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!

Cook's Inlet to Demopolis

We had a nice visit with Bob and Sharon on Karma last night, the sky was clear and the Milky Way magnificent. We ran our little 2 kW Honda generator all night, well almost all night. I need to run it to power my CPAP but I didn't turn the heater on until around 3:30 (25º outside)... the geny ran out of gas at 5:00. We got up about 6:00 filled the generator, cooked breakfast then all four boats headed down river about 7:45. Only had one lock at mile 266 and no barges today. It was a beautiful trip with very little excitement, we even took turns napping in the pilothouse with a cold breeze while snuggled under layers of clothes and a blanket. We arrived in Demopolis around 4:00 and plan to spend a few days here due to in-coming weather. Kim & I, Bob & Sharon and Rob & Glenda all piled into a five-seater car and went out for delicious Mexican meal and conversation. Cook's Inlet is located at 32.944319, -88.178556

Columbus Marina to Cook's Inlet

We left Columbus Marina (33.522302, -88.481801) at 7:00 this morning and had a great little trip with new friends, beautiful scenery, bald eagles and big barges. We are anchored at Cook's Inlet, mile 277, rafted with friends Bob and Sharon from “Karma.” The night sky is dark and the Milky Way is brilliant! We plan to reach Demopolis tomorrow.

Midway Marina to Columbus Marina

We left Midway Marina (34.297828, -88.420396) at 7:00 am with 4 other boats all mentioned in yesterday's post. We went through 4 locks and covered 60 miles pulling into Columbus Marina at 4:30 pm. We have about 120 miles to the next marina so we'll be anchoring out tomorrow night. Sorry this one is short but we are tired and will be going to bed early.

Aqua Yacht Harbor to Midway Marina

After four weeks of waiting we are finally on the move again. We joined Bob & Sharon (Karma) and pulled out of Aqua at 7:00 am headed for the Tn-Tom at a leisurely 7 knots. Now I don't usually talk or think in terms of knots because the rivers and ICW are all measured in miles plus my brain is wired for mph, not knots... so this morning as I was running my usual 2000 RPMs my new chart plotter indicated to me that I was only going about 6 mph, I was expecting 7 to 7.5. I kept bumping the engine speed until I saw the expected 7 on my plotter and eventually realized the display said 7 kt rather than 7 mph, so I was actually doing a little more than 8 mph. Since I haven't figured out how to change that particular setting I'll try to rewire my brain to think in knots for a while. I made use of my new AIS as well, as we approached a southbound tug, I looked her up in the list supplied by my new toy and saw the name was Ginger Moller, however I called her Ginger Molly over the radio. Well the tug captain didn't seem to like that, his only reply was “Ginger Moller.” So, I hailed again with the correct name and asked which side I should pass to which he indicated it didn't matter since he planned to stay in the middle. This section of the Tn-Tom (The “Divide Cut”) is about 200 yards wide and his barge is about 70 yards wide, that leaves about 65 yards on either side. Normally that would be plenty of room however we were in a slight bend as I started around and it seemed he was squeezing me a little more than he needed to, I was about 10 yards from the barge and 10 yards from the bank as I passed. From now on I'll make sure and call these tugs by their proper name. We passed through three locks, Whitton, Montgomery and Rankin, on our way to Midway Marina with a 40 minute wait at Rankin being our only hindrance. We picked up another boat in our traveling pod, a small sailboat with no mast called Plan B (Charlie and son, Quinton) and when we pulled into the marina, we met other Loopers from Ocean Dancer (Bill & Kellirae) and Monterey (Rob & Glenda) at the dock. It was a good day! And Thanksgiving to boot! We enjoyed turkey sandwiches and leftovers from Hagey's Catfish Hotel Restaurant where we had eaten the day before – excellent food! We finished off our very unique Thanksgiving with some apple pie and ice cream. Hope all had a great holiday!
Aqua Yacht Harbor is located at 34.991645, -88.246922.

We Are Back On Overtime

Repairs and new electronics installation are complete... almost. I've been in touch with the service manager quite often and have been tracking their progress.

The work includes:

1. Installation of AIS, GPS, sonar and radar.
2. Installation of a new Racor fuel filtration system.
3. Davit repairs.
4. Hull repaired near rudder shaft.
5. Steering Actuator resealed.
6. Fresh water leak.

The new fuel filtration system installation was nearly complete when we arrived, everything else was complete except for one thing; the bilge had standing water again. They are having a hard time finding the leak, it's not lake water, it's coming from the fresh water system.

We had hoped to get underway tomorrow but with rain and windy conditions forecast we will probably wait until Thursday (Thanksgiving Day), this will also give them one more chance to find the leak.

We ran into a couple who are in the same boat as Kim and me, sort-of. They bought a boat in Florida and crossed the Gulf then brought her up the Tn-Tom to Aqua Yacht Harbor. From here they drove home and loaded up a truck and came back ready to start the Loop. They suggested we travel together for a while, so we'll see how that goes.