The Jump

Going across the gulf from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs is called “The Jump” in Looper lingo. After much discussion with folks from three other boats we decided to leave Apalachicola at noon but there was still a fairly thick fog lingering, however with no weather windows in the foreseeable future we decided to wait just a bit more then head out fog or no fog. At 12:45 we pulled out of the Water Street Marina (29.732043, -84.987860) and four boats moved in single file ever so slowly, due to the persistent fog, toward Government Cut (29.613685, -84.959052). This cut is a pass between two long narrow islands which was dredged earlier this year, so we knew the depths would be good enough for our small fleet. The lead boat, Tango Papa, worked his way forward using his chart plotter and radar to locate bouys and markers to keep us all in deep water, the channels in some of these areas are bordered by 1 to 2 foot depths. We finally reached the cut at 2:15 and safely found our way out to the gulf, but we were still in a heavy fog for the next hour or two. Once the thick stuff disappeared we had several hours of blue skies and 1 to 2 foot wave action bouncing us around, bumpy but not to uncomfortable. Around 6:30 darkness had swallowed us like small gnats in a sea of stars, by 8:00 the Milky Way was again visible as a faint white river stretching across the heavens; this is when you lay on your back and pretend you're in a spaceship headed for new adventures in a place far far away. By 9:00 Kim and I were pulling shifts, one sleeps as the other drives... as I've mentioned before, Overtime does not have an autopilot which means someone is constantly manning the wheel as if driving a car. To make matters even more difficult, there is a lot of play in the wheel which means you can change course without the wheel moving, therefore you have to keep an eye on some target in front of you. My target for this trip through fog, darkness and open waters was Kharma, much thanks to our buddy boat for making our trip much easier, without a target we would constantly be over-correcting while using the chart plotter to keep on course, we would have made it but it would have been a lot of work. Morning light arrived shortly prior to the Sun's blinding glare obscured small round floating objects call “crab pots.” Actually the crab pots are laying on the gulf floor while small ropes keep each attached to floats for retrieval. We started seeing these balls/floats about 3 miles prior to reaching the channel (28.151063, -82.859128) which would lead us into Tarpon Springs and our destination, Turtle Cove Marina (28.152620, -82.762343). They are well known obstacles to boaters because if you run over one the rope will most likely wrap around your propeller shaft and screw your day up. Our approach to the channel had us heading directly into the Sun which made it nearly impossible to see the balls/floats. We took to a zigzag approach crossing the Sun's glare while looking for the little bastards, but they were in silhouette and as dark as the water they sat in. We managed to win the battle by keeping a slow pace and a sharp eye. After a slow ride through the channel leading back into Tarpon Springs with boaters who didn't know what “No Wake” actually means, we reached the marina. The time was 11:13 am on 12-29-16. It had been a 22 hour and 32 minute trip.... maybe, my math may be wrong because I'm very tired.

Kim's Korner:
The “jump” causes more anxiety for a looper than anything else. We have heard horror stories but ours went very well. We took our Dramamine in case we got sea sick and we were rocked quite a bit even though looking at the sea, it looked fairly smooth. Morning brought very calm seas which were very welcome. As many crab pots as we dodged, I'm expecting some really wonderful crab here! ...Pictures

Panama City Marina to Apalachicola (2)

We had heavy fog this morning which delayed our departure until almost 10 am, traveling 60 miles at trawler speeds requires a lot of daylight. After the fog lifted the weather was good as we passed through East Bay and into the canal leading to our next port-of-call. As we approached the end of a long day the sun settled below the horizon and another layer of fog settled on our tired bones. Our last 3 miles of a 60 mile trip was dark and difficult to navigate. The inside and outside of my windshield was covered in a layer of dewey haze limiting my visibility to that of a ninety year old man with 30 year old cataracts. That wouldn't have been so bad except that I had to turn back into a small stream which was only about 60 yards wide which lead to our marina. Several people from the hotel assisted us and our buddy boat, Kharma, in tying up then we promptly made a bee-line to a local oyster bar for drinks and food.  

Panama City Marina to Apalachicola

We rented a car and drove home last week for Christmas and enjoyed visiting with friends and family throughout the week, today (12/26) we drove back to our waiting boat and friends in Panama City Marina. Tomorrow we plan to head on over to Apalachicola to position ourselves for a gulf crossing on Wednesday/Thursday. We'll leave Apalachicola around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday and travel 7.5 to 8 mph through the bay and across the gulf to Tarpon Springs' Turtle Cove Marina. The trip will cover about 186 miles which will take about 24 hours at our speed. While in Apalachicola we'll be at the Water Street Hotel & Marina.

Just The Cook

Kim and I went for a bike ride a few days ago from Panama City Marina over to St Andrews Marina and stumbled across a small food joint built on a boat hull sitting in one of the slips. It was painted white with red trim and was very interesting to look at, someone saw me staring and said I should order the Dan-D-Donut Burger. A few minutes later another person walked by and suggested the same thing. So, I suggested to Kim that we invite Bob and Sharon to join us the next day and check it out, after all, it's these kind of interesting places you want to find when traveling the back-roads, or in our case the back-waters. The name is “Just The Cook”... check it out here.

Overtime Before and After

Kim's Korner:
So I finally had time to put together some before and after pictures of the boat. I've added an album if you'd like to take a look. We really put a lot of time and love into fixing her up!

Ft Walton Beach to Panama City Marina

Fort Walton Beach had a nice pier (30.401770, -86.606586) with several slips adjacent to a pretty little park (Landing Park) located within walking distance to a grocery store and several restaurants. When arriving you're supposed to call city hall to check-in, which we did, and you can only stay one night; there is no power or any other amenities. We liked the area so much we called to see if they'd let us stay one more night but they had no record of the previous call. Rather than accusing us of not calling they were nice enough to say that no record existed of us staying the previous night therefore we could most certainly stay. Tuesday morning (12/13) we untied and crossed Choctawhatchee Bay followed by a small canal called the Grand Canyon which lead us to West Bay, Grand Lagoon and Panama City Marina (30.150713, -85.664633) located in St Andrews Bay. We are within walking distance of the downtown area which has several good restaurants. Kim and I went for a bike ride today and saw a lot of beautiful old homes with large oak trees which were covered with Spanish moss. We are still traveling with our friends Bob and Sharon, our other friends, Rob and Glenda, are staying in Niceville for a few days and will catch up with us soon. Kim and I will be heading home Monday for a week to see family and friends for Christmas.

Kim’s Korner:
Dolphins!!! All through Choctawhatchee Bay, we saw dolphins! They had a great time bow riding, wake riding and riding alongside Overtime – it was absolutely spectacular! If you had asked me what the #1 thing on my list of things I wanted to see during the Great Loop, this would be it. See my album for pictures.
In Panama City, we’ve enjoyed the downtown restaurants, shops and fresh seafood markets as well as biking along Beach Ave. The weather has been nice and we plan to go to the beach tomorrow – it’s supposed to be 75 degrees in the afternoon!
We’ll be headed home for Christmas and be looking at trying to do “the jump” – the 170 mile crossing of the gulf when we return. We are both ready for warmer weather although the last week has been much nicer.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe, happy holiday!

The Wharf and Fort Walton Beach

The Wharf and Fort Walton Beach

We pulled out of Fairhope last Wednesday (12/7) and traveled to The Wharf marina (30.295827, -87.629834) in Orange Beach, Alabama. This is the nicest place we've stayed so far but still we had little to no wi-fi service. They have very nice floating docks rather than the more customary fixed docks usually found in coastal areas. The marina is part of a large complex of shops, restaurants, condominiums and a movie theater located right along the intracoastal waterway. We decided to stay a few days so that we could enjoy the sights, the best sight was the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, it's a must see event. The weather has been colder than we'd like at times with occasional rain showers but we're managing to stay warm and dry. One night we had dinner at Lu Lu's and enjoyed the music of Albert Simpson, who by-the-way was born in Ringgold, Georgia. We left The Wharf Sunday (12/11) morning headed for an anchorage called Big Sabine about 35 miles away, but when we got there it didn't look like a very good place to anchor in our opinion. There was a very narrow trough showing on our charts with one to two foot depths on either side and no markers indicating where to steer, so we decided not to take a chance; there wasn't much wind protection either so it just didn't seem worth the trouble. We decided to go another 25 miles to a free dock at Fort Walton Beach where we spent two nights. One thing Loopers have in common, we all like the word “free.”

Kim’s Korner:

We were lucky enough to get to see the Christmas Boat Parade in Gulf Shores and even had front row seats from Overtime to view the parade and it was spectacular!

The most memorable thing in Ft. Walton was The Magnolia Grill which is a house that was bought from the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1910 and relocated at some point to its current location and made into a restaurant. The atmosphere was very warm and inviting with Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. The food was absolutely wonderful! If you are ever in the vicinity, I strongly urge you to try it.

Fairhope, Alabama

We arrived in Fairhope's Eastern Shore Marina around noon yesterday just as heavy rain hit us. We're staying put today due to high winds and overcast skies, the weather has not been very pleasant for the last week or so. My last entry had us at Bashi Creek where we rafted with Kharma, they have been very gracious in providing a power cord and sharing an anchor line with us; as I've explained previously, we only have a small gas powered generator which is plenty but since they run their generator anyway it's nice to not run out of gas at night. Bashi Creek is at mile 145 on the waterway and our next destination was mile 119, Bobby's Fish Camp (31.764188, -88.157801). Bobby's has a dock which holds about three and one-half large boats... yachts, more than that and we have to raft (tied side by side) up with each other. There are only four power outlets so there has to be some cooperation there as well, but cooperation and helpfulness seems to be what all these boat people are about. We wound up having five boats all total before the nights end, one of which pulled in after dark. A bunch of us enjoyed a catfish dinner at the restaurant where the waitress and new friends sang Happy Birthday to me as apple pie was placed on the table, very nice. The next morning it appeared several of our five boats had run aground without ever moving. There's a lot of floating clumps-of-grass and hyacinth in the river and it had collected at the bow of two rafted boats, we all got a kick out of it. All five boats traveled together for several days to mile 52.8, an anchorage at the Alabama River Cutoff (31.190126, -87.935490) and mile 12, Big Brier Creek (30.811756, -87.935508), the following night. We weren't in any hurry because of foul weather due to hit Mobile Bay, so we just enjoyed the anchorages and scenery. The five boats were Overtime, Kharma, Monterey, Kristine (53' Defever) and Carter's Cove (48' Bayliner). You've already meet the good folks on Kharma and Monterey, Kristine's crew was Rusty & Kris Bliss and Carter's Cove's crew was David & Bonnie. After leaving Big Brier we traveled in a light fog which hid all of Mobile except the shoreline structures; cranes, a tall bridge, and anything above 50 feet was shrouded in a haze. The five boats crept along at our usual slow pace in awe of the ominous looking landscape, or should I say riverscape? The path along the Mobile River eventually lead us to Mobile Bay where the fleet of five broke apart with two heading south for the GICW and three heading east for Easternshore Marina (30.542662, -87.903660) at Fairhope where we hope to do a little sight seeing and wait for better weather to arrive.

Kim's Korner

Talk about feeling small! Going thru the Mobile Bay shipyard in our little trawler made me feel like an ant next to those huge container ships – what a different perspective! The pelicans and seagulls gave us a nice escort across Mobile Bay which averages about 10' feet deep. Soon after we arrived in Fairhope, storms came in full force with lightening and rain galore. Overtime was rocking and rolling for quite some time but thank goodness, things calmed down some by bedtime. When the rocking picked up again during the night, David got up to adjust the fenders for reassurance. Surprisingly, we both fell back asleep and woke up to fairly calm waters :)

Demopolis to Bashi Creek

When we pulled into Kingfisher Marina (32.528756, -87.841636) in Demopolis there were high winds and storms due to hit, so we decided to wait them out here because Bobby's Fish Camp, the only small spot of civilization between here and Mobile 216 miles away, is not a good place to be stuck; we'll be anchoring out except for Bobby's until we get to Mobile. While here we have enjoyed the company of our fellow fleet members, Bob & Sharon and Rob & Glenda. The marina has excellent laundry facilities, a courtesy car and is a nice clean place to stay. The six of us went out to eat several times and enjoyed hanging around the dock and discussing our next departure plans. The next recommended anchorage was 70 miles away at Bashi Creek (river mile marker 145); other anchorages were not looking good, too shallow according to the information we had. 70 miles calls for a lot of daylight when you travel at trawler speeds, if we could get on the river early, say 6:00, and not get held up at the Demopolis Lock we could make it. By Thursday, the storms had all passed so Sharon called the lock at 5:30 am and the lock-master said to come on down since no commercial traffic was in the area. Sharon said we'd be there at 6:30. At 6:00 we pulled out of the marina with the sun just breaking the horizon and a very light fog rising above the water's surface due to the low temperature - 38 degrees. The routine at the lock went smooth and we were 30 feet lower in altitude in about 20 minutes. As we pulled out of the chamber onto the river we were met with a thick fog that was totally blinding for moments at a time. The chart-plotter shows my location relative to the navigation line but is not fully trust-worthy since it's not a real-time aid. This was my opportunity to use my new radar system, one I was reluctant to buy since I never planned to be out in the fog or the dark. Kim activated the system and adjusted the gain to reveal two objects directly in front of us about 50 yards out, our traveling companions. For about the next 45 minutes we worked our way down river, the new AIS system was a comfort as well, it let us know there were no tugs in front or behind. Once the fog lifted, we had clear skies and all the rain from previous days gave us a strong current to push us along. I was doing 8 knots rather than my usual 7. We passed several tugs, some southbound and some northbound but only one was a challenge. The Bobby Joe James, tugs are usually named after someone – I don't know why, was pushing 9 barges fully loaded with coal and doing about 6 knots. Our timing to catch him was important because we were just coming to a scarce straight section of the river. I radioed and he said to pass on either side so I chose to stay on his starboard side which eliminated the need for me to cross his prop-wash. It looked like I would have plenty of time to clear his bow before the next curve but you tend to lose some speed until after crossing the lead barges bow wave. This bit of a slow down meant I was barely outrunning him and as we approached the curve I heard his massive engines throttle back and his voice came over the radio telling me to speed up cause I was on the wrong side for this curve; I said I was going as fast as I could so he backed off a bit more until I cleared his bow. At that point, my speed picked up and we were out in front with plenty of distance after a few minutes, at this point I radioed “Bobby Joe, you sure are fast for such a big boy”. About thirty minutes later we were pulling into Bashi Creek (31.955732, -88.071086). Kharma had already anchored and invited us to a starboard raft-up, they were also gracious enough to share a power cord so that I wouldn't have to add gas to my little generator at 3:00 am. Karma and Monterey are much faster than us, they each have twin engines measured in the hundreds of horsepower where Overtime has a little 90 hp engine, they also have built-in generators which draw fuel from the main diesel tanks whereas Overtime has no generator other than the little Honda gas powered unit I carry onboard.

Kim's Korner,

It's cold in the mornings!!! We are using hand warmers, foot warmers, winter coats, wool socks, long underwear, gloves, hats and have 3 thermoses full of hot chocolate, tea, and cider! Oh and don't forget the blanket I have wrapped around me :) But we keep warm and after a few hours, the sun gets warm enough and the layers start coming off. Somehow, this wasn't the picture I had in my mind but the 4 weeks of repairs and improvements put us into the colder temperatures. But we've met some awesome friends, enjoyed beautiful leaves, no waits at the locks, and availability of marinas and anchorages which has definitely been good things! Our anchorages have been just beautiful!