Crossing the Bays

We left Orange Beach bright and early and had a great day crossing Pensacola Bay, light winds and sunny skies. We were too early for the Blue Angel Airshow in honor of our Veterans, but it was good to finally get going. This is the first trip where I was needed to help David with navigation with my binoculars to keep us in the channel. Open water is alot different then our winding rivers paths! We had an 8 hour trip with our destination being the Sandestin Resort's Baytowne Marina. I had expectations from my past memories of a vibrant Wharf with shops and restaurants for a fun Friday night! When we got to our slip, we really had to wrestle with the winds just to secure the boat and after that, I concluded I rather stay on the boat. Besides, we were very entertained by our neighbor boat, Solaris, a large dinner sunset cruise!

We watched the different passengers coming for date nights, birthday parties and bachelorette parties. Very festive happy people! We didn't stay awake long enough to see their return at 9 pm but we were wide awake at 5 am to start our next bay day! On Saturday, November 12, we entered areas of Florida that we were only familiar with from 30A, but not from the beautiful Gulf side, but parallel on the ICW! We went thru open waters and then a smaller Army Corp of Engineers Channel that was filled with natural beauty. We saw today an American Bald Eagle, dolphins, a swimming deer, and an elegant crane. And no developements or planned communities!

The last picture is of a single female rower, on their way to Key West! After crossing St. Andrews Bay (Panama City Beach) we have settled in a very nice marina called Point South and there are several other loopers here, all of us trying to decide if we can figure out the weather and our next leg! Tonite we are in Pointe s

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

One of my favorite songs by the Clash, "Should we stay or Should we go?" is playing in my head as that is the main topic of our conversations this week. Since the news of hurricane Nicole, all our plans revolove around her. David has been at the Orange Beach Marina in Alabama since November 4th while I left to see Katie run the NYC marathon last Sunday. (Katie did great despite the warm humid weather, and I was so proud and excited to share in her triumph!) David has enjoyed the time to do maintainance, small projects, and meet fellow boaters. I returned on Monday, and the goal of leaving the marina on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday has been postponed due to the eminent winds and rough waters. You can ask 10 different people their opinions and get 10 different answers, so it really is all about having faith in your own decision. David has decided today to travel tomorrow with a fellow looper who is also on our same path to cross the Gulf next week. There is a small weather window for the trip across the Gulf and all we can do is get closer to our starting line, rather than continue to stay at this cozy, chic, modern marina with a great restaurant and friends (Added benfit of our layover was seeing several couples that we met on day one and are super fun and experienced!) We even considered keeping Voyager here till Thanksgiving and driving home, but David is now mentally gearing up to go for it. Our crossing of Mobile Bay was perfect! No wind, crystal blue skies and water, we even had several dolphins play with us for a while. David especially liked the industrial area with the huge freigters! It is like night and day after being on the rivers and I have to say, this is what I was waiting for~ The fun part of seeing Florida via boat and having all the fresh fish from the gulf!

Anchoring out !

Here are some pictures from this week! On Sunday, we celebrated our 7th day of solid travel! Instead of a marina, we anchored in a beautiful cove in a campground near Gainesville Lake, AL, known as Sumter Creek Anchorage. It is not a highly recommended spot, due to the level of silt near the entrance, but we had no problem and anchored in 10 feet of calm water with no wind. We used our Zodiac to check out the cove more closely (very cool native plants like Elephant Leaf plants, bald cypress trees and water growing plants like lilies and watercress) and came ashore the boat ramp for a walk. After grilling hamburgers and brats, we retired very early,and enjoyed the nearby smells of a campfire and soft country music. Early the next morning we locked thru Heflin Dam and traveled all day (50 miles) to Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis, AL. It is a clean and fun marina, even had a grooving Halloween Party, fully decorated with colorful lights, costumed guests, tons of food and music by Duran Duran (?!) Our Harbor hostess, Anna Marie, was very into the Halloween spirit with her Witch's hat, Skeleton shirt, bat tights and denim cut-offs( Anyone who has met her, knows she rocked that outfit!) passed around her Rum-soaked gummy bears and the large crowd seemed to be having fun! For my Halloween treat, I used her car to go to the local Walmart to get a few fresh groceries and supplies. I found the best toy! It is a Bissel tiny hand-held vacuum that was well worth the $25! You have to like cleaning, like ALOT, in order to hang out as first mate on a boat. With no wifi service today, I played with my toy vacuum and got every nook and cranny! (Having a dog on board creates alot of fur bunnies!) This morning, November 1st, we started at 6 am for our 7 am departure. It is like the routine we had while we had jobs and kids 30 years ago, but instead, I don't need an alarm because each day is a different adventure! We locked through Demopolis Lock just in time for the sun to come up and burn off the morning fog. It was so beautiful and I want to take pictures of everything, like the white cranes fishing and flying around us in the lock chamber. (By the way, David and I are posting on FB and Instagram) But it was crazy busy this morning with 10 boats in the chamber and several missing pins, so there was alot of rafting up to one another. It was our first experience with having another boat of similar size use our boat's cleats and ties to be secured! After that exciting start, we have had a smooth trip along the river where we have been in natural settings (no cities or industrial work sites) all afternoon. From the flying bridge, where David likes to pilot the boat, he has seen several Bald Eagles and even an alligator! We are headed to Bobby's Fish Camp, mile marker 119 on the Tombigbee River, known as the last fuel stop for 100 miles before entering Mobile, Alabama!!