Where has Sunshine gone?

2010-07-22T11:42:00.005-04:00

The first photo is what we look like now with the bottom paint completed. The sccond photo shows the shells which were in the starboard engine strainer. These had to enter through the small holes visible in the strainer and then grow in the strainer. The lower left corner was one shell growing attached to the strainer. Wonder why the stbd engine ran a little hot at higher RPM's? The last photo shows Muriel and Shelly painting on the bottom. We all three worked on applying bottom paint on two days.

July 21, 2010 Sunshine's bottom is finally done. We have filled and faired all the blisters and applied six coats of barrier coat. Now we have finally gotten the antifoulant bottom paint applied. All that remains is to install the zincs on the transom and a couple of coats of hard bottom paint on the running gear which has three coats of barrier coat applied and ready for bottom paint. After appling the bottom paint I was poking the paint out of the raw water strainers on the outside of the hull and noticed the sound of shells rattling on the inside. When I removed the strainers I found the strainer for the starboard engine was full of shells. Evidentually they enter through the 3/32"holes and then grow inside the strainer.

It feels great to have the bottom of Sunshine looking so good and ready to go. It will be a few weeks before we launch because Muriel is having cataracs removed on Tuesday and I do not expect the Dr. will want her out in the heat for a while.

2010-05-07T18:24:00.005-04:00

These photos show the bottom as it now appears, almost totally covered with fairing compoind and ready to be barrier coated.

May 3, 2010, Sunshine is nearing the point of beginning to apply barrier coat. I estimate two days' work to complete fairing pin holes and filling one last (?) blister. I have also removed the swim platform to repair the starboard 1/3 of which has become soft due to water intrusion. The remaining 2/3 has already been re-done.

During my last work session I went over vertually every inch of the bottom with fairing compound to fair out previous places which I faired and to fill many pin holes in the gel-coat.

2010-03-25T20:33:00.005-04:00

The first two pictures show Sunshine with repairs underway to fill and fair the areas which were ground out for blister repair. The grey spots are ground out, the red areas are spots which have been filled and are ready to sand. The third photo shows the damage to the flybridge canvas.

Sunshine spent the entire summer waiting on the Lovetts to finish their yard and house work after being gone for an entire year. On October 1, 2009 Sunshine was hauled for new bottom paint. We found quite a case of blisters which needed to be repaired. Jeff and Anne and I worked for a couple of long weekends grinding blisters and waxing. Jeff completed most of the waxing and also a lion's share of the grinding. Sunshine has set on the hard since then waiting out a long cold and wet winter for the hull to dry out. We have finally begun the repairs on the blisters. As of today we are probably nearly half way completed with blister repair.

We had a storm with winds to 60 mph back in February. The wind pretty well shredded the eisenglass on the fly bridge. So now we have a restitched enclosure with all new eisenglass.

Myrtle Beach, SC to Home Port, Wilmington, NC via Southport.

2009-05-04T13:39:00.007-04:00

The first photo is our gold burgee celebration with Connie and Ron and Kathy from the boat next to us in the marina. The second photo is the resident aligator who had to come along side to be part of the celebration. The third photo is the way we were greeted by Connie with ballons. The fourth photo is the sign at the entrance to our marina. And the last photo is the very bitter-sweet farwell on the dock at Southport before we sailed with Blue Max for the last time.

We got underway about 9:00 and stopped at North Myrtle Beach Yacht Club to top off our fuel tanks. From there we had the current against us most of the way to Southport. We really got excited when we passed the state line and realized we were back in North Carolina!!! That was when it really began to sink in that we were nearly home. We enjoyed a front porch visit with the Creeches of C-Life. What a beautiful location.
On Sunday morning we decided to get to going about 8:00 to take advantage of the tide running up the Cape Fear River. Good-byes on the dock were difficult. We have traveled with Blue Max almost continuously for the past 10 months. We shared drinks almost every evening during that time. I did not realize the bond which develops in that time. We ran together to the entrance to Snow’s Cut where Sunshine crossed her wake at 9:35 on Sunday, April 26, 2009 after leaving Wilmington Marine Center at 7:00 am on May 12, 2008. At the entrance to Snow’s Cut we turned north for the last 10 miles to our marina and Blue Max continued on through the cut and toward their home. Golly what emotions!!!.
We entered our marina about 11:00 to a welcome home from Ron and Connie and some of the people on the dock there. As soon as we got tied into the slip Muriel and Shelly were over on Ron and Connie’s boat, Lady C, enjoying some wine to celebrate our return, and so went the rest of the afternoon and evening.
On Monday our good friends, Ernie and Dianne Crymes brought our car to us in Wilmington. This gave us the opportunity to introduce them to Ron and Connie, our friends here at the marina. We enjoyed a dinner with them and they returned to Mooresville on Tuesday morning. We had intended to leave on Thursday but when the time we decided to delay leaving. It is now Monday, a week later and we are still on the boat saying we may leave on Thursday. We have driven to Southport twice, once to visit with Golden Lily and once to visit with Wander’n L&M. We enjoyed both these visits very much. These are the last of the loopers we have traveled with still had to pass by Southport.
I am working on refinishing some of the wood on the exterior of the boat. This was intended to be done before we left last May….I am just now getting to it. We have been keeping in touch with Blue Max to follow their progress. They may be starting their travels up the Chesapeake Bay today. We have not heard today whether the weather allowed them to travel or not.
We have enjoyed drinks and dinners several times with others living on boats here at our marina. We missed getting to witness two alligators fighting when one finally ate another. We were watching an 82 foot sailboat being lifted out of the water when the struggle occurred. This morning we got to watch a large paddle wheel powered river boat maneuver out of the marina. It was quite a sight to see such a boat maneuvering in such tight quarters.

2009-04-24T16:54:00.005-04:00

The first photo is from our anchorage in Tom Point Creek. The second photo is what the sky looked like right after we docked in Charleston, we did not get it, but some locations nearby were getting half dollar size hail. I do not think the third photo is what I intended it to be, but it is some of the shore line of the Waccamaw River. The last two are from the anchorage in the Waccamaw River near MM375 where we spent Thursday night. This was probably our last time to anchor with Blue Max!!! Emotions are starting to become quite mixed. Excited to be nearing the point of crossing our wake and getting to see all the friends at home but not wanting to leave the new life style and many friends we have made in the past year.

We slept fairly late on Sunday morning and got a slow start. After bagels for breakfast we started preparing to get underway. Jeff and Anne got away a little before 11:00 and we got under way about 11:20. The skies were mostly overcast but it was warm, upper 70’s. This was a pretty cruise through the marshes of southern South Carolina. We arrived at our intended anchorage in Tom Point Creek about 3:45 and got the anchor set nicely in a pretty well protected area surrounded by trees on shore. I got the dingy down and it started right off and ran fine. I am sure the problems a few days ago were because I connected the gas line before I opened the tank vent and that flooded the engine. We will share drinks and snacks with Blue Max in a few minutes.
We got away from Tom Point Creek at 7:00am, some kind of a record for us, so that we could arrive in Charleston at low tide to avoid the swift current in the Cooper River while docking. This worked perfectly, we flew through Elliot Cut with a very swift current and arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center Marina at low tide with just about no current but the wind was blowing quite hard. We walked downtown for dinner and a bit of a look around. The next morning at about 5:30 we were awakened by the sound of the engine on the tall ship, Spirit of Charleston, docking just across from us. After breakfast we all walked to the bus stop and rode to the visitor center where we split-up. Bill and I took a bus to down town to tour the new destroyer but when we got there we found the line was so long that they had closed it because the ship had to leave the dock shortly after noon. The women took a horse carriage tour through the historic district and Muriel learned about a special church service at the Circular Church. The driver told them not to miss the service because part of the service would be in Gouhla, a low country dialect spoken by slaves. Muriel and I went and enjoyed the experience. The entire audience was involved in singing, clapping, foot stomping and hand waving before the service was concluded.
Freedom’s Turn had arrived in the marina in the afternoon and we got to visit with them for a while. They said they planned to leave about 7:00 in the morning. We got away about 9:15 and they were still in the marina.
We left the marina intending to anchor about half way to Georgetown and then continue to Georgetown the next day. But when we got to the area where we had thought we would anchor the wind was so strong and there was so little shelter that we just continued on and arrived in Georgetown about 4:15. While we were getting tied into the marina we met another couple who had just arrived also. They spent the winter in Florida aboard their boat and are on the way home to Cape May, NJ. After a short visit we all walked into town for dinner. We have to stop eating out so much. We will all be like blimps.
Like I said last night we are all going to look like blimps. We got up this morning and walked into town to get breakfast at Thomas Café. Freedom’s Turn told us they had good and inexpensive breakfast. They were right on target. We finally got underway about 10:00 To head up the Wacamaw River to anchor in an ox bow. While eating breakfast Bill saw in the news paper that there is a large wild fire in the Myrtle Beach area. During the day we heard the Coast Guard announce that the water way is closed in the Myrtle Beach area until further notice. We talked to the marina there and they said they expect whose homes were destroyed by the fire. After we got anchored and started to settle we saw Dean on a small sail boat converted to power boat coming up the river. We haled him and he entered the ox bow and anchored nearby. We invited him over for drinks and then dinner which we all shared. It was an enjoyable evening for all. He has been on the loop for four years, starting in Bar Harbor, Maine.
We have ordered our gold looper flag sent to the marina at home and asked Ron and Connie to pick it up for us. We spoke to them today and they will still be on their boat when we arrive on Sunday or Monday. It will be great to have them there. Their boat is probably sold and we thought they may be moved off by the time we got home. We also started to call people to let them know when we expect to be back home. It is exciting to anticipate returning and yet it is disappointing to think that this great adventure is about to end. We will hate to see our friends go on without us. Blue Max will continue on toward their home and several other boats still behind us will pass south of Wilmington and we will miss seeing them. Wander’n L&M, Golden Lily, Freedom’s Turn, and Kismet are all boats we ran with off and on and we would love to see them again.
We spent the evening and the night in a very peaceful anchorage on the Waccamaw River. It was an ox bow with enough room for several boats. There were nine boats there before the evening was over because of the ICW closing. We met Dean on Dolcimea again. We have been seeing him ever since we were in Frenandina, Fl. We invited him to come over for drinks and dinner and had a very nice visit. The nicest people play about on boats.
This morning we delayed leaving this morning because the ICW was closed due to the fires at Myrtle Beach. About 10:00 I called the Coast Guard and they said the ICW was open to all traffic so we got underway and arrived here about 1:00, Barefoot Landing. We enjoyed a burger and then walked around the shops. Tomorrow we plan to move on to Southport. The next stop will be home in Wilmington.

Isle of Hope to Beaufort, SC

2009-04-24T16:10:00.002-04:00

Ben and Jerry's in Charleston had free ice cream the day we were there. The second photo is what we saw as we entered the river to cross at Savanah. The third photo is from Savanah. That must be us at another ice cream parlor!!

We arrived at Isle of Hope just after noon so we got a courtesy car and made the necessary Wal-Mart run and returned to put the groceries away. Then we went back out to eat dinner at a nearby restaurant which some others had said was good. We enjoyed the dinner but mine was not as good as expected. The others, Muriel and Bill and Eileen were very impressed with their meals, an excellent chef.
We were up early this morning and out to catch a bus at 8:00. We rode into downtown Savannah and took a tour of the old historic district. We were very impressed with the old buildings and the quality of the restorations.
We plan to get underway about 8:00 in the morning and run to Beaufort, SC. This will be the longest run we have made in some time, a little over 50 miles.
The forecast this morning was for winds at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 25 mph from the northeast. We were a little apprehensive about the day’s trip because we had to cross Port Royal Sound to get into Beaufort, SC. We decided to head out and if the wind was too strong when we got to the sound we would turn back a few miles and anchor but the forecast for tomorrow was the same. We left Isle of Hope with fairly strong winds but they decreased as the day progressed. We crossed the sound with only a moderate chop and arrived in Beaufort at dead high tide so that docking was as good as it gets in Beaufort where the marina is notorious for strong currents. As we were tying up Judy walked up. They stayed an extra day here to say hello. They have been running a day ahead of us for some time now. As soon as we got settled, and registered, we all walked into town for an ice cream treat and a chance to visit.
On Friday morning I got up early and checked the engines so that would be done whenever we start to move again. Then Muriel and I walked into town for breakfast. We walked into a restaurant and found Les and Judy already seated so we ate and visited with them. Soon after breakfast they left. They are going to do the down east loop this summer so we will probably not see them again any time soon. This afternoon we walked around some of the old homes in Beaufort and decided to take a narrated carriage tour. We enjoyed it and learned some about the old homes here.
Jeff and Anne arrived before noon on Saturday. So we walked into town to the bagel shop and had bagels for lunch. We enjoyed visiting during the afternoon and then decided to enjoy happy hour at a couple of the local pubs. Muriel and Anne really enjoyed the happy hour. Bill and Eileen were with us and we all had some good laughs and plenty of snacks. We finally got back to the boat about 8:00 after also visiting with some of the local boaters who were having a pot luck on the dock. Muriel insisted on fixing a dinner. It was very good but we were all already full from the snacks and drinks. Later, after dinner, Muriel and Anne used the excuse that they were going out to walk Carlie and they went back to the pot luck to get some of their banana pudding.

Jekyll Island to Isle of Hope via one anchorage and Kilkenny Creek

2009-04-14T14:35:00.005-04:00

The first photo is the dock at Kilkenny Marina. The second photo is the old village hotel at Kekyll Island.

We got a fairly early start for us, underway from Jekyll Island by about 7:40. The winds were light and we had a good beginning. The forecast was for 15 to 20 miles per hour from the NE. We figured this would not be too bad in the ICW. Before long Muriel said she was seeing gusts to 49 mph on our anemometer. Crossing the sounds was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be with that much wind. We intended to anchor in Back River but when we got there we found virtually no protection from the NE winds and the water was too deep to anchor where there was slight protection. We decided to move on and look at a couple of other possibilities further along the way. We selected New Teakettle Creek. The water depth is better for anchoring and the wind gets very little fetch to produce waves however the wind does keep the boats in constant motion dancing before the wind. This is Easter and Muriel has prepared ham and potato salad. We are looking forward to dinner.
We have reservations at marinas for the next couple of nights because the forecast is for thunderstorms Monday evening and 60% chance of them continuing into Tuesday. Hopefully we will be able to get into a marina tomorrow before the weather turns bad.
We got underway Monday at 7:30 to try to get passed the two inlets and on to the marina before the weather turns too bad. The wind was already coming into Sapello Sound off the ocean by the time we ran down the sound. We had three to four foot waves in the sound on our bow. We were able to get into the lee of the north side of the inlet before we had to turn broadside to the waves. This worked well for us. In St Catherine’s Sound the wind was not nearly so strong but we still had some fairly large waves coming in from the ocean. From there we had a short run up a narrow channel to get to Kilkenny Marina. Shortly after we got secured at the marina, about 12:30, the wind started to pickup and a little after that we had tornado watch issued for this area. There is a line of heavy rain on the GPS weather radar moving toward us. Glad we are in the marina, even though it is not much of a marina.
The tornado watch became a tornado warning and the wind blew and the lightning popped and it rain hard for a while then steadily for several hours. On Tuesday morning the weather was still forecasting a chance of more rain and T-storms but it looked pretty good so we took off at 9:00 to arrive at Hell Gate with a favorable tide. This worked for us but we had to idle along for an hour to arrive at Isle of Hope near high tide so we could approach the dock for a starboard tie. This is a beautiful facility. We have signed up for the courtesy car to make the inevetable Wll-Mart run. It has been a few weeks since we have been to a Wall-Mart. Tomorrow we plan to ride the bus into Savannah and spend the day touring the City.

2009-04-14T13:57:00.003-04:00

We got a fairly early, 8:30, start from Six Mile Creek so that we could arrive at Ortega River before low tide because the water in the marina is quite shallow at low tide. It was the prettiest morning we have seen on the St John’s River. It seems a shame to be in the marina this afternoon but we need to get organized before we continue on up the ICW. We all showered and Muriel did laundry then we went out to eat, what a treat!
We discussed moving on to Ferdandina today but decided to stay here and finish the shopping and get some odds and ends serviced on the boat. The forecast yesterday sounded like today would be stormy in the afternoon. Naturally, it has been another beautiful day. We all walked back to the shops and got our hair cut. If the weather looks decent tomorrow we will go.
We ran to Fernandina Beach and arrived about 2:00 pm. At the last bend below Fernandina I began to bump the bottom rather solidly while in the center of the channel. We managed to bump through and found deeper water just to the west of our course. About the same time the wind began to pickup and with the tide being low and the wind blowing again getting docked inside the harbor at Fernandina was interesting. Soon after we got settled we boarded a “trolley” tour bus for a tour of “historic” Fernandina. The wind settled down about midnight and we had a good night’s sleep.
Thursday morning we move on to Cumberland Island and anchored out of the waterway near the island and dingyed into the Island at the National Park. From there we walked through a forest of live oaks draped with Spanish Moss with the ground covered with Palmettos and ferns and out to the beach which was one of the prettier beaches we have visited. We were amazed at the number of campers and day visitors on the island. This is Easter weekend and spring break for many schools. The wind was rather strong from the south as we crossed St Mary’s inlet and we briefly considered by passing Cumberland Island because we thought the anchorage might be too exposed to wind from this direction. The wind was not bad in the anchorage, the current was quite swift but we had a pleasant anchorage and we are certainly glad we stopped to visit Cumberland Island. When I put our dingy down and put the motor on I noticed that when I connected the gas line to the motor it had quite a bit of pressure on it because the weather had warmed since the last use and the tank was expanded from the pressure. I opened the vent and thought nothing of it. However, the motor never fired or tried to start. I finally gave up and Bill came and picked us up and we rode to the island with him. While laying in bed that night it dawned on me that the pressure in the tank had forced fuel into the motor and had totally flooded it, so badly that I could not start it. I feel sure it will run fine next time we need it.
We got up this morning and got a fairly early start for us, underway by 8:00, to use the tide to arrive at Jekyll and beat the winds on crossing St Andrews Sound. This worked fairly well, the wind began to pickup as we crossed the sound but we made it without much discomfort. We got into Jekyll in time to borrow the courtesy car and tour the island with Bill and Eileen and another couple we just met at Fernandina. This is another beautiful Georgia coastal island. The old buildings are very interesting and pretty. Right after we got back with the car Muriel and Shelly and I walked back to the beach so Shelly could pick some more shells. We were shocked at how muddy the ocean was. I think Muriel properly guessed that the cause is probably due to the flood waters from the rivers in the area dumping silt laden water into the ocean and the wind was blowing from the sound up the coast. We plan to stay here two nights and maybe three.
On Saturday we messed around on the boat and on the dock visiting with other boaters. Muriel fixed a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Several people up and down the dock remarked about how good it smelled. In the afternoon Muriel and I walked back into the old Jekyll Island Village and looked around at some of the buildings and wandered through the hotel. Most of the buildings were built around the turn of the century and are still in excellent condition. The weather forecast looks decent to move on Sunday so we will probably get on up the waterway a little and anchor for the night.

St John's River

2009-04-06T08:49:00.005-04:00

The first photo is our two boats on the long floating dock at the Outback Crab Shack. It is the longest floating dock on the river. The second photo is a gingerbread house on the river. The third photo is the aligator which Bill enjoyed playing with between our two boats while anchored just above Lake George.

We left St Augustine on the high tide at about 9:00 this morning while there was very little current to contend with while getting out of the marina which is crowded in by the construction underway on the Bridge of Lions. We had a little current boost for a while and then as we moved on up the waterway we gained boost from the ebbing tide moving on toward the St John’s River Inlet. We arrived at Beach Marina at Jacksonville Beach about 1:00 as the tide was ebbing. The marina is very nice, floating docks which are in excellent condition and the people are super helpful. They agreed to drive Muriel and Eileen to the Publix fro grocery shopping. Bill and Shelly and I walked over the 65 foot high bridge above the ICW to get ice cream and there was a Taco Bell nearby so Shelly and I had to stop for a taco. We are forecast to get some heavy weather tonight with fair weather in the morning, deteriorating to storms tomorrow evening. We will look at it in the morning with the idea of going on into the St John’s in the morning to find a place to hide from the weather.
With the forecast calling for severe thunder storms with damaging winds and hail, we decided to stay put today. Naturally, since we stayed here, the weather missed us and went on to the north of us. It has still been windy and overcast most of the day. I finished our income tax this morning and we walked to the nearby shops and spent most of the afternoon. We hope to move on up the river tomorrow.
Late in the evening and over night we got the strong thunderstorms. The lightning was poping very close to the boats and the winds were very strong. Sunday morning’s forecasts were for 20 to 25 mph winds with gusts to 40 mph. We stayed put again and worked most of the day on cleaning around the boat. We did walk into the Panera store for lunch and some final shopping at Publix. I stopped at the West Marine for some black caulk and re-caulked Shelly’s hatch. The winds did blow during the afternoon. We will leave here this morning after the marina office opens so that we can settle our bill for last night.
And leave we did, about 10:30 we finally got underway moving up stream in the St John’s River. We told the dockmaster that we would probably stop the first night to anchor in Black Creek. His advice was to just by pass Black Creek because it was all developed these days. As we got down toward the creek I told Bill I thought I would just stick our nose into the creek to see what it looked like. We were happy we did. There were a few houses but very few. We put the dingys down and explored a little and then enjoyed five o’clock together. There were a few boats up and down the creek but that stopped well before dark and we had a peaceful night.
We got underway again this morning to go to Murphy Creek, also described in the cruising guides and pristine and full of wildlife. It was a grey, overcast day with occasional showers but still a pleasant cruising day. We arrived at Murphy Creek about 2:45 and were greeted at the mouth of the creek by a large alligator. They were strung out all along the banks of the creek. As soon as we got anchored Bill and I got into the dingy to try to get closer to one to get some good photos. Just as we approached a large one the only boat we have seen came roaring past and spooked the gator. The sun pokes through the clouds occasionally this evening to make the clouds look darker. The forecast is for thunder showers tonight and 80% chance of rain tomorrow. We may hang out here a couple of days until the weather improves. This place has excellent protection.
It rained with lightning all off and on all night. We still got a good night’s sleep. The rain had mostly quit by morning, just a few showers left. We had a good breakfast of bacon and pancakes and finally got under way about 10:30. We had decided to head down to the north end of Lake George and anchor and then visit the springs which feed the lake and then head back north. We saw lots of alligators this morning even though it was overcast and not sunny. Just above Welaka we saw the largest alligator we have ever seen. When Muriel first pointed him out I told her I did not think it was an alligator and if it was we were probably not safe even in the big boat. When we looked through the binoculars it was certainly an alligator. We could even see the huge teeth sticking out of his mouth. Both boats circled back for another look and he stayed put. Bill said that he began to swim out toward them. He said he wandered if he thought Bill’s dingy might be lunch.
We decided to anchor in a body of water just north of Lake George because it might offer more protection from south winds which is what NOAA was forecasting with afternoon and evening thundershowers. As we were anchoring together the winds built suddenly from the north and Bill’s anchor dragged so that his line was under us. We broke up and anchored separately at least until the weather changes.
We talked about taking the dingys through the shallows between us and Lake George to explore the Salt Springs but decided the wind is probably too strong to be comfortable in the dingys. We will either Springs and then perhaps take in the Salt Srings on the way back north. This all depends on what the weather does.
On Wednesday morning we took the boats down to Silver Glen Springs and anchored in the Lake outside the small channel leading into the springs and dingyed into the springs. The water was the clearest I have seen anywhere we have been. We were amazed by the large boats which were anchored in the springs. The wind was fairly strong from the south as we ran down the lake and it was stronger as we ran back north with the wind on our sterns. The ladies were not too happy with the ride but it was not really bad. We anchored in the protection of Seven Sisters Islands. It took a little shuffling to get settled on the best location to anchor and then we could not get our anchor to set. After several attempts we decided to just anchor separately. Our anchor set on the first try. It was probably for the best because the wind really got strong during the night with thunder storms. When we got up in the morning Muriel turned on the TV and learned that we had been under a tornado warning for a couple of hours but it was just being lifted.
We have seen alligators in each of our anchorages on the St John’s River and numerous sightings along the River proper. Today, Thursday, we ran north, down the river, to Six Mile Creek in rather strong west to northwest winds. When we turned to cross the river to enter the creek the wind as on the beam and the ladies got uncomfortable again. We ran up the creek to the Outback Crab Shack which has about a quarter mile of floating dock which is free if you eat dinner with them. It is far enough up stream that it is protected from the winds and waves. As soon as we got docked we went into the Crab Shack and shared a pitcher of beer and followed that with a dingy trip up the creek. It was very pretty. We sighted many turtles and one alligator. This place just “hit the spot” after a week on the river. We are looking forward to dinner. We have called for a reservation back at the Ortega Yacht Club for tomorrow. We will probably spend a couple of nights there and get wash done and reprovision and start up the Georgia coast on Monday.

Daytona to St Augustine

2009-03-25T22:05:00.005-04:00

The first photo is the Ponce de Leon Hotel and the second is a street in St Augustine which is lined with live oaks with Spanish moss hanging in them.

It rained off and on all night last night. We got away about 9:15 this morning after some light morning showers and the showers continued off and on throughout the morning. At least the wind has subsided. We arrived at Palm Coast Resort Marina about 1:00 with a light drizzle coming down. That ended soon after we arrived and Muriel and Shelly and I walked to the European Village nearby. Many of the shops were closed because it is Monday. We did manage to get ice cream and Muriel located a place she wants to get breakfast in the morning.
We all got up early Tuesday so we could get showers and dressed to go to the restaurant at 8:00am for breakfast before we left for St Augustine. We walked the several blocks to the European Village to find that the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays. Muriel prepared an excellent breakfast on the boat. We got under way about 10:00 to arrive at St Augustine about 2:00 with low tide and no current at the city marina. The current ran with us all the way to St Augustine, sometimes so strong that we were making six knots at idle. We did manage to arrive at low tide. We docked with very little current. Soon after we got docked we purchased tickets for the tour “train” and made the tour of the town. The tour was quite informative. We were able to learn what we wanted to see. On Wednesday morning we went first to tour the Ponce de Leon Hotel which is now occupied by the Flaggler College. Our tour guide was a young lady who is a senior at the college. She was very good. The extravagance of the building is unbelievable and nearly all the original beauty has been retained and very well maintained. The old ball room is now used as the dining hall for students. The windows in this room are the original Tiffany glass windows. It is the largest collection of Tiffany glass windows in one location. It is valued at $40,000,000. Some of the chandeliers are considered to be priceless. The building was built in the 1800’s and is still very much original and very sound. It had some of the first light bulbs in the south.
From the Ponce de Leon we went to the Presbyterian church which Flaggler built after his daughter died. Just like the hotel it was beautiful. Our next stop was the winery for a tour and wine tasting. Muriel bought a couple of bottles of wine which we returned to the boat and then we went on to the fort, Castillo de San Marcos for another tour. After we returned to the boat Bill and I set down with a fellow we met yesterday on the dock. He lives on the St Johns River and we wanted to discuss places to visit with him. After that Shelly and Bill and I had to go use our free miniature golf tickets, not my favorite thing to do. We plan to leave in the morning and head on up toward the St Johns.

Melbourne to Daytona via Harbortown and Titusville

2009-03-22T10:32:00.001-04:00

We left Melbourne this morning about 9:00 in dead calm. The water stayed very calm until about the time we arrived at the Canaveral Barge Canal. We came to the Harbortown Marina to get fuel, the least we have paid for the be entire trip, $1.689. We also expected to able to get a bus to the Space Center but there is none available. The slips have very short fingers which makes it very difficult for Muriel and Shelly to get on and off the boat. We made a reservation to stay at Titusville tomorrow and we will hope to be able to rent a car at a reasonable price to get to the Space Center. The weather is still very pleasant, light winds, warm days and pleasantly cool nights. There are some showers forecast for the next few days but nothing which sounds bad.
This morning we got to visit briefly with C-Life and Bella Luna before we got underway from Harbortown. We made a short hop up the Indian River to Titusville where we entered the Titusville Municipal Marina. Soon after we got checked in Muriel and Shelly and I walked into town to look around. Our bimini top has been leaking profusely since I washed it at Marathon so I was looking for something to treat it with for waterproofing. We walked passed a boat canvas shop and stopped in to ask if they had anything or could recommend something. They do not stock anything but they can order a waterproofing liquid which is formulated for Sunbrella. They said “do not use Scotchgard because it will cause Sunbrella to turn yellow.” Sure glad we stopped there because Scotchgard is one product I was looking for. We ordered some of his product which should get here tomorrow.
We will pick-up a car in a few minutes so that we can tour the Space Center tomorrow morning and back track to Cocoa which we missed on the way here. As we walked back into the marina we got to watch several manatee browsing right along the seawall.
Well….we enjoyed the Space Center and we got there as it was opening for visitors but by the time we got back to the visitor’s center it was too late to view some of the movies we had wanted to see and we had to get back to turn in the rented car. It was a beautiful day for our visit, sunny and not hot. We plan to get under fairly early tomorrow, Thursday, and get on up to Daytona so that Blue Max can meet-up with their friends there. We will spend the weekend there and then move on up to St Augustine and Jacksonville where we intend to turn back south into the St John’s River.
The waterproofing arrived today so we will probably get to treat the bimini while we are docked at Daytona.
We got away from Titusville about 8:00 with a pretty heavy looking shower moving across our path to the north of us. It had mostly cleared out, moving to the northwest, before we got there. We had good weather the rest of the way to Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona. We will stay here through the weekend while Blue Max visits with a good friend. Golden Lily is here and Goin’there is here in town so we will get to visit with them again. This is a very nice facility in every way. I have already selected the spot where I will be able to spread out our bimini to treat it with waterproofing.
Golden Lilly was here to help with docking when we arrived at Halifax Harbor. After a short visit we agreed to go to dinner later. Jim drive us down to Ponce Inlet to an early bird special he knew of there. It was a fun time.
We got to meet Blue Max’s friend before they left for the weekend. He is a fellow they know from home. He was born in Ireland and after living here in the states for most of his life he returned to the town in Ireland where he was born and became mayor of the town. He has now returned to the states to live and has a home here in Daytona. On Friday morning the girls went to the beach with Barbara from Golden Lily and I removed the bimini and laid it out on top of a poly sheet on the side walk and treated it and had it back on by the time they returned. Greg from Gon-Cruzin stopped by just in time to give a hand with getting it back on the frame.
On Saturday morning we walked to the farmer’s market a few blocks up the road. Muriel bought an assortment of fresh veggies so we will be having good vegetables for a while. We met Golden Lily at the market and they invited us to ride to the beach with them after noon. Muriel and Shelly went with them but I stayed on the boat and changed the oil in the port transmission again. It continues to have a dark color which I think is due to excessive wear in the discs. When they returned Jim, Bill and Shelly and I went in their car to the Harley shop so Shelly could look for a shirt. She could not find anything she could afford so we rode on out to look at the Daytona Speedway. It is quite large but not as impressive to me as the Charlotte Speedway.
Today, Sunday, Muriel is doing laundry and we intend to get back over to the beach again this afternoon. We intend to leave here Monday and head on up toward St. Augustine.

Melbourne

2009-03-15T20:45:00.003-04:00

We got a late start from Ft Pierce today. We even asked if we could stay another night but they did not have space for us so after visiting with a woman on a sailboat which had Leawood, Ks. on its transom we found that she graduated one year behind us from the same high school. We also met another looper boat we had not encountered previously.
After much discussion as to our destination we departed headed for Melbourne and then I altered that to anchor Friday night and then go on to Melbourne for Saturday and Sunday nights. This is a nice anchorage and Shelly caught at least 12 fish this afternoon, several of which were keeper size but I released them rather than clean them. We still had fresh fish for dinner tonight. It was Mackerel that a group on a charter fishing boat caught yesterday and gave us some for taking their pictures together with their fish. They had caught their limit. Muriel learned a method of preparing fish from another looper at Marathon. We really like fish this way.
We spent a nice night at anchor and woke up to a cloudy morning. We took our time getting started and got some rain showers as we were getting under way. It was a very calm morning with some showers scattered in. It was nice to see how many people were using the small islands scattered along the waterway. We arrived at Melbourne about 12:30 and got settled into a slip quickly. We left the boats soon after we were checked in and walked the few blocks to the downtown area. There was an Irish parade which had just concluded but everything was in a festive atmosphere to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The town was full of people wearing all kinds of green and drinking green beer. We intended to eat corned beef and cabbage at O’Malley’s but the wait was so long we decided on another place and maybe we will return to O’Malley’s tomorrow.
On Sunday morning we did laundry and worked about the boats. Muriel and I took a walk out on to the bridge to scout out locations for viewing the space shuttle launch. After some drinks we walked into downtown again to O’Malley’s to get some corned beef and cabbage. It was very good and the bread pudding was even better. Soon after we got back to the boats it was time to walk out to the bridge to view the shuttle.
The shuttle lift off was awesome even from this distance. We estimated it would take three minutes to hear the sound and that was pretty accurate. We watched as the boosters separated and began to descend and then watched the shuttle engines burn until they went out of sight in the haze near the horizon.
We will leave here in the morning and take about a week to get to Daytona where we will spend the weekend while Blue Max visits with some friends.

2009-03-12T20:54:00.007-04:00

The first photo is not the one I intended to load here. It must be a bridge in the Miami area. The next photo is one of the many mansions which line the waterway from Miami to Palm Beach. The third photo is another house with the huge yacht out front. The fourth photo is Rick and Cynthia and us at their house. The last photo is one of the prettiest draw bridge structures we have seen.

We got away from Crandon Park a little later than anticipated. We were slow getting biscuits made and then we had to get our key deposit back and Shelly went over to buy bait. We got underway about 8:00. As we passed into Miami C-Life called on the radio. They were just leaving the anchorage at Marina Stadium and caught up at the first bridge which we had to have opened for passage. This was a different stretch of water from any other we have cruised. Most of the way was lined with high rise condos and beautiful homes. We passed through most of what is considered the canyon because the waterway is lined on both sides by concrete walls. We encountered very little traffic most of the way but it is easy to see how the wakes ricochet off the walls and keep the water very churned up. We had pretty good luck with timing on the bridges which we had to have opened and made our anchorage at Boca Raton Lake by about 3:30. Shelly got to fish for a while and caught several small fish, (I do not know salt water fish well enough to even guess what they were). On Tuesday morning we will get a leisurely start and get on up to Singer Island by mid-afternoon.
After our “leisurely” cruise up to Palm Beach from Boca Raton Lake, we had a lot more traffic today and a lot more big wakes to deal with, we arrived at Riviera Municipal Marina at dead low tide. There was plenty of water under us but we were so low relative to the fixed docks that it took us most of a hour to get tied into our slips. Then the challenge was to get off the boat. Rick came to pick us up to go to their house for dinner about 5:00. We had a wonderful visit with them and of course, Cynthia had prepared a great dinner. It was great to visit with them both and share our adventures of the past months. They spent the summer in the Bahamas and had shared some experiences with Jeff and Anne. They had also cruised down to Key West for a festival in the fall.
Rick and Cynthia came to the marina and picked us up about mid-morning and by the time we chatted a bit we did not get away from the boats until nearly noon so we made our first stop the Brass Ring for lunch. Then on to the Super WalMart for a shopping fix. By the time we got back to the marina it was way too late to depart today, 5:00, so we will stay again tonight and leave on Thursday morning.
We finally got away from the marina about 9:15 this morning. We had planned to make several short days coming up the coast but since they delayed the space shuttle shot to Sunday we decided to try to make better time up the coast to get a better look at the launch. We made it to Fort Pierce today and called it quits and pulled into the City Marina. We are quite impressed with the facilities and the town here. After we got checked in we stopped at the tiki in the marina for a beer and someone walked up and grabbed my arm. It was Jim and Sue from our marina in Wilmington. They are here on their boat and have just bought a house here, really in Vero Beach. It was neat to see them. “It really is a small world.”

Key Biscayne to Palm Beach

2009-03-11T21:43:00.005-04:00

The first photo is our view of Maimi from Biscayne Bay hear Boca Chita Key. The second photo is Shelly in the very clear water at Boca Chits doing her favorite thing, shelling. The third is

our two boats on the wall in Boca Chita harbor. The fourth photo is the light house at Boca Chita, this is the approach to the harbor. The last photo is the view of the waterway leaving the Anchorage Resort Marina where we stayed on Key Largo.

Pictures

2009-03-02T11:10:00.006-05:00

The first picture is a group of boaters enjoying a pot luck dinner at the Sombrero Dockside Marina where we stayed in Marathon. The second photo is Muriel standing on Highway 1 near the seven mile bridge.

We got away from Marathon just before Marathon owned us. We all enjoyed our time there but it was time to move on to another place. We are on a mooring ball about 35 miles up the keys from Marathon at Lignumvitae Key. Shelly had already caught 9 small fish so she is enjoying it. It was a pleasant night. We got underway about 7:30 and had a pretty run on to the Anchorage Resort and Yacht Club near Key Largo. It is a nice facility and the grill next door had a pig picking dinner Saturday evening. We enjoyed the meal with Blue Max.
Sunday’s forecast is for increasing winds with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon so I guess we will stay put today.
Bill and I walked across the new bridge to get Key Largo in hopes of seeing the boat from African Queen. After we crossed the bridge we figured out that the address was still 6 miles down the road. So we got a couple of hot dogs and walked back to the boat. Soon after we got back it began to rain, good to be back and good to be in the dock. We decided to wait out the winds again on Monday so we messed about on the boats with small chores and then had a shuffle board challenge after lunch. Bill and Eileen were too much for us, they beat us soundly several times before we had enough sense to call it quits.
We finally got to moving on Tuesday morning and even though the winds were forecast to be stronger than we would have liked but the bays were very nice for cruising. We arrived at Boca Chita Key early in the afternoon and immediately fell in love with the place. It is what we expected all the keys to be like. It is isolated, and during the week it was only lightly used. We did meet some other cruisers in the small harbor and a looper, Foreign Exchange, came in on the second day we were there. It was so beautiful we spent two nights. The island was owned by the Honeywell family in the 1930’s and they built most of what is on the island today. We got to climb up in the small light house they built on the island and a caretaker who lives on the island during the winter was very nice about telling us the history of the island. On our second day we took the dingy and Bill, Shelly and Muriel and I went out to snorkel and we took Bill’s viewing bucket. The bucket worked so well we decided not to get into the cold water to snorkel, (it was 62 degrees). We observed some lobsters and sponge, along with part of an old wreck and a lot of interesting bottom-scape. We also rode the dingy further up along the keys to see a house on a small key. That evening we built a fire in one of the grills on shore and cooked dinner together. Later we taught Bill and Eileen to play Spite, a simple card game we have played for years. On Thursday morning the winds were still blowing out of the east pretty strongly but we watched a couple of other boats leave and decided to go on. We had a pleasant cruise on up the Dinner Key Marina at Coconut Grove, just below Miami. Jeff drove over and met us at the marina shortly after we got settled. He took us around Miami and out to South Beach. The girls enjoyed that! There is a Fresh Market just around the corner from the marina so we stopped in the marina’s pub for some beer and then bought things for dinner at the Fresh Market. Muriel served a great dinner.
It was about 2:00 when we got away from Dinner Key Marina. We encountered quite a bit of traffic crossing the bay to Crandon Park Marina. First we had to stop and wait for a sailing regatta to clear our course and then they rounded a mark and headed back toward our course. Next we had to change course to avoid a barge tow and then there were several pleasure boats on conflicting courses with ours. This seemed like a lot of traffic for such a short run. Crandon Park Marina is has very nice docks but the facilities are still undergoing a renovation so there are no showers and the toilet facilities are shared with a heavily used public boat launching area.
On Saturday Shelly and I walked about 1 ½ miles down Key Biscayne to the Crandon Park beach area. Shelly enjoyed looking for shells she can use for her necklaces. I enjoyed watching and visiting with a very active kite boarding group. There were as many as 30 kites in the air at one time with as many more on the beach. On the walk back to the boat we took a wrong turn along the trails and ended up at a dead end at the inlet just north of the marina. We had to back track which added to our walk when we were both ready to be back at the boat. Muriel spent the time while we were walking to clean the boat. When I returned we washed some more windows and then pulled the rug off the sundeck and washed it on the dock. It dried slowly in the sun on the concrete dock and we put it back on board before dark. It was drier this morning than we expected.
We have decided to get underway fairly early on Monday, daylight savings time started last night, and run to somewhere north of Ft Lauderdale. We hope to be up to the Singer Island area by Tuesday evening. We have talked to Rick Drum, a friend from Bay State Milling. We both retired from Bay State last spring. We hope to get to visit with Rick and his wife while we are there.

Our Last Days at Marathon

2009-02-27T15:41:00.003-05:00

Bob and Trish from PogoPelli took us out to locate some geocaches. This is new to us, people hide small containers with a log book and several trinkets inside and then list the lat-lon on a web site and others try to locate the cache and sign the log book and if they like one of the trinkets the will exchange for something they have. It was fun to search for them using a hand held GPS to get close. Both beaches were worth the visit just for the beach. The first one in near the end of Cocoa Plum Road. It is a nice beach where local people gather to let their dogs run on the beach and in the water. We have been there twice now and many of the same people were there both times. The second beach is in a residential neighborhood at Key Colony. It overlooks the water to the west so it would have beautiful sunsets. We may have to try it one evening.
Over the past few days we have spent some time each day working and cleaning on the boat. It is amazing how much cleaning a boat requires. Last night Robert and Kay from C-Life had just returned to their boat after driving to NC and back to attend a funeral. They brought back a bag of oysters from NC. Which they shared with many of us on the dock. It was a good time.
Today is Valentines Day. We will probably go out for dinner somewhere near the marina….We ended up going to No Name Pub over on Big Pine Key. It is a place similar to Cabbage Key “Hamburger In Paradise.” We saw two of the Key Deer, one was an eight point buck but not much larger than a large dog. They were not at all afraid of people because they have been protected for many years. During the afternoon we took the dingy and toured the harbor here at Boot Key and stuck our nose out into the gulf waters.
On Sunday we worked on cleaning the boat some more. The bimini was beginning to get some mold on the under side so we selected a mold and mildew treatment and set about to wash it. When I started to wash the seam split wide open so now we have to get the top restitched. On Monday morning I contacted a woman who had a card posted on the board at the marina. She will come by on Tuesday to look at it and give an estimate.
The woman looked over our bimini and agreed that the sunbrella is in good condition so she will restitch the entire top for us.
On Tuesday evening Muriel prepared jumbulia and we had Dave and Poly from the boat next to us and Bob and Trish from CocoPelli for dinner. It was fun.
Wednesday we worked around the boat some more. Muriel made some bread from a starter dough she had gotten from Margie on Wandern L&M. The bread is very good. I used some compound and the buffer on the front of the flybridge cowling and I intend to wax and buff it on Thursday. Wednesday was Muriel’s birthday so we went out for dinner to a nice restaurant at Key Colony where they have an early bird special. Muriel got a good laugh about going out for the early bird special on her birthday. We went with Blue Max and Greg and Barbara from Goncruzin. They arrived here about a week ago from Maryland. They will head north about the middle of March to do the loop.
The woman called late yesterday to say she would not have time to restitch the entire top but she did agree to restitch the part which split out.
I have gotten sorry just hanging around here. I have lost track of blogging. One day last week we went out with Greg and Barbara on GonCruzin to the Sombrero Reef to snorkel. When we got out to the reef we decided the water was so rough that is would be too difficult to get back on the boat after we were in the water so we returned to the dock and took the car down to Bahia Honda State Park and played around the beach there and snorkeling there a little.
booth at a boat equipment flea market for a friend who makes all sorts of tote bags from old sails. We went to the market on Saturday morning with Blue Max and Wander’n L&M. We enjoyed the show and make several purchases.
On Saturday evening we went over to the City Marina where several boaters gathered to share their music. This group picks and sings just about every week. We had a good time listening and visiting with the hand full of folks there. Sunday was the monthly pig roast at the grill here at the marina. We went with a group of loopers. The entertainer was one of the guys from Saturday day night.
On Monday the woman picked up our bimini at 9:00 to restitch it. She said she would have it back by lunch but it was late afternoon by the time she got it back. I was a little concerned about how difficult it would be to get it back on. I had market the pieces and their location on the bows. It was no problem to get it back on.
Our month of slip rent will expire on Wednesday so we will be on the move again if the winds let up enough to allow it. We are ready to move again, however, we have not done everything we intended while here. Muriel and Shelly may get back to Key West today. I will have to stay here because we have a diver coming to replace zincs on the bottom of the boat and clean the bottom. We have collected a lot of bottom growth by sitting here a month after setting in Everglades City for a month.
Bennie came and cleaned the bottom and replaced our zincs and I got some more waxing done. Then I rode the bicycle into town and found a man to come to the boat and check our house batteries. He reports that both batteries have lost about 40% of their capacity. He does not have replacements on hand and cannot get them before we leave. We can get by for a while.
There was a large pot-luck dinner on the dock last night. Quite a crowd showed up and it was fun visiting with everyone. Les and Judy from Voyager II came walking down the dock yesterday afternoon. I certainly did not expect to see them here. They completed their loop at Hudson, Fl. way up on the west coast of Florida. They said they hauled Voyager II and cleaned her bottom and got all the work done and then sat at home for about two months and said, “Why sit here, let’s go.” So they took off and intend to do the “down east loop” this summer. They are at a different marina but we invited them and they came over for the dinner. They had done quite a bit of work varnishing exterior wood while we were together up in the rivers but they say Voyager II looks still better now.
We took the dingy down to Burdine’s hoping to meet Les and Judy from Voyager II and eat lunch. They were gone but we ate lunch there. We did enjoy the dingy ride through the harbor and back. Yesterday was a busy day. We were in preparation mode, getting ready to leave Marathon after a month’s stay. I decided at the last minute to go ahead and put in two new batteries for the house batteries. I had not even completely finished that when Muriel found that the galley sink was leaking. It had a small hole in the bottom of the sink. I was able to seal it up with some J-B Weld. The last of the grocery shopping is done and we think we are ready to get underway, at last. It looks like the weather will co-operate for at least a couple of days. Double Trouble X 2 arrived yesterday. We first met them at the rendezvous in Charleston last spring and again in Chicago and at Joe Wheeler last fall. They started the loop from Demopolis, Al in December. We got to visit with them last night and we hope to see more of them along the way. We plan to get underway about 9:00 this morning.
Well, we got away from the dock at about 8:30 after farewells to new friends and old ones. It was a bit on the windy side but the direction of the wind made our travel up the inside of the keys OK. We arrived at Lignumvitae Key about 2:15 pm and picked up a mooring ball. This is the first time we have done this and Muriel did an excellent job of hooking the line and getting us secured.
I have tryed three times to get pictures loaded onto this blog and I have lost them each time. So.....no pictures this time.

Posting to get photos

2009-02-16T10:12:00.004-05:00

The first photo is Shelly at Key West with a large Pithon snake around her neck. The next photo is some of the chickens which roam the streets of Key West. The next photo is a looper gathering which was held just a couple of days after we arrived here. The last two photos are a small park and beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key. We take the dingy from the boat through a small channel to the beach, that is our dingy on the beach in the last photo.

I have finally learned to reduce the resolution of photos so that I can get them onto the blog, I think.

Marathon Days

2009-02-08T15:40:00.004-05:00

It would have been fun to have hung on the hook another day at Cudjoe Key but the forecast was changed this morning, calling for increased winds on Tuesday and we did not want to ride out a weather front there and we did not want to travel on into Marathon in 25 knot winds so we came on in today. We had some wind and waves but nothing bad and it settled some when we had to turn our beam to the waves so we had another very nice day. Marathon is like nowhere else we have been. This is without a doubt the most boater friendly place we have seen. We have still not decided how long we will stay. We will soon have to commit to a weekly or monthly rate.
We learned this morning that it will cost less for a month than for two weeks than for a month so we have signed in for a month. We walked around to see what is within easy walking distance. There is a Publix, Super K-Mart, Boater’s World, Wendy’s, a Home Depot, and various other small shops. We enjoyed 5:00 on the dock with several other boats and helped C-life get docked while Bella Luna was docking farther down the line.
On Wednesday I got the bikes off the boat and oiled them up but Muriel was reluctant to ride with her bad knee so I went for a ride by myself. I rode around in a residential area adjacent to the marina and then up and down highway 1. By the time I got back to the boat I had ridden about eight miles according to the odometer on the bike. After lunch we got the dingy down and went out to see some of the sights by water. We went out through a small channel to the ocean and stopped at a beach to walk around a little. We also stopped by to chat a little with PogoPelli, a sailboat we bet in Everglades City.
Thursday we messed about the boat in the morning and went out in the dingy in the afternoon to explore a little more and then walk on the beach again. Bill and Eileen found out that her nephew manages the country club across the street from the marina. Bill had been wanting to play golf and now he has a way to get on the course. We met him and he is a very nice guy and quite active around the community. I rode over to the hospital to see if it would be practicable for us to dingy to the city dock and walk to the hospital. The woman in the emergency room told be to remove the stitches myself and when I explained that they were not visible from the surface she gave me the name of a local doctor to call. Turns out that Josh, the nephew, knows the doctor and said that if Muriel has any problem getting an appointment let him know and he will contact the Dr.
While I was riding in that part of town I stopped at the inflatable boat shop and bought some glue to re-glue an attachment for the dingy davit stiff arm. One is coming loose. I also purchased a hydrofoil for the dingy motor to help get the dingy on plane quicker and with more load.
It is quite warm here again today. Someone said the high in Miami yesterday set a record for the date. The wind is beginning to pickup and a cold front should move through tonight. Highs will be reduced to the seventies instead the eighties.
Boy! The wind blew last night. Muriel and I were up between 12 and 1:00am to get the dingy back up because it was rattling so badly I could not sleep. Then about 3:30 I was back up to tighten the stern lines. This morning was cold and windy, but sunny. Bill and I went out to pickup a rent car he had arranged. He had arranged for an Impala size car and we ended up with a van because that was he had to offer. This makes very comfortable riding for the five of us. Bill has really scored since we came here to Marathon! We rode down the Keys a ways toward Key West and turned around thinking that we would wait for a warmer day to go there. We missed the farmer’s market and just caught the tail end of the flea market at the City Marina. Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. We plan to go to a club on the island where Eileen’s nephew will be doing a talk show and then back to either the boat or to the Grill for the game.
On Super Bowl Sunday we went for a ride around the local area to see some of the close-by Keys. This area is quite different from anywhere else we have been, maybe more laid back. We ended up at the bar where Josh was doing the live pre-game radio show. He had a table reserved for us, it felt like we were special! They had a lot of gifts for contestants for giving three out of five correct answers to Super Bowl trivia questions. The first thing we knew, Shelly was up there with the microphone to answer questions. With the help from the audience, she got the correct answers and won a tee shirt, which was what she wanted. After too many appetitizers and several pitchers of beer we had Eileen drive us back to the marina where we watched the game on Blue Max and cooked hot dogs with them.
On Monday we got Muriel’s stitches out and ran errands around the area. At 5:00 all the loopers in the area gathered at the Marathon City Marina for munchies and drinks to socialize and get a picture of the group. There were 64 people representing 30 odd boats. Everyone was surprised at the large number of people. Some had finished the loop several years ago and were still spending winters here in Marathon on their boats. Afterward we went to the boat next to us, Ole Salt, a couple who finished the loop several years ago, for dinner along with Bob and Trish from PogoPelli. During dinner we had quite a storm with winds up to 60 miles per hour. Larry from Wanderin L&M said his weather radar showed a possible tornado just outside on the Atlantic side.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to Key West for the day. It is just a pleasant drive, about 46 miles, from here. The weather was quite cool for here, high 60’s, and windy but we still had a good time. We rode a sightseeing train around the Old Town area and then had a late lunch at a Cuban café and walked around the old harbor. By that time it was time for the sunset celebration at Mallory Square. There was also a very large cruise ship just leaving port. That was a sight to see it maneuver away from the pier. We enjoyed some of the performers and then decided it was cold enough to get into the car and head back to Marathon.
On Wednesday we went to the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key. This is where the movie Flipper was made. They have several fenced pools on the Gulf side of the Key where they rehabilitate dolphins and train them to test the intelligence of dolphins. It was quite interesting to see the dolphins interact with the trainers. For a substantial fee visitors can get into the water and touch, ride and kiss the dolphins. It was cool and windy and we got pretty cold before we left the Center.
Thursday was just a laid back day. We hung around the boat most of the day. Bill and I went to get some bottom paint for his dingy and we picked up some more supplies at Home Depot for the shelf I am preparing to build for Shelly. When we returned to the boat we had a horrible odor which I traced to the holding tank being over filled and leaking from the vent line into the bilge. I removed and cleaned the vacuum breaker on the pumpout line and got the level down so that it stopped leaking into the bilge. Another trip to West Marine to get some citrus bilge cleaner and a new vacuum breaker. I also stopped by a shop to request a quote to reupholster the helm seat on the fly bridge. The man will come on Friday to give the estimate. After all that, I never got started on the shelf.
The man never showed up to look at the helm seat and I worked on laying out the shelf and decided the shape was too complicated for me to do a proper job with the tools I have on board here to I will not build it at this time. I will look for some type of wire frame organizer shelf to set in the space.
On Saturday morning we went to a farmer’s marked nearby. He had very nice looking produce so Muriel stocked up. Just down the street from there a garden club was having a sale so naturally Muriel had to wander through their “stuff.” After that we visited an art show (flea market) in the parking lot of a shopping area. Muriel and Shelly enjoyed looking and Shelly bought a tie-died cloth to use as a wall hanging in her room. She has wanted this since we left last May. The weather continues to be cool for here and windy.
Sunday, Muriel got up and did several loads of laundry. This took until past noon, so I took the opportunity to install a new anti-siphon device on the holding tank pump out and check out the engines so we are ready to go when the time comes. Along that line, we will have been here two weeks on Monday and we have paid for two more weeks. We hope this will give us enough time so that we can move slowly up the Florida east coast without getting too far north while it is still cold. After working in the engine room I decided to clean out some storage spaces in our room and ended up washing the inside with a Clorox mixture to prevent any mold or mildew. While I was at it, I pulled our bed apart to check the steering system and rudder post packing. I adjusted the stbd packing and the steering looked fine. Next I washed the floor in the salon and waxed and polished it. It still has many scratches but it looks much better.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, we have some we would love to post here but we have been unable to maintain a good enought connection to get them posted.

Everglades City to Cudjoe Key via Russell Pass & Little Shark River

2009-01-25T20:14:00.003-05:00

We our goodbye’s to everyone present at the NCOBS and left Everglades City about noon on Friday. It was rather sad to leave the place we had enjoyed so much but it was time we moved on. We met Blue Max in the Gulf outside Indian Key at the mouth of the channel into Everglades City and ran back into the channel to anchor in Russell Pass. It was a beautiful evening. Bill and Shelly and I took Blue Max’s dingy and explored the area a little. We got to watch a dolphin playing with a fish it had injured. It played with it like a cat playing with a mouse it had caught. The evening was beautiful with clear skies for the sunset and very light winds.
We had a beautiful night at anchor in Russell Pass and a leisurely start in the morning. Bill had several little items to tend to and we got under way about 9:00. The gulf was beautiful for the 37 mile run to the Little Shark River. This looks like a nice anchorage. There was one sailboat here when we entered and another trawler right behind us. We went in beyond the elbow just inside the river and dropped the hook in the channel in about 12 feet of water. The trawler has a sailboat following in to anchor with him in the elbow. We were all settled by 3:15 and Bill and Shelly are on in Bill’s dingy fishing. Muriel is reading on the foredeck and I do not know where Eileen is. Our intent is to cross Florida Bay to Cudjoe Key tomorrow and anchor there for one or two nights and play around before we venture on to Marathon.
While Bill and Shelly were fishing, no luck by the way, they went over to the other trawler and they are loopers so they invited them over to Blue Max for a visit at 5:00. We had met them at Joe Wheeler State Park but did not recognize them until we began to visit. They started the loop in the Tennessee River this fall. By evening there were at least a dozen boats in the Shark River. We were surprised this morning at the tide range here. The water is down five feet from when we entered the river at near high tide yesterday.
We left the Little Shark River at 9:00 am and made the 40 mile crossing to Cudjoe Key. We worked our way into the Cudjoe Channel and got anchored about 4:00. Bill and Shelly and I took Bill’s dingy over to the nearest key and roamed around the beach a little. The water is 63 degrees, a little cool for enjoyable swimming but not bad for walking. Back on the boats, we took showers on the swim platform and enjoyed the 5:00 hour. We plan to move on to Marathon tomorrow.

Our Stay at Everglades City, & NCOBS

2009-01-23T11:14:00.001-05:00

We have talked for some time now about leaving Everglades City on Monday, January 12, to head on down to the Keys. There is a cold front forecast to move through the area Tuesday with some increased winds and unsettled weather for a few days so we may stay here a little longer. We did run up the Barron River here in Everglades City yesterday and fill up with diesel fuel at a very good price. While there we ate lunch at the City Seafood Market. It was very good. The owner, Richard has a trawler parked at the market and he talked at length about doing the loop. He has owned commercial fishing boats for years but has never cruised for pleasure. We encouraged him to join the AGLCA for information and to meet other loopers and take off. We plan to meet Blue Max today and help them get moved over to Goodland because the rental period on the house ends today. We will get our final shopping done in preparation for leaving.
All that is done but the weather is not favorable to our leaving for a few days. There is a cold front moving through with winds forecast to reach 30 mph with 7 to 13 foot seas out on the gulf. This is off shore but it will create a significant swell inshore which will make travel uncomfortable and preclude our going to Gudjoe Key which is fairly exposed. This morning we had kitchen duty for breakfast and then we helped paddle several canoes over to the national park headquarters where some crews will begin their course. This afternoon we plan to go to dinner with Jeff and Anne.
On Saturday a crew of ninth graders had gotten stranded by extremely low tides and could not get back to the base in time to depart with the rest of their group. Later in the day nine of us left with Jeff on the ferry boat, (pontoon boat), to go out so that they could ride back on the ferry and we paddled the canoes back. On the way out we had problems getting across one shallow bar due to the low tides, they were extra low due to the continued northerly winds blowing the water out of the islands, so we all got off and pushed the ferry. We were in mud about knee deep. I finally lost one of my Crocks so I began to go bare footed. I got several cuts on my feet from oyster shells in the mud. They are sore but they do not seem to be getting infected.
We have lost track of days. We are still at Everglades City waiting on the weather to favor our leaving. Today is Monday, January 19, 2009. The weather forecast this morning shows more cold fronts moving into the area with strong winds and possibly rain. The lows over the next several days may reach the high thirties. That will feel cold. The forecast looks like maybe we will see some good travel weather by Thursday. Another boat which Jeff and Anne met a couple of years ago at an anchorage along the North Carolina coast has been holed up here in Everglades City also. They completed the loop two years ago. They are just cruising the Keys this winter. Jeff invited them to tie-up here at the camp’s docks for a few days until the weather improves. They are traveling on a 23 foot sailboat so there is space for them.
As we prepared to leave the NCOBS to drive into Naples to buy groceries, Muriel went back to the boat to get her shopping bags and she tripped on a line from our boat to the dock and fell hard on the concrete dock. She had a huge bruise on her right wrist and she split her right knee open and was bleeding profusely. Jeff and I checked her and bandaged her knee and I took her to the ER in Naples where she received three stitches in the knee. X-rays showed no problems in her wrist and no foreign material in her knee. She is quite sore this morning and her knee is stiff but she was up at 5:15 to help me make four dozen rolls with sausage rolled inside and three dozen cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we did most of the dishes before returning to the boat.
The weather looks favorable for our departure on Thursday. We had a squall here about 4:30 this morning with heavy rain and strong winds. It is supposed to remain cool today with an overnight low in the high thirties tonight and tomorrow. Highs this weekend in the high seventies. We are ready to get back on the move but we were planning on doing some snorkeling and Muriel will not be able to get her knee wet for a couple of weeks.
Today is Friday, January 23, 2009, and we are going to move at last. We have truly enjoyed our stay with Jeff and Anne and the group here at NCOBS, Everglades. We will miss them and Carlie but it will be good to get on the move again. Blue Max is leaving Goodland right now and we will leave here shortly and meet them at Indian Key which is the mouth of the channel to Everglades City. We will see what time we meet there and decide whether or not we can make Little Shark River in daylight or maybe we will anchor at Russell Pass, just inside of Indian Key. The weather looks good for the next several days so we have no need to hurry.
I am going to post this without pictures so I can get it finished and get on the move.

Time in Everglades City

2009-01-11T07:52:00.005-05:00

The first photo is a picture of the open sailboat which Jeff and two other Outward
Bound people sailed from Everglades City, Fl to Beaufort, NC a few years ago. The second photo is me installing a new door in one of the staff houses on base. The third photo is the group which Blue Max had for dinner on last Friday. The fourth photo is Bill riding the inflatable toy in the pool at the house they had in Marco. The last photo is just some of the group eating dinner at the Outward Bound Base where we have stayed since Christmas.

Another exciting day for Sunshine…we had a leisurely morning and got away about mid-morning to do It was fun to see them and hear about their fishing trip into the ten thousand islands. They did quite well. I needed some supplies to finish the installation of an anchor washdown system and Muriel needed some food on the boat because we plan to leave tomorrow to spend one night at anchor and then go on to Goodland to party a little with Ithaka, Southern Comfort and Blue Max. Then we will return to Everglades City.
We worked on various projects around the NCOBS on Saturday morning. I got the washdown system completed except for the electrical connection. We were a little later than anticipated so we anchored for the night at Camp Lulu Key. This is where we planned to be on New Year’s Eve. It was a pleasant anchorage rafted with C’est Le Vie, Jeff and Anne’s boat. We enjoyed breakfast on Sunday morning and then left to make it to Goodland in time to meet the group. We were the first to arrive! But Blue Max and Southern Comfort were not far behind. It was great to get together again! We were joined by Jeff and Anne and Ed and Tracy. We walked from Chip and Michele’s cottage over to Stan’s, a local Sunday afternoon party happening. I call it a happening because that is what it is. We all had good laughs and then went back to Chip and Michele’s for hamburgers and hot dogs. What a great time, visiting and sharing remembrances of this past summer. Shelly had spent the night at the cottage on Saturday night with Chip and Michele and Chip and Shelly did quite well fishing from Chip’s pier. Naturally Bill had to try his luck on Sunday and as usual without any success. He and I have the same fishing luck.
We, Sunshine and C’est Le Vie, spent Sunday night at Chip and Michele’s pier and left Monday morning after breakfast. C’est Le Vie went straight back to NCOBS. Sunshine stopped for a while at Panther Key and spent some time on the beach before continuing on to NCOBS. Muriel and I got the boat washed and then I finished the electrical connection of the washdown pump while Muriel helped Anne in the kitchen.
Shelly lost the cap off her front tooth last night so Muriel has an appointment at 9:00 tomorrow morning in Naples to get it fixed. We ended up spending the entire day in Naples. The dentist did an excellent job on Shelly’s tooth then we went for lunch and spent the afternoon running errands and collecting needed items. Then in the evening after we had returned to NCOBS and eaten dinner, Muriel dropped her glasses and the frame broke. So in the morning it was back to Naples to a Vision Care Center to get new frames. Luckily they were able to fit the lenses into new frames. Then we met Bill and Eileen for lunch. After lunch we did a little more shopping and got back to NCOBS just before dinner.
On Thursday I spent the entire day removing an old door and installing a new door in one of the staff buildings. There are three crews on base tonight for their final day. Anne will feed 96 people tonight. Muriel helped today by making five 9x13 inch chocolate cakes. We still have to figure out how we are going to refuel before we head south to the Keys. It is still comfortable staying here and working on base but Blue Max will have to move to somewhere on Monday. We are going to eat dinner with them on Friday night so we will decide then what we will be doing.
Friday morning we messed around on the boat and then I set out around town to try to find someone who would sell me some diesel fuel. I located a man who agreed to sell me some of his fuel. No one in town sells fuel on the water any more so most of the crabbers have their own fuel tanks at their docks. Most of them will not sell any fuel. Dinner on Friday night was a lot of fun. Eileen and Bill prepared a lovely meal for nine of us, Blue Max, Ithaka, Sunshine, and Golden Lily. Jim and Barbara drove down from Punta Gorda where they are staying until the end of February. We spent the night with Blue Max in the house their daughter and her husband had rented for the holidays. Saturday morning was fun, we all went out for breakfast and then Bill, Shelly, and Muriel enjoyed a swim in the pool. We finally left and returned to Everglades City. There were a lot of people here last night and Anne had her hands full preparing food for the group. She had worked hard all day getting food ready for some crews who are departing on Sunday and Monday. As usual, she pulled through with another excellent dinner.
We have to get some shopping done on Sunday so we can leave on Monday. The tides may be a bit awkward for us to be departing on Monday morning. I have to take another look at that situation. We plan to backtrack to Marco to reunite with Blue Max and anchor at Keewaydin Key just north of Marco. From there we will head south to anchor a few nights in the Ten Thousand Islands and then on down to Cudjoe Key to start working our way up through the Keys.

Christmas at Everglades City

2009-01-01T10:21:00.006-05:00

The first photo is Muriel and Scooter, a staff member, working on Christmas dinner. The next two are sunsets from the island. The fourth photo is the Christmas gift exchange at the Camp. The last photo is our family Christmas on the boat.

These are additional photos from the Christmas in Everglades City.

Naples to Marco & Christmas and on to Everglades City

2009-01-01T09:54:00.006-05:00

The first photo is the Everglades base from out boat as we arrived on Christmas day. The second photo is the Lovetts on Christmas day at the house the Maxwells daughter, Tracy and her husband, Ed, had rented in Marco. Anne and Shelly drove back to Everglades City and Muriel and Jeff and I brought the boat down. The third photo is Lovetts, Maxwells and Tracy and Ed on the patio of the house. The fourth photo is Shelly and Bill having Christmas on our boat. The last photo is Chip from Ithaka, one of our baoting companions from the summer in Canada

Bill and Eileen prepared a wonderful meal for Christmas Eve. Jeff arrived shortly before dinner so he ate dinner with us. Anne was unable to get away from the camp so Jeff went back and they will come together Christmas morning and Jeff will ride down to Everglades City with us. It was quite relaxing to sit and visit before and after dinner.
Shelly was up on Christmas morning before Muriel and I. When she turned to leave our room she said “What is wrong with Bill’s boat, it is leaning way over.” I got up to see and sure enough, Blue Max was heel ed way over to port. We jumped outside to see what was going on and realized that the tide was very low and Blue Max was hard aground. Bill said it did not do that yesterday, but he moved forward yesterday before we came in to make space for us. We might be lightly on the bottom but we are still level.
Jeff and Anne showed up about 9:00 and we got underway about 10:30. The tide was rising as we went through the Marco River and out past Coon Key. This was the perfect time to pass the shallow waters in this area as they were rising. We went right through without even bumping the bottom. We arrived in Everglades City at the camp at mid-afternoon in time to help with preparation of the Christmas dinner. We had turkey, ham, squash, mashed potatoes, gravy, snap peas, and key lime or pumpkin pie for dessert. Afterward everyone participated in a gift swap.
This morning, Dec 26, we are working on projects around camp. Shelly is anxious to get her Florida fishing license so I will go on line shortly and get that done for her.
I got Shelly’s license for her so now she is using her new pink Lady Shakespeare fishing rig. Yesterday, Saturday, Jeff and I drove over to Ft Lauderdale to shop for items for our boats. I got an anchor wash down pump for Muriel. She hates using the brush we have and a bucket to clean the anchor rode and anchor. Today, Sunday, we went for a late breakfast with a friend who lives on Chokoloskee Island right here in the bay out from Everglades City. We had a nice visit and then returned to the base to work on several projects. Right now Muriel is helping Anne prepare dinner to earn her keep.
Monday Jeff and I worked on several projects around the site. We repaired a dock which was damaged by the hurricane this fall. We re-piped a water heater which was leaking and we put down new ceramic tile in one of the living spaces for staff. We are still working on the floor on Tuesday. It is all done now except for a little grouting. We had to make a run into Naples today to get some more adhesive for the floor so while there I bought a wash down pump for the boat. I will try to get the installation done before we leave here. Muriel bought new boat cushions and a new fender to match the one we lost up around Steinhatchee. She also got some herbs and a planter so she can have fresh herbs on the boat.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, we plan to get out about noon and go to a small island a little north from here called Lulu for the same new year’s eve party we attended down here last year. It was a lot of fun last year and we hope it will be as good this year. We have been working hard during the day but relaxing in the evenings. It will be hard to decide to leave such a relaxing place.
The New Year’s Eve at Lulu did not happen for us, Jeff had an emergency with a student in the field which required his presents at the base so we all decided to spend the eve there together. As it happened, we went across the river, all of us in a 27 foot canoe intended for 12 people, and rang in the new year with some people Jeff and Anne have come to know here. We may get out to Lulu on new year’s day for a while.

This post is for pictures.

2008-12-24T15:22:00.005-05:00

This is the fog looking down the trans Florida Canal the morning after we anchored there. The second photo shows how cold Muriel got, she put on a KU sweatshirt. The following photos show how clear it can be out on the Gulf and how foggy is was at times. The boats are about the same distance from us.

Muriel has been wanting me to include some of her pictures of the fog we delt with. This blog entry is primarily to get some more pictures on the blog.

Tarpon Springs to Marco Is, via Manatee River, Naples & others

2008-12-24T15:08:00.004-05:00

Something went wrong with the selection of pictures. The second photo is some of the development we began to encounter along the waterway as we moved south of the "forgotten coast of the panhandle and the northern gulf coast of Florida. The third photo is some of the contrast along the same part of the waterway. The last photo is a daulphin jumping and flipping along side our boat. It seemed that when Carlie barked and Shelly and Muriel clapped and laughed the daulphins would continue to play and run with us. Sometimes for 10 to 15 minutes.

We were a little slow getting out of Tarpon Springs this morning because we were uncertain of our destination. We knew we had several draw bridges and a lot of no wake zones to deal with. Some local advice in Tarpon Springs indicated that we would not be able to make it across Tampa Bay in day light. Bill and I met this morning and selected three possible anchorages from which we would choose as we learned during the day how we would progress. We never had to stop for a bridge. The only bridge which we needed opened was listed as a 25 foot clearance which we can make but as we approached I thought It looks low and the gage at the bridge indicated only 17 feet clearance. I stopped and backed away and as I did the bridge began to open for a sailboat going the other direction. We decided to continue on and cross Tampa Bay. We got to our anchorage on the south of the bay in the Manatee River near Bradenton about 3:30. We talked briefly about calling Guy and Peggy because we are so close but they were having a party for their neighbors tonight so we dropped that idea. We hate to be so close and not get together with them. Bill and Shelly and I dingyed ashore with Carlie and while Shelly searched for shells Bill and I walked Carlie through the Desoto Monument Park. It is very nice and includes trails with displays of Desoto and his explorations around the southern area of what is now the US. We decided we need to slow down again after Christmas and begin to enjoy our surroundings more than we have since we started down the rivers.
It looks now like we will be in Ft Meyers on Sunday evening. This will leave a one day trip on the outside down the Gulf coast to Marco Island where Bill and Eileen will spend Christmas with some of their family. We will continue on to Everglades City but the weather looks questionable for the outside travel after Sunday. We will see how it goes.
We got a slow start this morning. It was so foggy when I took Carlie ashore that I thought I might have trouble finding the boat again. We just headed out into the fog and were able to find the boat by guiding on a piling out In the little bay we were in and then on to the boat. Bill had a problem with a bilge pump so he worked on that while we waited for the fog to lift. We finally got under way about 8:00 in some fog and it filled back in worse than before about the time we turned out of Tampa Bay into the waterway. It got kind of dicey when we were running a channel only a few yards from shore and the fog was to dense to see the next markers. It finally cleared and we enjoyed another beautiful day cruising down the waterway and enjoying the sights. Some mansions and in some places mangrove islands which seemed like there should not be any development anywhere near. We arrived at an anchorage about 36 miles north of Ft Meyers late in the afternoon and quickly got the dingy down and Bill, Shelly and Carlie and I went about a mile back up the waterway about a mile and entered a state park through a narrow channel through the mangroves. The park has a small dock where we were able to tie the dingy and get ashore to walk Carlie while we enjoyed the paths and the beach. We got back to the boats about dark. We are discussing whether to get a slip at Ft Meyers or try to get on down to Naples tomorrow. We will see how quickly we get away in the morning and see what we can find for marina slips.
We got away from the anchorage about 7:15 and started south. Before long we realized we could make Naples by mid afternoon and with good seas so we talked with Chip, who lives in Naples, and got the phone number for the Naples City Dock. We had another beautiful trip down the waterway to Ft Meyers Beach and then outside for about 27 miles to Naples. We were in and secured before 3:30. Chip and Michelle invited us to their house for pizza and beer. They have Chip’s family visiting for Christmas so they had a house full of people. It was great to see them again and relive some of the good times from last summer. We hope we can get together with the four boats, Ithaka, Southern Comfort, Blue Max and us, before we leave this area. Guy and Peggy are gone to Texas for Christmas but will return before New Years so we might work it out.
Anne was able to come to Naples and join us at Chip and Michelle’s. We were happy to have her meet them. We have hoped to get them to meet since Anne often shops here in Naples. When we talked to Anne earlier in the day she asked if she might take Carlie home with her if she got to come here. I told her she could not take Carlie until she crossed her wake at Everglades City. Anne said Carlie had crossed her wake at Ft Meyers so she has completed the loop. She went home with Anne last night. Seems strange getting up this morning without Carlie and no one to take out for a walk. Carlie was very excited to see Anne last night.
We are undecided at this point whether to move on today or stay here for a couple of days. The weather is best to move today but our destination is so uncertain in Everglades City.
Well,… Michele called this morning to offer her car since she would be in the office all day so we decided to stay and do some shopping and we drove down to Marco so Bill could see where he had to go with the boat to get to the house which Tracy and Ed, their daughter and son-in-law had rented. It works great for Bill, it is very near the waterway and has a great dock for their boat. After we returned to Naples we did some Christmas shopping and then went out for a great dinner.
Today, Tuesday, we got a good start and I got a shower and got the boat rinsed down and then left at 9:00 with Blue Max to help them get into the dock at the house. It was fun to meet some of their family because when you spend so much time together you begin to feel that you should know some of their family members. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the house with them and then left to return to Naples. This afternoon Muriel and I walked around old downtown Naples and tonight we are going to eat with Chip and Michele.
We are still uncertain whether we will move on down to Everglades City on Wednesday or wait until Thursday. Jeff has to work until after Christmas so we may stay put here until we can spend some time with Anne and him.
Wednesday…Muriel started to do some laundry and we talked about where we would go for church on Christmas Eve. Eileen called and said they wanted us to come on down to the house on Marco so we agreed and when Muriel finished the laundry she had started we prepared to leave. By the time we had the lines in and ready to cast off the wind was so strong on our beam that I told Muriel I was not going to try to maneuver out of the slip so we waited about an hour and the wind died enough to allow us to get out of the slip so we headed on down to Marco. It was about two hour run with most of it on the outside. The Gulf was good to us again. We had a pleasant ride in 1 to 2 foot seas on our bow. Muriel and Shelly have gone with Tracy and Eileen to do some last minute shopping, grocery and Christmas. This is going to be a very nice place to relax. Jeff and Anne plan to come either tonight or in the morning.

Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs via Steinhatchee and Canal Anchorage

2008-12-19T19:27:00.004-05:00

The first photo is the view as we entered Tarpon Springs. It is just packed with working commercial fishing boats. The next photo is our view of the sunset from the Trans-Florida barge canal. The third photo is one of the "Florida looking" islands as we entered the canal. The fourth photo is what the sky looked like most of the way down the "forgotten coast" of Florida. The clouds seemed to be supported on columns of white and the shoreline was obscured by the haze. The fifth photo is Shelly being comforted by Muriel while Shelly was a little sea sick on the crossing from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008, we finally got to cross the gulf to Steinhatchee. After 10 days in Carrabelle waiting for good weather for our crossing we were more than ready to get back to traveling. We enjoyed Carrabelle be we need to get on the way to Everglades City to see Jeff and Anne. We were up at 4:45 and on the water at 5:30. We have never traveled in darkness but we were able to follow our track back out as far as the pass out into the Gulf. We left early to allow plenty of light to get into Steinhatchee and to try to get out of the channel and into the Gulf before the fog set in. We made that but we did encounter some fog on the Gulf, not bad enough to cause concern but enough to make it interesting. The water was clam because the winds were light today but it still had quite a roll to it from all the unsettled weather. Shelly was sick most of the day and we thought Muriel might get sick for a while but she ate a little and felt better. It is great to be on the move again.
After we got situated in the marina we all walked around the marina area and looked around and then returned to the boats to share drinks on Blue Max and then we each went to our boats and dined on our boats. We probably missed some fun in Steinhatchee but we needed to get to bed. We planned to get out early again in the morning to beat the fog. Yea, right! The fog beat us by several hours. We waited until about 7:00 for the sun to provide some light and we left in the fog. We could barely make out the running lights on the boat behind us. We were the lead boat, which I enjoy. The fog lingered past mid-morning, at times so dense we barely had time to see the crab pots to avoid them. We ran our fog horn for some added safety to avoid other boats. One larger boat, about 50 feet, crossed out path just ahead of us. Shelly was first to see it and just as she pointed it out to me the fog horn sounded. I feel certain the boat had not seen us because when the fog horn sounded they instantly changed course. After the fog finally cleared we had another beautiful day with very light winds and smooth seas. We passed a few miles off shore from Cedar Key and it looked so pretty and inviting in the sun that we were temped to divert our course and anchor there tonight. Instead, we continued on to the trans-Florida barge canal. This is a canal which was started and abandoned in the ‘70’s. It is still very well marked and has plenty of water. It makes a beautiful anchorage which is very seldom used. The area is now a Florida State Park.
We started out of the anchorage about 7:30 in fog which seemed to lift as we entered open water, only to set back in with very dense fog. It did not last over an hour and cleared again. The rest of the day was very calm with a lot of haze. We arrived at the Tarpon Springs channel at about 3:00 pm. It takes a while to come up the channel to the town at idle speed. This is definitely a commercial, sponge, fishing village with a bit of money, and large homes, beginning to move in. As we were talking to the marina on the radio we heard from Phantom of the Aqua. We have not seen them since Grafton, Il. They spent a month in Panama City and just crossed the Gulf a couple of days ago. They walked over and we had a nice visit with them. They live in Fort Meyers so they are familiar with this coast and had some good suggestions for anchorages. We learned from them that Wanderin’ L&M bent a prop shaft when they hit something entering Crystal River. This is part of the reason we did not go in there. Going There crossed the Gulf with us and ran with us until yesterday when they left us to go into Crystal River. They said it was quite shallow but they got in OK.
The Municipal Marina here does not have good access to and from the boats so Eileene was unable to get on and off Blue Max. Bill went out and got take-out Greek dinners for them and they ate on the boat. We hated that they could not join us for dinner. We wandered around town a while and picked a place to eat. Muriel and Shelly bought some sponges and we wandered back to the boat. Bill and I will meet this morning to decide where we will try to get to today. We are uncertain how far to expect we can run due to many no wake zones and several bridges which we will have to get opened for us to pass.

Carrabelle

2008-12-15T12:07:00.005-05:00

The first photo is the Christmas boat parade. The second is Sunshine where she has set for the past week. The building in front of us is the laundry, bathrooms, and upstairs to the right is the lounge we have used so often. The third photo is Muriel and Shelly at the world's smallest police station in Carrabelle. The last photo is Muriel getting off the boat at low tide. She and Shelly say they do a pole dance getting on and off.

Saturday morning came clear and cold, near 40 degrees. We have gotten so sorry from just hanging around here that we seldom get out of bed before 8:00. But, we are staying up later than we do when we are traveling. Last night we stayed up in the lounge until about 11:00 playing dominos and Muriel was reading a book. Shelly has gotten quite proficient at the Caribbean horse shoes, where you swing a metal ring on a string and try to hook it on a hook on a column. The first night she started playing the game I told her I would give her $5 for Christmas spending money each time she hooked it. After 20 hits the first night I cancelled the offer.
The piers here at the Moorings Marina are all fixed piers and the tides have been unusually high and low due to the winds and the full moon when the moon is at its closest to earth at any time in this year so Muriel and Shelly have had to struggle to get on and off the boat at times, particularly low tides. They say they have taken up pole dancing because of the way they have to hug a piling while getting on and off the boat.
We shared pizza last night in the lounge while watching the Carrabelle Christmas boat parade on the waterfront. It was a lot of fun watching and cheering for the boats going by. There were fireworks across the river also. Sunday morning dawned overcast. Three boats left to cross. None of them have returned yet. They were all over 50 feet, however, one was a harbor cruise boat bound for Miami Beach. It is very shallow draft and flat in the bottom. We suspect they are getting banged quite a bit out in 6 foot waves. We are planning to go to a local BBQ restaurant for a buffet lunch.
The lunch was fun. We all ate too much. It was just wholesome food but it was good. For dinner we went with Tony, who works at the marina and was born here, to a local oyster processing plant and got the owner out of his house to get ½ bag, crocker sack, of oysters which we shucked and ate on the half shell, steamed, and as oysters Rockerfeller. We shared dinner with Blue Max and Going There.
This morning we met with Buddy at the marina at 6:30 to evaluate the weather for our crossing. The consensus was to leave Carrabelle at 6:00 Tuesday morning to cross to Steinhatchee. This is the plan as of noon on Monday. From Steinhatchee we will work our way down the gulf coast of Florida and hope to get Blue Max together with their family at Marco Island and us on to Everglades City by Christmas. Everyone has told us that it is a cardinal sin in cruising to set a date to get to anywhere. This is the first time we have set a date and we realize the truth in what they say.

Panama City to Carrabelle

2008-12-12T18:46:00.004-05:00

The first photo is part of the group at the pot-luck dinner last night. The second photo is from our walk on the beach last Monday. The third photo is Bill and Eileen on the beach. The fourth photo is the small fishing village of Carrabelle. The last photo is Appalacheecola.

We got up Friday morning at 6:15 to get ready to leave for Apalachicola. It was another cool and cloudy morning. Several boats were preparing to leave when we got up. Several others planned to leave about mid-morning and anchor in the Apalachicola River a little short of Apalachicola. We took a little time to get free coffee at the marina and discuss our plans for the day and we got underway about 8:00. The winds were much lighter than the day before. We crossed East Bay and entered the GIWW canal for 30 miles. The trip through the canal was different scenery from the rivers we have traveled of late. This was low country swamp. We saw several bald eagles but not much else in the way of wildlife. As we exited the canal into a broad but very shallow lake a couple of the boats nearly got into shallow water because the channel markers were widely spaced and the wind was on our port beam, making it easy to let it set you off course to starboard without realizing it. We all made it without incident but it took some attention to keep on course, especially after 30 miles of just following the canal. We entered the Scipio Creek Marina at Apalachicola and Muriel and I took off to walk through the town which was just a few blocks away. We had been here once several years ago and I remembered an old hardware and ship’s chandlery which I thought I saw on the way into Scipio Creek. I could not find the store in town. I think it has closed and there is now an antique store in its place. We did find the liquor store to buy wine for several of the boats. As soon as we got back the others were ready to go eat at the Oyster house at the marina. Bill and Peggy were especially excited because the oysters were only $6.50 per dozen. The food was good and Muriel did not have to prepare it or clean-up afterward. We plan a leisurely departure in the morning because we have only 30 miles to go. We are hearing that fuel in Carrabelle has dropped to $2.35 per gallon. That is the least we have ever paid since we owned the boat. Unfortunately we recently filled up for $2.69 per gallon.
On Saturday morning we left Apalachicola about 9:00 for the 30 mile trip to Carabelle. It was a nice trip in light winds but overcast skies. The sun was beginning to peak through as we arrived in Carabelle. We came in from the bay and up the channel into the small fishing village. It is old and reflects a weak economy. Shrimping has mostly died out because the shrimp boats can not make a living. The Moorings is a nice facility with excellent bathrooms and showers and a nice boater’s lounge with TV, nice seating and a pool table and a game table. As usual, the staff is very nice. The boat Sojourner, which ran with us from Pensacola, had arranged to meet a delivery captain at Carrabelle for the crossing to Clearwater. There was another boat at the marina with a captain from the same, Sea Sense, school to take them across. Southern Comfort decided to go along with them and cross on Sunday directly to Clearwater. Southern Comfort will cross their wake at Tampa so they were anxious to get done with it. This is going to be a mile point for all of us. This is the first time since late May that we have traveled without Southern Comfort and Blue Max. We still have the company of Blue Max. The weather forecasts look like the weather will be unsettled and windy through the entire week so we are expecting to be here until the weather favors our crossing. We have routes laid out for a couple of routes to Steinhatchee and on to Crystal River and on to Tarpon Springs when the weather allows us to get out on the gulf.
Muriel and Bill and Eileen and I went for a walk in town this afternoon. There is not much town here but we found a restaurant which has 12 oz New York strip steak on Wednesday and Sunday for $8.00. Muriel and I went in to check out the place. It was a biker bar today, just because a Harley Davidson club had cruised in and stopped in.
Yesterday when we arrived here we really enjoyed the two marina staff people, Tony and Patty. Bill was asking where to get oysters and Tony told him he would have oysters here at the marina on Sunday and Bill said he would supply the drinks and snacks. Tony got about 3 quarts of shucked oysters so Eileen made an oyster stew with some of them and we ate the rest with crackers. We had our dinner in the little lunch room in the marina office with Tony and Patty. We all enjoyed the food and the company. A couple walked into the marina and said they were just looking around the marina and did not want to alarm anyone. We invited them to join us and they turned out to be boaters who purchased their first large boat in the summer of ’07 at Green Bay, Ws and took it home to Corpis Christi, Tx. So they had shared many of the same river experiences we had. We failed to take the camera with us so we did not get any pictures.
Peggy and Guy called about 7:30 am on Monday. They were in Tampa Bay and had crossed under the bridge which meant they had crossed their wake and finished the loop. They were within sight of their house. They were very tired after nearly 25 hours underway. They said their passage had been a little uncomfortable but not “bad.” We are happy for them that they have closed the loop but we hate very much to loose their company in our lives. They will be missed over the next few months as we continue our loop.
We are still in Carabelle waiting for our weather window to cross. This morning we walked Carlie and then Muriel made pancakes which we shared with Bill from Blue Max. We decided to go to the beach on the sound and enjoy the good weather today. It was beautiful and Shelly found many shells and some coral. We found one whole sand dollar and a piece of drift wood which had been eaten by something to create spherical holes over the entire surface. We then got the marina’s shuttle service to take us from the beach to a restaurant across the river for a late lunch. The hamburgers were outstanding. We got back to the boat late in the afternoon. The day was so pretty it is difficult to believe it was a day when we could not have crossed. The next several days are forecast to be much too windy to venture out on to the gulf.
Tuesday has been a beautiful day, a little windy but mostly sunny and warm. I serviced engines and changed heat exchanger zincs and then we walked around town. We got malted milk shakes for lunch and snooped around the hardware stores, two of them in town. I got a replacement zinc for the gen set and we ran into Roy and Ella from Our Turn at a marina down the road. They have a bag of fresh oysters and a boat was at their marina with stone crab claws so we all bought some and we are going back to their boat this evening for oysters and crab claws, that is Blue Max and us and them. The forecast has not changed except that the bad weather now extends into the weekend. At the shower this morning I met the man from the Blue Water Yacht which came in yesterday. They have cruised the Caribbean for nine years and twice circumnavigated the Caribbean as far down as Venezuela aboard a 54 foot sailboat which they lost to Katrina in New Orleans. They will probably be crossing with us when we go. Another boat, a PDQ 34 foot cat, came in today but we have not met them yet. Boats are gradually stacking up here awaiting good weather to cross.
We slept late on Wednesday morning, 7:30. We spent the rest of the day doing laundry and cleaning on the boat. A restaurant in town has a steak special on Wednesday nights so we took advantage of it with some other boats here in the marina. The weather was warm, overcast, and misty all day. The wind is supposed to pipe-up tonight with the possibility of heavy rain. One of the boats here has a hired captain on board and they are talking about the possibility of leaving on Friday morning. We will watch and see how the weather goes.
The heavy rain passed here last night, we had gusts to 65 mph with it which drove rain through between the sliding panels of our windows on the windward side of the salon. That was definitely the strongest storm we have experienced on the boat. All is fine this morning. We are planning a pot-luck dinner tonight with the seven boats here in town. We will get together in the boater’s lounge which is a nice room with tables, chairs, TV, and game tables.
Friday morning, it is much cooler than the past couple of days but still windy. We reviewed the weather forecasts on the internet for coastal waters and discussed them with Blue Max. We thought perhaps we could leave about 3:00 am on Saturday and get out far enough before the winds increased as predicted so that we could get some cover from the east shore. The people at the marina advised against it. They predicted that the heavy seas of the past couple of days, and nights, would still be unsettled enough to prevent us from crossing. It looks like the first possibility will be some time next week. Bill and I decided to work on a diesel leak he has had since back in Canada. We finally found that the source of the leak to be a cracked bronze fitting. A short walk to the hardware store and we had the new fitting and fixed the leak. Tonight we are going to get together in the lounge for some Mexican Train Dominos. We have played back in Michigan with one of the boats that is here with us. Tomorrow Carrabelle has its Christmas parade on the water with boats decorated for Christmas. They also have a concert and free hot dogs. This should be our excitement for tomorrow.

Ingram Bayou to Panama City via Ft Walton Beach

2008-12-04T21:31:00.007-05:00

The first photo is Carlie helping me get the blog done. The second is Carlie looking for dalphines from her seat on the fly bridge. The third and fourth photos are some of the canal routes we followed today. The last phots is some of the pelicans Muriel likes to watch and photograph.

We awoke this morning to cold weather and the boat covered with frost again. After Carlie’s walk we got the flybridge cleared of frost and got the anchor up and got underway about 7:30. The sun soon warmed the flybridge enclosure and we had a pleasant day cruising from the anchorage at mile 164 to Ft Walton Beach Yacht Basin at mile 222. When we arrived the wind was blowing about 20 mph from the east and there was about 1knot of current flowing westward. We backed into the first slip then realized that was the slip where Blue Max should go so that Eileen could have the finger pier on the starboard side of the boat. So we pulled out of the slip to back into the next slip to the east. This required a go around and another approach. We finally got docked and then helped Southern Comfort and Blue Max get situated. It is still quite windy tonight and the forecast is for strong west winds with showers and thunder showers tomorrow. We will evaluate this in the morning and decide whether to go or stay put. Everyone is getting anxious to move on to get to where we can cross the gulf around the elbow and make progress going south along the west coast of Florida.
Last night was the warmest night in quite a while, low in the mid-fifties. We rolled quite a bit in our slip and I had to go out about 2:00 am and add another spring line. We all got up early and checked our weather sources. The forecast seemed better than it did yesterday but still called for some strong winds and we had to cross Choctawhatchee Bay which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide with the wind coming down the bay. We decided to get started and consider the options when we got about ¼ of the way out into the bay. There was a marina we could enter if the wind proved too much. We had a nice run across the bay with only a moderate chop. Then we had about 17 miles of canal before we entered West Bay for the final run to Panama City. The sun finally came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. As we entered the last bay where Panama City is located the wind was strong but the marina is protected so getting in was not too much of a problem. As soon as we got situated and shared our drinks with the group we were going to walk into town to eat dinner but it started to rain so Muriel prepared dinner on the boat. This was a 70 mile day, one of our longer days, but it did not seem too bad. Tomorrow will be a 60 mile run to Apalachicola with a lot of the distance in canals which will not be affected by the wind. From there it is a 30 mile run to Carrabelle which is the jumping off point to cross 80 miles of open Gulf to Steinhatchee. Everyone is getting anxious about the weather for this crossing. Sometimes boats wait for over a week to get the weather window for the crossing.

Photos

2008-12-02T21:02:00.009-05:00

These are photos from the Tombigbee River the day Bill hit something and picked-up a bad vibration. Guy put on his SCUBA gear and dove under Blue Max. What he found was a large piece of the 2" diameter rope the tow boats use. It was bound together in the center and loose on both ends. Bill was so happy it was nothing serious with his boat that he grabbed ir from Guy and and put it on his head like a wig. He also announced that we were all having dinner on Blue Max to celebrate.

Because we did not have good cell recpetion I could not always publish photos. These are two I really wanted to get in and I missed this photo of Bill Maxwell on the blog.

Photos from trip from Bobby's to Mobile

2008-12-02T20:26:00.006-05:00

The first photo is the Mobile skyline from the Mobile River north of Mobile. The second photo is downtown Mobile from the river. The third photo shows some of the ship building industry in Mobile. The fourth photo is our anchorage in the Alabama River Cutoff north of Mobile. The last photo is the dock at Bobby's Fish Camp. It was really quit pretty.

We are adding this blog post just to show some photos we like and have not been able to get on the blog. We are anchored in Ingram Bayou just off the GIWW very near the Alabama/Florida line.

Fairhope to Ingram Bayou

2008-12-02T20:02:00.003-05:00

The first photo is looking northwest from the marina across Mobile Bay at the skyline of Mobile. The second photo is looking into the Eastern Shore Marina at Fairhope. The marina is even more crowded and tight than it looks. The third photo is Carlie getting her bath on the pier when we arrived at Fairhope. The fourth photo is a shrimp boat just off our starboard side as we went down the Bay. The last photo is some pelicans in our anchorage in Ingram Bayou.

We left Mobile about 9:30am on Wednesday, November 26, to go to Laurel, Ms to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends there. Our first stop in Laurel was to see Bill Wallace at work. He runs a family owned drug store which has been in his family since 1898. We visited briefly with Bill and he told us that some friends we had wanted to see while in Laurel were headed to the beach for Thanksgiving so we went directly to their house and caught Gene Mulloy just getting ready to leave. His wife Libby was already gone. Gene said their place at the beach is very near where we will pass probably on the first day out of Mobile so we said we would call when we were in that area. Gene called later to suggest we might get together on Saturday for lunch if we are still in Fair Hope, this is where we are in the Marina.
We went from there to Bill and Ginger’s house and met Ginger. We had only just met her about 15 years ago when Bill and she were dating and Bill’s daughter, Amy, got married. This might seem odd to go to the house of someone we had met so briefly and so long ago but Ginger is such a nice person we instantly felt as though we had known her for ever. We enjoyed visiting with her and immediately felt comfortable is her house. Bill is so lucky to have found such a great person for his wife. Soon after Bill got home from work Ginger left to run some errands and Bill and I lit a fire in the fireplace and he and Muriel and I sat down to visit. After a while I became aware that it was becoming quite smoky in the house. The fire was obviously drawing well so we were uncertain why so much smoke was coming out of the fireplace into the house. The fire was so hot that it was difficult to get close enough to see that the damper was only slightly open. After we found this it the next question was how to get it open with the intense heat. I finally just jabbed at the damper itself and knocked it open.
Ginger prepared a great meal for Wednesday evening. The main dish was a pork loin roast with a crawfish sauce over it, a delightful treat. On Thursday morning Bill and I left the house about 7:30 to go check on his car wash and a man he had doing some cleaning. We did not get home until just a little before time for Thanksgiving Dinner. Muriel would have been furious, Ginger seemed to accept that Bill is just like that. The dinner was great, turkey, ham, dressing and gravy, sweet potato casserole, baked apples, corn pudding casserole, deviled eggs, you get the idea! Then pecan pie for dessert. Both of Bill’s brothers and one cousin were there. After dinner we took a tour of Laurel to see some of the new developments in the area. We thought the residential areas of town looked great, the houses were just a pretty as we remembered from 30 years ago. The downtown is hurting but the town has grown remarkably in the outlaying areas.
On Friday morning we headed back to Fairhope via the Mississippi gulf coast. We wanted to see some of the change since Katrina. US highway 90 runs along the coast and used to be lined with big homes. There was not a single home left for most of the way through Gulfport and very little has been built back. It is sickening to see how little has been done in the years since Katrina. We got back to the boat just before heavy rains arrived. We ran to the drug store for Muriel’s meds and a little grocery shopping
On Saturday morning we messed around about the boat and I attempted to help Guy with some work on his motor. I had to leave to meet Gene and Libby Mulloy, some old friends from Laurel. They are in the area because they now have a beach house near here. It was great to get to spend some time visiting with people with whom we shared many good times over 30 years ago. We have not seen them to visit with them in over 30 years. By the time we got back Larenzo and Guy and Bill from Blue Max had accomplished the repair. I only helped Guy with the last details. Muriel and Peggy from Southern Comfort had decided to prepare another Thanksgiving dinner from leftovers to share with Blue Max since we were not all together for Thanksgiving. It is pouring rain again so they decided to delay until tomorrow. The weather forecast is for continued rain until tomorrow afternoon. We will probably stay put until Monday and then head down Mobile Bay for the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway and the Florida panhandle.
Well, Monday was as windy as Sunday so we used the courtesy car and went to the USS Alabama Battleship and toured the ship. It was very interesting, largely because Bill Maxwell from Blue Max had spent time on navy ships and could explain much of what we were looking at. We spent nearly three hours aboard the ship and then stopped and Felix’s for a seafood dinner. We all had oysters on the half shell which were delightful.
Tuesday dawned sunny and calm but cold. We got away from the marina in Fairhope about 8:00 and had a beautiful cruise down Mobile Bay in smooth waters and sunny skies. Soon after we turned east and entered the GIWW, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, we began to see dolphins playing in out wake. We came to Lulu’s, Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s restaurant on the waterway so we stopped to buy fuel and get some lunch. The restaurant is open seven days per week except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Employee Appreciation Day, today was Employee Appreciation Day. But the marina was open so we bought the least expensive fuel of the trip yet, $2.66. Just a few miles further down the waterway we came to Ingram Bayou which is the last good anchorage until you get nearly to Pensacola. We could not have made Pensacola by dark so we chose the anchorage. This gave us time to get the dingy down and explore the shore line and get Carlie ashore for a couple of walks.

Demopolis, Al to Mobile via Bobby's Fish Camp and two anchorages

2008-11-24T22:56:00.003-05:00

We called the lock from the marina at about 7:00 this morning and he said he had a tow coming up right then and there was a downbound tow in the area but he did not know when he would move. He said come on and he would get us down as soon as possible. Just as we approached the lock the down bound tow called the lock and said he was starting down so we had to wait. It was 10:00 am before we got through the lock. We had planned a 71 mile day to one of the only anchorages for miles on the river. After we got below the lock we estimated that if we made good time we could get to the anchorage just at dark. The Bashi Creek anchorage is at mile 145. There is an anchorage which can be used in emergencies just below a highway bridge at mile 164. We decided we would make the final decision on which anchorage to use when we got to mile 164. At about mile 170 Blue Max got something caught it their prop which was causing severe vibrations. He tried to reverse it off which reduced the vibration but was still experiencing heavy vibrations. We decided he could limp along to the anchorage at the bridge and once there Guy from Southern Comfort would get into his SCUBA gear and investigate. We rafted up just below the bridge and along the river’s edge. The cruising guides say that if you use one of these anchorages in the river to call the first tow which comes along and tell him you are on the side for the night and ask him to tell any tows he encounters.
When Guy got under Blue Max it was impossible to see much because of the color of the river water. He could tell there was something near the prop so he grabbed it and shook it and it came off easily. He surfaced with it in his hand and a big smile on his face. It was a huge jumble of nylon rope which the tows use to tie to the bank and to tie up the boat. This piece had probably been about 18 inches long and two inches in diameter but now it was just a wad of small strands all jumbled together. Rarely does something like this come off so easily. Often it takes a lot of cutting with a sharp knife to get it off. We decided that Bill was unlucky that he picked it up but very luck that it came off so easily.
The weather today was much more like we would have expected for this time of year. It was cool this morning but with the flybridge closed up we were in tee shirts this afternoon. It was just cool this evening. We all ate together on Blue Max to celebrate our good fortune to have gotten the thing off so easily without damage to Blue Max and that we had any place close to anchor. Thank goodness for Guy’s SCUBA gear and ability. We will get started about 8:00 in the morning and go about 48 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp. This is not a marina, just a fuel stop and a place to tie-up for the night without having to anchor, no electricity or other facilities.
We left the radio on channel 16 all night just in case a tow tried to contact us. We were amazed at the amount of chatter between tows all night. We heard a couple of tows talking about being aground on sand bars and struggling to free themselves. We were both awake at 2:30 am due to the turbulence from two tows passing us. In the morning Bill said he was up and watched them. They were traveling in opposite directions and passed just up stream of the bridge we were below. No wander there was so much turbulence.
In the morning when I took Carlie ashore I noticed Southern Comfort’s stern anchor was not there. I worried that it had come loose and lost. But Guy said he had already pulled it. When we broke up the raft-up I was unable to pull in the rope portion of our rode by hand so we untied from the other two boats. I was then able to get the rode in easily but the other two boats drifted back and swung into the bank. They were able to apply power and get away from the bank without their props getting anything. We had not tested Blue Max’s vibration last night so we were all relieved when Bill reported that everything was performing well without vibration. We had a fairly uneventful cruise today to Bobby’s Fish Camp. We are now tied to the small floating dock in the side of the river. This can not be much better than were we anchored last night when tows pass. We plan to eat catfish here tonight for dinner just because we are here and will never be back here. We plan to run about 60 miles and one lock tomorrow and then we can probably make Mobile the next day.
This was the coldest night yet, 22 degrees outside and 47 degrees in the boat. It only takes a few minutes for the heat to warm the boat back to 72 degrees inside. The windows on the fly bridge were covered with heavy frost, as were the decks and the docks. We were getting ready to get under way when Peggy came to the boat and said Guy had a problem and needed help. He had broken a bolt which holds the coolant tank on top the engine. By the time we had evaluated the rate of leaking and determined he could run with it by keeping a check on it and refilling as required we called the lock and the lockmaster told us it would be past noon before he could get us in the lock. Decision time again. We decided to that there were no anchorages we would be able to reach before dark if we did not get into the lock before noon. We decided to stay put at Bobby’s Fish Camp and leave as early in the morning as possible. This will be determined by the traffic at the lock and the fog on the river. We can still make Mobile by Monday evening. This will be fine. We plan to rent a car and drive to Laurel, Ms. Where we lived 30 years ago and have Thanksgiving with old friends there. Guy and Peggy plan to drive to Jackson, Ms. To have Thanksgiving with Peggy’s son. Bill and Eileen from Blue Max will be left on their boat and we hate that but I guess it is what it is.
Muriel made a cake for Shelly’s birthday which is tomorrow but we hope to be at anchor and it may be awkward for us to get together so we will celebrate her birthday to night on our boat with the crews from Southern Comfort and Blue Max. Actually we kind of enjoyed the day spent here. We went for a walk out to the highway which is probably about a mile on a dirt road. We saw a man working on a bulldozer near the highway and asked where we were and what was close. He said we were in the middle of now where and there was no town close. The weather was cool but nice for a walk, Carlie enjoyed the opportunity to run free in the woods. Two brothers came in late today on a 62 foot sport fishing boat. They are on the way from Knoxville to Key West. This is their tenth time to stop here at Bobby’s. The rest of the boats we have traveled with lately made it to Mobile today. We got to see several tows we had met and passed along the trip down the river pass here today.
On Sunday, November 23, 2008, it is Shelly’s 35th birthday. We got up before 6:00 and began trying to contact the lock, two miles down stream. We could not get a response on the radio or the cell phone so as soon as I walked Carlie we got underway and headed to the lock. It was open with a tow just leaving so we went right in and locked down our last lock! It was not as cold as the past couple of mornings but it was overcast so it felt quite cold. We got to witness something we had not seen before. Two tows were headed downstream in front of us and the front tow kept going aground, he has been struggling since we left Demopolis, so he offered to let the rear tow pass in some very tight bends in the river. We had already idled along behind them for a while so as the rear tow passed we followed him. They were coming into another bend and the passing tow could not make the bend without shoving his rear starboard corner against the side of the other tow. This shoved the tow being passed into the bank. He was backing off as we went on past. The river has become a southern looking river, with swampy looking banks and Spanish Moss hanging in the trees. Tomorrow will probably be even more swampy and then become quite industrial as we enter Mobile. We anchored rafted with the other two boats tonight because the small stream we pulled off into is quite narrow so we would have had to set bow and stern anchors so it was easier to raft and let one boat set it’s bow anchor behind us so we cannot swing. We have rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, at least we do not have any locks to contend with in the rain.
The morning dawned overcast but pleasantly warmer than previous mornings and very pretty in the anchorage. The weather forecast called for “rain likely in the afternoon with increasing winds reaching 30 to 40 mph near rain storms.” As we motored down the river each time we got into a portion of the river which ran due south we encountered strong southerly winds and white caps. This made us concerned over the conditions we might encounter in Mobile Bay. We saw several of the tow boats we had seen repeatedly coming down the river when we got to Mobile. The river was very industrial, with a lot of cargo shipping and a surprising amount of ship building and repairs. When we headed out onto the bay the water could not have been better but there were rain storms starting to move out onto the bay from the west. We hoped we could beat them to Fair Hope but it looked doubtful. We started to get into light rain about a mile out from Fair Hope. The marina, Eastern Shore Marina, is quite small and very tight. We arrived and got into a slip just before heavy rains began. We have arranged a rental car for tomorrow and we will drive to Laurel, Ms. on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with Bill Wallace and his wife Ginger.

Columbus to Demopolis via Pirate's Cove and anchorage

2008-11-19T17:28:00.003-05:00

The first photo shows some of the white stone bluffs along the Tombigbee River upstream of Demopolis. The second photo is the visitor center at the Tom Bevill Lock. The third photo is looking down the stairway from the widow's walk inside the visitor center. The fourth photo is the snag boat we toured at the center. The last photo is Captain Bill at Pirate's Cove, what a hamm.

On Sunday we relaxed in the morning and ate a leisurely breakfast of sausage, eggs, biscuits and grits, prepared by Muriel. Afterward we enjoyed a brief visit with Peggy’s son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Then we took the courtesy van to town to get a dessert at a café famous for its desserts. To our surprise we missed them by a few minutes so we rode to a cemetery which had about 3,000 civil war graves. It was quite sobering to see so many graves marked “Unknown”. Afterward we made the usual WalMart stop. We enjoyed drinks on Blue Max with them and Southern Comfort. It was so cold that we all sat inside the salon. It think that is a first. For dinner we enjoyed a great bean soup, or white chili, which Muriel had prepared.
We planned to be prepared to leave the marina about 8:oo am after a call to the lock, which is just below the marina, to make sure he could lock us through. At 5:00 am the mega yacht parked right behind us began to load supplies and started its engines. There was no sleep after that so we got up and showered and were ready to leave. Several other boats had planned to leave early so we waited until they and gotten in the lock then called. We were out of the marina and into the lock by 7:30. It was tricky getting the power lines stowed and the dock lines off and stowed because the decks were covered with frost which was quite slick. When we got out into the river channel we only waited a few minutes before the lock opened to lock us down. This was our only lock for today. The rest of today’s run was easy cruising down the river under clear skies which allowed the sun to warm us enough to be in short sleeves by the time we arrived at Pirate’s Cove Marina. This is a very small marina tucked back into a small cove just above Tom Bevill Lock. The docks are not in the best condition of any we have seen and they are very low to the water but there are several barge loads of new galvanized truss type docks parked around the outside of the cove. They are about to begin a major renovation of the marina. By next year this should be a very nice facility.
Soon after we arrived Muriel prepared a lunch of hot dogs and then we got the marina manager to take us about a mile and a half down the road to visit the visitor center and the snag boat Montgomery. She took us because the courtesy van was tied-up taking a 72 year old woman to the emergency room. She is single handing her 44 foot trawler down to Florida for the winter and she got her fingers mashed between the boat and the lock while securing the boat in the lock.
The visitor center was amazing to us. The Corps of Engineers built it to resemble the style of the Waverly Mansion we visited in Columbus and two other plantation mansions in the area. Everything in the center is authentic, the moldings, the balconies, the winding staircase with beautiful railings, and heart pine flooring. Even the brick walkways and gardens around the house fit the style. There were video tapes describing the history of the snag boat Montgomery and the development of the Tennessee Tombigee Waterway. There were also exhibits of stuffed animals representing the wildlife of the area and rocks and fossils from the area. Shelly did not go with us and we hated that she missed this part of the museum. She would have loved it. We climbed to the top of the widow’s walk and were able to go outside onto the walk around the outside of the peak. The view of the river and the Bevill lock was great.
We were able to tour the snag boat on our own. A snag boat is a large boat with a crane on the front 1;was the last steam powered paddle wheel boat in the service. It was built in 1926 and decommissioned in 1985. The Corps got it placed on the national register and restored it be on display here in 1989. We were able to walk through most of the areas on the boat.
After dinner Muriel and I put up the Christmas lights Ron and Connie brought to us at Joe Wheeler. We hung them around the back of the sun deck roof. They look good. Thanks Ron and Connie.
We got away as planned at 7:30 on Tuesday morning. The lock was ready for us shortly after we got out into the river channel. There was a priority tow coming but he was far enough back that the lock master took us in first. It was a cold morning, temperatures just above freezing, but the sun was out and quickly warmed the fly bridge to comfortable temperatures. We saw two deer swim across the river just in front of our boat and leave the river on the other side. We passed a downbound tow a few miles above the Heflin Lock and thought the lock master might make us wait on him before we could lock down. We were just far enough ahead that he took us on down before the tow got there, We entered an old channel of the river just below the lock to anchor for the night. It was only 1:00 pm but there were no more good anchorages along the river for too far for daylight today. As soon as we got anchored Muriel and I got the dingy down and took Carlie ashore. We went ashore at a boat ramp on the COE land near the lock and walked over to the lock, they will not let you near the locks since 911. On the way there we say three deer in one group and another larger deer feeding separately. Tomorrow we plan to get underway about 7:30 and get to Demopolis, Al which will be our last place to do laundry and get provisions for about the next week until we make it down to Mobile, Al. They saw not to expect any cell service along that stretch either. I hope to get this on the blog at Demopolis and the next chance will be Mobile.
The overnight low was 24 degrees. We woke up to a cool cabin, 52 degrees, but after starting the generator and the heat it takes only a few minutes to bring the cabin back to 70 degrees. Carlie and I had a cold but quick dingy ride to shore for her walk this morning and then we had to get the motor up and the dingy up before we could go onto the frosty decks to get the anchor up. We ended up getting under way about 7:50 but that was about the time the fog was cleared to allow us to go. We had an easy cruise down river to Demopolis. A beaver swam across the anchorage this morning and a flock of wild turkeys flew across the river right in front of our boat. I did not realize they were turkeys until they landed on the beach. A couple of miles upstream of Demopolis we came around a bend and an Alabama Marine Patrol boat was coming the other way with red and blue lights flashing. I stopped but could not imagine why they would be stopping us. They just wanted to let us know that they had reports of boats being swamped by large wakes and asked us to be courteous and slow down if we encounter other boats.
We plan to run 71 miles tomorrow to an anchorage. This will be about the only safe anchorage choice for the run. We hope to make Mobile in about five days. We will not have cell service nor wifi until we get to Mobile.

Midway, Ms to Columbus, Ms via Aberdeen

2008-11-15T09:12:00.007-05:00

The first photo is the Waverly mansion from the front gate. The center observation area is 65 feet tall. The second photo is coming out of the small channel from Aberdeen. The third photo shows the baots around the deck at the fuel dock where we all gathered while boats were fueling. The fourth photo shows some of the narrow, winding channel leading into Aberdeen Marina. The fifth photo is two tows passing in a bend of the river while we waited behind the downbound tow before passing him.

It did rain more on Wednesday so we stayed put rather than lock through three locks in the cold rain. We spent the day doing laundry and a few boat chores and then one last trip to the local WalMart. Southern Comfort arrived just before dark. It was good to have them back with us. We all went to dinner at a local restaurant called the Fire House. This was a Mississippi restaurant. We ordered various meals, most of us ordered catfish, and the menu listed salad or slaw and potatoes with the meal. Soon after we ordered they brought out a bowl of pinto beans for each person and corn bread. The corn bread and beans with a salad would have been a fine meal for me. The next morning, Thursday, we left Midway soon after the fog cleared enough to be out on the river. We made good time through the first lock but the second lock was down for maintenance. They told us it would be at least a couple of hours before we could get into the lock so we all anchored and settled in for the wait. When the repair crew took a break they called us into the lock but they left the work barge and the tow boat, a tug, in the lock. This was in the space where we normally tie up with this large group of boats so the lock master radioed us to tie up along side the tug. As we maneuvered into position along side, someone radioed and said they did not want us to tie to the tug. Another boat had rafted to one of the boats in front of us so we had to back away from the tug and back into the lock wall along side the barge. We got this done and the rest of the day was easy going.
We arrived at Aberdeen just after 2:00. They are known on the river for their fried chicken but they stop serving at 2:00 so one of the boats call in an order for all nine boats and they agreed to keep it until we arrived. The channel leading to the marina was very narrow and winding through cypress stumps and trees. The marina did not have space for all of us so it took quite a while for all of us to get secured. This marina has the best fuel prices on the river so we all took on fuel. Since there was not enough space for us each time one boat left the fuel dock it would rotate into another boat’s position as that boat moved to the fuel dock. The process of fueling all the boats lasted well past dark but the people at the marina were very nice about it all. We all enjoyed visiting on the large deck between the store and the fuel dock. The owner also owns the liquor store next door and we heard he is also the mayor of Aberdeen. Some of the boats got to talking to him and requested some shine which he easily produced to share with all. Then Peggy showed up with her bottle of Maker’s Mark and it was so good I had to walk over to the liquor store and get a bottle for us.
The store has breakfast also so we all had breakfast in the morning while waiting for the fog to lift. You could not see across the channel let alone try to navigate it out to the river. We had an easy day with only one lock and about 20 miles to get to Columbus, Ms. We arrived at about noon and again the marina did not have enough space for us so it took a while to get situated. There were two large, over 100 foot, boats along the wall which were supposed to have been gone before we arrived. We ended up with several boats rafted to other boats and Southern Comfort tied up at the fuel dock. We are rafted to Blue Max whom we have not seen for a couple of weeks. Peggy’s son and his family are coming to visit them on the boat over the weekend so we will stay here and leave on Monday morning. This will break-up some of the large group of boats.
Soon after we got secured we got the courtesy van and took off to visit the Waverly Mansion. This is a must see at this point. Bill and Eileen from Blue Max had already been there so they guided us out into the country side to find the mansion. The house was built in 1852 on a 50,000 acre plantation. In its heyday it was self sufficient, producing everything needed to sustain its 1,000 workers and ship many produced goods. The owner died in 1912 and the house stood empty until 1962 when the present owners purchased it. The woman who took us through the house still lives there with her father. She was seven years old when her parents purchased it and began to restore it. She repeatedly points out that the house stood empty and open for years and was frequented by local kids as a ghost house but nothing was stolen or vandalized. The very elaborate chandeliers were still in place as were mirrors on the walls and much ornamental work.
After visiting the house we drove into Columbus to drive through town to see many of the old homes but it was getting dark so we decided to try to see them on Saturday. We plan now to leave here on Monday so we have plenty of time. It rained and blew most of the night as predicted. Now it is forecast to be quite chilly for the next few days. It is cool and grey this morning.

Goose Pond to Midway via two anchorages

2008-11-12T08:49:00.002-05:00

We plan to leave Goose Pond Marina about 7:30 and make one long day back to Riverwalk Marina at Decatur. It made a rather long day but we did go to Riverwalk Marina. We all took the same places in the marina we had occupied on the way up river. In the morning we made cinnamon rolls for everyone before we left for Joe Wheeler, two dozen rolls. We made good time with the RR bridge. It opened only a few minutes after we were all out in the river. The leaves were so much prettier than they were on the way up to Chattanooga! We all went back into our same slips when we arrived at Joe Wheeler. We arrived on Tuesday and we all ate in the restaurant together. On Wednesday we spent the day working on the boat. Muriel went to work cleaning on the flybridge and the sundeck. I changed oil in both engines and the generator. Then I opened the cooling system on the starboard engine. It has always run a little warmer than the port engine but recently it has started to heat up if I run the rpm up over 1800. I decided it was time to learn why.
I started by opening the heat exchanger for oil cooling because it is first downstream from the raw water pump. The inlet was full of rubber pieces of raw water impeller. More than one impeller. So I next opened the raw water pump and found the impeller with about half the vanes gone. When I got into replacing the impeller I decided to rebuild the pump and ordered parts from American Diesel for over night delivery. I went ahead and removed and dissembled both pumps and got them cleaned and ready to re-assemble as soon as I get the parts. On Thursday I started by installing the new stand for the radar so that it will see over the bimini top. This went fairly well except than one of the bolts I had intended to use was fine thread and the nut was coarse thread so I need to get one more bolt to complete that job. The next job was to wash the boat. I got most of this done before dinner on the dock with two other boats, Wandering L & M and C Life. The park usually receives FedEx shipments about six pm. My parts did not show up. If they do not get here until six pm tomorrow I may be here putting the pumps back together on Saturday when the other boats leave.
Well, the parts arrived Friday afternoon while we were in town. We managed to get a ride in a courtesy van from the Park so several of us, Muriel and I included, rode into town for one last hooray. Some, men and women, got hair cuts, Muriel and some others went to Fred’s Pharmacy, sort of a dollar store, and then went grocery shopping. I went to the hardware store and the auto parts store to pick-up some needed supplies. As soon as we returned to the Park our group of five boats gathered to discuss the possible stops and timing as we continue down the Ten-Tom Waterway. As soon as that was completed I got to work on reassembling the water pumps and getting them installed. Larry from Wanderin L&M helped and we got them done in quick order.
We were able to leave today with the rest of the group. We hated to leave Southern Comfort at Joe Wheeler. Hopefully they will catch up with us in the Ten-Tom. We got an early start to make 62 miles and two major locks today. All went very well, only minor waits at the locks. The second lock, the Wilson Lock, has a lift, or in our case today, a drop of 95 feet. It rises and falls very quickly compared to other locks and it is very impressive to be in the bottom of a lock which is 100 feet above you. The weather was sunny but cool and rather windy. We had winds to 35 miles per hour today but in the river it does not get too rough. We made the anchorage just in time to get anchored and get Carlie ashore loopers but also snow birds headed south for the winter. I hope the anchorages and the marinas are not too crowded on the way to Mobile.
We left the anchorage at the anchorage at 7:30 this morning and ran down the “ditch” part of the Ten-Tom. This is the part which the Corps of Engineers dug out to join the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River. At one point it is 175 deep and 1300 feet wide. This is the cut through the ridge and not the water depth. The water is only 14 feet deep. This was the largest excavation project for a canal ever undertaken. They moved more dirt that was moved to create the Panama Canal. Along the way a bald eagle swooped around over us and then dived down to the water with talon extended as though to catch a fish but it never came all the way to the water. It was quite a show to see. We followed, not within sight, but a few miles ahead , a tow of barges and when we got to the downstream end of Bay Springs Lake he was waiting on the lock and the lock was down waiting on a “priority” tow to come up. We decided by the time all this got done it would be a push to run the narrow channel and two more locks below before dark so we pulled into a cove just above the dam at about noon and anchored to relax for the afternoon.
We got rafted up with the other four boats and got the dingy down to get Carlie ashore and do some exploring. There was a boat ramp and small park just to the north of us. We let Carlie have a run there and then went on to locate the Bay Springs Lock and Dam Visitor Center. We found it to the south of the cove where we were anchored. It is a beautiful facility which includes the administrative offices for this area of the Ten-Tom but it was closed on weekends. We felt like leaving a note questioning the wisdom of closing the center on weekends when most people have time to visit such a facility. Carlie enjoyed another good romp around the grounds at the center. In the morning when I got out to take Carlie ashore it was 32 degrees with frost on the dingy and the decks of the boat. When we got to going in the dingy Carlie sat on my lap and hid her face under my arm. She thought it was too cold to be out there.
We got underway shortly after 7:30 and our trip through the three locks went very smoothly. The locks were ready when we arrived and we went right through. We arrived at Midway Marina around noon and settled in. They have a courtesy van so several of us used it to run into town, Fulton, Ms., and get a hamburger for lunch. Later, after showers we drove into town again to the only restaurant open on Monday for Mexican food. On Tuesday one of the boats rented a 15 place van, which we will split among us, and we all went to Tupelo to visit the Auto Museum and the birthplace of Elvis. We had a large lunch and did our WalMart shopping then turned in the van.
It has started to rain and the forecast is for heavier rain tomorrow. If it rains as forecast we will probably stay put tomorrow. Guy and Peggy from Southern Comfort left Joe Wheeler the day after the rendezvous and drove home to Florida. They have returned to Southern Comfort and are now only a day behind us. It will be good to have them back. Blue Max is in the marina at Columbus, Ms., about two days ahead of us. They will wait there until we arrive.
Sorry there are no pictures with this post but our air card is so slow I will wait until we have wifi to get pictures on here.

Chattanooga to Goosepond via anchorage

2008-11-02T21:50:00.004-05:00

The first photo is of the jack-o-lantern contest amont our boats. The second is the food outlay for the Holloween Party. The third photo is some of the boats rafted at anchor. Just moments before this photo you could not even see these boats. Moments later the fog was gone. The fourth photo shows the boat Annie, notice the callopie pipes on top the boat. The last photo shows some of the rowing shells gathering for their competition at Chattanooga just before we got away.

We got away from Chattanooga about 9:00 am after waiting for fog to burn off the and then get fuel. It was another pretty trip with the leaves becoming more colorful each day. We anchored Saturday night in the same cove where we anchored on the way up to Joe Wheeler. Shortly after we were all anchored Annie, the boat I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, came into the cove to anchor also. They entered the cove with the calliope playing Tennessee Waltz. It was an exhilarating feeling to have that boat come in with the calliope playing. We invited them to join our group for cocktails aboard C-Life. After dinner Muriel and I dingyed over to visit with them on their boat. We really enjoyed visiting with them and learning about their boat building experience.
In the morning when I took Carlie out for her morning walk just after daylight I heard a Tom turkey gobble twice just across the cove. I do not think I have ever heard a gobble in the wild. Right after we left in the cove we came to a lock and Annie locked through with us. They played the Battle Hymn Republic and one other tune while we were in the lock. There were seven other boats in the lock and we all cheered after each song. Annie ran with us all day and said they were going on to an anchorage when we turned into the channel to the marina. When we turned around they were entering the channel also. When they got to the dock they said they had so much fun with our group that they could anchor another night and enjoy the dock part with us tonight. It is just great to meet such neat people on the water. Tonight Ron and Carol from Annie got to meet the Stouts whom we have met at looper rendezvous. The Stouts have located in Huntsville so the two will be very close to each other and can do some boating together.
Tomorrow when we leave here there will be eleven boats traveling together. This is becoming quite a caravan.

Guntersville to Chattanooga via Goosepond

2008-10-31T21:55:00.006-04:00

The first photo is Muriel and Shelly in one of the narrow passageways at Rock City. The second photo is heading up the Tennessee River just below Chattanooga. The third is me taking
Carlie ashore one morning while we were anchored on the way to Chattanooga. The fourth photo is a small ferry we saw in Alabama just before we crossed into Tennessee. Dedicate this photo to Ron Mercer.

Sunday we left Guntersille, Al about 8:30 am and cruised 45 miles up the river to Goosepond Colony Marina. Two of the boats did not make it to Goosepond. One hit something leaving the dock and the other had a bad bearing. Both went into Alred Marina which was close by. It sounds as though both got good service at Alred. Freedom’s Turn got their damaged prop removed and repaired and back on the water by Monday. Going There got their shaft pulled, which another marina failed to get done, and they expect to have the bearing replaced and be back on the water tomorrow. We were joined at Goosepond by two other boats from North Carolina. We have not met either of them before but the both know C Life. We all left Goosepond together this mouring and ran 50 miles up the river to an anchorage just above Nickajack Dam. It is a nice, well protected anchorage with plenty of room for all seven boats. We will move on to Chattanooga tomorrow.
The leaves have become noticeably more colorful this week. The mountains along the river are taller and rise more directly from the river. The channel is usually quite narrow with islands along the sides but with large areas of shallow water outside the islands. We stopped today to turn around in the river and take a picture of a small ferry which loads on one side of the river from a one lane gravel road and crosses to a similar one lane gravel road on the other side of the river. This was right at the Alabama, Tennessee line. We are in Tennessee again tonight. We have about 40 miles to go tomorrow to get to Chattanooga and no more locks.
We woke Wednesday morning to 32 degrees and thick fog. We watched a flock of wild turkeys in a clearing on shore. When I tried to wipe the dew off the dingy to take Carlie ashore it would not wipe, it was ice. As soon as the sun hit the water the fog dissipated and we were able to get under way about 8:45. We traveled the last 40 miles to Chattanooga in glorious sunshine and beautiful vista of the Tennessee valley as the trees take on fall colors. Soon after we arrived in Chattanooga and got the boat tied up Muriel and Shelly and I walked into downtown to look around and ride the free electric bus. Chattanooga has put a lot into making the downtown and its waterfront tourist friendly. When we arrived back at the marina the group was going into to eat dinner. So we all in town and ate barbeque. On Thursday we went to the Tennessee Aquarium which is right on the river front. We spent the entire day there and enjoyed it very much. After drinks with everyone we ate on the boat. On Friday morning we picked-up a rent car and drove to the incline railroad and rode it to the top. It is the steepest railroad in the world at 72.8% grade. We toured the battlefield at the top and enjoyed the view of the river from high on the bluff. We say two of the boats we came up the river with headed back down stream.
When we left the incline we drove to Rock City. This is something we have seen advertised for years but never knew much about. Several people had told us it was well worth visiting and we now have to agree with them. It is an amazing park which wanders around through rock canyons and over rock, across two suspension bridges, past several overlooks, and above, in front of and below a water fall. At one point you walk through a long passage way through the rocks, really a cave, where each side room is a scene from a different fairy tale. We had intended to go to Ruby Falls next but agreed that would be pushing an enjoyable day too far. We headed back into town and turned the in the car. When we got back to the dock everyone else was here and ready for the Halloween party. Each boat had been given a small pumpkin by Bella Luna to create a jack-o-lantern. We carved ours and some of the boats carved them, others drew them. One boat did the great loop ensign on theirs. We all shared drinks and snacks on the dock and shared trick or treats from each boat to each boat. The owner of Annie came down the dock and agreed to play his calliope for us. We saw his boat in Florence, Al. where he now lives. The boat is an amazing 50 foot coaster style boat which he built himself. Muriel and I stayed aboard a while and visited with Ron and his wife Carol. It took 16 years and untold dollars to complete the boat. She created several stained glass windows which grace the boat. The workmanship throughout the boat is amazing. Inlayed floors, tables created just for the boat, a huge coffee table which is actually a tool box with about 15 drawers all filled with Ron’s tools. It is a beautiful piece of furniture.
Chattanooga will be the site of the nation’s second largest rowing competition beginning tomorrow. There will be 980 boats in the races. There will be single, double, quad and eight man, and woman, competition. They will be mostly collegiate teams with a few rowing clubs represented. The city expects 10,000 people to attend along the river front. We will be leaving about 8:30 in the morning and will be escorted out of the competition area be the Coast Guard.
In all, we have enjoyed Chattanooga.

Another Entry to get some photos in the Blog

2008-10-27T19:15:00.006-04:00

These photos loaded in the opposite order from what I intended. The first is the group with whom we have cruised all summer seated together at the rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park. From Muriel there is Peggy and Guy from Southern Comfort, Sam is a sailor who joined us at the rally, Clarissa who has been with Blue Max all summer, then Eileen and Bubba (Bill) Maxwell on Blue Max and Shelly, Bud and Muriel. The second photo is Shelly tending to the boat in the 93 foot deep lock, deepest we have locked through. The next photo is our group leaving the same lock. The fourth photo is where we entered the lock passing a tow which had just locked down. The last photo is the maze of barges we had to negotiate as we left the marina at Florence and traversed the three mile canal to the lock.

I am going to enter another blog just to get some more photos on the blog. I have never figured out how to get more than five photos at a time onto the blog. I failed to mention that we found the Andrew Jackson Monument just above the Guntersville Lock and Dam. It was engraved into a rock cliff years ago and has not been maintained. It has gotten difficult to find because trees have grown up from below the rock bluff and partially obscure the monument. Last night when I walked Carlie as we walked back toward the dock we say a tow boat approaching and I thought he was coming into the basin where we were tied-up! I thought "boy, this could get interesting!" He did not enter the basin, but tied-up to a wall just outside the basin.

Decatur to Goose Pond via Guntersville

2008-10-27T18:22:00.006-04:00

The first photo is the channel leading into Goose Pond Marina, those are all lilly pads. The second is the 5:00 "meeting" at Guntersville, seven boats represented. The third photo is the seven boats at the free dock. The fourth photo is the gray bat caves in the bluffs along the river. The last photo is just a pretty bluff along the Tennessee River.

Well, I am going from not blogging to frequent blogging. We just happen to be in a marina tonight which has wifi. We are at Goose Pond Marina, Al. It is in a goose pond!, way off the channel of the Tennessee River through a narrow winding but well marked channel. The way in is all surrounded with lily pads and the marina is surrounded by lilly pads. We spent last night at Guntersville, Al at a free dock. Carlie and I walked around town last night and Muriel and several others from some of the other boats walked around this morning before we left. We were one of seven boats who left Joe Wheeler together but two of the boats had to go into a marina this morning for repairs. One had a bad bearing on his drive shaft and the other must have hit a submerged object this morning right at the wall where we spent the night. Hate that for them both. We had a long day yesterday, 8:30 to 4:30, but a short day today, only 26 miles and no locks. So we arrived at Goose Pond before noon and borrowed a couple of cars and went into town for a hamburgers and a visit to the unclaimed baggage store and of course, WalMart. It was windy last night and all day today, gusts to over 30 miles per hour. Luckily, on the river, the wind never gets enough fetch on your beam to be much of a factor except for heeling the boat. It is cold here, in the 40's tonight and into the low 30's by Wednesday night. Our heat pumps work very well.

Wolf Island to Decatur, Alabama

2008-10-25T15:22:00.005-04:00

The first photo is Shelly when she received her prize for winning first place in the kayak race at the rendezvous. The second photo is Ron and Connie on the docks with Muriel and Shelly. The third photo is "Bubba" Bill rowing the dingy to the dock after winning the dingy race rowing blindfolded and backwards. The fourth photo is Shelly and Judy ready to start the kayak race. The last photo is our group at the Space and Rocket Center.

We arrived at Grand Harbor, Ms as planned on Saturday but a little later. We were held-up for 2 ½ hours waiting on the Pickwick Lock. There was a tow which had to be split entering the lock when we arrived. As we were talking to the Grand Harbor Marina for docking instructions we were surprised to get a reply from Eddie L. from the boat Eagle’s Nest. We had met them in Waterford, NY and traveled most of the Erie Canal with them. We later saw them a couple of times in Canada and stayed in touch. They live about ½ mile downstream from Grand Harbor and had crossed their wake about three weeks prior. We got to Grand Harbor late in the afternoon and got the courtesy car to go to town to eat dinner. The marina is a beautiful facility with very new docks and condos on site. The dock master is a live aboard boater who really looks after the transients.
On Sunday we got the other courtesy van, a full size Chevy van, and eight of us went to the Shiloh Battlefield. We spent over half the day touring the battlefield. It was quite impressive as we drove through the area where nearly 24,000 Federal and Confederate troops were killed in battle. After touring the battlefield we drove to the Catfish Hotel for a Sunday afternoon catfish dinner. This was the best catfish we have had since we last ate catfish in Mississippi. Following this we made the ritual trip to the nearest WalMart. Shelly was able to contact Bill Wallace, a very good friend from Laurel, Ms and I had a nice chat with him while Muriel was in the store. Our cell phones have been useless most of the time we have been on the rivers. We decided to spend Monday at the marina so the women could get the laundry done. On Monday evening Eddie and Janice from Eagle’s Nest came over and we all had a chance to visit a little over the five o’clock hour. They also travel with Southern Comfort in the Erie. This accomplished, we took a leisurely departure about 10:30 on Tuesday morning.
We are really killing time until the AGLCA rendezvous which starts on Monday on next week. We have a week to make 60 miles up the Tennessee River to Joe Wheeler State Park and Marina. The first thing on our agenda was to visit a very small cove just off the river about 2 miles upstream, we are traveling on the Tennessee River, where there is a small water fall in the back of the cove. You can stick your bow right into the water fall. This would make a beautiful anchorage but would be very small for more than two boats. We entered one boat at a time to view the falls and then waited out in the river while the other boats entered.
We continued a few miles up the river to mile 225 and turned in to Bear Creek. A local boater had told us to run about two miles back into the creek, which is about ½ mile wide, and turn into the third cove on the starboard. This is a beautiful, uninhabited cove in about 15 feet of water. We immediately got the dingy down and put Shelly ashore on the south shore to hunt through a gravel bar for stones and then took Carlie to the north shore to run. She had a ball roaming the hillside. Afterward we all three went swimming in the beautiful water, 72.5 degrees. We are planning to eat aboard Blue Max tonight. They are making lasagna, Peggy is making a pie and Muriel will take the salad. Of coarse there will be a happy hour first.
Tomorrow we plan another short day to travel from this anchorage to Florence, Al., about 25 miles, where we will moore at a municipal marina right in town and walk to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner.
Well, it turned out that we could not walk to the restaurant but the marina had a courtesy car so we got the best Mexican food since we left NC. Then we made the ritual trip to WalMart. Before we went to eat, Muriel and I took the car to ride through the town of Florence. It is an impressive town. There are many older homes which have been kept in excellent condition. In the morning we called the next lock and found that he had only one tow coming down and none coming up so we got to going quicker than we had planned. We arrived at the lock as the operator got it ready for us to enter. We waited only a few minutes and entered the deepest lock we have locked through yet, 93 feet of lift. We were amazed at how quickly the lock filled. We were lifted and out of the lock very quickly. The next lock was about ten miles up the Tennessee River. As we arrived, a tow was exiting the lock and as soon as he cleared the lock the operator blew his horn for us to enter. We arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina just after noon, a trip which could have taken several hours longer if we had not gotten right into the locks as we did.
It was great fun to see all the looper boats already at Joe Wheeler and then watch the others arriving over the next several days. What a group! Shortly after getting settled in at the marina Muriel and I took Carlie for a walk on the nature trail near the marina. Along the way we saw one herd of seven deer and a couple of smaller herds. Carlie goes crazy when she sees wildlife. There is a beautiful lodge right in front of us at the marina where the rendezvous meetings are held. Joe Wheeler State Park is an amazing facility, marina, lodge, rental cottages, golf course, and a lot of woods. On Saturday morning we rented a small van and got into Rogersville, the nearest town, to look around and Muriel got her hair cut. On Sunday we went to the Aero Space Museum in Huntsville. It was an eye opener to stand at the base of the Saturn V rocket and see the immense size of it. We were with Blue Max and Southern Comfort. As we stood there wondering at the rocket, it came out that Bill had supplied NASA with some of the parts used on the rocket engines. Amazing!! Muriel and Clarice and I rode a machine to simulate G-forces and then Muriel and I rode a ride which shoots you up to simulate the forces which the astronauts experience on launch. It shot us up and then coming down we were out of the seat, suspended in the harness, for several seconds.
Rendezvous registration was Monday afternoon with seminars running all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on what to expect along our route from here on to Charleston, SC. There was time each afternoon for tours of the other boats and for a kayak race on Tuesday and a dingy race on Wednesday. Shelly and I entered the kayak race and Bill and I entered the dingy race. The dingy race required a navigator and the helmsman was blindfolded and the dingy had to go in reverse around a course with the navigator directing the helmsman. Bill and I decided we would do better with him rowing and without the motor. We won the race. Shelly won the woman’s division of the kayak race. Everyone said there was no doubt who would win the race when they say the determination on Shelly’s face.
The highlight of the week for us was that Ron and Connie Mercer joined us on Monday. It was great to see them. Ron looked great, well, Connie looked great also, but that was expected. Now we have to decide where we spend the next several weeks before we arrive in Mobile Bay.
Well, last night we decided we would not take the boat to Chatanooga but would rent a car and drive there. This morning Muriel went out to walk Carlie and came back and said, “it is so beautiful, we can not stay here, let’s get out on the water and go.” So we scurried around and got away about 30 minutes behind the other boats headed that direction. We had a beautiful and short trip up the Tennessee River to Decatur where we are in the municipal marina for the night.
We have pretty good strength on our air card so I will try to get this posted today. It has been a long time since I have had time when we also had internet access.

GTB to Wolf Isle, via Panther B, Pebble Isle, Kelly's & Wolf Isle

2008-10-10T21:46:00.005-04:00

The first photo, cruising is so much fun, cleaning fenders after use in locks. They become gross. The second photo is a hand carved wood quilt at the Paducah quilt museum. Muriel was awed by the beauty of the quilts on display. They are not just quilts they are art. Photo three, Carlie gets her first of the month bath so she can get her medications. Photo four, some of the trees are beginning to change. Photo five is some of the boats we anchored with at Panther Bay.

On Sunday evening all the loopers at Green Turtle Bay gathered for the usual cocktails, snacks, and lies (fellowship). There were about a dozen boats represented. We ate so much snack food I did not need dinner. After dinner we took the crew from Blue Max on a mystery trip to get ice cream for Bill’s birthday. We were a month to the day late but we had not seen them in that long. The next morning we left GTB with at least seven other boats, five of us running together. We had a beautiful travel day and ran to an anchorage called Panther Bay. It was quite pretty and the trees are starting to change so they were pretty also. We got anchored in time to enjoy some exploration time in the dingy and about a one mile walk with Carlie. Muriel had marinated meat for shish kabobs which we prepared on the grill. Dinner was very good! Shelly did the dinner dishes and we all got to bed early and got an excellent night’s sleep. Muriel and I rode together in the dingy to take Carlie ashore and visited with the other boats in the process. We considered briefly staying put because rain was in the forecast but decided to move on. I guess none of us really expected the heavy rains we got. We traveled 33 nautical miles almost entirely in heavy rains and thunder storms with visibility often less than ¼ mile. We hated we had left the anchorage and missed all the scenery along the way. Our lesson learned for today is that when we think it is going to rain, stay put and relax for the day and travel when we can enjoy the scenery. Kentucky Lake is a beautiful location. We arrived at Pebble Isle in light rain and got tied up nicely. The starboard engine would not shutdown. I had to enter the engine room and stop it manually. It will probably be a loose wire on the shutdown solenoid. Easy to fix when the engine room cools down.
We plan to move on tomorrow but not to go far. We have 13 days to travel less than 200 miles so we need to enjoy the good anchorages in Kentucky Lake.
Well, it rained all night, 3” to 4” and forecast for rain today, so we decided to sit out the day here at Pebble Isle and move on tomorrow. We borrowed the courtesy car along with Southern Comfort and Blue Max and made the WalMart run. This is a habit! So far, a little fog and mist but no rain. Bella Luna and C-Life left this morning. They want to get on to Grand Harbor Marina to drive on to Shiloh, Ms to visit the civil war battlefield. We will probably visit there when we get there.
We left Pebble Isle Marina on Thursday morning after enjoying homemade cinnamon rolls, made by the marina, and filling with fuel and pumping out. We finally got away about 9:30 am. We had a beautiful trip to Kelly’s Island where we anchored behind the island with our three boats and were joined by Brown Eyed Girl. They are a boat from Tega Cay, on Lake Wiley, near Charlotte, NC. They had a couple cruising with them so we ended up with 12 aboard Sunshine for the 5:00 hour. Very enjoyable time and a beautiful anchorage. There were no bugs and Muriel and I sat out on our sundeck long after sundown and enjoyed the Tennessee music coming from some campers on the far bank of the river.
We had a leisurely morning and got away about 8:45 this morning to spend another perfect day on the Tennessee River. We had planned to stop at Swallow Bluff Island to anchor but arrived there before noon and decided to continue on to Wolf Island, another beautiful anchorage behind two islands. As soon as we arrived we got the dingy in the water and took Carlie and Shelly ashore. Carlie and I walked around the island and Shelly collected rocks and fossils along the bank of the river. When I took Carlie back to the boat I bumped the boat and Carlie went over board in the middle of the channel. She never looked back at me in the dingy trying to get along side her to pick her up. She set her sights on the bank and swam all the way to the bank and I picked her up there. This was exceptional for Carlie who had to be taught to swim by Anne. Tonight we had 5:00 on Southern Comfort with Peggy supplying the munchies. She out did herself! It was great. Three boats, Southern Comfort, Blue Max and Sunshine. Oh! How we miss the rest of the combination, Ithaka. Chip and Michelle have returned to their business in Naples, Fl. There were so many good times with the four boats this summer that they are sorely missed.
We plan to run the fifty miles, with one lock, to Grand Harbor tomorrow. We will get a car there and drive to the civil war battlefield, Shiloh. We are all looking forward to this. Grand Harbor is about one mile into the Ten-Tom Waterway. We will spend a couple of days there and then head 70 miles on up the Tennessee River to Joe Wheeler State Park for an ALGCA rendezvous which starts on October 20. This will give us several days to anchor out and enjoy life on the way to Joe Wheeler.

Grafton to Green Turtle Bay via Alton, Hoppies, Little Diversion, Cumberland Towhead

2008-10-03T22:57:00.005-04:00

The first photo is the arch in St Louis as we passed by going down the Mississippi River. The second photo shows Fern at Hoppies, a small marina on the Mississippi, Muriel says if Fern had a corn cob pipe she would be Poppeye. The third photo is Carlie all muddy after her wading in the mud to "go". The fourth photo shows some of the driftwood debris beached along the Mississippi. The last photo shows the three boats, Sunshine, Bella Luna, and Southern Comfort tied to a cell used to secure barge tows on the Ohio River.

The last full day in Grafton we all drove a few miles north along the Illinois River and took a free ferry across the river and drive to the small town of Brussels, Ill., and ate a family style lunch at the Wittmond Hotel which was established in 1847. The building looks unchanged since that time. The meal was far more than we could eat, even though we stuffed ourselves. The meal started with a relish dish and home made sausage and rolls. The sausage was a favorite part of the meal for each of us. This was followed with fried chicken and roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn. This was followed with dessert, some of us had berry cobbler and some had peach cobbler. The all inclusive price was $11.99. Needless to say, none of us were interested in dinner. The next morning we borrowed the marina’s vehicle for one last trip to the WalMart at Jerseyville for some last minute shopping and Shelly got a new portable DVD to replace the one which had died.
About mid morning we took off for Alton. By this time, 12 days with Jan and Joe, the owners of the Grafton Marina, we almost hated to leave them. But after hugs around we were finally on the move again. We certainly recommend a stop at Grafton. Not only were Jan and Joe great to all their customers but they are just great people and their town was a very nice place to be stranded. It felt great to be on the move again, even though the trip was only about 20 miles. After getting settled with the marina at Alton we decided to pay one last visit to Fast Eddie’s, the biker bar which is famous for it’s $.99, ½ pound hamburgers. Lewis called for a cab and after waiting for a while Muriel and I and Guy and Peggy from Southern Comfort decided to walk the mile to Fast Eddie’s. We did not see Lewis and Dianne or Shelly until we returned to the marina. They swore they and ridden the cab to Fast Eddie’s and eaten and returned to the Marina. We do not know whether to believe them or not.
The next morning we were off for Hoppie’s Marina Service, about 50 miles down river. The Mississippi had more current than I had expected. We saw 12 to 12.9 knots in the St Louis area at RPM which would normally run us at 7 to 7.5 knots. Hoppie’s is a famous stop for loopers going down the Mississippi. Fern, the owner’s wife is quite a character. Muriel says if she had a corn cob pipe in her mouth she could pass for Popeye. She directs all the boats into the dock which is several old barges permanently moored to the river bank. Docking into the swift current is a new experience for many of us. As soon as everyone was in and boats secure, there were seven looper boats that evening, she sits all the admirals, the wives are called admirals, and tells them what to expect as we travel on down the rivers. Then she gets all the skippers together and reviews the river charts to point out the hazards along the rivers and the good anchorages and where to stop and how to handle the boat when leaving her dock in the swift current. She loaned us her Lincoln towncar and we loaded nine of us into it and went into town for dinner. This was her recommendation to the admirals because they would not be able to get off the boat for the next several days.
The next day we left with uncertain destinations. We could run a short day and stop at the Kaskaskia lock or run a fairly long day and anchor at Little Diversion Channel. We decided when we got to Kaskaskia we were running so well with the current we decided to continue on to Little Diversion. This was a very nice anchorage where we could get out of the current and be safe from the tows on the river. When I took Carlie ashore for her evening walk she sank up to her belly in mud. She managed to do her business but she was not happy about it. The next morning she and I rowed along the shore to find a better place. I found a spot with some rocks I thought she might walk on. She immediately slipped off into the mud and just stood there until I got her back to the water and washed her off. She did not get to go until mid afternoon on the boat she was in such agony she finally used the dirt and sod Muriel had dug up and placed on a large plastic storage bin lid.
As soon as the dense fog lifted we got underway and ran our last miles of the Mississippi River. There were several tight bends in the river where the current was swift and turbulent. There were several diving bouys. These were bouys which had debris caught on the anchor chain that caused them to be submerged most of the time and occasionally surface. A couple of looper boats were damaged by these bouys. Several props were damaged and one boat had to be towed for three days to a place which could haul the boat and replace the bent prop shaft.
We turned out of the Mississippi into the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill. There was an astonishing change in the water from mud to beautiful looking greenish river water. We had read to expect heavy commercial traffic in this area but we were shocked by the amount of barge traffic in the mouth of the Ohio River. This was definitely the most traffic we had encountered anywhere, including New York Harbor. The current in the Ohio was much slower than the Mississippi. Probably one mile per hour or less. We made good time up the Ohio and stopped for the night near the construction site for a new lock and dam. The lock tender gave permission for us to tie to one of the cells over night. Carlie got to go ashore on a sand beach and get into the woods for a very enjoyable walk. We moored rafted together with Bella Luna and Southern Comfort and enjoyed drinks and music together on Bella Luna’s fore deck. There was a lot of tow traffic all night long. Twice during the night tows tied to one of the cells just below us. There were three boats anchored in the river, out of the channel across from us.
In the morning there was dense fog for a while, I got some cool pictures of the three boats across from us leaving in the fog. As soon as the fog lifted we got under way. The first lock had the wickets down which opens the river so that we passed the lock in the river channel and continued on. When we got to the second lock the other three boats were still waiting on an opening. Soon after we arrived the lock tender called us into the lock. We were lucky on the timing. We cruised past Paducah and the mouth of the Tennessee River and continued up the Ohio to just below the mouth of the Cumberland River. There is an island in the river called the Cumberland Towhead. After much discussion over whether or not to continue on into the Cumberland for another 32 miles to Green Turtle Bay Marina. We decided not to push on and get in right at dark and instead slipped into the water behind the Towhead and anchored for the night. This was a good decision and we all enjoyed the anchorage. We again enjoyed some time with the other two boats and some music on Shelly’s jam box.
We got a lesuerly start in the morning and had an enjoyable run up the Cumberland River to the Barkley Dam and Lock. The leaves have started to turn so the hills were quite pretty. We had a slight delay at the lock and upon entering I told Muriel to get a rope on the upper bollard, thinking the lower one would be too low. She was unable to reach the upper to get a line on it and the wind started to blow us sideways in the lock. We finally got a line on the bollard and got ourselves straightened out. It worked out that we used the lower bollard and it was fine, darn! Muriel was right. When the lock was filled we had lifted 57 feet to the level of Barkley Lake and the gates opened and all we could see was a tow sitting in the entrance waiting to enter the lock. A little intimidating but we had room to slip out and get by him. Then the world opened up to the beautiful sight of Lake Barkley. Green Turtle Bay was only another mile into the lake.
Since we have been here we have dined at Pattie’s 1880 Restaurant. The restaurant is famous in these parts for their 2” thick pork chop. I could not eat the whole thing.

Still Safe in Grafton Harbor, Il....Again

2008-09-21T09:12:00.008-04:00

The first photo shows me wading from the flooded parking lot at the marina to the ramp leading to the floating docks. The second photo is us at Muriel's brother's house in Perry, Ia. with her father. The third photo is looking down the Illinois River into the Mississippi showing whole trees and a lot of debris floating down the river due to the flooding. The next photo shows a tow headed downstream into a fog bank. The last photo is Shelly inside the top of the arch at St. Louis.

We have been here in Grafton for over a week now. We have been to St Louis to visit the arch and we drove to Iowa to visit Muriel's father. He is doing well and looking great. We got back to the boat last night, Saturday, about 8:oo pm. On the way back we stopped in Hannnibal, Mo., the home of Mark Twain, to look around. We did not spend much time there. From the information we get it sounds like we will be here for several more days.
We have heard that the marina at Alton, the next port downstream where about a dozen looper boats are stranded, has lost it's electrical system due to the flood and will not be able to repair it until the water receeds. This means they do not have electrical power, toilet or pump out or water or showers available. Glad we are here!

Muriel and some of the women went into Alton today to do some shopping. I spent most of the day cleaning on the boat, starting with the roof of the sundeck and coming down. I just cot a good start. I will continue tomorrow. It sounds now like we might start to move about Wednesday.

Tuesday, Sep. 23...The river has returned to a near normal level here at Grafton. We have started to see some pleasure boats out on the rivers, we can see both the Illinois and the Mississippi from our slip. We learned this afternoon that the Coast Guard will now allow pleasure boats to move down river. The Illinois above us is still closed and still at flood stage for much of its length. We do not know how the water above us in the Illinois will affect us here at the mouth of the river.

We plan to leave here Thursday around mid-day and move downstream about 20 miles to Alton, Ill. This will give us a chance to see for ourselves how the river is and get us 20 miles closer to Hoppies, the next stop for most boats. This will also give us another day to get feedback from other boats who will leave tomorrow and Thursday.

Our plan now is to spend about a week traveling from here to Green Turtle Bay at mile 31 on the Cumberland River. This will get us out of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and back into more cruiser friendly waters. From what we hear we will find spotty cell phone coverage from there to Mobile so our blog entries may skip more time between entries for a while.

We are all getting excited about moving again.

Still Safe in Grafton Harbor, Il

2008-09-17T22:03:00.006-04:00

The first photo shows some of the group of loopers stranded at Grafton, Il. enjoying some snacks and drinks. The second shows a view of an old wall just down stream of the marina. This wall was on dry ground when we arrived here. The third photo shows the same wall as the water rose. A day later the wall was under water. The fourth photo shows some of the group at the end of the dock where the ramp to the ground goes under flood water. The last photo is Carlie, she does not like the water she has to walk through to get to dry gorund so she hoped up into the cart.

We are still in Grafton, Il. We have rented a car with Southern Comfort and went into Alton last evening to eat at Fast Eddies, a grill which is quite famous among loopers as a fun place to get a great hamburger at prices which have not increased for about 20 years. Can you believe a 1/2 pound burger for $1.29? It is a good burger too! We went to St. Louis today and spent the afternoon in the arch. The water was still rising this evening when we got back to the marina. The water is now covering the parking lot from about an inch to several inches deep. We took off our shoes and waded to the ramp leading to the floating dock. It is supposed to crest this evening and then begin to drop in the next day or two. Everyone here expects it will be about the middle of next week before we will be able to begin our travel down the rivers. There are attempts underway by the AGCLA to co-ordinate resumption of the thirty or so boats who are, like us, held-up in the rivers by the floods. We intend to stay put until we are sure we can handle the current in the rivers and the boats ahead of us have cleared out of the limited anchorage spaces down stream from us.

We are now planning to leave Friday morning to drive to Perry, Ia. to visit with Muriel's father. We will drive there on Friday and drive back on Saturday or Sunday. From the best predictions we can find we will probably not be able to start back down the rivers for nearly a week.

Havana to Grafton via Beardstown

2008-09-14T08:48:00.004-04:00

The first photo is our group enjoying the leftover dinner at Tall Timbers Marina at Havana. The second photo shows our boats tied to the barges at Beardstown. The third photo shows some of the debris that came down the river from the tug which pulled out from up stream of us.

We enjoyed the Tall Timbers Marina at Havana. It was small but the facilities were nice. We enjoyed a left overs dinner with the other four boats for dinner. It was called left overs but I think nearly everyone made their dish just for dinner. We left the next morning intending to tie to a free barge at Beardstown. When we got there the barge was surrounded by driftwood and debries and was too small for all us anyway so we tied to the barges at Logdston's Towing Service. We were tied to a barge load of corn and had to walk the edge of the barges to get to a fixed barge which has a stairway up and over the levee. This was a challenge for Muriel since she does not like heights but she made it up and over several times. We did get to tour a tug which was also tied up at the barges. We enjoyed visiting with the Captain and viewing his engines and the helm. He steers with two levers, one for the rudders ahead of the props and the other for the rudders behind the props.

The river was filled with floating logs and debris which got trapped in front of the boats. When the tug had to move to go help another tow sort barges the debris he released all came down stream on to our boats. We had to get out with boats hooks and work it away from our boats so that it would not put excessive presssure on our lines and the fine debris would get into our raw water intakes for the generators.

We left in the morning intending to tie up at the wall in Hardin at a restaurant but after talking with son Jeff about the forecast for Ike to arrive in the St Louis area on Saturday night we decided to run on to Grafton and get into the marina before the storm arrived. This was a good decision. We got heavey rains over night and some strong winds. The marina is nice, everything is new and the price is reasonable. The town is very small, about 650 population, but we have enjoyed walking around town. We got a great hamburger yesterday and the marina has a courtesy car which we took to Jerseyville yesterday to go to the store. I expect we will stay here until the river peaks and begins to fall. This is expected to be the end of this week.

Chicago to Havana via Joliet, Ottawa, Chilocothe

2008-09-11T18:40:00.020-04:00

The first photo is locking through with a tow of barges. The second shows some of the white pelicans we saw several places along the way. The third photo shows our group of boats entering the lock from Lake Michigan to the Chicago Sanitary Canal through downtown Chicago. The fourth photo is just after passing under the Michigan Ave bridge in downtown. The last photo is looking down the canal under some of the many bridges we passed under in downtown. One of the bridges is 17 feet above the water and does not open. We were 16' 9", it was a little unnerving to pass under this bridge. We did not get a picture because we were too busy watching the bridge to be sure we would get under it.

We really enjoyed going through downtown Chicago in the river. The buildings were spectacular from the water. Muriel especially enjoyed it since she lived there until sixth grade. After going through downtown the river goes through the industrial area where Muriel's father worked when they lived in Chicago. She remembered some of the roads we went under. It began to rain late in the day and we arrived in Joliet, Ill in the rain. I had replaced a fresh water pump in Chicago and when I checked it for leaks during the run on Monday I saw water misting around the engines. and water driping off a hose at the raw water pump in the port engine. When we arrived in Joliet I asked for the location of a parts store and began walking in the rain. I walked to four parts stores and about two miles before I found the hose I needed. By the time I got back to the boat I was a drowned rat. I replaced the hose and the next day I found that it was not that hose that was leaking but a hose on the starboard engine and the water was spraying over to the port engine and not weting the starboard engine at all. I had this hose onboard and replaced it on Tuesday evening at the marina in Ottawa. This was a very nice, new marina and the manager is a looper from two years ago. He was very eager to please all loopers and sell boaters on the new marina. We received gift packages and a review of his experiences on the Illinois River. They had a reporter and a photographer from the Ottawa paper to cover the evening's events.

The next day we ran to a marina which seemed to be the only one which could handle the five boats we were running with and supply diesel fuel. It was an experience! The marina was a graveyard for old barges and tugs. We learned today when we arrived at the marina for today that the family that owns the marina has a reputation up and down the river for being outlaws.

Today's stop is a very small marina in Havana, Il. The facility is nice but very tight for five boats of our size. Muriel and I walked into town to find the post office and the town is a quaint midwestern town. Tonight for dinner we all shared left-overs and met on the dock for dinner. Good times with good friends.

We have been amazed at the amount of wildlife we have observed along the river. We have seen many bald eagles, deer swimming in the river and along the bank. We have seen the jumping asian carp which have invaded the rivers of the midwest. One area was loaded with white pellicans and ibis. We have passed many barge tows and even locked through with one tow. This is a new experience. We have not delt with tows before now. I guess we will see many more tows from here to the gulf.

We have been separated from most of the boats we were with throughout Canada. Ithaka has hauled out in Chicago to be stored for the winter until Chip and Michelle return next fall to continue the loop. Blue Max has fallen behind because they have stopped near Chicago to visit friends and meet up with family who will travel with them for a while. Southern Comfort is still in our travel group.

Grand Haven to Saugatuck to St Joseph to Chicago

2008-09-03T08:27:00.007-04:00

Photo one is Muriel with her Aunt Shirley and Uncle Ray in Grand Haven. Photo two is Carlie supervising the installation of a new fresh water circulating pump on the starboard engine. Photo three is the little hand powered, chain ferry in Saugatuck. Photo four is the Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan. Photo five is Muriel and Shelly standing near the Chicago Aquarium with the marina and the Chicago skyline in the background.

Grand Haven was quite enjoyable. We extended our stay until Sunday, 9/1. The women enjoyed the shopping in the downtown and with the car they were able to get out to a very nice grocery store. The looper boats, 13 of them, all had a Labor Day cook out on Saturday. I drove the people from two of the boats out to the grocery and they bought all of the food and we all split the cost for hamburgers, potato salad, and all the fixins. The Habormaster was very nice and worked hard to accomodate us when we all kept extending our stay.The town has a lighted fountain across the "river" from the marina. The fountain only runs each night from 9:30 til about 10:00. The color of the lights and the sprays are coordinated with the music. The Saturday morning farmer's market was super. We got to visit with Muriel's Uncle and Aunt and we had Shelly's medicine shipped to their house and they brought it to us on Saturday morning. They are very spry at 85 years, they play golf twice a week.Most of the loopers left on Sunday. We ran to Saugatuck where we anchored in the small harbor. The marina spaces were filled for Labor Day. The town is an art center with many small art studios. Muriel enjoyed walking through town and looking at the shops. We purchased nothing! There was a small chain ferry which crossed the channel entering town. It is passenger only. The operator, a woman when we saw it, cranks handle all the way across the channel to wind the chain over the drive wheel. The chain sinks back to the bottom as the ferry passes and boats cross over it. On Monday morning we left with several other boats and skipped South Haven, which was a planned stop and ran to Benton Harbor, St Joseph while the weather was good on Lake Michigan. The forecast was for good weather Monday through Wednesday morning and then wind and rain. We did not see any on the towns. We did dingy back to another marina and had happy hour with some boats there and discussed the possibility of crossing the lake on Tuesday to get to Chicago before the weather turns bad for several days. We decided to go for it. It is a 55 nautical crossing about 25 miles above the south end of the lake. It was probably a good decision. The lake was a bit rolly early but settled some as the day progressed. The auto pilot functioned well with the following seas and we enjoyed a relaxed crossing. Our longest crossing yet. The approach to Chicago was a bit dissapointing due to the haze obscuring the skyline. This was also a bit intimidating because the haze also made it a bit difficult to see the inlet to the harbors.
We arrived in Chicago two days ahead of schedule and were not able to get a slip in the favored marina but we did get into a marina about a mile south of the desired marina. The first choice marina is adjacent to Navy Pier and downtown. Also, the entrance to the Chicago Canal is adjacent.
Muriel, Shelly, and I got out and walked to the Aquarium Tuesday after we arrived and it is closed until Friday. We then bought a ticket to ride a tour boat through the cannal with a guide describing the buildings. This included a water taxi to Navy pier where the tour started. We then purchased visitor passes for the Chicago Transit System which allow us to ride any of the busses, trains, or subways for 72 hours.
We plan to leave Chicago about this weekend and begin our trip on the rivers.

Charlevoix - Frankfort - Ludington - Grand Haven

2008-08-28T16:38:00.000-04:00

We left Charlevoix on Monday, 8/25 and ran 65 nautical miles to Frankfort. This was the longest day in quite a while. The seas were still rolling Monday morning, left from the wind over the weekend. Shelly was not feeling well but about midmorning it settled down and the rest of the ride was quite plesant. We moved on the next morning to Ludington which was another interesting town. They are still served by some large ferry boats which used to carry railroad cars from Ludington across the Lake to Wisconsin. They now carry only trucks and automobiles and passengers. These ferries are still coal fired and they are the size of small ships. On the way to Ludington, Sunshine stopped off in Manestee for lunch and a quick tour through the town and then continued on to Ludington.
On Wednesday we ran from Ludington to Grand Harbor, Mi. with plans to possibly spent the holiday weekend. Now we are considering moving along on Saturday because the marina is full for the weekend and Friday is forecast for unfavorable weather with Saturday becoming a good day to travel again. Muriel contacted her Uncle and Aunt, her mother's borther, who live in Holland, about 15 miles south of here. They drove here this morning and we rode with them around the area and had lunch with them.
Tomorrow we have a car rented because we have to drive to Muskeegon to pick-up parts. We are sharing the cost with Southern Comfort because they also have to go there to get parts.
The shore of Lake Michigan has been quite suprising to us. It has been lined with tall, sometimes over 400 feet, sand dunes. The water is much clearer than I ever imagined. The salmon are running and every inlet is crowded with local fishermen and charter fishing boats.

We are trying to plan for our arrival in Chicago but several of the marinas there are booked for the weekend of 9/4 so we may have do kill some time or go to other marinas.

Petoskey to Charlevoix, Mi

2008-08-23T13:01:00.005-04:00

The first photo shows the clear water along the white stone breakwater wall in St. Ignes, Mi. The second photo is Muriel riding her bike in St. Ignes. The third photo was taken at the lunch buffet at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The fourth photo is looking along one half the front porch of the Grand Hotel. The last photo is a natural arch on the north end of the island looking down into Lake Huron.

We fueled up and left Petoskey on Thursday. We had a nice but short trip along the coast line to Charlevoix, 18 miles to the southwest. This is another affluent community with a brand new marina. We got the dingy down and explored around the area and out into Lake Charlevoix. There are some very large boats here. One, Cracker Bay, is 162 feet and belongs to the man who owns Cracker Barrel Resturants. Last night Muriel and I went for an evening walk with Carlie and wound up walking out the breakwater to the light house. We noticed a lot of light out on the lake. It turned out to be another large boat called CV9. This boat came in through the canal into Charlevoix. It passeded only a few feet from where we walked along the break water. There were guards on either side of the boat and a smaller boat following with a guard in it.
Yesterday a group of loopers went to an oriental restaurant for a buffet lunch. We walked about a mile to the restaurant and along the way we passed a community ride vehicle so Muriel and Dianne walked over to talk to the driver and he said that he hauls senior citizens around the community and he would pick us up if we would call. So we got a ride back to the marina in the rain. We are not moving today because there is 100% chance of thunder storms and gusty winds. We have already had several T-storms and heavy rains move through the area. This afternoon we will either walk around an area where the houses are called mushroom houses because they have only smooth curves, no corners or peaked roofs, or we will go to a show if the rain continues.

Sunday morning we are still in Charlevoix. The wind was questionable so we elected to stay put. I think we would have been OK to have traveled today but no one else was ready to go.

Yesterday Muriel, Dianne Wade, and I went for a walk to see the mushroom houses. We also stopped to see the new municipal library. This was an unbelievable library for such a small town. There are 2,000 full time residents, 20,000 in summer. We spent the day shopping and roaming around town. Today we will clean the boat and defrost the refrigerator.

There are more mega-yachts here than we have seen anywhere along the way. Last night there were four boats in the 150 foot range. One has security guards and a chase boat with a guard in it. There was a wedding at the marina last night. The bride and groom and later the entire wedding party had pictures taken standing on the bow of one of the boats.

Blind River to Petoskey, Mi

2008-08-20T18:06:00.002-04:00

We left Blind River and crossed back into the US, entering at Drummond Island, Mi. There was a strong temptation to turn back and spend another week or so in the North Channel. It was so much fun it must be illegal! Upon arrival at Drummond Island Marina we cleared customs with no problems and our five boats borrowed a vehicle from the marina and drove into town for a dinner to celebrate Jim Benjamin's birthday, (he is Golden Lily). The next day we left to run to St Ignes Marina, just north of the Straights of Mackinac. It was quite windy but on the nose so we ran well. The marina at St Ignes is only two years old. It is beautiful, surrounded by a break water made of white rocks, most of them larger than our boat. The water is the clearest we have seen. We enjoyed a day of rest and ate breakfast out with the group. There was a hardware store close by so I was able to get repair parts for the galley faucet which has dripped for the past week. I also got a new ground fault outlet to replace the one which went bad about a week ago. Muriel and Carlie and I took a long walk the last night in St Ignes and got to see some of the residential portion of the town. On Monday we crossed to Mackinac Island and went to the Grand Hotel for the lunch buffet. The food was great. Five courses with everything imaginable. The deserts were outstanding. I ate so much I was uncomfortable the rest of the day. After lunch we took a horse drawn carrage tour of the Island. This took the rest of the day. We stopped to see the butterfly conservatory. Their butterflies were magnificant! All were alive and we went into the room with them to see and photo them. Muriel was in awe of the gardens everywhere in the island. We got back to the boat at dinner time but no one felt like eating so the ladies went back to town, about a block away, to shop for gifts for friends. Later I met them for a slice of pizza for dinner. During the night Monday the wind backed to the south and the boat began to roll. There is no protection from the south at the marina on the island. Tuesday morning we planned to leave for Petoskey but the water looked so rough outside the marina we had second thoughts about running the Straights of Mackinac with the wind blowing against the current. Several locals advised us to go ahead. They said that the next night would be much worse in the marina and the straights would not be a problem. Southern Comfort went ahead and left. We watch as they turned out from the marina and we decided to go too. As we left three other looper boats decided to follow suit. It was a bit rough but overall it was not a bad ride. We would do it again. By the time we got through the straights and turned south the wind was from the east and we had some shelter from the land. Petoskey is an affluent little town with many magnificant summer homes along the coast. Chip from Ithaka calls it the "Naples of the North." He says many of the people from Naples spend summers at Petoskey. Muriel got up early today and got the laundry done. After breakfast we walked the downtown with Chip and Michelle and topped it off with lunch about 2:00pm. One of the boats rented a car so Muriel plans to ride to a WalMart about five miles away with them.
We will leave here tomorrow to go to Charlevox about 18 miles down the west coast of Michigan. This begins our run down to Chicago, about 390 miles away. We plan to spend a couple of nights there before we move on again. I am not attaching any pictures because I am using the old computer again until I can get the software on the new computer to run our Alltel internet card.

Littlle Current to Blind River

2008-08-14T16:00:00.005-04:00

The first photo is the bow of a boat which wrecked at Kagawong. The bow is now the pulpit for the mariner's church. The second photo is the women from three of our boats standing near the base of Bridal Veil Falls near Kagawnog.

The third photo is Sunshine anchored with stern tied to the rocks at Benjamin Islands. The fourth photo shows some of the neat anchorage possibilities at the Benjamin Islands. This sail boat is tucked back into its own little nook in the rocks. The channel through here ranged from 10 to 30 feet deep. Right across from this boat were two sail boats anchored. The last photo is some of our group making smoores at the Benjamin Islands. Each time we make a blog entry we have from 100 to 150 photos to choose from. It is impossible to get enough good photos entered when the blog will only allow five each time.

The weather cleared on Monday and we left Little Current for Kagawong. It was a short run and we arrived about mid-morning so we decided to hike to the Bridal Veil Falls and eat lunch at the little hamburger stand near the falls and then back to the boat to leave. Oh! I forgot the stop at the chocholate factory before we left. We went on to the Benjamin Islands to anchor for the night. There were four other looper boats we knew so we got to visit with them again. The men from those boats built a fire on shore that night so I went ashore and had a drink with them. We enjoyed the anchorage so much we decided to spend another day there. Muriel and I and Southern Comfort took our dingies and circumnavigated the south island. There must be about a dozen anchorages in the Benjamin Islands. Chip on Ithaka started catching small mouth bass late in the afternoon right under his boat. He caught about 10 nice size fish in a few minutes. Later that evening we all went ashore where Bill from Blue Max had set-up a nice fire pit and gathered wood. We all enjoyed smoores complements of Peggy on Southern Comfort. The next morning before we left Chip and I cleaned his catch from the night before and he invited us to a fish fry that night.

We made a very short day, about six miles, to a nice anchorage at Hotham Island. We had a small cove in the rocks to ourselves, just the four boats in our group. We dingied around the island in the afternoon and all three of us had a nice swim. A little cool initially but very pleasant when you are in for a few seconds. Muriel made a peach cobbler for the fish fry. Southern Comfort brought the salad, Blue Max brought the snacks, and Ithaks provided the fish and macaroni. The meal was great, fresh fish is hard to beat! Today we left Hotham and traveled McBean Channel and Whalesback Channel to Blind River Marina. About 32 miles, this is a fairly short day but seems like a long day after all the very short days we have enjoyed. This will be our last night in Canada if the weather is good tomorrow we will cross the tip of Lake Huron to Drummond Island and re-enter the US. We hate to leave the beautiful and pleasant waters of Canada. We are having thunder showers this afternoon. We have come to expect afternoon showers and thunderstorms. The locals say this is not their normal weather pattern. They say their weather is not normally this unsettled.

Byng Inlet to Little Current

2008-08-09T07:53:00.004-04:00

I am not including photos this time because our WiFi connection seems to be so slow that it times out before the photos are uploaded. They were great photos too!!!!
Our first night out of Byng Inlet was at the Bustard Islands where we anchored at the end of Gun Barrell. This was an interesting anchorage. Several of us anchored the bow and tied the stern to the shore which was a first for us. We were very close to shore which was a bit uncomfortable at first. We all fished and dingyed around the anchorage. The next day we entered Beaverstone Bay and went on into Mill Lake to anchor for the night. We began to see the white granite mountains in the distance to the north. In Mill Lake we met two looper boats we had not met before. One of the boats was from Wilmington, NC and they know Ron and Connie.

The next morning we traveled the Collins Inlet on into Killarney. The inlet is very narrow and lined with steep walls of granite. Barbara and Jim on Golden Lily saw a bear along the way. We had expected to have WiFi at Killarney but it was not available. We had mail sent to Killarney but it did not arrive before we left. Muriel loved Killarney, she said it made her feel like she was in the TV program Northern Exposure. It is that kind of town. We ate fish and chips at the red bus. They clean the fish on a fishing tug behind the bus and cook and serve the fish right from the boat. Our group took our dingys out to a popular anchorage called Covered Portage just to see the area and view the Indian head in the rocks. This is a place where the rocks look like the profile of a head when viewed from the correct place. There were 11 looper boats in Killarney before we left so we all got toghther for cocktails on the dock across the channel from town, 24 loopers. The party carried on into the night.

We left the next day about 11:30 am and ran to Baie Fine. This is one of the few fijords in North America. We ran to the end of the bay and passed through a narrow and shollow pass and then continued about another mile or two to the end of the bay, called the pool. This was a very protected anchorage. In the morning we all dingyed ashore and hiked up the mountain to Topaz Lake. This is a small lake in the granite near the top of the mountain. The water is topaz blue and very pretty. We found plentiful blue berries and together picked a ziploc bag full of berries. We were also able to take pictures looking down from the top into the pool where the boads were anchored. We did not get away until about 11:30 am again and ran into Little Current where the channel has a low bridge which opens on the hour for 15 minutes. We got there just as the bridge was closing so we had to wait for 45 minutes. Finally got into town and into the Spider Bay Marina which does have WiFi. We had an e-mail from the boat from Wilmington. They said the post master in Killarney got our mail on Friday and gave it to them to bring to us in Little Current. They will be here today, Saturday. Where else can you be for two days and the post master knows you well enough to find your mail and trust someone else to bring it to you. We love this place. Got to go, Carlie needs to go for her morning walk.

We got our mail yesterday. We walked into town to go to the farmer's market and ETC had arrived and was at the town dock, our mail in hand. Muriel bought some produce while I bought sweet rolls for a snack. Shelly finally found some moccasins which she has looked for since we got to Canada. It rained off and on all day and thunderstorms moved in during the late afternoon. We were in town again when it became evident the storms were coming. Shelly took off for the boat about 3/8 mile away (she was nearly running to beat the thunderstorm) and Muriel and I joined Peggy and Guy for a visit with Dianne and Lewis on Bella Luna. Afterward Muriel and Peggy walked to the grocery store while Guy and I hung out with Bella Luna. They finally returned with a person from the store driving them. We all rode back to the marina. We found Shelly lying on Blue Max. She had stubbed her toe on a cleat as she got to the boat. The toe looks bad. She said when she pulled her shoe off the toe was on top the toe next to it and then popped back into place. It is lacerated below the toe where it meets her foot. Looks painful.

It rained all night and is still raining today. Temperature in the high 50's wind to 30 knots and rain. This is the first day we have been held up for weather in some time. The forecast is for better weather for the next few days. We will probably be back in the US in about o week.

Penetangushene to Byng Inlet

2008-08-01T17:34:00.007-04:00

The Blue Max coming around the rock where Muriel thought we could not go. The second is Muriel swimming at Port Rawson Bay. The thire is "you mean we came through that narrow channel!!!" The fourth is our "Drink on the Rocks" party. The last photo is Shelly and Chip from Ithaka with the carin the built at the "Drink on the Rocks" site.

Seems like a lot of time and water has passed since we last were able to blog. We have been in areas so remote that cell service was not available. The cookout we shared in Penetanguishene with the other loopers was a great time. There was a happy and a sad side to the evening. Our first cruising friends on Bella Luna came into the marina in the afternoon. It was great to see them again, we had not seen them since New Jersey because they went on up through Lake Champlain to Montreal. The sad part was that Buddy, thier super sweet Black Lab, was in very bad health and had to be put down that evening. We all cried a little for them and for Buddy.

We left the next morning after having breakfast with Southern Comfort and Bella Luna on Bella Luna. Our group of four boats made the short trip to Frying Pan Bay on Beausoleil Island. This was our first anchorage in a long time. It was beautiful to be anchored in such surroundings.

On Monday we made another short trip to Twelve Mile Bay and anchored in the first cove to starboard after entering the Bay. Another beautiful anchorage. This was the first time we all went swimming since our evening dip in the port at Orilla. The next day we went on to Port Rawson Bay. This is a small bay at the end of about six miles of winding channel through breath taking scenery. At one place the channel got so obscure that Muriel looked across a small amount of water which probably was not six inches deep and exclaimed "We can't get through there!" We could see a 50 foot Sea Ray coming toward us on the other side. When he disappeared behind some rocks we knew we could make it too. We all swam again and fished and really enjoyed Port Rawson Bay. We took a dingy ride around some of the islands in the area and did some exploring on shore.

The next day we ran back down the channel and went to Killbear Marina. We met the boat Golden Lilly again at Killbear. We had seen them several times along the way and now there are five of us. We all left the next morning and went to Hopewell Bay and anchored for the night. There was another looper boat already in the anchorage when we arrived. Adagio was also a boat we had seen several times along the way so we invited them to join all of us for a drink "on the rocks" at five o'clock. We all dingyed over to the rocks on the shore to enjoy some conversation and beverage on the rocks. We were all very proud of Elieen on Blue Max when she got off the boat and into the dingy for the trip to shore. (She would not miss the social hour!) She had knee replacement shortly before their departure and has come a long way in manuvering on the boat. We all fished hard all afternoon and Chip on Ithaka was the only one to catch any thing.

On Friday we traveled on to Byng Inlet and Wright's Marina at Britt for two nights to fuel up with the most reasonable fuel in Georgian Bay and have WiFi. The women borrowed the marina's van and got into the general store for a little grocery shopping, they even have fresh baked goods. We will leave in the morning for the Bustard Islands and then the French River and on to Killarney. It will be a few days before we will be able to access the internet again. Everyone here says this is where the Bay is most beautiful. We are only making 1o to 20 miles each day, but we can not by pass all the beautiful anchorages.

Penetanguishene

2008-07-26T13:53:00.006-04:00

These photos are not from our current position. These are from the Trent Severn between Campbellford and Bobcaygen, we were not able to get them in before. The first is Ithaka running ahead of us when the weather was rainy.
The second photo is typical of the lakes in this area, every rock which is large enough has a cottage on it.
The next photo is a church we were told to watch for. It occupies the entire island and people arrive by boat and tie up behind the church.
The fourth photo is a typical scene with rocks sticking up out of the water all around.
The last photo is another cottage on a small rocky island. We took many, many photos of similar cottages.

On Wednesday we left Port Severn through the last lock of the Trent Severn, Lock 45. Below the lock is some of the most swirling current we have encountered to date, followed by a third current entering our course from the starboard. We all survived this and entered the Georgian Bay and crossed the end of the bay and went to Penetanguishene. This was to be the location for the AGLCA rendevouzs which was cancelled due to lack of attendance. There are enough loopers here that the Marina sponsored a wine and cheese social for loopers on our first night here followed by an informative session presented by the marina staff on cruising the Georgian Bay. They pointed out courses to follow and some not to follow and good anchorages and points of intrest such as water falls and lakes within hiking distance but not a part of the Bay. The next day many of us met again with the marina manager and reviewed and marked our charts. Since then our traveling group has met again to review our charts and lay out a tenative agenda for our cruise of the Bay. On Thursday evening we went to a local theater to see a play called "Sorry ...I Am Canadian." It was very entertaining and funny. It amounted to a trip across Canada with jokes and songs from each province. The main character was a Mounty who told of his travel experiences while a male quartet sang songs about the area. A family tap dance trio, a 17 year old borther and his two younger sisters, danced. The play was a great geography lesson about Canada and left all, Canadians and Americans feeling good about Canada. All the players were great.

On Friday we were treated to free transportation to Midland, a nearby town with more shopping than Penetang. In the evening all the loopers gathered at the gazebo on the marina grounds for munchies and drinks and exchangingraded lies. I got frustrated with our outboard on our dingy and traded it for a new 9.9 Hp Mercury. We decided we were not going to cruise the Bay with a motor we can not depend on to run. I am sure the problem is with the fuel system but I am through messing with it.

Today is Saturday, we got up and went to the laundry in the rain and then got the motor on the dingy. It is rainy and quite windy so we have not run it much yet.

Bella Luna and Phantom of the Aqua just arrived! We have not seen them since New Jersey. We are off to visit the people we began this trip with. ..... Bad news, their dog, Buddy, a black lab who is one of the sweetest dogs ever is not doing well. He is quite old and they think his heart is giving out. They left with him to go to the vet as soon as they stepped off the boat.

The wind is howling her right now.

All the loopers are having a cookout this evening. Muriel is making potato salad right now.

Orillia to Big Chute and on to Port Severn

2008-07-22T13:52:00.007-04:00

The first photo shows Ithaka and Southern Comfort leading us into a very narrow passage which is typical in this area.
The photo above shows Southern Comfort in the deepest lock in the Trent Severn.

This is where Carlie spends most of the travel time. The next photo shows the railcar at the Big Chute Railway coming out of the water at the top of the railway with two run abouts and a 50 foot Ocean Alexander hanging out the back. The larger inboard boats hang out this way to keep the props off the floor. The last photo shows the Big Chute where the Severn River used to flow down the gorge now by passed by the railway.

Orillia was a real treat. We arrived Thursday afternoon and got settled at the Port of Orillia marina, Chip went fishing and Chip caught two very nice small mouth bass. Shelly caught nothing. This was the first time Chip beat Shelly. Chip cleaned the fish for a future fish fry. Afterward most of us went in for a quick swim and felt very refreshed. Friday was a day of relaxation and wandering around town. Of course Muriel and the ladies found a very nice bakery, great food and many free samples. Friday evening we all shared Ceasar drinks, a Canadian Bloody Mary made by Chip, our official Canadian by birth, on Ithaka, aeh!!! This is a Canadian Bloody Mary, with a touch of celery salt and clamato juice instead of tomato juice, it is quite refreshing. On Saturday morning we started with a trip to the local farmer's market. Muriel bought many veggies. At noon the Scottish Festival started with a parade right past the Port of Orillia and ending in the park adjacent to the marina. There were 25 drum and bagpipe bands from all around Ontario in the parade along with the Shriners on their little cars. After the parade we walked over to the park and got hot dogs for lunch and watched the bands perform in mass and some highland dancing. By evening we were glad to get back to the boats and rest a little. The marina filled with looper boats on Saturday so we decided to leave so that the waterway was not too conjested with loopers.

We left Orillia Sunday morning in fairly heavy rain which let up shortly after we got away and visibility improved to a reasonable amount. (We do not have this area on our GPS so we either follow the other boats or we navigate by following the paper charts.) Traveling through more unbelievable scenery we arrived at the deepest lock on the Trent Severn, a 47 foot lift in one lock. This was impressive. Shortly we arrived at the Big Chute Railway. This is called lock 44, however, it is not a lock. It is a railway which runs down into the water on one side of the hill and the boats drive onto the car, which is huge, it can hold two run about boats and a 5o foot trawler at the same time, or several run abouts. We tied up to the public dock and watched and took pictures on Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening Shelly hooked the largest fish yet. It was a northern pike about two feet long. It got off as she attemped to lift it onto the boat. Fortunately several people saw it to verify her fish story.

On Monday morning at 8:00 am we all moved over to the blue line to be ready to transit the railway when it opened at 8:30. Ithaka was first to load, next went Blue Max. Just as Blue Max got to the rail car a squal hit with lightning and high winds making it very difficult for Bill to manuver onto the car. He got side ways to the entrance of the car just as lightning hit the system and knocked out all the power so the crew on the car were unable to assist with the lift straps. Bill managed to back away without mishap and return to the blue line to tie back up. This all happened about 8:45. We waited until about 4:00pm before power was restored so that the rest of us could transit the lift. All was not bad, we enjoyed the day after the storm passed wandering about the area and taking more pictures. The site includes a display of the original power generation turbines and generator.

The scenery beyond the chute was beautiful in the afternoon sun. We passed through one very narrow channel between shear granite walls where the current can reach 5 knots. It was not quite that swift for our transit but we certainly picked up speed through the channel. We are at Driftwood Cove marina in Port Severn today. This is a beautiful, Muriel complains that I use that adjative too frequently but what else can I say, setting right at the beginning to Gerogain Bay.

This morning I accompanied Blue Max to another marina where he had an appointment to haul out to replace a thru-hull fitting. After he was hauled they discovered they did not have the correct valve so they took off to locate a valve in another town. Ithaka also went over to the same marina to get his oil changed. The mechanic did not understand Ithaka's oil changer system and had a valve set wrong so when he thought he was pumping oil back into the engine he was in fact pumping it into the generator set. This over filled the gen set and forced the oil above the pistons which locked the engine. They say they may have to pull the gen set and it will be a week before they get it back. "If you want it done right do it yourself."

We just received our chart card for our GPS and it is great to see navigational aids again. Ithaka has made arrangements to get their gen set straightned out on the way and 'Blue Max is back in the water so we will all leave tomorrow morning for Pentanguishene.

Forward from Peterborough

2008-07-18T09:45:00.003-04:00

The photo below is the view of Bobcageon from our boat on the wall. The next photo is typical of a house taking the entire island. The third photo is typical scene along the waterway. The fourth photo was taken from our boat as we ascended the lift lock at Kirkfield. The fifth photo is the Kirkfield Lift Lock.

We have been unable to blog since we were in Peterborough because we have not been anywhere that had WiFi available.

We left Peterborough on Sunday morning because there were so many looper boats in Peterborough we thought it would spread the boats out in the canal system if we went ahead and moved on. Muriel decided she would get up early and get some laundry done in the marina laundry. Good idea except several others had the same idea. By the time Muriel got her laundry going the boats we travel with were all out on the water and talking to each other on the VHF radio about where we were and that we were waiting for Muriel to finish her laundry. As Muriel finished and walked down the dock with her clean laundry everyone in the marina knew who the boats were waiting for. The second lock for the day was the famous Peterborough Lift Lock. This is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. The boats drive into a huge tank and the doors are closed. There are two tanks, which oppose each other, when one is up the other is down. The top tank is always filled one foot deeper than the lower tank so that it is heavier. The weight of the top tank brings it down on a large hydraulic cylinder and the pressure is piped to the cylinder under the other tank and causes it to rise. It is quite an experience to ride on your boat 69 feet up into the air. The photos do not do it justice.

We made a short day on Sunday and stopped on the wall at the Lakefield lock. This was just a concrete wall at the lock out in the country. We stopped early because Blue Max was having cooling problems during the run and we all stopped at one of the lock walls to resoilllve the problem. Bill went in the water and under his boat in the middle of the canal, expecting to find grass and weed stopping his water intake. He could not find anything so Guy, from Southern Comfort, got out his SCUBA gear and went under the boat and still could not find anything. The next step was to start disassembling the raw water system, Bill had been having some problems and had already checked the normal problem areas. We finally found mussell shells and grass had plugged the unlet line to the raw water strainer. After digging this out of the inlet elbow, we continued on the the Lakefield Lock for the night.

The next day we ran on to the town of Bobcageon where three of the boats got into the marina and we tied up on the wall. This was the prettiest run yet. The area around Hell's Gate was very rocky and rugged. Bobcageon is a beautiful little town and we enjoyed walking around. There is a shoe store which stocks 40,000 pairs of shoes. Muriel did not buy any! The Bakery was great too. Our refrigerator had quit working on 12 VDC so I spent time figuring out the problem and bought some new wire at the hardware store to rewire it. As usual the local people were delightful. We were on the wall two boats in front of a Canadian couple we had met in Picton so we got to visit with them some more. The boat right behind us was a local couple who spend their summers here boating and the winters in Florida in their motorhome. The said they have aquired maps of Lake Norman and want to trailer a boat to the lake to explore the lake. They were asking about transient dockage. We told them there is very little available on the lake so we would be happy for them to tie up at our dock in 2009 when they plan to be on the lake.

From Bobcageon we ran to the Kirkfield Lift Lock, another hydraulic lift lock. We tied up to the wall just below the lift and walked up the a small resturant for dinner to celebrate Guy and Peggy's 24th anniversery.

The next day's run took us across Lake Simcoe which is the largest lake on the Trent Severn Waterway and has a reputation for becoming very rough with a west wind. We had allowed for an extra day to wait for good weather if necessary but the weather could not have been better for our crossing. We arrived at Orillia, Ontario about 4:00 yesterday. We plan to stay here until Sunday. When we leave we will probably have two more days before we arrive at Port Severn which is the end of the Trent Severn. From there we will enter the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. This us said to be the most beautiful cruising area of the Loop.

Continuing from Campbellford to Hastings

2008-07-09T17:29:00.007-04:00

The first photo is the suspension bridge Muriel and I rode bikes to below Campbellford. The second photo is the looper group tied to the wall in Campbellford. From right to left is Sunshine, Ithaka, Southern Comfort, a couple of local boats and then Blue Max. The Old Mill Park is in the background. I took the last photo from the bridge right behind Sunshine, Muriel and Shelly are on the sundeck at the rear of the boat.

On Wednesday we ran from Campbellford to Hastings which is only 27 nautical miles with six locks. We arrived about 3:00 pm. The marina is only three years old and is very nice and as usual, the people are unbelievably nice. We ran through some very heavy rain which reduced visibility to a few hundred yards in a narrow, winding section. We slowed up and followed Southern Comfort. They have the area on their chart plotter. We are using paper charts and dead reconing for the Trent Severn. All went well. We arrived at the last lock of the day as the weather cleared. While we were in the lock it began to pour rain again so the lock tender had all of us tie into position and wait out the heavy rain. We all still got wet. We did not take any pictures today before arriving in Hastings. It is beautifully sunny but quite windy right now. It is forecast to be 50 degrees tonight. Good sleeping!
Hastings was so comfortable we spent a second day there and just enjoyed the area. Shelly and Chip from Ithaka spent most of the day fishing from the dam and spillway near the lock. Shelly caught two small fish. In the evening all the people from the transient boats got together for some drinks in the park at the marina. The people are so much fun, they make the day.
On Friday we moved on to Peterborough, ON. We had only one lock to transit and it was at the end of the day. We crossed Rice Lake, which is one of the largest lakes on the Trent Severn, shortly after leaving Hastings. The Lake has many islands and beautiful homes and lodges line the shores. We left the lake and continued up the Otonabee River to Peterborough. Much of the river bank is unsettled and lined with marsh, trees, and ferns. The rest of the river bank is scattered with small fishing cottages. There are large homes scattered in with the cottages.
Peterborough is the largest city in this area with much to see and do. Everyone says not to travel during the weekends because there is so much local boat traffic that the locks become quite crowded so we will stay here until Monday. There is a canoe and kayak museum here which Muriel and I will probably visit today. There is an open air concert in the park adjacent to the marina tonight followed by a fireworks display and today there is a farmers market here. This is also the site of the very unusual hydraulic lift lock. It is like two large tanks into which the boats are driven then as one goes up the other goes down. The weight of the upper tank forces the lower tank up. We will include photos.

2008-07-08T10:05:00.004-04:00

The first photo is the patio at Frazier's Trenton Marina where we all gathered to socialize. The next photo is the flower garden in the park at Frazier's. The third photo is the bridge just up stream from the marina. The fourth photo is one on the locks on the Trent Severn Waterway. The fifth photo is Blue Max, Southern Comfort and Sunshine in a lock together. We have run together the past couple of days. We just fit into the locks.
On Sunday, July 6, we left Picton, ON and ran to Trenton which is where we begin the Trent Severn Waterway. This is said to be one of the prettiest parts of the Loop. We stayed at Frazier's Marina right at the mouth of the Trent River. The couple who run the marina, Craig and Sandy, are very pleasant and fun to visit with. They loaned me a bike so I could ride out to a WalMart to get fishing tackle for Shelly. Then Sandy drove us to a store so Shelly could get a liscense. Their ice cream at the marina is good too! We were glad to find Our Way at the marina. We have not seen them since back in NJ. We and several other loopers visited with Craig and Sandy on the patio at the marina until after dark and Muriel still had to fix dinner.

Yesterday, Monday, we left Trenton, ON about mid-morning and started our cruise up the Trent Severn Waterway to the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. It was one of the hottest days of travel so far and we ran 12 locks and made only 29 nautical miles. We did not arrive in Campbellford until after 6:00pm. There were six looper boats running along somewhat together. The locks will only hold 3 of us at a time without rafting together so three of the boats were about 30 minutes ahead of us. All except Our Way decided to stop at Campbellford and spend a day resting and visiting the town.
Today, Tuesday, was another beautiful day in paradise. Muriel and I borrowed Southern Comfort's bikes and rode back to the last lock we passed on the way here so we could walk across a foot traffic suspension bridge. The view of the falls and the river below was well worth the ride. Shelly and Peggy went shopping while Guy worked on his computer. The Bakery here is the best! We have been there twice and Muriel and some other loopers went to the local chocolate factory. The chocolate is delicious and too cheap.
We are not calling very much because cell phone time costs us $.99 per minute while we are in Canada.
Bud

Oswego, NY to Picton, ON

2008-07-05T12:55:00.006-04:00

The first photo shows Carlie as she spent most of the time we were out of sight of land crossing Lake Ontario. The second photo is our July 4 picnic with Guy and Peggy from Southern Comfort on the waterfront in Picton.

Thursday was just a prdicted, rain, sometimes heavy, and windy. Lake Ontario was no place for us that day. We were able to walk into town in the afternoon and eat lunch and look around. We even re-visited the post office where Muriel fell the day before. We were up at 4:45 am on Friday and departed Oswego a little before 6:00 am. The lake still had a roll from the previous day's blow but as the morning progressed the roll laid down and the lake was very smooth. We made the crossing with two other boats, Southern Comfort and Ithaka. Guy on Southern Comfort suggested we get out the water skis because the lake was so smooth. Carlie was really funny during our crossing of the lake. We were out of sight of land for about two hours and during that time she insisted on being held in someone's lap. As soon as we were well in sight of land again she was fine nd rested on her bed on the flybridge. We entered Canadian waters at False Duck Island and ran down Adolphus Reach to Picton, a quaint little town, where we cleared Canadian Customs by telephone.

We quickly met other boaters, both loopers and local people. The local couple gave Muriel and Peggy a ride to the grocery store so they were able to get hot dogs, watermelon, and strawberries for a July 4 party. We are tied to a wall with Southern Comfort right behind us so Guy grilled the dogs on their boat and we moved a picnic table into the shade of their boat and shared our dinner. Afterward the local couple joined in and came to our boat and we all had strawberry shortcake and whipped cream for dessert and enjoyed the conversation on boating and local lore.

This morning we walked a very short distance to a restaurant they had recommended and enjoyed breakfast. Afterward Muriel and Shelly and I walked the main street of Picton and bought steaks for dinner tonight. We left Shelly in town to get here nails done. She is also dying to get some fishing tackle and a liscense. The fishing in the local waters is supposed to be great for Walleye, Northern Pike and Salmon. The weather is beautiful, lows 50's in the morning and afternoon highs in the low 70's. We decided to stay here tonight and leave tomorrow for Trenton where we will enter the Trent Severn Canal for a 240 mile passage to the Gerogian Bay.

We received a call from Jeff this morning. He and Anne are cruising the Abacos and having a good time. They are starting to watch a tropical depression which has formed in the eastern Atlantic.

Awaiting a weather window in Oswego

2008-07-03T08:50:00.009-04:00

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The first photo is the water fall over the dam at a lock we had just come down through on the Oswego River. The next photo shows the two boats we are traveling with right now entering the last lock at Oswego. The lead boat is Ithaka from Florida and the second boat is Southern Comfort, also from Florida. The third photo is typical of the beautiful condition of the New York Canal System. We are very impressed with the way New York maintains the canals and the people who operate them. The next photo is out of order but it is the sign at the intersection of the Erie and the Oswego canals. The last photo is the light house at the entrance of the Oswego River from Lake Ontario. This is where we will exit tomorrow to make the 40 mile crossing of the lake.
Our transmission repairs were completed on Tuesday afternoon so we prepared to leave Wednesday morning for the run to Oswego, NY which is the jumping off point for crossing Lake Ontario for Canada. We had a beautifully sunny day for the trip up the Oswego River through eight locks and arrived in Oswego by mid afternoon. Since we had mail send to general delivery at the Oswego post office, Muriel and I took off to get our mail. As we walked through town following a map to the post office Muriel became convinced the map and I were wrong and the post office was going to be in a building with a flag on it in the opposite direction from which we were headed. She was looking backwards. Suddenly I heard this sound of grunts and groans and turned to find Muriel crumpled on the ground. She had walked through some detour signs which had been placed on the side walk. She had stepped into a steel cross brace which ran horozontal about 9 inches above the ground. This was a perfect trip wire which busted her shin wide open. We were in front of a convenience store and a man who was pumping gas came running up and it took he and I to get Muriel back on her feet. She already had a golf ball size knot on her shin with blood running down into her shoe. There were several other bruises on her right shin and the left had a smaller bloody spot on it. We got her to the store and got a wet napkin and some ice. I left her sitting on a drink display outside the store and went two blocks to the post office. When I got back I told Muriel we would get a cab back to the marina. She refused and said she would find someone to take her back. A woman in the parking lot said she would be glad to take us to the marina.
As soon as we got back we got Guy and Peggy from Southern Comfort to help bandage her. They were both in the medical corps in the Army.
The right leg became so painful about an hour afterward that Muriel could not stand on it. After resting for a couple hours she managed to get up and walk a little and get to the bed. This morning she has aches and pains in numerous places but she is a trooper. She is in the galley fixing breakfast, and looking forward to a day of rest, since the weather is keeping us from traveling.

Killing Time in Brewerton

2008-06-29T22:09:00.005-04:00

We are attaching several photos of our trip to the falls and several from our trip up the Hudson River.
We drove to Niagara Falls today. It was very windy, but we had a great time and enjoyed all the spray from the falls. We rode the Angel of the Mist boat to the falls and walked the trail from the boat landing to the falls, we were pretty wet by this time. We walked over to GOAT island and walked the rim while the sun was shining. Then the shower came and we ran to Hard Rock Cafe much to Shelly's delight. We were going to the Canadian side, but there was so much spray and so many people on the Canadian side--they're celebrating Canada Day--that we decided not to cross. We heard it was taking a long time to clear customs. and saw the line of traffic.
Jeff called right after we arrived back at Sunshine. He and Anne are at Green Turtle Key in the Abacos and are having a great time. He asked me to call Bill Gorton, Anne's father, and update him. When I talked to Bill he was in Niagara Falls. We were both there this afternoon but did not know it at the time.

Hello From Brewerton, NY

2008-06-28T21:45:00.006-04:00

The first photo is Sunshine entering Lock E17 on the Erie Canal. This is the highest lift on the Erie, 41.5 feet. Instead of swing gates this lock has a guillotine gate and the boat drives into the lock through the opening in the wall. The second photo is Shelly tending a line to hold our boat next to the wall while the lock is filled to lift us to the next level.
We crossed Lake Onieda yesterday. The weather was beautiful for our crossing. We have stopped for a few days at Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, NY. They are going to remove our port transmission again Monday because it is still leaking some oil. We want to get it right before we hit the Great Lakes. This marina has herbs growing in planters along the dock and they tell boaters to pick what they need to use.
We had two new experiences yesterday. We all three got our hair cut at the same time in the same shop and I took Muriel to the laundromat in a Mercedes, a courtesy car at the marina. Today we rented a car so we can drive to Niagara Falls tomorrow. It is about 150 miles from here.
Muriel was excited about her trip to the grocery store today. The store, Wegmans, is world class in selection and quality. She says it was more an experience than grocery shopping.
Bud, Muriel and Shelly

Waterford, NY to Sylvan Beach, NY

2008-06-26T16:31:00.004-04:00

These pictures are of the boats on the wall of the canal in Waterford. Then Shelly showing our looper flag on the Hudson River. Muriel and Shelly tending lines to hold the boat next to a wall inside a lock until we rose the 20 feet to the next level. The next picture shows a dam to the right and the entrance of a lock on the left as we approached. The last photo is looking out the front of our boat after the lock is filled and before the gates opened to let us continue along the canal.
We enjoyed Waterford so much we stayed several days. It was great to get back together with other loopers. There were several looper boats on the wall there and we quickly made new friends. We enjoyed the short walk into town for several meals and the Sunday farmer's market was a real treat. Muriel walked across a bridge over the Hudson River a couple of times to shop for groceries. The store would allow boaters to push the cart back to the waterfront and they pick them up on Saturdays. Muriel won a Waterford shirt for helping the dockmaster locate his keys.
On Monday, June 23, we finally got away from Waterford and began our trip through the Erie Canal. This began with five locks which raised us 169 feet. We ran a total of 9 locks that day. Muriel and Shelly handled the lines to hold the boat in position while the locks filled with water to raise us to the next level. We stopped for the night at Amsterdam, NY. There was not very much of interest for us there. The next morning we moved on through several more locks and stopped for the night at Little Falls, NY. We were joined there by a couple we had run with in the Chesapeake Bay. We are traveling with a couple from Tupelo, MS so the group of us met on the front porch of the visitor center for snacks and libations. We enjoyed a nice visit with the dockmaster who filled us in on the local history and community information. Afterward we walked into town for an excellent meal. The prices were low and we had such large servings that the pot roast dinners Shelly and I had served the three of us again last night.
On Wednesday we ran from Little Falls to Sylvan Beach. This is where the Erie Canal crosses Lake Onieda which is 25 miles across. Our three boats were able to tie up for free at the canal wall. We all enjoyed a walk through the town to locate the ice cream place and then return to the boats for dinner and then return for ice cream for dessert. This morning it was raining with "possibly severe thunderstorms" popping up around mid day. We decided to stay put but one boat decided to go ahead and cross the lake. They called back and said they had a very smooth crossing.
The canal countryside has been quite pretty. We have enjoyed the sights and the people have been very pleasant. I will try to get some pictures attached this time.

Catskill to Waterford

2008-06-20T14:39:00.002-04:00

After a slow start we got away from Catskill about 11:00 am. We immediately noticed that the river was changing from steep, wooded banks to much flatter terrain. Still quite pretty. At one point we saw two yearling deer on the bank. When our boat's wake started coming into their little section of beach they began to play with it, running along with it then chasing each other. Farther up stream we saw an eagle sitting on an old drift wood log. A little later Shelly saw a flock of wild turkey on the bank. Soon we passed through Albany, NY. Muriel was quite taken by all the beautiful old buildings in the downtown district. Next came Troy and the "federal" lock, the start of our many locks to come on the Erie Canal. We have stopped just above the federal lock and just short of the first Erie Canal lock at Waterford. Last night there was no space left on the free floating dock so we had to tie in along a concrete wall. This offered Muriel and Shelly a challenge getting on and off the boat. The deck of the boat was several feet below the top of the wall. Along the wall is a park and walk depicting the Erie Canal. They have done a good job of beautifying the area to attract boats to stop, including free dockage, electricity, showers, and coffee. This morning we were able to move from the wall to the floating dock.
We plan to start through the canal tomorrow morning.

Haverstraw - West Point - & on to Catskill

2008-06-18T21:43:00.004-04:00

While we were waiting out a rainy day in Haverstraw I decided that the outboard motor for the dingy was running so poorly that I could not make matters worse by tearing into it. After completely disassembling the carburetor and cleaning all pieces with acetone the little motor runs very well.
On Tuesday we rented a car and drove about 12 miles to West Point for a guided tour of the academy. The tour guide made the tour very nice. His son graduated from the Academy and he was quite proud of him and all that it stand for. We got to tour inside the chapel, what an impressive sight. The stained glass windows are full of history.
This morning we got an early start and ran 64 miles to Catskill, NY. The weather and the scenery were both beautiful. West Point was nearly as impressive from the water as the tour. The river narrows up above Haverstraw but it gets much deeper and begins to have islands scattered around. Shelly enjoyed the several lighthouses we passed. We arrived early enough to enjoy a stroll through the little village and returned for a very good Italian dinner. The little marina is very nice.

Newport, NJ

2008-06-16T21:24:00.004-04:00

Well I caught the devil for saying we were in Jersey City. We were in Newport, NJ, I still do not know the difference. But we had strong thunder storms Saturday evening. As soon as they let up we ventured out to walk down the street to find the local pizza house. The pizza was very good but the storms started back while we were eating so we decided to return to the boat and do our grocery shopping in the morning. The whole reason for spending the night at Newport was so Muriel could see the New York skyline at night. The rain mostly obscured the view but Muriel got up in the middle of the night and got a better view. In the morning we walked several blocks to an A&P and while Muriel shopped, Shelly and I walked to a nearby Home Depot and got here a Dremmel so she can drill holes in sea shells to make necklaces.
We finally got underway about 11:00 and run up through New York City and on up the Hudson River to Haverstraw, NY. As we approached the George Washington Bridge we ran into a rain that nearly obscured the bridge and the shoreline. It was short lived and the rest of the day was pleasant but overcast. We were amazed at the amount of barge traffic on up the River. It was amazing how quickly the river bank changes from city to beautiful countryside. To the west the river bank becomes cliffs, some rising 500 feet from the river. We saw things we had no idea to expect. Among them was Sing Sing prison. In the Haverstraw area the river is at its widest and the sailboats are numerous and were enjoying a beautiful sailing day.

We are going to layover in Haverstraw tomorrow and rent a car so we can drive up to West Point and get a tour of the academy.

Underway Again

2008-06-14T13:32:00.004-04:00

After nearly a week awaiting repairs to our transmission, they were completed about noon on Thursday. We were so eager to get going again that we decided to start immediately. We said good-bye to our new friends, the dockmaster and crew at Brielle Yacht Basin, with hugs and kisses and headed out about 1:00 pm for Great Kills Yacht Club. This is a very nice yacht club on Staten Island, just below New York. From here we rode the express bus into New York again and took a tour bus through the city. Shelly was determined to see Chinatown so we left the tour there and walked around Chinatown and ate lunch there. Next we went over to Little Italy for dessert and bought T shirts . Then walked back to catch the bus back to Staten Island. The girls truly enjoyed NYC.
We had planned to get a lesurely start on Saturday and just run a few miles up into the Hudson River and spend the night at Newport Marina directly across from the City so we can see the city lights at night. Several boats have said it is worth the stop to see the City at night. Muriel and I woke early and decided to go ahead and get started. We were under way before 7:00 am and in the marina and tied up by 9:00. Everyone has said to avoid NYC on weekends because of congestion in the harbor. Probably because we were early, unusual for the Lovetts, we saw very few pleasure boats. There were plenty of ships in and around the harbor but we were never intimidated by any of the traffic. There has been a poker run going on out on the river today so we are glad we got here before that started. Muriel and Shelly wore out the camera batteries taking pictures of the ships and the Statue of Liberty. We expected to see pleasure boats anchored behind the Statue but there were none today. Muriel is doing laundry and I have been cleaning up on the boat. We will probably walk into Jersey City this evening and get some pizza since we have not had pizza in New York. We plan to get an early start in the morning and get a ways up the River.

2008-06-08T21:28:00.004-04:00

On Friday we cruised on through the NJICW to Manasquan, NJ. More of the beautiful NJ shore scenery. We are in a marina right at the Manasquan Inlet. The current is tremendous because of the large area which drains and fills through the narrow draw bridge next to the marina. When I checked the engines yesterday I found the port transmission was low on fluid and there are signs that it is leaking at both front and rear. After a restless night I decided this morning not to continue on to NY with our traveling partners but to stay here and get the transmission fixed. We have talked with a mechanic, who comes highly recommended, and he has a cancellation Monday so he will be here in the morning to start on our transmission.
Since we're stuck here we decided on the spur of the moment to hop on a train and go into NY City. We got lucky and made a train which was running a little late which gave us time to get aboard. As we were arriving at Penn Station a nice woman introduced herself and said she had overheard our conversation and realized we needed some advice and helped us navigate through the station. She led us through the station and through the subways to get us into the Rockefeller Center area. From there we walked all afternoon and saw many of the local sights. We had to take Muriel's picture sitting on a park bench in Central Park. Shelly had to have her picture taken in front of the Trump Tower. We took a cab back to Penn Station. Muriel says it brought back memories of riding cabs in Jaurez, Mexico.
We made it back to Manasquan in time to take Carlie out for a late run and for us eat a late snack dinner of left-overs.

Sunshine enters NJ

2008-06-07T17:37:00.002-04:00

On Sunday, June 1, we ran down the C&D canal from Chesapeake City into Delaware Bay. We had a fantastic run down the Bay -- the winds were very light so the water was flat and the flies were eating us alive. Nothing we had on board would keep them from biting. I had blood running down my legs. Muriel and Shelly were still thankful for the light winds in spite of the flies. At the mouth of Delaware Bay we entered the Cape May Canal. What a shock! Traffic was heavy in the canal and none of the large sport fishing boats slowed for anyone, even when asked and cussed and gestured. We entered Utch's Marina where we spent several days while Bella Luna got an injector tube replaced.
We ate dinner the first night at the Lobster House Restaurant which was a 5 star restaurant. They have table cloth dining, all the way down to take out and eat on the pier. The food was fantastic and reasonable. On Wednesday Muriel needed sour cream and there were no stores nearby so she went to the Lobster House and they gladly sold her a cup. Muriel enjoyed Cape May's old houses. They had lots of gingerbread on them and looked like doll houses.
Since we knew we were there for a while, we rented a car so that we could gather the supplies we needed. I got to a Lowes and got the plywood I needed to finish shelves in Shelly's hanging locker and Muriel and Dianne stocked up on groceries.
We got under way again early on Thursday and ran on the inside up the NJ ICW with two other looper boats. We ran past Ocean City and Atlantic City. The ICW runs right through the back yards of houses in these areas. We anchored for the night about 7 miles north of Atlantic City out in the marshes but still within sight of the lights of Atlantic City.
The place we chose to anchor was influenced by the need to get the dogs ashore. It had very strong tidal current and as soon as Shelly, Dianne, and I got ashore with the dogs Bella Luna began to drag anchor. Muriel noticed Bella Luna approaching just in time to shout at Louis so he could get his engines started and avoid the problem.

Sunshine after Annapolis

2008-05-31T11:29:00.002-04:00

On Memorial Day we rode a shuttle van from the marina into downtown Annapolis and took a trolley tour through the historic district and over the Severn River to a WWII Memorial Monument with a beautiful view of Annapolis back across the river. After the trolley ride we were ready for some ice cream. Then we visited the Annapolis Naval Academy. We especially wanted to visit the chapel which was supposed to be open. We walked to every door and were only able to look inside through the windows. The chapel seats 2500 midshipmen. It is a very impressive building.
After three days in Annapolis we finally got someone to service the refrigerator. It required only a cooling fan and it is back in operation. Everything seemed to come together for us on Wednesday. The new computer arrived, our mail from home arrived, a woman from the marina office took me to lunch with her so that I could purchase a new camera, and the refrigerator was back in operation. By 2:00 we were ready to be back on the water so we left the Chesapeake Harbor in Annapolis and went to Rock Hall, just across the Bay. This is a small quaint town with a grocery store within walking distance. We got a ride to the store and walked back with as much as we thought we could carry for a mile back.
The next day we enjoyed a very pleasant cruise up the Bay and up the Sasafrass River to Georgetown, MD. Muriel and I toured the Kitty Knight House which is two Revolutionary War era homes which are now joined into a beautiful restaurant and bed and breakfast. The marina did not have cable TV on the dock so we had to ferry across the river to another facility so Shelly could watch the last episode of Lost and walk back to the boat at 11:00pm.
On Friday morning we left Georgetown and cruised on up to Chesapeake City, arriving about 1:00. Dianne and the three of us walked through the old town district. The ladies were struck with the quaintness of the village and all the beautiful blooming flowers. Muriel and Dianne decided this is a perfect place to live and open a grocery store for cruisers. (Wonder how many villages will be "perfect places to live" before we finish this trip.) As we walked down one of the streets the entire view was suddenly filled by a large ship headed to Baltimore through the canal. Some of the locals said the ship was hauling 6900 automobiles. What a sight to see such a large ship in such a small canal.
Today is Saturday. We are sitting in the harbor at Chesapeake waiting for a storm front to pass before we transit the C&D canal and make our run down the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ. We just met a fellow on the dock who has lived nearby all his life. He said that 18 years ago you would not have wanted to set foot in the town because it was quite run down and not safe. The town was built as a construction village for the construction of the canal and afterwards was left to deteriorate. Mrs. RC DuPont, who also lived nearby, took an interest in the village and began buying properties and returning them to their original condition.
The rain has just started. It is expected to move through the area this evening and tomorrow looks good for our trip down Delaware Bay. We hope to learn how to get some pictures on the blog soon.

2008-05-25T19:50:00.003-04:00

We're back!!! We have not updated for several days due to problems with our laptop. We hope these are now resolved.
We enjoyed three days at Portsmouth. Muriel found a car at the marina with a tag "Muriel H." Hoger was her maiden name.
We are learning to walk whereever we need to go.
On Monday, we left Portsmouth for Deltaville, about a 50 mile day. The wind had some ideas of its own. We had 20 to 25 knot winds from the west. Crossing the mouth of Mobjack Bay was quite a ride. Shelly was wanting to call the Coast Guard to come remove her from the boat. We had 4 to 6 foot seas and heavy spray over the flybridge. The boat handled it much better than the crew. We only broke a few things but spent a lot of time picking up the mess inside the boat. We made the trip with two other looper boats. Upon arrival at Deltaville we celebrated with a couple of shots of some very smooth peach shine. We spent two days at Dossier's Marina in Deltaville. This is a beautiful marina run by great people. We borrowed their courtesy car and the seven of us piled in, literally, and went to the Dollar General, West Marine, and grocery store before enjoying lunch in Deltaville.
On Wednesday we made a short hop up to Riedsville in beautiful weather. We anchored in the harbor there and dingyed ashore to see some of the town. Louis Wade found the ice cream shop. We all enjoyed ice cream. (Louis never misses an ice cream shop. He even has an ice cream maker on board.)
On Thursday we moved on to Solomans Island, Md. and stayed at the Spring Cove Marina. Another beautiful facility. We walked and the others rode their bikes into town for lunch on Friday. On the way back Muriel, Shelly, and I heard a singer performing on the back of a charter fishing boat at Bunky's Charter Boats. He sounded good so we joined the group and enjoyed listening. Soon we began to realize they all knew each other. Then we noticed a spray of flowers on two of the boats. When we left I asked one of group, John, what was happening. He explained that Bunky had died and seven boats had taken him out for a burial at sea and returned to celebrate his life.
It was upon arrival at Solomon's that Muriel realized that our refrigerator was not working. I spent quite a while Friday on the phone trying to locate someone to work on it. It has to be someone authorized to perform warranty work. I have finally located one shop which will try to work us in on Tuesday.
Today we ran on up to Annapolis because this is where we need to be to get the work done. It was a perfect day on the Chesapeake Bay. Upon arrival at Annapolis we toured through the harbor. This was quite an experience on Memorial Day weekend. More boats than you can imagine.
It has been great receiving responses from friends.
Bud, Muriel, and Shelly

2008-05-16T21:44:00.003-04:00

On Thursday we traveled from Belhaven up the pungo/alligator canal, which is a long straight ditch with trees lining both sides, to the Alligator River. The Alligator River becomes very wide and open. It flows into the Albemarble Sound. The Albemarble is dreaded by many loopers because it is a very open and very shallow body of water which becomes very rough when a little wind blows. We were very fortunate to cross on a day when the wind was moderate. The waves were about two feet. Some who crossed a couple of hours ahead of us swore the waves were three to four feet. Shelly sat in her first mate's seat and held on for dear life. Muriel handled it very well. We were barely able to see land for see land for several hours. Finally the trees began to take shape and Shelly's white knuckles began to take on some color again. We motored into Elizabeth City and tied up to their free municipal docks. The mayor helped us tie up to the docks. The city prides itself as being a boater friendly community. They treat visiting boaters to free wine and cheese each evening. Naturally Muriel accepted graciously. They did have a beer for the likes of me.

Today we got up early again in order to make the scheduled opening of the bridge at Elizabeth City to continue up the Paxatank River and into the Dismal Swamp canal. It rained early in the day but the swamp was so beautiful that the rain could not distract from it. Muriel says the rain added to the beauty. As the day went on the sun finally broke out as we continued the 22 mile run up the canal. We got our first experience with transiting a lock. Shelly and Muriel handled the lines very well. In the middle of the swamp is a brand new visitor center. We were held up there for a while because a trawler further up the canal had gotten hung-up on a submerged vehicle. The waterway was closed while divers searched the area and got the vehicle removed. We rafted up with 12 other cruising boats at the visitor center and expected we might be stuck there for the night. It was a fun experience visiting with all the other boaters. They got the vehicle removed and reopened the waterway so the twelve boats continued in caravan on up the waterway. We ran our second lock and continued on to Norfolk. We are in the Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth, Va, across the water from Norfolk. We have a magnificent view of the Norfolk skyline tonight.

2008-05-14T21:13:00.004-04:00

We joined up with Louis and Dianne Wade in Moorehead City on Monday. They are a couple we met at the Great Loop Cruiser's Association meeting in Charleston last month. They are very pleasant people who are heading out to do the "Loop" also. They have a beautiful 40 foot Cape Dory Trawler and are traveling with their ten year old black lab, Buddy. After a one day layover in Moorehead City for a very windy day, we left Moorehead City at 7:00 am. We took on fuel and got away about 7:30. We had a beautiful, sunny day with very light winds to cross the Nuese River and the Pamlico River and continue up to Bellhaven, NC. A trip of about 75 miles, (remember, we travel at about 8 mph). We were constantly surprised by the number of boats headed in the same direction as us. We had a nice wine and cheese hour with other cruisers at the marina and then Muriel fixed an excellent dinner. We plan to leave again in the morning and run up the Alligator River and across the Ablemarle Sound to Elizabeth City, NC.

2008-05-13T20:44:00.003-04:00

May 12, Sunshine's trip finally began at 7:10am. We were a little later than expected due to weather forecasts which included gale force winds and 20 foot seas off the coast of North Carolina. After consulting with Ron we decided the conditions would not be too bad inside the ICW. So we left Wilmington with three oranges which Connie said we must take to avoid returning with scurvy. We got along quite well. We made 95 miles from Wilmington Marine Center to Coral Bay Marina in Moorehead City where we met up with the Wades. We laid over here today due to continuing high winds. We plan to leave in the morning to go to Bellhaven, NC.

Not Gone Yet

2008-05-03T14:19:00.003-04:00

May 3, 2008 Sunshine is still at Wilmington Marine Center. We are working on the boat and cleaning things up after all the repairs of the past weeks. We will go back to Mooresville on Tuesday so that we can vote. We will then return to Wilmington to depart. We have met several boats here at the marina who have done the loop or are in the process now.
The alligators are back out. There is one in the marina which is much larger than any we saw last year. People are guessing his size to be 10 to 12 feet. Muriel does not allow Carlie to even walk on the dock on the leash. She has to be carried to the grass before she gets down.
Today is the christening of the nuclear sub North Carolina. The Coast Gaurd boats with mounted machine guns fore and aft have been in and out of the marina all weekend. The river is closed today to all traffic north of the marina.
Muriel has made new curtains for the salon. They look very nice and add a homey touch to the interior.