Halloween Night pranks Low 48◦ High 76◦ Winds 20mph

Ok since we will be docked here for the next month and our co-ordinates won't change, I thought I would start including temperatures and winds. So as you can see what you're missing or not missing as it were. There is a cold front coming through right now, which has kept many of the boaters who had planned to leave, stuck here. This is kind of nice, because we get to keep Sherrie, Randy, Jim and Sharon for few extra days. 

                   

It was so cold last night that we actually had to turn on the furnace, however by 10 am we were in shorts again.

We had a working day again, I scrapped some more of the railings, Jim worked on the steering chains and some gaskets he wanted to change. We hosted happy hour at 5 pm and there really wasn't anything happening for Halloween since there are no children around here...so we thought.  Jim and I went to spend the evening at Mark and Vicky's boat after dinner and when we arrived home we found that we had our windows soaped by someone! 

We did not have to look far for the culprits. The lights where all on at "Priorities" and when Jim and I were looking at the window, we could hear them snickering just behind us.  Lol... All in fun and I'll have a cleaner window tomorrow when we wash this off. 

First full day on the Gulf of Mexico

It has been a lovely day, although a bit cooler then we have had in the last few days. We still wore shorts, but it could have gone either way.
We had a work day today so not a lot of sightseeing, unless you consider West Marine sight seeing.
Jim started the chain. It is important to mark the chain so you know how much has gone out. This has been the subject of many disagreements between Jim and I. The old owner marked the chain at 25 foot intervals. Jim remarked the chain before we left, but he never removed the old marks so we continually discuss how many feet have been let out.
So one of the jobs we had set out for this stay was to remark the chain in a way that is crystal clear and easy to identify when we let out chain quickly. Jim Sr. told us he attached lengths of nylon to the chain at 25 foot intervals and this works fine with him. So Jim Jr, set out to sew in these little tabs. I think it's the first time I've seen a sewing needle in Jim's hands!


After the chain job, the veterans, Randy and Jim Sr. came over to discuss the next leg of our trip. Since they both have great knowledge of Gulf and the west coast of Florida, the boys took out the charts and went over every single page, marking off places we can anchor and points of interest we may wish to visit.

After lunch, Jim and I went for a bike ride however the only road we can go on is a highway. So it did not feel so safe. We did get some shots of the Gulf of Mexico though, pretty nice.
Tomorrow Jim will be working on the steering and I likely will be working on the teak wood work.

Salt water here we come! 30◦33'.986 N 088◦05'.317 W

We have spent the last 4 days at anchor in some really secluded anchorages, so it was a bit of a shock coming into Mobile bay. 

                     

We are now in salt water for the next few thousand miles. Mobile bay was incredibly quiet with very few tows or ships, but we did see one tow pushing a ship against a loading dock. 

                             

We also came across some shrimp boats. Check out all the seagulls looking for a snack!

                             

We past a ship yard that builds stealth looking boats. These boats apparently have changeable  cargo areas so the boat can serve any function you like. Very neat! There must be a demand for them, since they had boat number 8 in the building and they just started operations 2 years ago. That is a lot of ships to turn out in a couple of years.

                            

The salt water bring with it some other special treats too. Dolphins swimming around our boat was really neat. I can't believe I actually got a picture of one!

                            

The other really special treat was fresh shrimp. Around 4 pm a marina staff came to tell us the shrimp boat was in so we walked over there with empty grocery bags and told the shrimp boat captain how many pounds we wanted. He weighted it and then dumped it into our bags.

                

Six dollars a pound and I do not believe you could get it any fresher. We have been traveling with 2 other couples Randy and Sherrie and Jim and Sharon. We all got our 3 pounds of shrimp and off to our boats to clean them. These things were huge! I have never cleaned shrimp before, so Jim and Sharon came over to give me a lesson on how to snap the heads off and how to de-vein them. Another new experience. Randy and Sherrie hosted us on their boat this evening, and we all had some lovely shrimp which Randy prepared spicy for me. My Jim of course does not eat shrimp so he BBQ'ed some chicken before going over to the Chester's boat to eat. As always; a lovely day and a lovely evening. Nighty night all. 

Huge expanse of Mobile bay. 

Oct 28 -Palm trees 30◦48'.803 N 087◦56'.084 W

We had another beautiful day of cruising in 80◦+ weather. We are now in Briar Creek about 28 miles from our destination at Turner Marine. Today we arrived at our anchorage around 2 pm and we spent very little time exploring. 

The highlight of our day today was that we saw some palm trees for the first time. Now we are sure we are heading south!

It really is hard to tell some times because the river winds and twists so much, I think even our compass is confused. At one point in time we were heading @ 00◦00' N I though hey what the heck is that? But we quickly turned around again.

I forgot to mention that when we passed our last lock 2 days ago, we entered an area where tides will affect us again. Not much here, about a 1 foot tide, but still something we have to keep in mind. Although we are in fresh water, the tides bring in salt water from the gulf and this is why we get alligators here.

We spent some time thinking about Leo today, since we past under the Dolly Parton bridge. 

Tomorrow we will be back in civilization again for a month in Mobile. Night all 

Oct 27- Narrow channels and Cyprus Knees 31◦17'.316 N 088◦57'.953 W

What a wonderful day we had...yes again. We did not leave our anchorage until 9am because the fog was too thick to move.

The channel we were in was very narrow and shallow, so we wanted to ensure we had good visibility before leaving. We only ran 35 miles today so we arrived at the next very narrow channel by 1:30pm and had the afternoon to explore three rivers lake.

 

 This lake is so remote, that it does not even exists... apparently. Check out the GPS picture that shows the boat on land.

 

We only crossed 2 tows today and it was a great cruising day with the temperatures in the high 80's again. When we anchored we all dropped our dinghies in the water and went to explore this lake.

 Jim Senior told us about Cyprus knees. Cyprus trees grow all along the lake shore and their roots grow up, form a knee and then drop down again.

 

He explained that they often have funny shapes that resemble many things. Many people cut one off and use them as door stops or something.  So off we went to find some interesting Cyprus knees. The one I chose looks like a face of some sort. I cut it myself in about 5 min.

 

Sherrie spotted one that looked like a Ram's horn and this is the one she wanted. The only problem was hers was not as easy to cut. I thought for a while we might have to save Randy after he fell in. 

We had both a back saw and an ax. Randy sawed through about ¼ of the way on both sides and then Jim Junior gave it a few good whacks with the head of the ax and finally got it loose. All and all a very interesting afternoon and very entertaining.

Let's see what we find tomorrow.  Night all 

The Sunny side of the street 31◦34'.518 N 088◦0'.136 W

Alligators like the sunny side of the river bank.  Those of you who know me well, know that I always

think in songs. It stands to reason that the song that came to mind is "Sunny side of the street". It became a brain worm and I could not get it out, without first singing the whole song out loud on the deck. Fortunately our partner boats engines drowned out my singing so they did not have to listen to it.

Jim became obsessed with spotting the alligators, so he spent the cruising time with binoculars scanning the river bank. We spotted a total of 5 gators. The only problem was that "Priorities" was the lead boat today and every time they past a gator on the banks sunning themselves, they would scurry into the water, so we could only get pictures of the gators in the water.

The next picture is an alligator actually swimming by the bow of our boat while we were anchored. He looks big but he was only about 3-4 feet long baby gator.

 This has been a hot day, 85◦F outside and up to 114◦F inside the helm. The alligators where not the only ones sunning themselves.  In my defense, singing does wear you out!

We stopped at mile marker 100 in what is called old lock #1 cut-off. Jim and I went for a walk along the road leading to the lock and checked out the old lock.

This particular lock was decommissioned and replaced with a newer lock on the main river.

The anchorage is fantastic but the way in was a bit scary. The channel is really narrow and someone decided this was a good place to park their broken pontoon boat.

The entrance also has a sandbar and was only 4-5 feet deep. We draw 4'6" of water. We all made it in without hurting anything, but we did scrap bottom going over that sandbar. Fortunately this is low tide, by the morning there will be an extra foot of water there so we should not scrape on the way out.  

Tomorrow we are hoping to make it another 60 miles or so to another anchorage. Hopefully we have another beautiful day like today. Now that I have you all humming the song, it is time to say good night.

Close Enough 31◦51'.433 N 088◦04'.429 W

We started our day very early, @ 05:30am. We got the engines running by 06:20 and were at our next lock by 07:00am. The river was like glass all day long and we made really good time, arriving at our anchorage at Bashi Creek @ 3:00pm. After the engine checks were done, we retired to the lido deck, where Jim got to lounge a bit for his birthday. As you can tell by the picture, he was enjoying some music as well. Later our friends Sherrie and Randy joined us, along with Jim and Sharon from the boat "Blue Angel"

Our tradition has been that I cook Jim his favorite meal on his Birthday. This is sweet and sour chicken.  Although I have been making it every birthday for the last 29 years, apparently I still don't make it as well as his mom! I once told Jim that maybe mom forgot to write down an ingredient when she gave me the recipe...his answer is Yes, you don't have the "Mommy Love".

It was quite a shore to make this meal today. For starters the oven that we have is a propane oven with no temperature dial. What I have discovered is that I must cook with "Close enough" in my language. The oven set at about 325◦F would heat up to 350◦F; I opened the door and it would cool to 300◦F and, the cake needed to bake at 325◦F so.... close enough. Also while underway, the boat vibrates. This does funky things to bubbles as they form in the cooking batter. The cake did rise ....close enough.

Measuring ingredients on the boat is a bit tricky since the fuel tanks and the water tanks are all full at the moment, the back end of the boat is about 3" lower than usual. Dry ingredients are ok, but the wet ingredients are splashing around the measuring cup somewhere between the lines. When I have an equal amount  above and below the lines then it is ...close enough.

Jim's favorite icing is cooked icing, that requires a double boiler (which I do not have) so two large pots was ....close enough. Since we cook with propane, I leave a window open for venting. While cooking the icing; which requires constant whipping; the flame went out. I had to stop mixing while I held the knob down with one hand and the lighter in the other hand and the icing...well.. was not close enough so I had to make another batch!

Despite all the guess work and the not so good cooking appliances, there were no leftovers, so I am assuming that it all came out...close enough. Our guests however; have never had Mom's Sweet and sour chicken, so they don't know any better.

We ended our evening with the last bottle of champagne we had from the re-naming ceremony and a beautiful sunset. Sorry that it's blurry, but the night option on my camera needs very a stable base because of the longer exposure time and on a boat well....this is close enough. Night all.

P.S. Jim says thanks to all for the e-mails and well wishes. He had a great day and his wish did come through despite the trick candles on the cake.

Time to keep going

Another beautiful day in Demopolis and there is happiness here. Jim got the new exhaust pipe by 11:30 am,

he had it installed by noon

and left us the afternoon to go to the pool.

Tomorrow we head off for the last leg of this river system and it is the most remote of all the areas we have been to. We will likely not be able to blog for the next 2-3 days and may not have access to phone either. For those of you wanting to call Jim for his B-day tomorrow. E-mail would be the best way to reach him.

Good night all.

Where is that water coming from? 32◦31'.855 N 087◦50'.487 W

Our anchorage last night was absolutely perfect. I included a shot of our back yard this am. The river was like glass.

 

Last night when Jim was doing his engine room checks, he noted some water on the floor of the engine room, but he could not figure out where is was coming from. Can you spot the missing piece in the picture below?  

 

In order to cool the engines, our boat sucks in water from the river and then spits it out an exhaust. This particular exhaust pipe had a pinhole in it and water was spitting out. It is so hot, that by the time Jim got down to the engine room, the pipe was already dry.The hole was very small and we have putty or liquid metal that could have repaired it but as Jim said, one hole will likely lead to many holes so it is time to change that pipe.  This means we get to spend the next 2 days in this beautiful marina called Demopolis Yacht Basin. We had to order the pipe in and they will courier it overnight so we will have it by tomorrow some time, however the next leg of our trip is at least an 8 hr drive and there is some weather coming in, so we decided to stay here two nights instead of just one.

 

Tonight we had a lovely Looper's docktail hour on a deck of a building the marina has. After some socializing we went out for Pizza with 4 other couples. As usual a lovely night was had by all. We started our dinner with a toast by Jim Sr. Which was as follows. There are tall ships, there are small ships, there are many different types of ships; but the best ship is friendship and I toast to all of you. Good night all.

The White Cliffs of Epes 32◦36'.955 N 087◦53'.971 W

Long day today...unintentionally.

We started out with the thought of going to an anchorage just before the second lock we had to cross. However when we got there, the bay was taken up completely with a tow boat and barge. So we went through the lock and decided to anchor right after it. We then got a message from Michelle; a friend we met in Rogersville. She advised us that they were behind us with a total of 6 boats.  There was not enough room in the anchorage for 8 boats and the next anchorage was not for another 30 miles. Given the time lines for this travel, it would be impossible for the other boats to make it to the next anchorage in daylight and there are no marinas to stop at either. For this reason we decided to keep going until 5pm to the next anchorage and let the other 6 boats take the closer one as they were about 1.5hrs behind us. So we had an 11hrs day and we made it here just in time to cook dinner before the lights went out.

There were not many sites along the route today as it is pretty remote, but we did come across a rather stunning view of the White Cliffs of Epes. These cliffs are apparently quite similar to the White Cliff of Dover made famous by the song. This was the highlight of our trip today and I know the pictures do not do them justice, but I hope you enjoy them anyway. I bet in a week or two when the leaves change even more, this site would be amazing!

Good night all.

Superman's Change room 33◦12'.827 N 088◦17'.131 W

What an absolutely gorgeous day. Just when you think it can't get better....it does.  We left Columbus Marina around 8am and slowly headed towards the Tom Bevill lock.

Along the way we came across a phone booth, in the middle of nowhere. So we figured sometimes Superman needs to work around here and they needed to make sure he had a place to change! :)

 A little farther down river we came across a crane that looks like a praying Mantis. Trucks where lined up waiting to be loaded.

We got here at noon and quickly set anchor in front of the Tom Bevill visitor's centre. We rafted Randy and Sherri to us and after lunch we went for a little visit. 

The Montgomery is a sternwheeler steamboat, the last of it's kind of snag boats. What is a snagboat you ask? This is a boat whose job was to go ahead of tows an take up any snags in the water before other boats got caught up in them. 

The Montgomery was built in 1926 and retired in 1982. By the way for those of you wondering if Jim and I are getting on each other's nerves being together 24/7 ... Jim is chocking me in this picture, 

Just behind the Snag boat is an Antebellum house which is now the Tom Bevill visitor's centre. This is a grand old house form the 1800's. 

It had a hitching post on the front law, where people used to tie up their horses. Really cool!

Of course beside all of this was the lock. We walked over to the gate and asked if they would let us in. Since 911, there is high security at these locks. Herman the lock-master was in a great mood and he let us in to check out some of the workings of a lock.

OMG this thing is massive. Control panels everywhere and he even let Sherrie close the doors to the lock. 

Our visit was amazing and we really appreciate all the time Herman gave us, it was very informative.

We are now going to go sit up on the Lido deck and enjoy some lemonaid (mike's of course) and slowly grill our stuffed peppers while we snack on the Adama bread I baked in the bread maker while we were visiting the Tom Bevill centre You are all drooling now, I know you are!  Tomorrow will be a surprise for us. We have several options so we will keep you all in suspense. Night all.