Well, Bob, here's what I used to make my statements. I still firmly believe that Daydream ought to stay put until the weather changes. The trip's too close to a nice ending.
1. I've been to Florida several times. Spent a summer in Ft Walton Beach launching rockets. Later I passed through Pensacola and cut through the Gulph to Tampa. Beautiful trip, dolphins/porpoises swam with us.
2. The roughest night I've ever spent on a sailboat was in your lovely town of Pensacola. But that was a norther. I was at the outer dock of the Pensacola Yacht Club and I came away with a lot of respect for the way Catalina sailboats are built.
3. For a C-Dory 25 avoiding weather, certainly stay inland, use the ICW and pass through the panhandle.
4. The first time I ever heard of the Florida Panhandle was when I saw this picture. Note the bright orange near you. I then read that the Panhandle has the most lightning strikes in the USA, or the World? Actually, that is what got us to take the Gulph route. Notice the orange and red in Florida.

The average number of thunderstorm days each year throughout the U.S. Courtesy of the National Weather Service.
5. And finally the way I remember the jingle is: "July rarely, September always, November, it's over". Or something like that. If you're saying that climate change has now extended the hurricane season, I believe you; I live on the West Coast, where it's colored blue on the map.
Boris