Reveille

Tuesday we departed Sabine Marina and went across the channel and purchased 80 gals of diesel.  I know you will be happy to know we got a $.10  per gallon discount. Diesel is still  near $4.00/gal. Back in the channel we traveled to Specter Island located beside Eglin AFB. We dropped anchor at 2:30.  A short day but with the cold wind and cool temperatures it was all we wanted. At anchor, we were able to watch the unique aircraft doing touch and goes or as we used to call it when I was flying, crash and burn!!  We were within 100 yds of the US Air Force property, so at sundown we were able to hear taps.  Also at sunrise were able to hear reveille. We lifted anchor and traveled another 30-40 miles and dropped anchor beside a bridge, Hwy 331.  Nice place but the traffic is not a good swap for the bugle. We only saw 2 PC's (pleasure crafts) on the water today. Both headed West? The Loop group that we were with at Fairhope are still behind us.  We expect them to catch up with us tomorrow.

We are now three days without a engine failure.  Before leaving Barber Marina I met a diesel mechanic who replaced the main fuel line. So far no stalls. We think he was an angel sent to help us.  His name is John Ford and we thank him for his work and his faith. Tomorrow we will head to Panama City.

We had some friends leave Sabine just before we did and heard a call from them to the Coast Guard. It was a request for the CG to follow them on the radio because of the bad conditions in the Gulf. We have not heard from them but feel they are safe but tired from a couple of days in the spin cycle.

Bubble and squeak

Our day started early this morning with lots of sunshine and more calm winds than the previous days.  So, we left Barber Marina at around 9 o'clock and headed east toward Pensacola.  It wasn't long before the sky clouded over, the wind started blowing and a light mist began to fall.  The closer we got to Pensacola, the colder it became.  By the time we reached the Pensacola cut, the wind was blowing from the northwest at about 20 mph and the tide was against us.  Our speed dropped down to about 4.5 to 5 mph from 7.  The following seas bounced us around and caused the boat to want to go sideways.  We made it to Sabine Inlet and pulled up to the fuel dock only to find it closed until Wednesday.  As we idled at the fuel dock trying to decide where to go next, Maggie began to whimper.  I thought she was just cold, so I unhooked her from the leash on the sun deck and instead of her going down to the cabin where it was warm, she jumped ship and took off running towards the street!  I cursed, loudly, called her a really bad name, and took off running after her.  Meanwhile, back at the boat, Mike was trying to keep the boat off the dock with the winds blowing hard.  He saw Maggie run behind a condo and called me on my cell phone so I would know where to look for her.  I saw her running down the street and I called her and she only ran harder.  Luckily, a kind lady realized what was happening and pulled over and got out of her vehicle and walked over and began to pet Maggie and got her hands on her and held her until I could get there ( out of breath, I might add).

After getting Maggie back on board, we then had to get the boat away from the fuel dock, which was not easy since the wind was blowing us right back onto it.  Captain Mike figured out how to get us off, and we made our way to the small marina which was our destination for the evening.  The owner met us at the slip and told us, "Check or cash only".  After writing him a check, we tackled the laundry which is at the local bar.  Our clean clothes now smell like beer and cigarettes! 

The good part of the day is that we found a restaurant here in Pensacola Beach called Laguna's.  It is just across the street from the marina.  We had a delicious meal of Redfish and Bubble & Squeak.  For those who do not know, Bubble & Squeak is an English dish consisting of mashed potatoes & cabbage.  Laguna's variation is brussel sprouts with an onion & potato broth.  It was very good and it was half price.

Depending on the weather tomorrow, we will anchor out near Mary Esther, FL.  Did I mention it was cold here?  The high temp today was 55 degrees and cloudy.  The low tonight is expected to be in the high 30's.  Not typical Florida weather.

Barber Marina

We left Fairhope Friday morning and 8 hours later, we motored into Barber Marina.  Wow!  This marina is practically brand new.  It has dock space for about 300 boats and there are only 20-25 docked here.  We love it!  The bathrooms are great and for us, that is the single most important service at a marina.  The showers consist of bright, shiny white tiles, strong water pressure and a lot of HOT water.  There is a nicely manicured park surrounding the marina and Maggie has given her approval!

Yesterday, we borrowed the courtesy car and drove around to Pirates Cove.  Pirates Cove is an old, rustic shack which was turned into a restaurant/bar and is surrounded by a protected cove.  There were dogs coming and going at will and it seems the dogs keep the people under control.  The atmosphere was relaxed and the dress code was relaxed, as well.  We saw Mike's old sailboat (Lifestyle I) docked behind the restaurant.  We ate cheeseburgers that were better than Buster's, and that is some kind of compliment.
After lunch, we drove into Gulf Shores looking for West Marine and Walmart.  We found West Marine, but as usual, they did not have the fuel filters we need, nor did any other auto parts store in Gulf Shores or Foley.  Why do we continue to count on West Marine????? Walmart was not a disappointment though.
We got up this morning (Sunday) to rain and clouds.  We can't decide whether to stay here another day and wait out the rain, or continue to Pensacola.  We are watching the radar closely.  The picture provided by Linda on Ericka Lin is of the Thanksgiving Day gathering at Bob & Vicky Riggs home in Fairhope.  They were so kind to open their house to all us Loopers and we had a grand time. Thanks to Bob & Vicky and to Linda for the picture.

Rock your house

We are enjoying the rest and comfort of the Fairhope Yacht Club. Yesterday we rented a car and in one afternoon we bought groceries, found a parts store to sell us new fuel filters, drove to a Bass Pro for a needed item and washed two loads of clothes. By the end of the day we were ready to take advantage of free taco night at the bar at FYC.  We enjoyed the sea stories of the members.  One person was named Plug! He said it was a family name?  We turned in early but at 3AM we had to go outside and adjust the dock lines and add another fender.  Our house was rocking.  A cold front was passing and it was blowing us up against the dock.  We are transients, so we always get the worse dock space.  The wind on the "T" dock was on the port quarter of the boat and all that pretty rub rail that we worked so hard cleaning and waxing was getting scuffed.  It's not bad to go outside and add and adjust in the wee hours as long as you know your home is safe and it is.  We will go to our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and then Friday morning we will depart this nice place. Our next leg will take us across the panhandle of Florida.  It will be nice if the weather holds.

This picture was taken Monday evening as the sun was setting over Mobile Bay.

Fairhope, Alabama

We arrived in Fairhope Yacht Club this afternoon about at 1 o'clock.  We are on the East bank of Mobile Bay.  We are sitting on the veranda of the club house over looking the inlet of Fly Creek.  The old club house was destroyed a couple of years ago and the new one is very nice. The restaurant and bar area look to be about 4,000sqft.  The veranda extends all the way around the building and as the sun starts to set we will move to the West side for a great view. 

The trip from Demopolis was long but good.  We have been 5 days without email service and only a few times did we have cell service.  We met up we a couple of boaters traveling south at about the same speed as us and we were able to anchor up with them.  Jeff and Linda aboard Jeremiah have two dogs and like us they had to find a place to take the dogs at the end of the day.  It worked out great because we used Jeff's dinghy to transport the dogs.  Maggie had a great time and may have sparked a romance with their poodle. She even attempted to go swimming with their Lab.  At the end of the day we would raft up with them in a hidden river or inlet off the main river.  Some of the scenery was unbelievable.  I have some pics and hope to send one.  We passed the convention center at downtown Mobile this morning at 11:00.  It is 450 miles from Pickwick to mile zero.  Of course if was not without --------.  The engine stopped a couple of times, but thank the Lord it was not at a difficult time.  We got some trash in the prop and it started vibrating.  We had to stop and back up to clear it.  But one night while rafted up in the middle of nowhere Denniese and I walked on the foredeck and looked up and saw more stars than we have ever seen.  There were no other lights except the stars.  What a wonderful sight.

We will stay here until after Thanksgiving.  We have been invited to have dinner with some other Loopers.  The host just stopped by and said he expected about 25 people.  We will have fun and everyone will have a story to tell.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Stormy Weather

This morning we awoke to a TORNADO WARNING here in Demopolis.  It passed over us quickly and here at the marina, we only experienced a heavy rain and a little wind.  Thank you, Lord for your continued protection!  After the storm, I took Maggie for her morning walk and could hear sirens in the directions of downtown Demopolis.  Apparently there was some wind damage downtown.

We went to visit John, Beth and the boys on Monday.  It was good to be away from the boat and on dry land for awhile and a sheer joy to visit with the Carter's.  Wes and Joe are so sweet and are growing up so fast.  We played "Gold Fish" as Joe called it until bedtime and Joe wanted to play more the next morning but he had to get to school.  I've promised to play more "Gold Fish" at Christmas. They enjoyed beating Neesy!

We are stocked up and all the clothes are washed again, thanks to John & Beth, and we plan to leave here in just a little while.  The package we've been waiting for here from West Marine didn't even ship until yesterday, so rather than wait 2 more days at $60.00 per day, we cancelled the shipment and are moving on.  The weather is clearing and skies are getting sunny.

There are no marinas between here and Fairhope, so we will continue the blog when we arrive there.
This picture is just another interesting view of the Tombigbee.  It looks like the White Cliffs of Dover on one bank and the Muddy Mississiippi on the opposite bank, and all designed for our enjoyment.  Oh, what a might God we serve!

Demopolis

I'm not sure Demopolis, Alabama is a destination place for many people, but all Loopers have to stop here.  The next fuel stop is Mobile and that is over 200 miles away. So, anyone going down river stops here for fuel and repairs.  The last time I stopped here was in 2003 and it was not a welcome site.  It was in the Spring and the water was high with lots of trash in the water.  The marina was in need of repairs and so on.  So I was not looking forward to this stop.  We were surprise to find a new marina that has state of the art everything.   The courtesy car was a Mercury Sable with 156,000 miles and had not had any thing done to it in a decade.  It got us to the grocery store and that's all that counts.  I worked on the engine yesterday and feel good about the repairs and Denniese cleaned the boat.  Anchoring out is fun but you bring a lot of dirt on board.  We are going to drive over to Hoover, AL to visit John and Beth and Denniese's grandchildren.  If you want to start a business, here is the spot.  There are no rental car agencies in this town.  Not even a tote your note car lot that rents vehicles.  Our only choice was a 17' box truck form U Haul until a fellow Looper loaned us his car.  Denniese took a picture of me working on the engine.  Hope you enjoy.

Day Tank

A day tank is a small fuel tank that holds enough fuel for one day.  Our day tank is a 5 gal jerry jug that holds enough fuel for a little over two hours run time.  The purpose of a day tank is to bypass a portion of the fuel system.  Our fuel problem seems to be a stopped up fuel line.  By installing a day tank I work around the stopped up line and feed fuel to the engine.  It is safe and efficient but requires a lot of work keeping the jug full of fuel.  We finally decided that our continuing fuel problem is trash in the line after we had removed, replaced or worked on every other part of the fuel system. The engine is running good as long as the tank has fuel. We also have a smaller tank for the generator.  Yes, this is a temporary fix.  When you are two days from a marina you have to keep going or call a tow boat to come get you.  So this is a good option.

When I last wrote we were heading to Columbus, Mississippi.  We continued to have fuel problems and so at Columbus we decided to install the day tank. We also rented a car and did some sight seeing.  We also got to visit with some of the Loopers that we have seen along the way. They even had cocktails in front of one of the boats and had about 10 Loopers show up. We have since anchored at a wide place in the river at Owl Creek, (mm 302).  We found a great anchorage at Sumter Rec. area (mm 270), anchored in a deep river cut off called Rattlesnake Bend (mm223) and now we are at the NEW dock at Demopolis, AL (mm 217).  This is a new facility and is really nice.  The old one was just as bad as this one is good. I will work on the fuel problem again tomorrow and hopefully report good news tomorrow.
The picture is the channel to the Aberdeen Marina where we changed out the fuel pump.

Aberdeen,Aberdeen, prettiest town we've ever seen. . . .

O, wait, that song might be Abilene, Abilene! 

After spending the weekend next to the Aberdeen Lock at mile marker 358 at Blue Bluff park we departed this morning.  We had enjoyed the free dock and climbed the stairs to the top of the bluff.  Unfortunately, Denniese fell through a missing board on the dinghy dock and hurt her leg.  Even so we made it to the top of the bluff. We felt good about the repairs we had made on the fuel system.  We thought the problem was the diaphragm in the fuel pump which had a hole in it.  The engine was running so good until we tied up to the lock wall and then the engine stopped!!  I bled the fuel and exited the lock and it stopped again.  We said enough is enough!!  We started the engine and went back into the lock and locked back up to where we started.  We exited the lock and went to a nearby marina and said we were going to stay there until we got the engine fixed for good. Once tied to the dock I pulled out the old fuel pump and replaced it and had us going again in about two hours. Nerves still frazzled, we pulled into Aberdeen Lock for the third time in less that 4 hours.  The next couple of hours were tentative but the repair was what it needed and we did fine.  It seems the fuel pump was the problem all along and now it has been replaced and we should be fine.  We are now at Columbus Marina and think we may stay here for a couple of days.  We deserve it!!

ALA / LSU

We are parked at the most beautiful place we have seen on the trip.  We are at Blue Bluff at Mile marker 358 next to the Aberdeen Lock.  We are here at the perfect time, no one else, just us. We are at a courtesy dock beside a well manicured park. It has a couple of small pavilions and a boat ramp.  We have seen two boats and one person sitting on the dock fishing.  The bank is high and has a stair leading to the top. We dinghyed to the stairs and walked to to top.  Some of the boards were missing and Denniese fell in between.  Made for a nasty bruise.  I doctored on her and gave her an extra portion of wine and she is getting better.  Last night we starting listening to Ala/Lsu ball game and the radio stopped working.  We have no TV so radio is it. After lot of tries we found if we plugged the electric toothbrush in, the radio would work.  I know... It sounds stupid and I can't explain the electrical system but we got to listen to the game and that's what  counts. Jim Mattingly came to our rescue today.  He is the prior owner of this boat.  After all the fuel problems we have had I decided to contact him for advice.  Not only did he suggest a course of action but he remembered he had an extra fuel pump on the boat that would solve our problems.  I installed the part and ran the engine for 30 min and it did just fine.  Thanks Jim!!  We will depart in the morning and hopefully make Carrolton, Alabama famous for the face in the window.  Maybe I'll tell you next time. 

Midway

Thursday started out rainy and cold and then it got worse.  It was a cold and bitter day on the water.  By 4pm we found a place to anchor.  It was next to the first of six locks on the canal. To make matters even worse, we had to take Maggie for a walk after we set the anchor.  There was a boat ramp close and we used their dinghy dock to park the dinghy and let her do her business.  We had a good anchor spot where we were sheltered from the wind.  We slept good but at sunrise the wind started blowing again and we got up and got going.  I had ordered some parts for the engine and arranged for a mechanic to meet us at Midway Marina, near Fulton, Mississippi.  We arrived at 2:30 and were helped with our dock lines by Pete who had fallen in love with the place about 13 years ago and took up residence.   Shortly after arriving, we got the parts that came by FED X and the mechanic made the adjustments on the engine.  I think I have fixed the fuel leak, so all is well on Lifestyle II.  We will depart in the morning.  To celebrate, we dined out at the local restaurant. A short walk up the hill from the marina is the place.  It must be the only place  in Fulton to eat because it was full.  The food was good and the wait staff a hoot. I knew I was at home when the waitress asked "Do you want a slice of onion with your fish?" Well yeah!!  Denniese told me a lot of people in the South eat a slice of onion with fried fish.  OK, now I know.  The food was good and even had some left for Maggie.  The scenery is changing a little.  We seem to be riding the wave of fall colors which is nice but now we are seeing more pine trees. Also we are seeing a lot of dead trees in the water. It may be from where this area was flooded to make the canal.  Denniese said it looks spooky.  I said it doesn't matter as long as we don't run into them  Seeya.
A large family of ducks were just floating around and we couldn't resist taking the picture.

Tenn-Tom

The Tennessee Tom-Bigbee (AKA  the Tenn-Tom) is almost 450 miles of rivers, lakes, streams and man made cuts that connect the Tennessee river to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama. Much of it runs down the dividing line between Mississippi and Alabama. The official opening date was June 1985 although it had been thought of and even proposed years earlier.  It was given a real boost in 1946 with the Rivers and Harbor Act but it was not until 1971 that the Corps of Engineers got the go-ahead. Mobile is mile zero and Aqua Marine is mile 448. The route was designed to keep traffic off the Mississippi.  The Tenn-Tom has commercial traffic but not like the big river.  Also, it is better for cruisers like us because of the lakes, cities and slower water.  The down side is a boater must traverse 12 locks to make the trip. As you may suspect by this long winded introduction, we are still at the dock and the mechanic did not show up until 5:30pm... we told him no thanks!!. Guess we weren't paying him enough. We will decide what we will do tomorrow. Meanwhile, I was able to do some maintenance work and Denniese washed clothes. Plus we had a great steak supper aboard our floating home.  So, soon we will be continuing the trip.  Tomorrow a front will pass and we will just wait till it passes before we venture down the Tennessee Tom-Bigbee.  The picture is one Denniese took from inside the boat of the sunrise in the fog.  The rail of the boat is in the foreground and the water drops are on the outside of the window.

Iuka, Mississppi

We anchored behind Diamond Island last night about 10 miles north of Pickwick dam. Oh so quite.  We could hear a tractor plowing a field in the distance but could not see him. We did see one fishing boat with a couple of locals and that was it for the evening.  The island had a nice beach on the West side and we took Maggie for a long walk and enjoyed the cool fall evening. This morning, Tuesday, we had to wait for the fog to lift before getting underway,  Finally about 0930 we were able to lift the anchor and get underway. Pickwick dam is a generating source for TVA and they were cranking it up today. That means there were letting a lot of water out to spin the turbines.  For us, we had to fight the 3 - 4 mph current.  For the 10 miles to the dam we were only able to go about three and a half mph.  That makes for a long 10 miles.  I decided to run the engine up to 1750 to see if the repairs I did last night would solve the air problem.  Robert Buzby sent me an email and said I had better fix it before something bad happened.  Fixing a problem on a boat is not always easy.  Especially on a trip like we are taking. First, marinas are not available.   Next, good mechanics are not easy to come by and since we are on the move it creates additional problems.  Well it happened, just like Robert said it would.  We had just exited Pickwick lock and we were on the fly bridge having lunch when the engine died. Denniese went to the lower helm where she can man the controls and talk to me at the same time and I jumped down into the engine compartment to bleed the fuel line.  After about three minutes, we had the old girl running again and went back to the fly bridge.  That's when we discovered it....  Maggie had finished off our lunch for us!!  She was happy but I was PO'ed.  We arrived at Aqua Marine about 1430.  A mechanic was waiting for us.  At $100.00 per hour you want one that works fast and does not talk much.  I think we got a good one but he didn't  do any work but said he would be back Wednesday afternoon.  In the meantime I will do some of the things he suggested. We will be here for a couple of days, doing the regular stuff before we start down the Tom-Bigbee.  Maybe we will resolve the fuel issue.  If not, at least we will have time to send out blogs and maybe some pictures.

 Mike and Denniese and Maggie Mae.