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!!

Day #5 and #6 Lots of Locks

Hey Friends! Thanks for checking in! i am still working out stuff, I love your comments, but they appear as anonymous, I will fix it! Also, I will post pictures on my Instagram account while I try to figure out my storage issues! It is so easy to get behind on journaling! Especially when I log on and start going down the tech issue wormhole! I am getting closer to solving the photo issues as my iCloud is full and will not download newer pictures! I wanted to post some on instagram, but no wifi! At least I have some free time to delete photos and apps, but I am not sure if they ever really leave the almighty cloud?? We are travelling the Tennessee-Tom Bigbee waterway (TN-Tom) where the rivers and lakes are all connected by locks and dams. It is a truly amaazing feat of engineering and I have greater appreciation of it for sure. I mostly think cargo tranportaion by planes and Amazon/UPS deliveries, but it is the barges that transport so much of the real stuff needed everyday. We have seen alot of wood pulp most likely for plywood and cardboard manufacturing. If you ever get a chance to sit thru a lock, it is worth it! Dramatic screeching and boomimg metal sounds, fish jumping (in warmer weather),and staying vigilantly close to your line tied to the bollard or pin. David and I have head sets that are essential to communicating with each other, alot of coordinatation of timing of moving the boat,fenders and lines. One of our boat buddies whom we have locked together with about 7 times now, blasts his radio with his 1950's music (like Elvis and LaBamba!) It is entertaining and of course, I love to dance, while holding my pole to the wall to keep our boat from hitting the wall. I believe we will have locked thru 10 times since Friday as we zig-zag between Alabama and Mississippi, and luckily only a few more days of locks till we get to Mobile! The land around Tennessee had High cliffs and vivid fall colors, and these past two days, the terrain has flatted alot more. The width of the river varies greatly and when we were on the area of manmade connections of lakes, it was narrow with rocks bordering the very deep channel... even passed a barge! Friday night we stayed at Midway Marina,AL which had a vibrant dock scene and restaraunt and all around great stay. It had a earthy wet oak smell,like a bourbon warehouse and remote, so it was peacefully quiet. Saturday, we were in Columbus , MS and had heavy rain but peaceful night. Every day is different and I am finally relaxing and getting in the groove!

Day #4 Land between Three States

After seeing my first "published blog" I know why they chose to call them blogs... I carefully formatted and spaced my entry only to have it come out as a BLOB of words... Oh well, no critical writing editors (Barker P.) may say anything! We started Day #4 early (7am) and chilly (43') and very Foggy! After the fog burned off (I have some pictures of our boat floating on clouds that will be posted eventually!)we had a beautiful day floating among a floatilla of other Loopers, most of whom we had met in our marinas. The trip was great and all 13 of us river travellers (and one bass fishing boat) joined up and locked thru the Pickwick Dam lock. It took over an hour... but hey, there was someone blasting his Best of the '50's playlist and it was sunny and quite relaxing! During our lazy drive on the river, most all of the big boats decided to stop their idle speed and blow out their engines (Flexing!) Well, Miss Zealous Cleaner was dusting around the lower helm (David favors the Flying Bridge) one engine quit... Of course we were in the middle of said floatilla and a bit awkward as the following boats come quickly up on our stern... So, I called David on the trusty walkie-talkie and said,"I think I may have accidently switched off a switch!" Sure enough, it was like the key to the car's ignigtion which I "switched" which caused our engine FAILURE! After some panicking on David's part and quick thinking on my part (Hey, David look at the switches I cleaned around) the engines were re-started. Another great dry run for what-would-you-do-if-it-REALLY-happened! We all arrived at our marinas, ours is Safe Harbor Aqua in Iuka, Mississippi and our friends are in Grand Harbor Marina in Counce, Tennessee and somewhere between us are the Alabama/Tennessee/Mississippi state lines! Our Tn Friends picked us up in their courtesy marina vehicle to join them for dinner, this is all in about a 5 mile radius! Today, we did pass by the Shiloh Battlefield and did some reading about the battle. It is strange to think that under Gen. U.S. Grant,the Union armies and NAVY travelled down these same rivers and engaged the fighting Tennesseen and Mississippian Conf. troops. Some day, I hope to return by car and visit this site of such loss, 24,000 casualities, and spend time with the site in respect of all the passionate Americans that fought.

Just start the blog already... despite Format Challenges!!

Remember when you had that paper you were procrastinating so you made several outlines and then went ahead and wrote the paper without using an outline? Well, Folks... this is similar! We are on Day 3 on our boat and I have been trying to start writing this for our family and friends, and well, I got distracted by technology! I am using my 2014 Mac laptop and every password and log in is popping up! The last time I uploaded photos was 2018! So, there have been some technical delays! Thank goodness there have not been any tech delays with our boat! David has worked deligently on her since we acquired her March 2022 on Chickamauga Lake in Chattnooga, Tn (on my hometown Tennessee River!) He has replaced things that were not broken (all new LED lights,Zodiac Dingy,Stainless Steel Rockna anchor) and found things that were (replaced microwave oven,batteries, coolant in the HVAC System,fresh curtains) and countless other projects. When he wasn't at the Green Turtle Bay Marina in beautiful Grand Rivers, KY on the Cumberland River(3 hours from our home in Louisville!) he was working on navigation plans, ordering parts and reading other peoples' posts of their AGLCA trips. He is very enthusiastic needless to say! Our first official day was Monday, October 24th departing Green Turtle Bay and delightfully cruised south on the Tennessee River(UP RIVER) to our next marina, Pebble Isle in Johnsonville, TN. The crispy weather was postcard perfect with fall colors dotting the shore line and veridian mixed with cobalt blue waters. David quickly met other Loopers, including other owners of Grand Banks boats similar to ours with incredibly nice welcoming people. He celebrated with them at his first "docktails"-always at 5 o'clock- while I made our first dinner, grilled chicken. While the chicken took a while (had to clean grill, get used to the propane, etc) we still had dinner at a reasonable time and David was in bed by 8pm (9pm is considered Looper's midnight!) I messed with more technology (the TV and ALL the random ways of streaming) until I felt sleepy enough. Tuesday, we had fair warning that the weather was expecting heavy rains and strong winds, so we took the day off and used the much needed time to work on organizing supplies, cleaning projects and getting aquainted with our fellow boaters (they really are so interesting!!) Rugby is great and is so comfortable either snuggling up on a blanket, taking long walks with David or exploring the exciting smells of river life. So, here we are Day #3 and its chilly, cloudy and David couldn't wait to get going! He woke up at 6am and rushed me thru my coffee so he could get on the river by 7:15am... we arrived at our next marina, Clifton by 1 pm ahead of six other traveling boats. We had lunch at the marina grill and the bacon cheeseburger gave me a food coma! No need to make another meal tonight! So here is our blog, despite spotty Internet and going between my rusty Mac and my iPad… no photos -yet and spiffy fonts. I will add those after my next tech learning curve!