full of windows overlooking the water.

We spotted lots of dolphins, many even came really close to the boat. Unfortunately, they are fast little swimmers, so photos were almost impossible for me. In one of the photos below, I got a shot of a couple of the dolphins who came close the the boat, If you look closely, you can see their forms just under the surface of the water!