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.