| "What Daze It?" Logs |
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Index of What Daze It? Cruise Logs
WebPage # Times Article # Cruise Name Season & Year Page 1 Article 1 Our Plan 2003 Page 2 Article 2 Mobile to Tuscaloosa Fall 2003 Page 3 Article 3 Upper Warrior, back to Mobile Fall/Winter 2003 Page 4 Article 4 Ft Myers to the Tenn-Tom 2004-2005 Page 5 Article 5 The Tennessee River Summer 2005 Page 6 Article 6 Continuation of the Tennessee Summer/Fall 2005 Page 7 Article 7 Tennessee, back to Tuscaloosa Fall/Winter 2005 Page 8 Article 8 Florida Keys, Apalachicola River Winter 2005/Spring 2006 Page 9 Article 9 Anchoring on "What Daze It?" Compilation Page 10 Article 10 Delivery Trip, Keys to Pascagoula Winter 2007 Page 11 Article 11 Marco Island to Tuscaloosa Winter 2007 to Summer 2008 Page 12 Article 12 Black Warrior-Tombigbee Rivers Fall 2008 Page 13 Article 13 Our 10 Favorite Stops Compilation Article # 1: Cruise Along with What Daze It? Our Plan- 2003
After much thought, planning and preparation, I retired August 29, 2003. Mary and I moved aboard our 42-foot yacht at this time. Our canine companions ME and Hid, accompanied us for this adventure. ME is a 6 year old Jack Russell Terrier. HID is her 4 year old puppy, and is deaf. They love to go, whether by car, boat, or foot, it doesn't matter, as long as they get to go. On September 10, we began the first trip, up the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers to my 30th high school reunion. Here is the story of how this came to pass.
The Idea- Retirement Possibilities Mary and I married in 1987. I was a respiratory therapy department manager at The University of South Alabama Hospitals. Mary taught elementary special education in Mississippi and Mobile. I purchased a home in 1983,and this would be the only house we would own. Around 1990, we began to discuss the possibility of retiring after 25 years of service in our current jobs. That option could be a reality for me in 2002. We made this a goal. General Budget If we were going to do this, we had to be able to exist on ½ of my final salary. This would be a significant drop, but after analyzing the figures, we thought we could do it. Cruising would be a much simpler style of living. Mary quit teaching nine months before my retirement. This allowed her to concentrate on preparing for our upcoming move to the boat. Nine months was not enough! It’s incredible how much stuff you accumulate. We went through several rounds to reduce our possessions to the items we could take with us. This took us over a year! One test we frequently applied: if we haven’t used it in the last 6 months, we don’t need it! Our major expenses will be: Boat Maintenance, Food, Insurance, Fuel, Restaurants, and Travel. We’re still very early into this, but it looks as though our budget estimates are as expected. We don’t spend nearly as much on eating out, gifts, clothing, etc., but retired life makes up for missing these "luxuries". Transportation Issues Each year, we expect to travel around 1,500 miles on the boat. We’ve decided to keep one car, and hop it to our major travel destinations. By this, I mean places where we expect to remain for one or more months at a time. Having a car in strategic locations will allow us to visit our families and do some traveling beyond the waterway. We have friends and family who have volunteered to assist with shuttling the car. We expect to log a fraction of the road miles when compared to pre-retirement. For on-board transportation, we ordered a pair of folding bicycles with a puppy carrier. This will allow us to explore our surroundings and resupply from local stores when our car is not available, while bringing along our canine companions. When visiting marinas, there is often a car on the premises made available to boat owners for local trips, at a nominal fee. There will be occasions when we will make airplane trips for necessary reasons, but these are expected to be infrequent.
Live-aboard Details Everyday life aboard can be quite different from life ashore. For example:
The Boat We purchased a 28-foot sailboat in 1989, and gradually traded up to larger boats. In 2001, we decided to go with a large, slow powerboat (known as a trawler). This is better suited to our type of coastal cruising and river travel than a sailboat. During our search for the right boat, we painstakingly assembled a list of "must haves", "wanna haves", and "maybes", that covered every conceivable option. We attached a relative value to each of these items, according to its importance in our travel plans. This allowed us to compare prices of different boats in order to come up with the best value for our needs. During our search, we talked with many owners of similar craft.
The Plan We started our cruise plan in familiar areas. The first year would be our Gulf Coast home waters, and the Black-Warrior/Tombigbee River. The second year, we branch out to the Tennessee River. Year three, it’s the Cumberland River in Kentucky. Year four is Louisiana and Texas. Next, it’s the Great Circle: up the east coast, left at New York, across the Great Lakes, down the Illinois to the Mississippi, to the Tenn-Tom and back to Mobile. After that, we settle down and decide what we want to do. In all, this is a seven-year plan. A great part of the fun of cruising is living out the trip via maps, charts, and guidebooks. I like to pencil-in our daily route on a calendar. Guidebooks provide valuable information on things to see and do. Friends and acquaintances who have traveled the same waters have the best advice of all.
{mospagebreak} Article # 2: Cruise Along with What Daze It? Mobile to Tuscaloosa, Fall 2003 After retiring August 29, 2003, our first trip was set to begin Sept 10! In preparation, we planned a trip to Pascagoula, MS, to pick up vinyl lettering for our new boat name, and fill-up with fuel. Due to continuing engine/fuel problems, I decided to change the starboard engine fuel pump, before heading for Dauphin Island. Sept. 4 We arrived at Leisas' dock in Mobile for final prep work before departure. I installed a new icemaker, we packed belongings, and visited Mary’s parents, who live in Mobile. Thanks to Leisa for allowing us to use her dock!
We planned to leave Mobile, September 10, and arrive in Tuscaloosa whenever we made it there. In other words, we planned to take our time, be in no hurry, and enjoy the journey. Generally, we tried to cover approximately 50 miles per day. This allowed us to stop a couple of times each day to enjoy interesting locations found along the way. This also allowed us to arrive at our anchorage with plenty of daylight to explore in the dinghy.
September 10, 2003, we got underway around 9AM with Mike, Mary, Mary’s mom Jean, and ME & HID aboard. Two hours later, at river mile 2 (all mile references are statue miles north of Hwy 98 in Mobile), we left the Mobile skyline behind. We stopped at Little Lizard Creek, mile 20, near the I-65 bridge known as the Dolly Parton Bridge by the locals. (If you’ve seen it, you understand the name!) It was so swampy and mucky we could not get out of the dinghy. We decided against a stop here, the dogs would have to hold it! Near Mt Vernon, at mile 42, we found the entrance to David Lake. It was narrow, but a local fishing boat said it holds 6' of depth, and we had no problem entering. This was a tranquil spot, despite a commercial barge operation on the north shore. Further into the lake, there were cypress and hardwood tress lining the banks. The water here was fresh, as is all water north of Mobile. This was quite a change from our usual cruising grounds along the coast, where the water is very salty. A cool rinse in the river is refreshing, and when you dry, there is no salt coating your skin!
Sept. 11 we were underway around 10 AM. We stopped for lunch at Bates Lake, near mile 54. This was a nice side water, with many fish camps on the north end. This day, my laptop experienced a keyboard failure, and would not boot up. The laptop runs the boats’ navigation program. This moving map allows us to identify the river mile, surrounding creeks, and towns with ease. All navigating from this point forward was with our paper maps and charts. The most important of these is the Corps of Engineers aerial photographic chart of the Tombigbee Black-Warrior Waterway. I also have the Alabama county road maps for the counties bordering the river. Also aboard are two cruise guide-books of the Tombigbee River. Around 6 PM, we anchored at Sunflower Cut-Off, Mile 79. The Tombigbee River and banks in this area are muddy! We will just have to get used to this, because the Tom is muddy from start to finish! Sept. 12 brought many pretty sandbars around mile 80. Around mid-day, we stopped for lunch at Lover's Leap. These are pretty limestone cliffs about 75 feet high. Today’s trip ended at mile 119 at Bobby’s Fish Camp, located just north of the first lock and dam at Coffeeville. We came through just fine for "lock rookies"! We had a crew change at Bobby's, Jean disembarked and Bill and Susan Lackey, and their two dogs boarded. We enjoyed a catfish supper at Bobby's. We almost had a major catastrophe when Jean and Ed head back to Mobile with our cell phone and Bill's car keys in their car, right where we left them! Thankfully they discovered them, and returned to Bobby's after driving about 40 miles through the deserted night toward Mobile!
Sept. 13 We departed Bobby's Fish Camp at 10 AM. At mile 126, we explored Tallawampa Creek. The depths were variable, but we were able to get in about a half mile to a wide lake and a nice spot for swimming. We saw very little other traffic, making it feel as if we had the river to ourselves. Even so, we tried to keep a sharp eye out for small boats (sometimes difficult to see) in the river, in order to slow down. At 10 mph, our boat throws a relatively big wake that could swamp or upset an unsuspecting small boat. We stopped for the night at Bashi Creek (Mile 145), and anchored bow and stern about 100 yards out of the river channel. Sept. 14 Underway from Bashi at 10 AM. This was another area with plenty of sandbars to stop and allow the dogs and their people to enjoy. We stopped for lunch on Tombigbee at mile 158- Sugarbowa Creek. We dropped off the Lackey’s at the Ezell's Fish Camp launch ramp (Mile 165) near Nanafalia, where we had previously left their car. We anchored at Old Lock #2 (Mile 169) and returned to Ezell's in the dinghy for another good catfish supper. This was the last night we needed to run the generator for air conditioning, as all the nights from here on would be pleasantly cool. Sept. 15 Underway from Old Lock #2 at 10:15 AM. Again, as before, we were on the hunt for good sandbars. Mile 177 did not disappoint in this respect. There is a most impressive double hairpin turn in this sandbar area. Upriver, north of mile 210, is the approach to Demopolis lock and dam. This is very pretty, with colorful rock formations and small streams that trickle into the river. However, a big papermill just south of Demopolis produces an awful, dark colored outflow. After locking through, we stopped at the Demopolis Yacht Basin for the night. We took on water, pumped out our holding tank, and ate at their "New Orleans Bar & Grill". The overnight stay was $1/ft/nite (that's $42 for our boat), and too much for us! After all, this is rural Alabama, not south Florida! What's surprising is the monthly slip fee was a very reasonable $150.
While in the marina, we worked most of the day polishing out our old name "Dos Amigos" in favor of our new one, "What Daze It?". Around 3 PM, we departed for Big Prairie Creek, on the Black Warrior River. The Black Warrior River is 65 feet deep at the junction with the Tombigbee, and much "greener" than the muddy Tom! Big Prairie turned out to be one of the friendliest places we've ever seen! People in this area don't meet a stranger! There's clearly a sense of helpfulness & community here. Bill Kelly is full of information about the surrounding river, and Josh, James and Dori Stegall at Buck's Restaurant are real gems! We anchored off Buck's in about 10 feet of water on Sept. 16th & 17th, and then moved to the dock on the 18th. My brother, Buddy joined us here, and took us for a truck ride through the Lock 5 community. This was his stomping ground when he was growing up, and he still knows it well. We completed our transom name while here, and it looks great! Sept. 19 we departed Big Prairie Creek at 10:15 AM. There was a nice sandbar at mile 239, where we stopped for a dog run. We anchored and dinghied into Port Royal (Mile 244). We passed Dollarhide Creek at Mile 255, namesake of the fancy hunting club, where Bear Bryant was known to hang out. At the entrance to Selden Lock (Mile 261), we took the old river channel for 5 miles to the base of Selden Dam. I hoped there would be a lot of water, spray, and that peaceful roar, like we encountered at Demopolis Dam. Instead, there was little water coming through this dam.
Sept. 20 We departed Selden Dam, travelling out the 5 mile dead-end channel to lock through. Above the Lock and Dam (Mile 262), vegetation grows right to the river's edge, with elephant ears, lily pads, and colorful flowers everywhere. On this day, we were surprised to see at least 30 almost identical, new pick-up trucks with boat trailers at Roebucks Landing (Mile 264). The river was crowded with 60-MPH bass boats. This was in contrast to past experience, where we were almost alone on the river. We later learned there was a bass tournament here. Big Brush Creek at Mile 266, welcomed us with 10 foot depths at the entrance. Depths held far into the creek, but we had to watch out for the many stumps. Although this is a pretty creek, there are no banks accessible for exploring and dog runs. HCHS classmate Lee Epperson visited us here. Buddy picked me up here so I could visit my mother in the hospital. She broke her pelvis in a fall at home the day we began our cruise. Sept. 22 We headed for Old Lock #8 at mile 278. We stayed at Lock 8 near Akron till Friday. It is here that we picked up my Daddy's truck to visit Moundville and DCH. It is also here, on Sept. 25, that Cindy Bolling interviewed us for an article in "Moundville Times", which appeared on Oct. 1. Sept. 26 We travelled straight through from Old Lock #8, arriving in Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs. Arkansas football game. We tied up at Old Lock #12 on Friday, Sept. 26. There were only 2 other boats, "Special Request", and "Mystic Sunshine" at Lock 12. While thousands of RV’s and motor home’s tailgate for these events, there are few boaters taking advantage of the raft-ups. What a pity! We met Jerry Hughes, Ed Cook and Darwin Lynch, making final preparations for the Boat Alabama Homecoming, scheduled for later in October. They assisted us in getting a slip at Hide-A-Way Harbor Marina, north of Holt Lock and Dam, at mile 347. We spent the night at Jerry’s house rafted to Big Al, the Boat Alabama barge. The next day we moved to a slip at Hide-A-Way, next to Darwin’s paddle wheel boat, Heart of Dixie. My uncle Tom Hall & his wife Doris joined us for the ride up river. James is the lockmaster at Holt, and he is a character!
2003 What Daze It? Journey Date-Destination-River Mile-Miles Traveled-Nearest Town Sept 4 Rabbit Creek (Final preparations to depart!) Mobile Sept 10 David Lake 42 60 Mt Vernon Sept 11 Sunflower Cut-off 79 37 Jackson Sept 12 Bobby’s Fish camp 119 40 Coffeeville Sept 13 Bashi Creek 145 30 Morvin Sept 14 Old Lock #2 169 24 Nanafalia Sept 15 Demopolis 216 47 Demopolis Sept 16 Big Prarie Creek 231 16 Arkadelphia Sept 19 Selden Dam 266* 36 Eutaw Sept 20 Big Brush Creek 266 12 Eutaw Sept 22 Old Lock #8 278 14 Akron Sept 26 Old Lock #12 340 63 Tuscaloosa Sept 30 Hide-A-Way Harbor 347 07 Peterson *Off navigation channel, on dead end damsite channel Sept. 30 Daddy visited us at the marina for the morning. Our boating friends from the coast, who live in Northport, Paula & Kenny, ate supper with us and helped celebrate my birthday. Oct. 1 We drove to Moundville for the Homecoming bonfire and float construction. We took in all the homecoming festivities on Friday, including the game. Unfortunately, Oakman beat Moundville. Oct. 3 We had 11 of my classmates for a boat trip from 11 AM till 4 PM. We explored Holt Lake from one end to the other, also exploring Pegus and Davis Creeks. {mospagebreak} Article # 3: Cruise Along with What Daze It? Upper Warrior River, back to Mobile, Al October 7, 2003 The "What Daze It" crew had about one month remaining before heading south for the winter. We had heard how pretty the Warrior is above Bankhead Lock & Dam, and wanted to see it for ourselves. For starters, we took an all-day dinghy trip to the old railroad tunnels along Holt Lake. These tunnels were just a few miles above our marina at Hide-A-Way Harbor. During the '50's and '60's, a locomotive pulled coal cars from the Brookwood area down Daniel Creek to The Black Warrior River. This was before the present Holt Lock & Dam was constructed in 1972. The railroad came to the riverbank in a series of short tunnels through the sandstone rock. The final tunnel emerges at Mile 353, then runs parallel to the river. The other two tunnels are about 1.25 miles east of the river. The exploration was a rocky, winding trip in and out of the creek bed. There was ample evidence of 4 X 4's, 4 wheelers and horse tracks along the way. The day we explored the area, we didn't encounter a soul. The following day, we traveled with Big Al (the barge) to the UA for Homecoming (Southern Miss). As we approached the Holt Lock, we saw a bald eagle! He was fishing just above the Dam, and had the characteristic white head. Unfortunately, this was our only bald eagle sighting, but we're told they don't arrive in number until late in Nov/Dec. Alabama's Homecoming was a great party with about 25 boats at Old Lock 12.
***Photo of Lock 12*** The next week, we returned from the Boat Alabama Homecoming raft up. My Uncle, Tom Hall, traveled the 7 miles from the marina to Lock 12 and made the trip back as well. He enjoyed these brief trips with us, and was knowledgeable of the history of this area. That same week, we began our cruise of the Bankhead/Mulberry Fork. Immediately upon clearing Bankhead Lock we saw seven wild turkeys playing follow-the-leader up the bank. During our trip, we saw a total of 4 flocks of turkeys, each with 6 or more individual birds. A few miles north of Bankhead Lock is Walker County Shoal Creek (Mile 378). In our opinion, this was the prettiest spot on the river. We stayed at Franklin Ferry Marina (Mile 381) Thursday through Sunday, enjoying a party at the dockominiums on Saturday. It rained for nearly two days, and this was a good rainy day stop-over.
***Photo of dogs at cave*** Before continuing north to Mulberry Fork, we joined a brief Sunday evening raft-up at Short Creek (Mile 382) with 4 boats from the Franklin Ferry gang. We were the last boat on the mooring. They stayed rafted and headed back down river. I've seen & done a lot on the water, but never have I seen a rafted group of boats motor along the waterway! On Monday October 20, We cruised up Valley Creek & Lost Creek before stopping for the night at Burnt Cane Creek (Mile 407). Clevenger's Marina on Valley Creek at Mile 382 was surely once a fine marina, but is now rusting and run down. At Lost Creek (Mile 392) we began to notice fall color in the trees. This creek was wide and deep, with grass beds & lily pads all around. Nicely developed residential areas grace both shorelines.
The next day, we traveled almost to the head of navigation on Mulberry Fork, where we turned around at Mile 426. Here, we were just north of Jasper, and a long way from Mobile. Above mile 418, the water was noticeably clearer & colder. On Blackwater Creek at Mile 422, the water temp was a chilly 59 degrees! Sunset caught us this day, when we made it back to Lost Creek at 7:30 PM.
Oct. 24 We travelled with "Big Al" to the UA for the Tennessee game. In riding down from Holt, this was the first trip Daddy has made with us, even if it was just 7 miles. Ron & Libbo from Pensacola joined us for a great game. Alabama lost to Tennessee in 5th overtime! There was a shrimp boil after the game, but we were almost too tired to partake! October 26, following the Tennessee game, we returned to our marina. Now we travelled to Moundville for a few days, and started thinking about our return to Mobile. On October 30, we spent the entire day on boat maintenance! The raw water impeller on the port engine had a slow leak, and had to be changed. I also changed the front 2 hoses on the oil cooler, the oil, and all filters. Changing the oil is a major, messy job, and I vowed to have a built-in oil changer for next time.
October 31st finds us underway at 7:25 AM, headed for Mobile. We enjoyed seeing the string of beautiful sandbars in the Fosters area, stopping on the one at mile 325. This bar was very tall, and we were surprised to find a small watermelon patch at the top of the bar, hidden from view. We noticed quite a Dukes mixture of nice homes, trailers and shacks between Fosters and Moundville. The railroad between Moundville and Tuscaloosa runs right along the bank near the old McPhersons Landing (Mile 311), and loud train horns startled us several times. The Big Sandy sandbar (Mile 307) has changed dramatically over the years. Currently, the Corp of Engineers has established a huge berm upriver from the sandbar. The bar along the river is currently as pretty as I ever remember seeing it. The bar below Moundvillle, Wildhorse (Mile 302), is not as pretty as it was many years ago, due no doubt, to changes in the pattern of depositing dredge spoil. At Riverbend (Mile 302-300), I counted about 15 houses visible from the river. At mile 293 is Old Lock #9. The lock walls are now completely overgrown with trees and shrubs. You couldn't tie up here if you wanted to. We arrived at Old Lock #8 (Mile 278) at 5 PM. That night, I accidentally dropped 2 of our flashlights into the river. We also picked up new crew here. New crewmates from Pensacola are Bill and Susan Lackey, and their dogs Jezzie and Bentley, and from Mobile, Leisa.
The next day, Keith Davis approached in his bass boat below Lock 8, and we towed him behind as he rode along for a few miles to see our boat. We took a short side trip at Big Brush Creek (Mile 264). There was ample depth and a wide creek inside. We were impressed with the clarity of the river in this area. You could see the bottom in 3 feet of water. That degree of clarity is unusual this far downriver. We noticed elephant ears, lily pads and small yellow flowers along the river banks at Roebucks Landing near Eutaw (Mile 264). We stopped for lunch at a small sandbar at McAlpines Bluff (Mile 257.5). It dropped off sharply, as we saw 10 feet on the depthsounder with the bow on the beach. We arrived at Big Prairie Creek (Mile 231) at 5 PM, and tied to the small pier at Buck's Restaurant. We enjoyed an excellent steak dinner that night. We visited with my second cousin, Lamar Hall and his wife Anna, who joined our crew for supper. Sunday dawned beautifully, with temps quickly into the 80's. We departed Big Prairie at 11:30 AM, bound for Demopolis and another crew change. We arrived at the yacht basin at 1:30 PM, added 100 gallons of diesel fuel. I ferried Bill to his car at Lock 8, which took about 2 hours. Bill, Susan, Jezzie, Bentley and Leisa departed. We departed from Demopolis Yacht Basin with new crew Jean (Mary's Mom) and Marine (Mary's Aunt). That night, we anchored in Foscue Creek (Mile 214). In this creek is a Corp of Engineers facility and the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway Park Authority. A nice, well-manicured park is along the creek bank, meticulously maintained by the previously mentioned Waterway Park Authority. We were nighttime visitors to a Great Horned owl, a couple of beavers, and a bunch of deer while anchored in the creek. In this anchorage, we were only about 1/2 mile from the Demopolis Dam, and the roar of water over the dam was noticeable. It reminded me of breaking surf at the beach on a windy night.
We had a long run today. We were underway at 7 AM, and locked through Demopolis Lock (Mile 213.5) with 2 other trawler yachts. The riverbank from Demopolis south for 20 miles has smooth multicolored rock along the left bank. These rocks are about 30-40 feet high, with frequent streams trickling down into the river. Below mile 195, we again saw the presence of numerous sandbars. It's really surprising how the character of the river changes every 50 miles or so. We made a lunch stop on a nice bar at Mile 185.5, the dogs enjoyed the run. We had another nice sandbar stop at Mile 147. After leaving Demopolis we saw 5 riverboats. That was more than we had sometimes seen in a 24 hour period. As we passed Bashi Creek (Mile 145), we see "Dun Workin" anchored there. Our destination that night was Tallawampa Creek at Mile 126. Near dark, we saw a 7 foot alligator on the bank. My photo, unfortunately, was underexposed. Underway at 8:25 AM, we pulled out right on top of "Dun Workin". Another long run this day, and we anchored with "Dun Workin", who were headed south from Ohio. We locked through at Coffeeville after being held up 15-20 minutes by "lock maintenance". We had a nice sandbar stop at Mile 107. The Hendry dredge operation was very active near Jackson on our trip up- and downriver. They had several dredges operating in this vicinity. We saw about a dozen wild turkeys near Mile 73. We stopped this evening, just at dark, in Bates Lake, at Mile 54. We awoke to rain at 6:15 this morning. We got underway just after 7 AM. The rain ended after a couple of hours, and temps returned to 80, with a stiff breeze. The port of Mobile (Mile 00) was a busy hub of activity on this day, as it is most days. We arrived at our Rabbit Creek destination at 3 PM. Jean & Marine left to shop & wash, preparing to return the next day to travel with us to the Blue Angels Airshow at Pensacola NAS. November 6, we had a perfect Mobile Bay crossing. The next day we enjoyed the airshow, as always! We had our usual post-airshow shrimp boil and bonfire. As an added benefit, there was a lunar eclipse that began at 7PM. We all howled at the moon that night!
Nov. 9 We headed back to Mobile via Dauphin Island. The bay was sloppy and the ride across uncomfortable. Ed (Mary’s Daddy) met us at Billy Goat hole to pick up Jean and Marine. On November 10 we filled our fuel tanks at McHugh’s on Dauphin Island with 487 gallons. Avg. miles/hr: 7.0; Fuel: 492.4+100.0+17.2=609.6; Avg. gals/hr: 3.6; Avg. miles/gal: 1.95 Days at Anchor: 29; Days at Dock: 33; Run Days: 35; Lay Days: 27; Miles/run day: 34; Farthest run day: 89 {mospagebreak} Article # 4: Cruise Along with What Daze It? 2004-2005
We remained in the Mobile area for the winter of 2003-2004, tying up loose ends after our recent retirement. It was enjoyable spending the spring and summer of 2004 in our home waters. This allowed us to see it up close and personal! It is amazing how much you miss when you just see it on week-ends!
We made another trip up the Tombigbee-Black Warrior River to Tuscaloosa for the 2004 football season. This had the additional advantage of getting us off the Gulf Coast for the worst part of the hurricane season. Now, every night is Friday night, every day is Saturday. That has become the motto for our home on the water, "What Daze It?" Sunday, we go to church, if there is one in easy biking distance from our boat. Our general plan is to winter in south Florida and spend summers up the rivers of the southeast. During our fall 2004 trip back down the Tombigbee River, we met another young cruising couple bound for Ft Myers, FL. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve changed my position on middle age. I still consider Mary and I a young couple. We stayed in contact with them, and they encouraged us to join them at Ft Myers Yacht Basin. We arrived there early in February 2005, and remained for 2 months. The weather in Ft Myers was excellent, with daytime temperatures around 80, nighttime around 60. As expected, Florida comes with lots of pretty water, sand and sun. It’s not all positive however, as prices are about double for all boating related items, and it is extremely congested!
****Photo Of Edison-Ford Estates at the Banyan tree**** The Ft Myers Yacht Basin is located downtown, on the Caloosahatchee River in an area undergoing revitalization. A beautiful park is located next to the Yacht Basin. During the winter, festivals, parades, concerts, art and educational events occur regularly in the park. One of the largest is the Edison Festival of Lights. Covering several weekends, it honors Thomas Edison, who made Ft Myers his winter home in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Both day- and nighttime parades made us feel like we were back home in Mobile at Mardi Gras!
****Captiva Island Shelling Photo**** April arrived, and for us, so did spring fever to travel again! We departed Ft Myers April 7, 2005. Our first stop was Sanibel Island, known as the shelling capital of Florida, however, our vote goes to North Captiva Island, 20 miles to the north. Next, Gasparilla Island made a fun 2-day stopover. They have a nice bike path running the entire length of the island, tailor-made for our style of land travel. Moving north, near Tampa Bay, we spent 2 days at Caladesia Island. With no bridge to the mainland, boaters are the only people to enjoy the well-maintained State Park. Wildlife is plentiful here. We observed raccoons, armadillo, gopher and box turtles, along with many types of birds. Evening-time, after the day visitors departed, was the favorite of the local wildlife to come out and be seen. Next we started the open-water part of our trip. Up until now, we’ve been traveling in the protected Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The ICW is close to what you might call river travel. We made the 60-mile trip from Caladesia Island to Cedar Key in open Gulf waters. In the early part of the trip, seas were flat calm. We saw several small flying fish that would shoot across the surface of the water, standing on their tails and skimming up to 75 feet. When we passed through Anclote Key and Tarpon Springs we made a pledge to return and spend some time there. Then we traveled about 120 miles across Florida’s Big Bend waters, from Cedar Key to Dog Island. Dog Island, just off Carrabelle, is what you would imagine Gulf Shores and Pensacola Beach looked like in the 1930’s. Accessible only by boat, the ferry dock looks like a junkyard with all the beach clunker cars parked around the sand roads.
****St Joeseph’s Bay Photo**** After a brief stopover in Apalachicola, we moved on to Eagle Harbor, across St Joseph’s Bay from Port St Joe. This is a beautiful place. It reminds us of the area near Pensacola Pass, except it is 12 miles long and 5 miles wide. There is an abundance of grass and sea-life along the bayside shore. Mary’s favorite finds are the urchin shells and tulip shells, there are a lot of both.
****Crooked Island Photo**** Next day, we moved up to Crooked Island, 12 miles east of Panama City Pass. This turned out to be our favorite of any place we've been. The property here is part of Tyndall Air Force Base, a beautiful, isolated beach, with great shelling. We already want to return! The next afternoon, we proceeded to Panama City Pass, stopping over at Shell Island. Seashells here are not nearly as nice as Crooked Island. We anchored at Smack Bayou, to wait out the frontal passage on Saturday. At about 1PM, we have thunderstorms with hail, which was a first for us on the boat! Snugly anchored, we had no problem with what seemed like a never-ending string of April fronts. We moved fairly quickly through Destin, Pensacola and Orange Beach. These are our home waters, where we’ve spent plenty of time. We also wanted to get to Mobile so we could spend time with Mary’s parents, and assorted other friends. The southeast has received so much rain this spring, we were concerned about high water and swift currents as we progressed up-river. Fortunately, May has been a dry month, and the Tombigbee looks good. We moved through the Lower Tombigbee to Demopolis in 4 days. We had great weather to enjoy the river, with highs near 90, and lows around 70. The river water was between 75 and 80 degrees, refreshing on a hot day. We left the boat at the Demopolis Yacht Basin for a trip to Moundville to visit my parents. We made it just in time to attend the departure dinner for the Methodist preacher, Grant Parker and family, who spent the past 8 years in Moundville. ****Insert Alice Parker on the Mobile River**** We now have our sights on the Tennessee River, via the Tombigbee Waterway. This will be our first trip north of Demopolis on the Tombigbee. Everything we read about the Tennessee River calls it the best 652 miles of inland cruising anywhere! We will let you know! {mospagebreak} Article # 5- Summer 2005, The Tennessee River Mary, ME, HID and I returned to Demopolis on June 27, after a one week stay in Moundville with my parents. Our main engines had 4,339 hours on them, and I performed an oil and transmission fluid change, and put on new valve cover gaskets. On Saturday, May 28, 2005, we departed Demopolis, Al, headed up the Tombigbee River. This would be virgin territory for us for the next four months. Our plan was to cruise the entire 652 miles of the Tennessee River. We would actually do that distance twice, both out and back. That day, we contacted Bruce Cook, an HCHS classmate, and arranged to meet at the Epps sandbar, not far from Livingston, Al. He was already there when we arrived at 2PM after, traveling 34 miles. We anchored bow and stern as close to the sandbar as depths allowed. About 10 boats & 40 people congregated on the sandbar that afternoon. The sport here is badminton in the sand. We visited with the Saturday evening sandbar crowd till after dark. Bruce and his family returned the next day to visit until the rain ran them home.
Before leaving Epps, I installed a new, flexible sound enclosure for our generator. We departed the sandbar around 1PM Monday. We went through Heflin Lock, to Warsaw Cut-Off at mile 275 on the Tenn-Tom. There is a small sandbar that drops off quickly to 10' depths. We anchored there with our bow on the bar, which made for easy on/off dog access. Tuesday had light rain all day. We stopped at the Bevill Lock & Dam Visitor Center to tour the mansion & pick up flyers on the Tenn-Tom. The 20th anniversary of the Tenn-Tom was occurring at that time, but rain put a damper on the activities. There was less rain Wednesday, but overcast all day. Near Columbus, we saw a four boat flotilla with Boat Alabama’s Wayne Fulmer leading. We talked on the VHF radio and learned they were doing a four day trip from the Cumberland River to Tuscaloosa. This part of the Tenn-Tom is where the locks are close together, and we transited 3 that day. While departing Amory Lock, we picked up a significant vibration on the port engine. We decided to stop immediately at Smithville Marina, having run 57 miles today. The following morning, I cut away a mass of polypropylene line from the prop hub, and all was well. A bit of rain again this day, and Mary's getting sick of it! She’s the one out in the rain to secure the boat for locking. We transited the final 4 Tenn-Tom locks , with Whitten being an 84' lift. Whitten Lock exits into Bay Springs Lake, which is a beautiful clear, green color. You can see 7' deep, and is great for swimming. We moved to a new anchorage each day, hoping to see the best of the lake. This area is a maze of fingers and coves, all great for exploring. Had we known that Bay Springs would be the clearest water on the Tennessee, except for Tellico Lake, at mile 30 through 33, we would have stayed several more days.
We experienced beautiful weekend weather. The water was around 75degrees, air temperature 85. We completed the Tenn-Tom this day, transiting the Divide Cut section. Eight days and 233 miles after leaving Demopolis, we arrived at the Tennessee River. Looking upstream, we see 30 or so boats at the "famous" Yellow Creek Waterfall, Tennessee mile 217, and there was no telling how many were inside the waterfall cove. We went back to Tenn-Tom mile 450 the last cove on the south side, and tie off to trees on both sides, across from Grand Harbor Marina. About mid day, we moved 2 miles to the waterfall. When we arrived, there was one trawler and several powerboats inside. Fed by cool spring water which runs year-round, the waterfall is at least 45’ high. The evenings went down into the high 60's due to the cool spray from the waterfall which also provided a nice sound. We took many photos of this picturesque setting.
On the main stream of the Tennessee River are nine dams, Kentucky, Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Guntersville, Nickajack, Chickamauga, Watts Bar, and Ft Loudoun. These dams form a continuous chain of lakes from Paducah, Ky. to Knoxville, Tenn. Each lake is called by the name of the dam, such as "Pickwick Lake". This can be a bit confusing, for each place can be called by its’ river or lake name. The Tenn-Tom waterway entered the Tennessee just above Pickwick Dam. Here we turned right, to travel upriver to Knoxville, where we would reverse course to travel downriver to Paducah. Then it would be a short trip back upriver to the Tenn-Tom on Pickwick Lake. After three days at the waterfall, we traveled up-river to Florence, AL, a trip of 39 miles. We talked with our friend Richard Shivers, who recommended we stay at Mystic Harbor Marina (formerly Florence Harbor). They have a good restaurant, with a great cheeseburger. On June 11, Tropical Storm Arlene came ashore at Pensacola (70 mph peak gusts at Navarre), and moved right over us in Florence. We got about 4" of rain, with little wind, but decided to stay the week to miss all the storm effects (it rained for 3 more days). This was the first of 4 hurricanes that would pass over us on our Tennessee River travels. Thank goodness we were not on the coast! We explored Wilson Lock and Dam by dinghy. Two days before departing Florence, the dinghy motor quit, with no spark on one plug. We looked for a new 4-stroke motor, but could only find a Yamaha 15 locally. It was too large, and Mary could not muster the strength required to crank the beast. We bought a power pack at a local repair shop, which fixed the old motor (for a fraction of the cost of a new motor).
We departed Florence around 2 PM on Wednesday, June 15, with a short travel day due to the delay repairing the dinghy motor. Wilson Lock, just above Florence, has a 93’ lift, one of the highest in the country. Here, the upper lock gate is very unique. It drops down, under the water, and you cross over the submerged gate in the boat. All the other locks swing open like double doors, this is the one exception. After exiting the lock, we transited the 13 mile long Wilson Lake, and went through Wheeler Lock. A bit farther upstream, we anchored in a cove across from Elk River for the night.
The upper part of Wheeler Lake was one of the least attractive parts of the Tennessee River for us. There are few off-river creeks and coves where we could stop. We moved on through to Guntersville Lake, which is a pretty area. We moved to Alred Marina on Friday, June 17, to pick up our Mobile friends Tim & Elisabeth. We spent the three following days with them, exploring the Guntersville area. The highlights of our explorations were: Short Creek, where we found large and small rocks in the creek bed, forming cool rapids and swimming holes, and Town Creek, where my brother Buddy and his friend Squirrel visit in the afternoon.
On the Guntersville and Nickajack Lakes there is a huge amount of weed (hydrilla and milfoil) when venturing into water less than 10' deep. It will hopelessly foul the prop, as we found out in the dinghy. The channel into Goose Pond is narrow and shallow. They have a special dredge/cutter to keep the weeds at bay. It was a pretty place, with very good diesel fuel prices, so we filled our tanks. We moved 53 miles to Nickajack Lake to meet Sandy and Raymond (friends from Mobile). We stayed overnight at Hales Bar Marina, after re-provisioning and eating out for supper.
The next day, we backtracked several miles to a nice anchorage at Little Cedar Mountain, near Nickajack Dam. There were a couple of good dog potty spots, but they turned out to be tick infested. We saw several deer in this area, and bat caves are reported to be here, but we could not find them. We remained here for 3 days (through the week-end) floating in the water to escape the mid-90 degree temperatures. Raymond & I followed Buddy (Mike’s oldest brother) to his Tennessee mountain cabin on Sunday. After returning from Buddy's, we headed for Chattanooga. This is a scenic area, known as "...the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee". We saw high mountains, rock cliffs, and tight river On arrival in Chattanooga, we docked at the new floating docks adjacent to the Tennessee Aquarium. We met Dick on "DJ Explorer" and Larry on "Loose Wire". They keep their boats at Blue Springs Marina on Watts Bar Lake, and invited us there "...for the best marina in the area". Chattanooga was just finishing a $120 million riverfront project, which includes docks, waterfalls, swimming fountains, walking paths, bridges, parks, museums, and more. Now that's doing it right! Raymond rented a car, and we went back to Hales Bar to pick up their car. On the way, we rode the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain, toured the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Facility, and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. The next day we went to Rock City and Ruby Falls, then walked the pedestrian bridge to Clumpy's, for ice cream. On the third day we toured the Aquarium and Imax (Sharks). Consensus favorite: Rock City!
Following the Aquarium, Raymond and Sandy departed for Mobile. We left for Chickamauga Lake at the same time. We were delayed 3 hours at the lock, waiting on a 3-barge tow to lock through the smallish 400’ X 60’ lock. We arrived at Booker T Washington Park after dark, and the boats’ computer navigation software would not start for 30 minutes. We were stuck until we got it going, because we could not tell where we were in the dark! We decided to move up to Soddy Creek to "hole-up" for the July 4th weekend. We anchored and tied the stern to a tree in a cove opposite Shady Grove Marina. It was in the shade by noon, and turned out to be good swimming in 84-degree water. We enjoyed the good food at Steve’s Landing restaurant a couple of times. We got a good bit of rain here too. This is the first area we notice with entire mountainsides filled with dead pines, presumably killed by southern pine beetles. The infestation appeared to have occurred years ago, and swept through unchecked, resulting in no pines over wide areas. This pattern will be a familiar sight as we proceed up the Tennessee.
After the 4th of July weekend, we moved over to a slough at mile 491, and then to the Hiwassee River. We read about the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, and decided we had to see the museum and the courthouse. This was the location of the 1920’s trial pitting evolution against creation, a result of state legislation prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the classroom. This was an interesting and informative visit. Proceeding up Watts Bar Lake, there were many attractive coves and islands. As we looked closer, most were not dog friendly, due to dense brush and woods that come right to the rivers edge. Mile 538 is Sand Island, and we had heard about it from locals. Even on Friday, it was quite crowded. Sand, it's not! Several small spots with small muddy banks are what they claim for sand. There are plenty of BIG rocks here, though! Pearl Harbor at mile 541.5 is a nice anchorage especially the northern and middle finger. We were so close to Blue Springs Marina that we decided to proceed there. Hurricane Dennis was nearing a Sunday landfall at Navarre, Fl, and we could use the convenience of a marina for the rain that would result in our area. Little did we know that we would get 10 days of straight rain! Larry (Blue Springs owner) and Dick were at the Marina. Saturday night we had a spontaneous gathering on the boat with Michelle & Joe (Emily), Del & Marty (Vade & Bryson), George & Stacy till past midnight. Sunday was a concert with an orchestra on the lawn across from Blue Springs Marina. After 8 days in the marina, we were ready to go out for a spell! We moved straight across the river to a nice cove at mile 548. Michelle & Joe were to join us, but rainshowers keep them away. We see Larry & Janet one cove over as we explore in dinghy. After a rainy evening we heard the loudest frogs imaginable! Cicada serenade us here as well.
We moved up to 556 near Thief Neck Island. This was such a great dinghy exploring area we nearly ran out of gas! We met Bob & Sheila on "High & Dry", who live on the waterfront at 568.6. We will see them there when we go to Emory River. We went back to the marina to wash clothes, rinse boat, fill water tanks, and pay our bill (opting to pay for a month at $160).We were going to leave this same day, but it rained so we stayed overnight, left for Kingston,TN the next day. We cruised up the Clinch to mile 6, then up the Emory with a side trip up the Little Emory. We stayed overnight at the small riverside dock in Harriman at Emory mile 12. This was a nice park area with an incredible handicap accessible playground (4 different type wheelchair swings, wheelchair accessible grounds, sand table, jungle gym, and train). The next morning we dinghied up the Emory 3 miles to Clifty Creek. We walked up the rocks and small rapids about 200 yards, the dogs had a great time.
We locked through at Ft. Loudon and entered the high traffic area of the Ft. Loudon/Tellico Lakes. We turned to go up the Tellico Lake. This area continued to be very busy as we saw boats rafted in every cove. We had to travel to mile 12 in order to find a secluded cove to anchor for the night. Although we had been told the Tellico River was cold, the water temperature here was 87 degrees. We moved up the Tellico to reconstructed Ft. Loudon, which we toured with ME and HID. This was one of the hottest days of the summer with temps. in the upper 90's. We were in the water frequently, trying to stay cool. We dinghied to the other side of the island and toured the Sequoyah Cherokee Museum. This museum was similar to the one in Moundville, however, lacking mounds and burials. Mike was determined (Mary says obsessed) to find the cold water we had been told about. At mile 30, we found it! First we noticed a fog along the surface of the water, then the ambient temperatures began to cool. We passed the abandoned trestle, anchoring just beyond the launch ramp at LTR 31.5. The water temp. measured 56 degrees 24 hours a day!!! There was also a good bit of flow coming through the Chilhowee Dam, which powers the nearby Alcoa Plant. We stayed here several days enjoying the cold water and the hot days.
Even though we enjoyed the cold water there was nothing else in this area to cause us to linger. We moved back down the Tellico to mile 2. We were expecting a frontal passage, and tied the boat in a well-protected nook. Late afternoon the squall line hit bringing gusty winds and white caps in the adjacent cove. Unfortunately, Mike discovered chiggers here! {mospagebreak} Article #6 Cruise Along with What Daze It? The Tennessee River As we continued our journey north along the upper Tennessee River, we encountered pretty countryside and huge homes of all types of architecture and landscaping. The first Knoxville sighting was the UT Medical Center, however, Neyland Stadium was the most recognizable landmark along a riverwalk ending at Volunteer Landing Marina. The bridge architecture along this area ranges from pre Civil War stone piers, delicate steel supports, all the way to massive concrete spans. Our main alternator was acting up and Mike wanted to remove it so we could take it somewhere to be repaired the next day, which was Friday. This proved to be a difficult task, as the marina we were staying in had no courtesy car, and we were not sure about repair shops in the area. During the last dog potty run of the evening, we met Reese, another boater in the marina. We told him about the alternator problems and he suggested a repair shop, but this did not solve our transportation problem. Several minutes later Reese returned to our boat and offers us the use of his truck the next day.
In the process of removing the alternator Mike discovered a loose bolt inside. He tightened the bolt, reinstalled the alternator and it worked properly! This definitely simplified our agenda for the day. We still used Reese’s truck in order to reprovision. We have been out of milk since Harriman, and bread since Tellico. Preparing meals has been an interesting challenge, but we have still eaten well. After putting all our provisions away, it was time for another dog potty walk. During this walk, Mary met George who had just recently retired and wanted to travel aboard his boat and was therefore interested in our adventures and advice. Through our conversation with George we were informed that there would be a live band at the marina that evening. The $1 per foot per night transient fee had us thinking we needed to make other docking arrangements, but the live band and a chance to meet some other people had us thinking we might stay one more night. However, the band began playing early in the evening and we quickly discovered that they were definitely not to our liking. So we paid our bill and moved slightly downstream to a free dock at Calhoun's BBQ Restaurant. Later that evening Reese came down to eat at Calhoun's and saw our boat and we all ate supper together. On July 30, we decide to travel the last few miles north, where the Holston and the French Broad come in to create the beginnings of the Tennessee River. As we are leaving the dock at Calhoun's, we see Reese walking toward his boat with his daughter, Thea. (Reese had just recently purchased a neglected 1953, 80' Feadship.) We ask them if they want to take the ride with us and they get aboard. During this trip we pass 2 large Sea Ray boat plants. We traveled up the French Broad approximately 3 miles, until the water became too shallow for us to feel safe. Here, we stopped for a swim. While anchoring the boat, we were in an On August 1, we began our return trip down the Tennessee River. As we were leaving downtown Knoxville, we heard someone yelling Mike's name. We then noticed two people on the bank. Del and Vade from Blue Springs Marina recognized our boat, turned their car around, parked, ran across several lanes of traffic, all in order to speak to us! Retracing our path gave us a new perspective on the river. Although we were travelling through the same areas, we were seeing them from a new angle, and everything looked different. We anticipated the return trip to Yellow Creek would be much faster because we now knew where we wanted to stop, and the things we wanted to see. This night we returned to a familiar cove on the Tellico for our overnight anchorage. By the way, Mike is very pleased with the new grill we purchased before leaving Mobile. So far, he hasn't burned anything but his fingers! We transited the Ft. Loudon lock without delay. When passing the Clinch River we noticed the water was much clearer than previously. We wondered if we should have saved our Emory River trip for our return from Knoxville. However, we have learned to take things as they come and enjoy ourselves. This is another hot day so we stopped to take a short swim. While in the water we heard someone hailing us on our VHF radio. Bob and Sheila were calling us over to their anchorage for a visit. They told us that several of their friends have reported seeing us up-river. A slow-moving white and blue trawler with two beautiful Jack Russell Terriers aboard is easily spotted! We enjoyed the late afternoon with Bob and Sheila, returning to Blue Springs Marina by nightfall. We spent two nights here in a covered slip (much cooler!). We washed several loads of clothes, scrubbed the boat, refilled our water tanks, and pumped out our sewage holding tank. Mike presented the idea of us spending the winter on the Tennessee River system, rather than returning to south Florida. This was just food for thought at this time. We departed Blue Springs Marina at 2pm. We went up the Piney River to investigate Wolf Creek. Again Mike was on his mission to seek out cold water. This was a complete failure as the water was 90 degrees in this area. While in the dinghy on a dog potty run we went by the restaurant at Spring City Boat Dock. We decided to move the boat around to the docks and eat at the small family-run restaurant. Supper was good, but even better was the company of the owners Bill and Ruth. Amanda was the cook and waitress, and as we found out had just been accepted to culinary school in New York. We spent the night at their dock and ate huge fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast before departing for Chattanooga. Unfortunately, we will not be able to return to this quaint locale. While here we met the new owner of the 56 acres where this restaurant, dock, and several rental cottages are situated. The new plan for this area is large condominiums, a motel, and a new restaurant. Although we understand that this type of development will mean money and jobs for this small town it seems a shame to see the idyllic charm of areas like this so quickly disappearing from our waterways, and indeed, our lives in general. We are finding this is the rule, not the exception. We reluctantly departed Spring City Boat Dock at 12 noon. Mary wanted to stay one more night because the restaurant had fried catfish Friday night. Catfish is a favorite of ours, and unfortunately was in short supply in the river restaurants. We locked through Watts Bar and traveled to an anchorage off the Sale Creek Recreational Area. We dinghied up the creek, which was pretty, but alas, no cool water. This was an overcast, hazy day, but somewhat cooler in the morning. Because of the cloud cover, Mary decided to do some polishing and waxing on deck. We locked through the Chickamauga Lock with no delay. We arrived in Chattanooga early evening, with Mary looking forward to a much-anticipated trip to Clumpies Ice Cream Parlor. However, upon our arrival the floating dock in downtown Chattanooga had a construction barge alongside effecting repairs on the dock. The alternate docks were all full. So Mike decided to entice We departed this dock at 10am, just as it started to rain. It continued to rain throughout the remainder of the day, finally clearing off about 5pm. This meant we had to lock through at Nickajack in the rain. By 5 pm, it was a beautiful evening on Guntersville Lake, as clear as we had seen in some time. August 8, we moved to Alred Marina where we would meet Jerry & Billy on Wednesday. They drove in from Tuscaloosa, joining us at 7:30am. We went to breakfast at the Squirrel Nest Bed & Breakfast about 10 miles north of Alred Marina. We explored the lower Guntersville Lake area by boat, showing them our favorite areas along the water. We grilled burgers We departed Goat Island at 10:30am, locking straight through at Guntersville. We went past the Paint Rock River about 10 miles south of Guntersville Lock. We did not explore this river either trip, and are not sure what we would have found. We stopped to swim at the rock cliff rope swing at mile 325.5, near Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal. Mike swung off 3 times, and succeeded in losing his sunglasses...oh well! Mary won't do rope swings, her arm strength is inadequate to hold on. The river south of here and past Decatur was not very interesting, with low, flat banks. The mountains and rocks prevalent north of here have spoiled us! Continuing downriver, we encountered a 1.5-hour delay at Wheeler Lock for a large towboat. After locking through with 5 other pleasure boats, we found ourselves on 12-mile long Wilson Lake. We explored the cove at 264.4, and found it to be a nice place to anchor for the weekend. We were far enough from the houses near the mouth of the cove, and tied stern in for afternoon shade. There was a good dog walking spot, and nice swimming, except for the very warm, 90-degree water. We accomplished a few projects, with Mary waxing the transom, and Mike caulking the sundeck side-skirts.
At the end of the weekend we contacted Richard, and he said he could meet us in Florence We were able to get underway at 4:30 after a small problem with the fresh water tanks. Mike had left two valves on, and one of the tanks was empty, which air-locked the water pump! We made the run down to the Yellow Creek Waterfall, and arrived just after dark. This was such a beautiful spot, we decided to spend additional time here. Many other locals and vacationers made the same decision, and the waterfall was busy all week. We recognized many of the locals from our previous visit, and got to know quite a few. We enjoyed our new friends and the party cove atmosphere, and even stayed through the very busy weekend! On August 22, we moved to the area just above Pickwick Dam, where there were many promising coves. We went into Upper & Lower Anderson, only to find that unsightly docks were everywhere, with many houses, and others under construction. All the coves in this area appeared to have suffered the same fate, except one...Chimney Hollow, which is part of Bruton Branch Recreation Area. We tied off bow & stern in a nook, and enjoyed 2 days here. The first night we heard an odd, loud scraping sound nearby. Mary awakened Mike, and we found a beaver gnawing the bark off a tree next to us. He did not mind at all when we put the spotlight on him, he just went on about his business. Our next move was to Pickwick Landing Marina to fuel the dinghy and pump out the sewage holding tank. We managed to go through the lock just before a couple of tows arrived, whew! Downstream of the dam, the scenery changed to flat, low land. The river was narrow, with a rapid current (2+mph). Near Savannah, TN, we began to see sandbars. We had not seen these for nearly 1000 miles! This is Kentucky Lake, the largest lake on the Tennessee River, at 184 miles long. We anchored at Beech Creek Island sandbar near We moved down about 12 miles to another sandbar/island. We dropped the anchor on the bank and backed out about 6' this time. The dogs had a nice place to explore and potty here. August 27, we moved to Pebble Isle Marina on Trace Creek. They had diesel for $2.39/gallon, but we passed it up. Hurricane Katrina was moving up the Gulf of Mexico, and we would not see fuel prices this low for another 4 months. At this point, we moved as quickly as possible to Green Turtle Bay. We began to see the outer rain bands associated with the storm, and knew we would be better off in a sheltered marina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful storms ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico, with the third lowest barometric pressure ever recorded. We felt fortunate to have planned our summer cruise on the Tennessee River, rather than along the Gulf of Mexico! We spent one week at Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY. We had planned this river trip so that we would arrive at the Green Turtle Bay resort by September 1. Mary’s dad would celebrate his 80th birthday here, with an extended family celebration. The resort/marina is actually on the Cumberland River, at the beginning of Land Between the Lakes. The Land Between the Lakes is a peninsula bordered by the Cumberland River to the east, and the Tennessee River to the west. This finger of land is about 40 miles long and 5 miles wide. It starts in Kentucky and runs into Tennessee. It was made a national park in the early 1960’s, and remains in a natural, undeveloped state, for the recreational enjoyment of boaters, campers, and other visitors. {mospagebreak} Article # 7 Finishing The Tennessee River, back to Tuscaloosa, then to The Keys! In our last Moundville Times installment, we had moved to the northwest end of the Tennessee River. Mary’s dad celebrated his 80th birthday at a mini-family reunion at Green Turtle Bay Resort. We were able to keep our boat in the resort’s marina, so that was very convenient. Following their departure, we remained in the marina for several more days. We met a couple about our age who lived aboard a boat just like ours, named "Dual Dreams". They had been in this area for a while, and they shared their list of favorite places. As we related in the last article, we were in the Land Between the Lakes, a beautiful area with many coves and backwaters for exploration. We departed the Green Turtle Bay marina for Smith’s Bay, about 8 miles to the south and upriver. This bay is popular with locals. There were several boats every day, and a dozen on the weekend. The dogs had a nice, long beach to explore. We noticed live mussel shells everywhere in the sand and mud. We stayed here for 3 days.
Dual Dreams had recommended Fat Daddy’s on Standing Rock Creek for burgers. When we arrived, the water was so low due to the fall drawdown, we could not get near the dock. We tried to move out to mid-creek to anchor, but the anchor would not set. Over the VHF radio, we were invited to a local private dock. This turned out to be Steve & Glenda, who made us feel at home, gave us lots of home cooking, including fresh-frozen Crappie that we kept for later. We even washed a couple of loads of clothes, rinsed the boat, and washed the dogs before leaving the next day. What great people! For the next several days, we traveled through southwestern Kentucky into northwestern Tennessee. There were many nice sandbars in this area. After anchoring out for nearly a week, we moved to Rockport Marina near Clifton, TN that offered free dockage with $50+ fuel purchase. We borrowed a car to reprovision, and added about 50 gallons of fuel at $2.69/galllon. We would soon realize that fuel prices were in a long upward spiral. Continuing upriver, we passed Shilo National Military Park. There was no dock or off-river anchorage for traveling boaters, so we just saw a glimpse of this famous Civil War park. As we neared Pickwick Dam, we were passed by two 25' SeaRays. While waiting our turn to lock through, the lockmaster suggested we move up to the entry wall of the auxiliary lock, due to an ominous approaching thunderstorm. This turned out to be a good idea, as the storm had lots of wind & rain. We moved on up to Yellow Creek Waterfall, one of our favorite Tennessee River anchorages. There we found the two 25' SeaRays, Todd & Brenda and Duane & Sue. On Friday, we took a boat ride up to Waterloo for the Trail of Tears motorcycle rally with a local friend, Kelly and his Jack Russell, Harley. On Saturday, we moved to Pickwick Landing State Park for the Darryl Worley concert near the river. We anchored there in the afternoon with about 150 other boats, then saw Carol & Tommy onboard "Special Request". We remembered them from the 2003 football season in Tuscaloosa. We moved to raft with them, since they were just to the side of the stage. Other local boating friends John & Cathy came to join us. We grilled steaks, enjoyed the concert, and were sorry they had to leave around midnight. We were one of the last boats to depart the next day. On Sunday, we moved back to Yellow Creek Waterfall at 3pm. We had planned to exit the Tennessee River, and wanted to spend about a week at Bay Springs Lake. Todd, Brenda, Duane & Sue rendezvoused with us, and planned to visit Bay Springs.
We had a pretty day to travel. The Sea Rays passed us about half way to Bay Springs Lake. They anchored at Cotton Springs Branch just up from the dam, we joined them in the late afternoon. We anchored and tied-off so we were nearly touching swim platforms. The next day, we moved the three boats to the Five Fingers cove. The water was several feet lower than when we were there last, due to the fall drawdown, and there were many sand beaches exposed. We picked a nice one, and anchored the boats on the beach together. I changed both main engine impellers, both were pretty chewed up! Duane and Sue cooked the Crappie we were given upriver and added them to the catfish they had caught. The fish fry was excellent! Todd, Brenda, Duane & Sue left in the morning, headed back to Saltillo, TN. We explored the area looking for a protected cove to hide from Hurricane Rita, expected to move over us in the next 48 hours. We anchored across a narrow cove, with good protection from SE wind, which was expected from Rita. The wind picked up Saturday, and Rita moved right over us early Sunday. We got 4 to 5 inches of rain and wind of 20-30 from the SE, even in the protected cove! We departed from Bay Springs Lake on Monday, September 26. Hurricane Rita was moving rapidly to the northeast, no longer a factor for us. We fell in behind the Coast Guard buoy tender "Patoka" at Whitten Lock, and locked straight through with him for the next six locks! Government vessels get priority lockage, and since we were running his speed, it was OK with him to tie behind him in each lock. We stopped for the night on the Tombigbee at mile 366. There was a good bit of current from the Rita rains, but we had no problem anchoring. It was nice to have a 1 to 2-mph push from the downstream current since leaving Bay Springs. We then made a short run of 8 miles to Aberdeen Marina. We had heard they had the best fuel prices anywhere, and this turned out to be true. Fuel had been going up steadily since before Hurricane Katrina, and we paid $2.49 at Aberdeen. We had seen it well over $3 at all the other marinas. This was a nice marina, the best of rural Mississippi, I thought. We borrowed the courtesy car, and shopped at a Wal-Mart about 10 miles from the marina, our first shopping trip since Rockport Marina in Clifton, TN. Next we made a 27 mile run to Columbus, MS. We entered the cut-off channel on the downstream leg and eased up to Ruben’s Restaurant, on a tip from one of the lock-masters. We ate pretty good catfish there, and stayed the night at their dock. We covered 56 miles this day, and anchored at one of the nice stops from the trip up, called Warsaw Cut-off. The small sandbar dropped off so steeply, you could step off the bow onto the sand! We saw two bald eagles flying along at treetop level next to the river. They are such regal birds! September 30, Mike's birthday! We traveled 42 miles to Rattlesnake Cut-off, about 15 miles north of the Tombigbee-Black Warrior junction. Next we traveled 30 miles to Big Prairie Creek, and renewed acquaintances at Buck's Restaurant. We missed seeing Bill Kelley, who was down south, working along the storm ravaged coast near Orange Beach. Over the next two days we completed the trip to Moundville. To keep out of the main river channel, we anchored and tied three ways, near Roger & Belinda’s place at Riverbend Farms. We remained there two days, while visiting Mike’s parents. We ended our river travel for about a month when we arrived at Eagle Cove on Holt Lake. From there we were able to spend time in Moundville and Mobile. What a great year for football in Tuscaloosa! On the third Saturday in October of 2005, we moved down to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama-Tennessee football game. This same weekend, Hurricane Wilma roared through South Florida and the Keys, ending the worst storm season on record. After the game, we invited Daddy, Ronnie, Wallace, Madeline, Tom, & Doris, "the Hall gang," to travel back up-river to Eagle Cove. There we ate the Sunday buffet, which was excellent! All seemed to enjoy the day. We were glad we were able to do this with the family!
This is the Hall Gang- Madeline, Wallace, Manly, Ronnie, Tom, Doris and Mike, standing next to "What Daze It?" dockside at Eagle Cove. We were all together following the annual homecoming weekend at Hale County High School. On the last weekend of October, the Boat Alabama barge "Big Al" made the trip down-river to Lock 12. We went with them, and locked through with a dozen boats that joined the party. This was homecoming vs. Utah State. At the lock wall, there were 24 boats and about 100 people. The Pirates of the Warrior were there along with Boat Alabama. Mike Spiller and his band played and that has always been fun! The 2005 Trip South Our general travel plan contains two elements and has worked very well; 1, To be off the Gulf Coast and up the rivers of the southeast during hurricane season, and 2, In warmer south Florida waters during the winter. The record-breaking hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 had decimated the Gulf Coast, destroying property and damaging boats of many of our close friends. We departed the Tuscaloosa area following the Utah State game. We had a relatively
We were excited to plan our next trip, this time to the Florida Keys. We departed Ft Myers on February 20, making the 4-day trip of about 170 miles in perfect weather. The southwest coast of Florida from Ft Myers to Marco Island is heavily developed with high rise condos. South of Marco Island lies an area known as the 10,000 Islands. This was a lovely, isolated area. Unfortunately it is known for biting insects. There were none during our February visit, however. We understand bugs are worst from April through December. We anchored overnight at Coon Key, Turtle Key and Little Shark River during the passage through the 10,000 Islands. The water around the islands was typically 4 to 7 feet deep, with some deeper channels every few miles. We had to navigate carefully, searching for stopovers with appropriate depth and shelter from wind. We were rewarded by soft sandy beaches all to ourselves, countless islands to explore in the dinghy, and beautiful sunsets every evening. Navigating on the water today is made much easier with global position system (GPS) receivers and computer map and plotting software which places the boat on the nautical chart, providing data about speed, direction, and water depth. Marinas are not plentiful in the Keys for transient boaters, and slips tend to be very expensive, over $1000 per month. We were lucky to have a friend in Marathon, and his local knowledge allowed us to find an unused slip for two months at a great price. During our two-month stay, we took a 12-day cruise to the Dry Tortugas. The Tortugas are known for the prettiest water and best snorkeling in the continental US. To get there, we traveled due west of Key West for about 90 miles. Along the way, we anchored overnight at Big Pine Key and Marquesas Key. Several small islands make up the Tortugas, and the area is staffed, protected and maintained by the National Park Service. The hub of the Dry Tortugas Park is Fort Jefferson, on Garden Key. The fort was a pre-Civil War structure. "Dry" in the name signifies there is no source of fresh water. All food, supplies and water must be brought in, with all trash kept on the boat and returned to the mainland for disposal. These
On April 9th, we began our northward trek from the Florida Keys. We retraced our steps through the 10,000 Islands, stopping at different anchorages this time. Mary was proud to find a huge horse conch shell. She spent hours chipping away hundreds of barnacles, which surely kept others from taking the encrusted shell. Photo Captions ("73’s in 2005) We had a mini-reunion breakfast, front row (l-r) Bess Johnston Wilson, David Tidmore, Joyce Fields Matherson, back row- Janice Cooper Toxey, Mike Hall, Dora Tidmore Early. (Halls Go Upriver (8)) (Al vs Tenn ’05) This was "What Daze It?" tied to the Old Lock 12 wall for the Tennessee game. "Willa Gin" was in front of us, a 50’ Sea Ray. (Holt Lock Oct 05) We locked through Holt Lock on October 27, 2005 with about a dozen boats, all headed for Old Lock 12 and the Alabama/Utah State game festivities. (Hale County (1)) This photo overlooked "What Daze It?" as we headed south on the Black Warrior River in Hale County near Old Lock 6, about 7 miles south of Selden Lock and Dam. (Blue Angels 05) Here we begin to gather for the beach-side shrimp boil, after the Veteran’s Day Blue Angels airshow at Pensacola Naval Air Station. (Shells from Anclote (4)) The shelling was great on the Gulf-side of Anclote Key near Tarpon Springs, with lots of olives, coral, conchs, whelks, slipper shells, and turbans on the beach. (Loggerhead Key (3)) Just west of Garden Key and Ft Jefferson is Loggerhead Key with the 151 foot high lighthouse, surrounded by beautiful turquoise water. Five hurricanes hit in 2005, stripping the island of trees and other foliage. (L K Lighthouse (3)) This is the view from the top of the Loggerhead Key lighthouse looking north, with deep blue water to the right and coral reefs to the left. (L K Lighthouse (14)) "What Daze It?" lies at anchor off the dock at Loggerhead Key. The turquoise water under the boat is 10 feet, while the deeper blue water further out is 60 feet. (Ft Jeff Anchorage Too) This is the anchorage at Ft Jefferson as pictured from the top of the fort. There were always six to twelve boats anchored here with us. Just visible at the far left is the rear of the fast catamaran from Key West. (Ft Jefferson Tour (1)) This shows the inside of Ft Jefferson from the top of the wall. To the left is the barracks, where the Park Rangers now live. The beautiful water is visible through the archways of the fort walls. (Ft Jefferson Tour (4)) Mike stands atop one of the large Civil War cannons near the lighthouse at Ft Jefferson. Mary took the picture from the top of the fort wall. (Ft Jefferson Tour (5)) Mike stands atop the north wall of the fort, looking at one of the historical information markers. That’s the wide expanse of the Gulf of Mexico, and 480 miles to the northwest is Gulf Shores, AL. (Ft Jefferson Tour (13)) This is a picture of the north wall of Ft Jefferson, with the surrounding moat clearly visible to the left. The upper section of the wall is a darker red due to brick used after the start of the Civil War, which came from Maine. The lower wall is made from Pensacola brick, built prior to the conflict. (At 7 Mile Bridge) Mike and Mary pictured at the entrance to the old 7 Mile Bridge at Marathon in the Florida Keys. The new bridge is to the left. (Manatees in Marathon (29)) Mary strokes the back of a manatee behind "What Dazes It?" in the marina at Marathon. That’s his head to the right, and his huge body fills the entire frame of the photo. (Ap'Cola Sandbar 37) HID, Mary and ME are pictured relaxing on one of the many Apalachicola River sandbars, this one 37 miles north of the town of Apalachicola. (Ap'Cola Sandbar 75.5 (1)) "What Daze It?" is pictured here behind the dinghy on the bank of the prettiest sandbar on the Apalachicola River, this one at mile 75. Near this area is the shallowest water on the Apalachicola. {mospagebreak} Article # 8 The 2005 Trip South Our general boating travel plan contains two elements and has worked very well; 1, To be off the Gulf Coast and up the rivers of the southeast during hurricane season, and 2, In warmer south Florida waters during the winter. The record-breaking hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 had decimated the Gulf Coast, destroying property and damaging boats of many of our close friends. We departed the Tuscaloosa area following the Utah State game. We had a relatively uneventful trip down to Mobile, where we spent November and December, visiting with Mary’s parents and numerous friends. In November of 2005, Veteran’s Day weekend, we enjoyed the Blue Angels airshow in the waters around Pensacola Naval Air Station. This has been an annual event for us since the late 1980’s. In early January, we set out for Ft Myers in South Florida. One of our favorite stops along the way was Tarpon Springs. Proud of their Greek heritage, the restaurants here offered the best food we had in quite some time! Also near Tarpon Springs, we found many shells and sand dollars on the beach at Anclote Key. We arrived at Ft Myers on January 19th. We spent a month there renewing acquaintances and completing many needed maintenance tasks. Boat maintenance continues to be a big issue, both in terms of time and money. Some of the projects included: patching a small leak in one of our fuel tanks, installing a sight gauge for our forward water tank, fiberglassing a hole in the bow of our dinghy, cleaning out an engine heat exchanger, changing sacrificial zincs, and changing the oil and filters. We were excited to plan our next trip, this time to the Florida Keys. We departed Ft Myers on February 20, making the 4-day trip of about 170 miles in perfect weather. The southwest coast of Florida from Ft Myers to Marco Island is heavily developed with high rise condos. South of Marco Island lies an area known as the 10,000 Islands. This was a lovely, isolated area. Unfortunately, it was known for biting insects. Thankfully, there were none during our February visit! We understand bugs were worst from April through December. We anchored overnight at Coon Key, Turtle Key and Little Shark River during the passage through the 10,000 Islands. The water around the islands was typically 4 to 7 feet deep, with some deeper channels every few miles. We had to navigate carefully, searching for stopovers with appropriate depth and shelter from wind. We were rewarded by soft sandy beaches all to ourselves, countless islands to explore in the dinghy, and beautiful sunsets every evening. Navigating on the water today is made much easier with global position system (GPS) receivers and computer map and plotting software, which places the boat on the nautical chart, providing data about speed, direction, and water depth.
Loggerhead Key Lighthouse- Pictured here is the beautiful view from atop the 151 foot high Loggerhead Key Lighthouse near Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.
Ft Jeff Anchorage Too- "What Daze It?" lies at anchor in the center of the photograph at Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Notice the whitecaps and 2-3 foot waves in the anchorage!
Ft Jefferson Tour- Here is the view from atop the wall of Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. The water is a beautiful turquoise blue color, and shows brightly through the bricked archways of the fort. Marinas are not plentiful in the Keys for transient boaters, and slips tend to be very expensive, over $1000 per month. We were lucky to have a friend in Marathon, and his local knowledge allowed us to find an unused slip for two months at a great price. During our two-month stay, we took a 12-day cruise to the Dry Tortugas. The Tortugas are known for the prettiest water and best snorkeling in the continental US. To get there, we traveled due west of Key West for about 90 miles. Along the way, we anchored overnight at Big Pine Key and Marquesas Key. Several small islands make up the Tortugas, and the area is staffed, protected and maintained by the National Park Service. The hub of the Dry Tortugas Park is Fort Jefferson, on Garden Key. The fort was a pre-Civil War structure. "Dry" in the name signifies there is no source of fresh water. All food, supplies and water must be brought in, with all trash kept on the boat and returned to the mainland for disposal. These requirements limit the visitors to all but those who are serious about coming. For the casual visitor, there are two fast catamarans that take up to 100 visitors out and back, touring the fort for 4 hours, for $150. We had many highlights of our Dry Tortugas stay, with beautiful water, snorkeling at Loggerhead Key, huge Goliath Grouper under the boat, 3' swells in our anchorage, power-walking the moat walls with ME & HID, trading for Florida lobster, and sunning on the fort beach among them. Following our Dry Tortugas trip, we also made memorable trips to Bahia Honda Key and Islamorada while staying in the Marathon area. The temperatures were very nice, generally 80 high, 60 low, and the wind blew from 15 to 20 mph for the entire two-month period. We had to carefully choose sheltered anchorages due to the wind. We saw dozens of manatees, our first up-close encounters with the gentle South Florida mammals.
On April 9th, we began our northward trek from the Florida Keys. We retraced our steps through the 10,000 Islands, stopping at different anchorages this time. Mary was proud to find a huge horse conch shell. She spent hours chipping away hundreds of barnacles, which surely kept others from taking the encrusted shell. We followed the ICW to Naples, where we entered the Gulf to finish the trip. Upon arrival, we washed the salt from the boat, first time since Marathon. We had a chance to visit our Ft Myers friends before our Saturday departure. Our Mobile friends, Sandy & Raymond, would travel with us for the next week of our journey. This was one of the first weekends in a long time with good weather, and a lot of boaters were enjoying it. Following a tip from Mike & Harriet of Ft Myers, we anchored in the southeast corner of Pelican Bay, near Punta Gorda, within about 100' of a nice, secluded shore-side island spot. You had to closely hug the shore to get in there. There was a "semi-tame" wild pig here with a couple of nursing piglets. She would let you get within 10-15 feet of her before moving away. We explored in the dinghy the next day, and found a herd of manatee, about 10 total, in a small, protected cove at Pelican Bay. We watched them up-close for over an hour!
(Pig at Pelican Bay (3))- This was the semi-tame wild pig at Pelican Bay, with the two piglets seen just behind her. We moved north the few miles to Gasparilla Island, where we anchored and tied the stern in the mangroves across from the Pink Elephant Restaurant. This is a pretty spot, we had been here once before. We explored by dinghy, and took a walk on the island at dusk. We traveled to Venice the next day. We stayed at a marina where they had courtesy bikes, and we pedaled to town for breakfast the next morning. We read about the black sand beach and petrified shark’s teeth, which seemed to us more of a publicity stunt, perpetuated on the cruise guides, than reality. We moved north to Longboat Key, anchoring in a nice spot just inside the pass, near the boat ramp and dock. We explored the beach in the pass, but found "no pets" signs, and returned to the boat. The next day, we ran on to St Petersburg, finding our next destination at Cathy’s residential canal dock. After a little docking confusion, we tie up behind our friend’s new boat. We had met Todd and Brenda on the Tennessee River last year, and wrote about our experiences with them in the last story in the "Moundville Times". Since then, they had decided to sell all their possessions, quit their jobs, buy a boat, and move aboard. Their new boat was now located at Cathy’s dock, and we would help them with the first stage of their journey. The boat, named "Lifes2Short" was very similar to ours, and so are their travel plans. We spent 5 days at Cathy's dock. While there, I completed several projects for Cathy. We also installed a new boat toilet, replacing the previous unit (we have 2 bathrooms aboard). Todd & Brenda arrived to close their new-boat deal, and we departed two days later, on April 24th. All winter & spring had been breezy, and we found ourselves laying-over to get good travel days for the Gulf crossing. We burn a total of 3 days waiting. We stopped at Caladesi Island and found the gnats unbearable! They were out all day, even at midday! Where was the wind when you needed it? We moved to Anclote Key, off Tarpon Springs, to give Todd & Brenda the anchor and rafting experience. We shelled along the beach the next morning, which started out foggy. Brenda learned one of the most important rules today, use a lot of sunscreen, even when cloudy or foggy! We moved to Tarpon Springs City Marina in the afternoon. Todd was having power problems, and we discover the shore power cord 1's incoming power was bridged to shore cord 2, a very dangerous situation! We enjoyed the Greek food and shopping, on this, our second visit to Tarpon Springs. April 28th saw winds from the NE at 15, with seas 1-2’ building in the afternoon. We had a good run to Cedar Key. As we approached, Todd ran out of fuel. My advice had been to run off the front tank only, and that was bad advice! I helped him bleed the fuel system and restart the engines, and we proceeded to Cedar Key without further incident. Weather fronts were predicted for the next couple of days. We anchored near Atsena Otie Key, and the dogs enjoyed the beach there. The wind was East at 20, with some rain. We remained for 3 days. On Sunday, we went ashore at Cedar Key. What a neat town! The weather prediction was for several days of fair winds, and we departed at 3 AM the next morning to cross the Gulf. Early in the trip, the seas were at our stern at 3-5', and very uncomfortable! By mid morning, conditions were improving. By arrival, it was pleasant. We entered the pass between Dog and St George Islands, anchoring at Rattlesnake Cove. The next day, we went to Miller Marine with Brenda & Todd. They fuel here and depart for Mobile, via the Intercostal Waterway. We returned to Little St George Island, and explored the east pass area, where shelling is great, after a long walk to the Gulf-side. May 3, 2006, we began the Apalachicola River trip. Currents were 2-3 mph in the river, due to a drop in the terrain of 6 inches/mile. This drop (and the resulting current) is much greater than on the Warrior River at home. There were not many sandbars this close to the mouth of the river, but we found one at mile 14. We anchored in the main river, near pile jetties. We stayed for an extra day to laze around. The dogs enjoyed playing on the little sandbar.
(Ap'Cola Sandbar 37)- HID, Mary and ME are pictured relaxing on one of the many Apalachicola River sandbars, this one 37 miles north of the town of Apalachicola. We were surprised that most locals along this river don't wave, and don't seem to be friendly. We anchored at a nice sandbar at mile 37, tucking behind a sandbar finger to divert the substantial current. We remained here for 2 days. We found another bar at mile 75, and that evening we got a 40mph thunderstorm! This bar was the best we'd found in a long while, deep right to the bank, and we were behind a sand finger to stay out of the current. We remained here for 2 days. Our final night on the Apalachicola River, we anchored between two rock jetties. There was a 4' alligator lurking nearby. Squalls were all around us after dark, but the bad weather missed us.
Ap'Cola Sandbar 75.5- "What Daze It?" is pictured here behind the dinghy on the bank of the prettiest sandbar on the Apalachicola River, this one at mile 75. Near this area is the shallowest water on the Apalachicola. On May 11, we transited Woodruff Lock into Lake Seminole. The Corps of Engineers staff were very nice, coming down to chat as we locked through. We proceeded to Jack Wingate's Lodge, where we had reserved a slip for one month. The water into Wingates was shallow and weed clogged. There were plenty of alligators all around. An on site restaurant offered decent food. Our Mobile friend’s, Tim and Cindy, came for the weekend, and we anchored at Faceville Landing on the Flint River. That night we illuminated the waters around the boat, and spotted 4 to 5 alligators within eyesight. The launch ramp offered a decent spot for the dogs, away from prowling alligators. We returned to Mobile with Tim and Cindy, where we visited our parents. They also brought us back to Wingates 2 weeks later, where we spent another two weeks relaxing. Sometimes, being retired is hard work! Tropical Storm Alberto hit near Cedar Key on June 13, 2006. As we traveled to the northern end of Lake Seminole, we saw even more alligators, some in the 6-7' range. We transited Andrews Lock & Dam at Chattahoochee River mile 47. The run from Andrews Lock to Lake Eufaula (also known as Lake George) was pretty. It reminded us of the Black Warrior River. We locked through WF George lock in the early afternoon. We anchored at White Oak Park in a no-wake-zone. Many campers & boaters were enjoying the beautiful surroundings. We moved on up the lake, and tested several possible stops. It had been very hot, more like August than June, so we decided to anchor on the open lake. It was 100' deep near our anchorage at mile 92. The breeze was a bit better here, and made for a cooler night. We had called 4 or 5 marinas in the Eufaula and Columbus, Ga. area, but found none to accommodate our 42’ boat. Finally, we came to Lakepoint Marina and State Park, north of Eufaula. We were able to stay here for a daily rate of $10. Many of the resident boaters contacted us when we pulled into the marina, to see if we needed any assistance. We joined Dock 2 for barbecue that evening, meeting Bruce, Paul & Corky, Allen & Bonnie, Jack & Linda among others. The next day, our new friends volunteered to take us to Wal-Mart & Winn-Dixie for shopping. We dined on King Crab with them that evening. We dinghyed up Coikee Creek, which goes on for many miles. We also learned we were trapped there, due to low water levels at Blountstown, Fl. Little did we know that the dry weather of summer 2006 would necessitate a stay of 6 months! June 20 saw us headed for Columbus, stopping about halfway in an unnamed cove at Chattahoochee River mile 125.5. This spot had several nice sandbars, but there were also snags here. We marked several in the dinghy to stay away from them then and on our return. A nice riverwalk followed the course of the river from Ft Benning to Columbus (12 miles), and we enjoyed the trail near Rotary Park in Columbus. The people at Rivercrest Bait & Tackle (formerly Bulldog B&T) were friendly and knowledgeable. They also had a decent bar & grill on site. Our friend Elisabeth, who is in Vet School at Auburn visited the next day. Elisabeth stayed with us for 3 more days. We met her special friends Will and Joshua while she was with us. We took the dinghy up to the Columbus shoals and dam several times. Bonnie & Allen from Lakepoint Marina picked us up for lunch one day. We also biked the riverwalk. On Friday we moved to the Georgia Port Authority abandoned dock, as there was a fishing tournament Saturday morning using the Rotary Park facilities. We departed Columbus on Saturday, June 24. We wished we could have spent longer to see the city, but it was not practical due to the lack of a marina in the area.
Columbus- Mary, Mike, ME and HID are pictured standing along the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, GA. The dam and rapids seen in the background prevent boat traffic from continuing upriver. Our boating friends John & Ara came for a weekend visit on June 30, and we went to Bagby (GA) State Park & Marina with several of the Lakepoint boats to hear Roger's band and enjoy the cookout. We had a nice evening. On departing Bagby, and cut the marked channel short, where we hit a log or snag in 30' of water. It bent both props and we could only run the starboard engine due to vibration. We were the only boat to remain overnight at Rabbit Island. This is a good dog friendly spot.
Rabbit Island Raft-up- This is a photo of the small beach at Rabbit Island, from atop one of the Lakepoint Marina houseboats. We spent many enjoyable days and nights here while in Eufaula. On July 6, Raymond & Sandy came for a long weekend. We joined Floating Alone, Pipeline, Fair Majesty, and No Name (yes the boat is actually named "No Name") at Rabbit Island. They tied off the long houseboats with lines angled to shore from the rear cleats. We tied to the rear cleat of Floating Alone and fendered to the line angled to shore. Now that was something different! We remained here till 7/10, Monday. It was pretty hot, and we’d still had almost no rain for nearly three months! On Sunday, Raymond & I changed the dinghy foot lube oil, while suspended by the lift crane. Next day, Raymond & I adjusted the valves on "What Daze It?", while Mary & Sandy shopped in Eufaula. The starboard engine had all loose valves, while the port engine was too tight! This wasn't too hard, and was the first time I had done this on the boat. We enjoyed eating out in Eufaula before Sandy and Raymond left on Wednesday, July 12.
Blue Angels 7-06- Here are the famous Navy Blue Angels flying over Pensacola Beach for the 2006 airshow in July. We departed in our car the next day, and attended the Blue Angels airshow with Bill & I took Mary to Mobile, then went to Moundville on October 20th. I went to Northport, and traveled to Jackson with Kenny & Paula for John & Ara's wedding. We enjoyed the wedding festivities including a party at Ara's house to watch the Alabama/Tennessee game. That weekend, I broke a crown on a molar, which started a cascade of expensive dentist appointments. We returned to Lakepoint Marina around Halloween. It was time again for an engine oil change, and I included the burned fluid in the starboard transmission. We were preparing Shortly after getting underway, we were met by "Captain's Lady" who had been in Panama City waiting on high water to travel upriver. We had been unable to find a reasonably priced marina in Panama City for monthly dockage, and were planning to stay in Apalachicola at Scipio Creek Marina. "Captain's Lady" gave us the name of the gated community where he had kept his boat in PC, and we made arrangements to keep "What Daze It?" there for 1 month. We arrived at Dolphin Bay, and after some confusion over the correct canal, we found our slip. A college friend of mine, John Hamm, was in town with his family for Thanksgiving, and he invited us to his parents home for Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed a wonderful day with the entire Hamm family. The next day, we had a rental car delivered to us and drove to Eufaula to pick up our car. The following day, a Saturday, we removed the starboard transmission. With no help from anyone else, Mary & I removed the 185 pound transmission and loaded it in the car for a trip to Bell Marine in Pensacola. I can tackle most maintenance chores on the boat, but had decided that internal transmission repair would not be on the list! On November 26th, a Sunday, we traveled to Mobile with the transmission, then returned to Pensacola on Monday to drop it off. We had doctor and dentist appointments, then went to Moundville on December 2nd. We returned to Mobile on December 7th, and picked up the newly repaired transmission the next day. The shift arm had broken a spring, which damaged the hydraulic pump and housing, shedding metal particles, which had been the cause of the burned fluid. He also put in a clutch pack with brass plates, and all-new bearings & seals. We bought a new damper & transmission cooler in Panama City, and reinstalled the transmission the next day. Thankfully, everything tested out just fine! Our friends Todd and Brenda onboard "Lifes2Short" arrived on December 12th, from their summer cruise of the Tenn-Tom and Tennessee Rivers. We planned to travel together over the next week, and to make the crossing of the Gulf Big-Bend area in tandem. Since our experience over the next week paralleled that of Todd & Brenda, we will use their blogspot post for the next Moundville Times installment. For those of you who may want to follow their travels on board "Lifes2Short", see the blogspot: http://www.btlifes2short.blogspot.com/ Tuesday we left early for the trip to Panama City to meet up with Mike & Mary Hall aboard "What Daze It" in Dolphin Bay. We arrived about 3:30 p.m., rafted next to them and spent a quiet evening on the boat. Wednesday morning we took Mike & Mary's car to get a few things at Wal-Mart as we were planning to leave around noon to go a short distance out into the Gulf to Crooked Island to anchor for the evening. Crooked Island and much of the surrounding land is used by the Air Force to test drones and they announce on the VHF marine radio each day whether exercises are being conducted in the area. If they are, no boat traffic is allowed during that time. About 11:00 a.m. they announced that exercises would be conducted that day beginning about 1:15 PM. Todd contacted them to ask when the exercises would be over, and was told it would be about 3:30 PM. We left Dolphin Bay around 1:30 and made our way out into the Gulf. The trip took longer than we expected and we arrived at Crooked Island as the sun was setting. It was a little tricky getting into the anchorage, and even though Mike & Mary had been there before and we were following their old track, areas that had been deep before had shoaled and were very shallow now. So, we adjusted our course along the way, in semi-darkness, and made it to the anchorage without incident, even though there were some tense moments along the way! After getting anchored and taking the dogs to shore, we joined Mike & Mary for dinner and enjoyed a pleasant evening on the water.
This is Mary Hall giving Todd a haircut on the bow of their boat with a These are some shrimp boats we passed in the canal that leads from the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway at Port St. Joe.
<<<A beautiful sunset view of a sailboat passing by our anchorage at Cedar Keys.
Mike & Mary of "What Daze It?" are due back from Alabama around the end of January after having completed a 17-day, 895-mile trip to deliver a 1985 43-foot Hatteras from Key Largo to Pascagoula, MS for a friend of theirs. We may stay in St. Petersburg until then and travel with them to Ft. Myers, but we haven't decided anything for sure. As someone recently told us, "I have no schedule and I'm sticking to it!"
<<<This is the infamous and much talked about Mike and Mary Hall holding their Jack Russell terriers, HID (left) and M.E. (right). HID stands for Hearing Impaired Dog and M.E. are Mary's initials, pronounced Emmy.
{mospagebreak} Article # 9 Anchoring on "What Daze It?" A good night’s sleep when out on the water can be elusive. Nothing is more important than having the anchor securely planted in the surrounding bottom. Having the right anchor, as well as using it properly, can be the difference in lying awake, watching and listening for movement, and sleeping soundly. Most boaters spend the great majority of time tied to the dock. Even when cruising, a dock is the most secure and comfortable place to end the day’s travels. After all, air conditioning, restaurants, and all the comforts of home are hard to resist. However, traveling this way misses the whole point of everything I enjoy most about boating! Anchoring experience only comes with practice. Anyone who anchors out a lot can tell you a handful of scary stories about that "BUMP" in the middle of the night, that signifies you are moving! Traveling on the navigable inland rivers can be the most intimidating of all. Here you find narrow channels, populated by very large commercial traffic, which runs non-stop, day and night. The anchors and techniques must be adapted to this unique challenge. You will find lengthy articles on anchors and anchoring techniques in all of the boating publications. Even the boating retail catalogs have large sections devoted to anchor selection and purchase. From my experience, here are some of the most important things I have learned about anchoring.
The third anchor type is the claw, or Bruce. This type sits well in a roller on the bow of the boat. It will set on the first pull virtually every time, and if it breaks free, it will quickly reset. It too, is strong and heavy, as well as being reasonably priced. It works well in most bottom types, although it may not penetrate hard mud. The disadvantage is holding power, only moderate for this type. If choosing this anchor, it would be wise to pick the largest that will fit on the bow, in order to maximize the weaker holding power.
Another important part of anchoring out is knowing what weather to expect. Each day we listen to the VHF radio forecast, in order to receive the wind speed, wave height, and thunderstorm potential. The Weather Channel (via satellite TV) is extremely important, especially the national and regional radar images available "On the 8’s". This gives us a chance to see the weather patterns around us in motion. I will move the boat in order to keep us in a sheltered anchorage. This may mean moving to the other side of the lagoon, lake or waterway. It may mean searching out a small, totally enclosed inlet, where wind and wave are deflected away from our boat. It may also mean moving into a protected marina, to wait on fair weather. The smart captain will have several types of anchors on board. This allows selection of the best type for a given condition, as well as deploying multiple anchors if the need arises. And in the event one anchor is lost (hey, it happens!), you will have a back up. Anchoring out is our favorite thing about living aboard. When we list our favorite places (soon to come), nearly all will be beautiful, out of the way anchorages. For this to be the case, we must be safely, securely and confidently anchored to the bottom, as well as being in the right spot. Now let’s relax and enjoy!
Alabama River Sandbar Mile 18, about 25 miles south of Jackson, AL. Mary, ME and HID are on the bow of "What Daze It?" That’s a big Danforth style anchor hanging from the bow rail. Our plow anchor, a CQR, is deployed in front of the boat, with two anchors out on either side of the stern. {mospagebreak} Article # 10 Winter 2007 Delivery Trip, Florida Keys to Pascagoula, Ms Our last travel story left us in St Petersburg, FL in December 2006. I guess I felt as though we needed to go back to work, because I volunteered to do a boat delivery for a friend! Over the next 17-days, we would travel 895-miles to deliver a 1985, 43-foot Hatteras from Key Largo, FL to Pascagoula, MS. Our boating friends Jack and Susan, had just closed the deal a few days earlier. We rented a car for the trip from St Petersburg to Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo (part of the upper Florida Keys). We packed up Wednesday night to leave from Cathy’s in St Pete, leaving "What Daze It?" at her dock. The broker met us in Key Largo, and gave us his car to drop off the rental, and a golf cart for loading our stuff into the boat. Surprisingly, the broker never got on the boat with us, nor did he give us any information about the boat, its systems or paperwork. We bought groceries for the trip in Tavinier, then returned to the boat to stay for the night. I found the generator alternator was still defective. This problem had been identified weeks ago, and was supposedly fixed. The mechanic came to fix it the next morning, and we were ready around noon. There were still many issues to be addressed; we needed a dinghy, spare fuel filters, to assess the holding tank set-up, and determine why the water pump is running constantly. Our initial destination was a marina, called Anchorage Resort, about 3 hours away. Its location was near the US 1 bridge that crosses from the Florida mainland south of Homestead over to Key Largo. We arrived near 5pm and tied in a slip. A leak in the fresh water tank system had run all the water from the tanks. Careful searching revealed the leak to be in the hot water tank pop-off valve. To keep from wasting our water supply, we had to turn on the fresh water pump only when we needed to run water. We departed the next morning at 9:30, after getting a few necessary items at Anchorage Resort. We ran on the Gulf-side to Channel 5, where we moved to the Atlantic-side of the Keys to continue to Boot Key Harbor at Marathon, FL. We found conditions a bit rough, with bumpy 3' seas. It was quite warm, in the mid-80's! We entered Boot Key Harbor via Sister Creek, and anchored near the mouth of the creek. We would try to buy a used dinghy, and shop at West Marine and Home Depot for many "must have" items. We were lucky to have a good water taxi service in Boot Key Harbor. They will taxi us for $5 each/day, and the dogs ride free! We completed many maintenance projects while in the Harbor. A walk of 1.5-miles west found West Marine, while 1-mile east was required to get to Home Depot. We looked at a wood/fiberglass dinghy the owner would have given us, but it wasn't worth having! The water taxi skipper told us about a local who had a Walker Bay 8’ sailing dinghy that we later bought for $250. I scraped the barnacles & soft growth from the bottom, and we loaded it on top of the sundeck. Now we had transportation to shore for the dogs! On to the next project. While trying to unscrew the hot water heater pop-off valve, it broke, and Mary went to Home Depot for a pipe extractor kit. When she arrived with it, the 1/2" extractor was missing. Wouldn’t you know that was the one I needed! Home Depot closed in 10 more minutes (it was Christmas Eve!), and Mary rushed off. 30 minutes later, she arrived with the complete kit and a story to tell. I fixed the pop-off valve, and our water supply was saved. On the 25th, we tried to depart at 10 AM, but caught our anchor on the anchor line of the boat next to ours, and halted the effort. The boat's owner was called, a dive service was called out (it's Christmas day!), and 4 hours later we were free and underway. The Atlantic side had 4' seas, but as soon as we got under the 7- mile bridge at Marathon we found the Gulf side calm. We also ran out of fuel! It turns out I had switched the fuel tanks to the forward tank, and this tank only holds 70 gallons. After much searching in the books, I was still unable to find out how to prime the injectors. Following an hour of trial-and-error, we were running normally again on the fuel from the aft tanks. We arrived at Flamingo, the southern-most part of the Florida Everglades, at dark, and only minutes in front of an approaching squall line. We tied in a slip across from the marina store. Next morning, they told us they did not allow boats over 27', and that we must leave. 10 minutes later, they were at the boat having reversed this decision. They just could not send us out in the 20-knot conditions with a clear conscience! We stayed an extra day due to the stormy weather, all at no charge, and everyone was very nice to us. There was still a southwest swell on Dec 27th, even though the wind went northeast around midnight. It was blowing 15+, and much cooler after the frontal passage on Christmas day, now in the high 60's. We got a few miles offshore (the direct route), and it turned into 3-4' swells, so we moved more inshore. We were now in The 10,000 Islands, one of our favorite places! On this trip, there were quite a few kayaks and canoes in the islands, presumably for the holidays. We first tried Picnic Key (too rough from the wind), then settled on Camp Lulu Key where we were close to a small sandbar on shore. We were able to paddle the dingy the 200' to get there. The depth sounder had stopped working, and nothing I did would fix it. I was now relying totally on the GPS and navigation software on our laptop to show us the deep and shallow water. And of course, our eyes! Jack had set us up with another Hatteras owner for dockage at Marco Island. He was very gracious and invited us to his dock for reprovisioning and supper. We looked at his boat, and talked about boats until we were tired of it! We planned to visit them in the future on our boat. While there, Jack asked us to change our schedule, to speed up and arrive a week earlier. We agreed, which meant running faster, for longer days, and with fewer layover days. We would stay in more marinas and eat out more often in return. From Marco Island, we headed directly for Ft Myers. We ran in the Gulf, then up the "miserable mile" to the Caloosahatchee River. The boat traffic was more crowded than we had ever seen!
Jack’s Delivery Miserable Mile Ft Myers- Boat traffic was "bumper-to-bumper" on the Caloosahatchee River, December 29th, near Ft Myers, FL. Departing Ft Myers, the run was a long one, as we decided to go past Venice and make St Petersburg. The laptop bit the dust about 1/2 way there. Mike slammed the screen with a bungee cord inside and broke the lid hinges! It stopped recognizing the GPS and this made navigating into Tampa Bay through Pass-A-Grille channel stressful! Since we were unable to repair the laptop, we bought a new one from Circuit City for $500, taking most of the day, and were ready to depart after an extra day layover. We were at Cathy’s dock, and next to "What Daze It?". It sure was nice to sleep in our own bed for the night! We departed around mid-day on New Year’s Day, and made the short run to Tarpon Springs. Most places were closed due to the holiday, but we found Municipal Marina in Clearwater was open, where we filled with fuel. The weather was on and off rain all day. A front was passing through. Jack had been helping us with weather, and advised us to cross on Wednesday. Mary did not mind the layover in Tarpon Springs at, as it allowed us two days of eating wonderful Greek food.
"Tarpon Springs 2007"- We spend two days in Tarpon Springs, pictured here under threatening skies! The food and shops here are uniquely Greek, and we love to visit! Finally, we made the big Gulf crossing! The wind was from the NE at 10-15, and we had 3' seas coming from behind the boat, called a "beam sea". It was not comfortable, but not too bad. Thankfully, the newly repaired autopilot performed fairly well for about 8 hours before breaking again. After that, I was unable to get it to work ever again. We ran the boat at 14-15 knots from 7:30AM until our 6 PM arrival at Miller Marine. They were closed, but expecting us. We stayed the night at their dock, eating at the restaurant next door. We fueled at 8 in the morning at Miller Marine, and were underway about 9:00. Not a bad travel day, smooth water, though cloudy and gray, with temperatures in the high 60's. I enjoyed playing with the fuel flowmeter system. It computes accurate GPM/MPG/ETC. You could see exactly how much fuel those big 450 horsepower Detroit Diesel engines were burning! The run into Bluewater Bay Marina (just north of Destin, FL) was 200' fog reduced visibility. We tied up just after closing time, only a few minutes in front of a thunderstorm. Gulf Crossing- Mike, ME, and HID resting on the flybridge while in the Gulf of Mexico, between Tarpon Springs and Apalachicola." The next frontal passage greeted us about 8 AM with wind, lightning and rain. The rain persisted until about 11:30, we depart at 11. We stopped at Mary Esther, where Mike checked the running gear and removed three short crab-float lines from the propeller shafts. As we departed Mary Esther, the clouds lifted and we had warm sunshine for the rest of Friday, Jan 5th. We planned to fuel at Bear Point, but when we arrived at 4 PM, they were closed. We moved on to Homeport, where Jack and Susan met us about 8 PM. Lulu's was closed when we went for dinner, and we ate at Arby's in Gulf Shores. Everything else was closed! We all looked at boat systems until after midnight. The next morning was raining, and Mary fixed us brunch. We added 70 gallons of fuel and departed Homeport around 11. We filled with fuel at McHugh's on Dauphin Island, and the owner told us they are closing the fuel service when this tank was gone. Too bad, because they had the best diesel price in the area. Temperatures were again in the high 60's, with light winds. We arrived in Lake Yazoo at Pascagoula around 5 PM. We cleaned up and had a welcome home party for "Mambeaux the Hatteras", with many of Jack and Susan’s friends. A good time was had by all, especially Jack & Susan! For those who might be interested, here are the travel statistics for the trip on "Mambeaux the Hatteras": Total Days: 17 Run Days: 12 Lay-over Days: 5 Days at Dock: 14 Days at Anchor: 3 Engine Hrs Run: 76 Gen Hrs Run: 53 Fuel Gallons: 1219 Total Miles: 895 Gallons/Hour: 16 Ave Miles/Gal: 0.73 Ave Miles/Hour: 11.8 When we travel on "What Daze It", we go slower, stop more, anchor out more frequently, consume much less fuel, eat meals onboard, explore in the dinghy, and enjoy it much more. We accomplished our holiday delivery trip, we learned a lot, repaired quite a few things, and did not break anything important. Another successful, but different, cruise! {mospagebreak} Article # 11- Marco Island, Fl to Tuscaloosa, Al Our last travel story had us delivering a friends new boat from Key Largo to Pascagoula during this past year’s Christmas and New Years Holiday. After visiting our parents in Moundville and Mobile, we returned to "What Daze It?" in St Petersburg. For the remainder of the 2006-2007 winter, we planned to cruise from St Pete to Marco Island in southwest Florida. We spent an enjoyable two weeks at Cathy’s dock with our boating friends Todd and Brenda. The January weather in St Pete was unusually cool, but still much warmer than back home in Alabama! Todd and I placed sod in Cathy’s back yard as part of our "honey-do" commitment to her! At the end of January, we arrived at Punta Gorda to spend a week with our friends, the Boerth’s. They own a nice retirement home on one of the many canals off Charlotte Harbor. From there, we made the short day-trip down Charlotte Harbor, then up the Caloosahatchee River to Ft Myers Yacht Basin. We have made many enjoyable friendships here with the live-aboard boating community in the Basin. Unfortunately, the price of Our new friends John and Alex, whom we met during our recent Christmas boat delivery trip, had invited us to come back to Marco Island. We would be using one of the slips at their waterfront home. They had a number of similarities to Mary & I; our ages were almost identical, they don’t have children, and they have two small dogs as part of their family. And, of course, they share our love for the water and boating. We remained here from early March through early April. Marco Island is at the northern May 1 was our target date this year to return to the Northern Gulf Coast. Exploring new bays, rivers and anchorages was a goal of the cruise back north. We accomplished this goal with a visit to Crystal River, winter home to a large population of manatee. From Crystal River we traversed about half of the Gulf Crossing by stopping in the Steinhatchee River, near Jena, Fl. We paused in the Mobile area to visit, and do some work on friend’s boats. It was also time to haul "What Daze It?" from the water, and perform those tough prep and antifouling paint jobs. In the early summer of 2007,we had hoped to spend about one month cruising the Alabama River, but the drought conditions caused the water levels to be about 4’ below normal, and we decided against risking the Alabama. Of course, the 6 months we were trapped north of the Apalachicola River shallows last summer were fresh on our minds! We spent a bit more time in the Mobile and Dauphin Island area before moving north up the rivers. We did do a quick side trip 20 miles up the Alabama River, on July 9th. The sandbars in the lower part of the river, about 25 miles south of Jackson, AL, were very large and bright white. The weather was very warm, with highs in the mid-90’s and lows near 80. As we continued north up the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River, we were surprised to find the normally pretty sandbars overgrown with grass, brush and small trees. The lack of any significant rainfall in the last 2 ½ years had resulted in persistent low river levels. The absence of normal river floods had resulted in the overgrown sandbars. Heavy rains, especially in the winter, should cause high river levels and flooding, effectively wiping the sandbars clean. Continuing north, we spent the night at Old Lock # 1 near Jackson, Old Lock # 2 near Nanafalia, Foscue Creek in Demopolis, Big Prairie Creek north of Demopolis, Riverbend at Moundville, and finally, Eagle Cove north of Tuscaloosa. Eagle Cove would be our home base through the Alabama/LSU game, on November 3rd. {mospagebreak} Article # 12 Cruise along the Black Warrior-Tombigbee with "What Daze It?" Fall 2007 It was not hard for Mary and I to decide to return to Tuscaloosa for the summer and fall of 2007. We saved many thousands of $$$ on insurance premiums by not being on the Gulf Coast during hurricane season. We would be near my parents in Moundville for frequent visits. And of course there is Alabama Football, this year featuring Nick Saban and a new level of Bama fan-mania. Arriving in Tuscaloosa on July 16th, Eagle Cove would be our home marina until early November. We moved up to Franklin Ferry Marina on Bankhead Lake in order to help with the August 10th workday on Big Al and Lady Al, the Boat Alabama barge and push-boat. Before returning to Eagle Cove, we traveled as far up the Mulberry Fork of the Warrior as safely possible. It was a very nice, isolated trip. One of the highlights of the summer/fall was our visit to Joe Wheeler State Park for the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association’s fall rendezvous. Partly sponsored by Quinn Stewart and Eagle Cove, we attended in order to inform this segment of cruisers about the beautiful Black Warrior River. We were successful, and we learned a great deal about "Cruising the Loop" in the process. Mary and I attended six of the Alabama home football games, Western Carolina to LSU. We changed our return schedule a bit when we learned Alabama had flip-flopped LSU and Mississippi State on their football schedule. Boat Alabama had always planned to do a big raft-up in Tuscaloosa for the LSU game. When we learned that game would be played on November 3rd, instead of November 10th, we decided to remain in Tuscaloosa through that weekend. But when the cold fronts began to make their way across central Alabama, it was time for us to head south! Quinn Stewart made arrangements for The Tuscaloosa News to come down and interview the Bama Navy Watergate party for the LSU game. Tommy Stevenson from the News spent about 30 minutes with us at the Lock # 12 Riverwalk Park. He wrote a terrific article, which appeared on the front page of Friday’s paper, along with two photographs. Not surprisingly, we had a steady trickle of visitors who came to see the boats at the park for the watergate party! We hope to see Tuscaloosa develop the riverfront in a way that accommodates the boating community that is sure to follow. The Demopolis Yacht Basin is underway with a huge expansion, which will increase their marina from the current 80 wet slips to over 400. They also plan to add another dry storage building. This should be complete around 2010. This substantial increase in cruising boaters in Demopolis will result in an unprecedented level of pleasure boat traffic, and Tuscaloosa needs to be ready. The Black Warrior River, especially Holt and Bankhead Lakes, will offer over 213 miles of undiscovered, scenic cruising for those willing to venture north from Demopolis. Monday November 5th saw us heading south from the Old Lock # 12 Park, river mile 340, bound for Mobile. The weather was cool in the mornings and mid 70’s in the afternoon, ideal for our cruise south. The trees had nice fall color, especially noticeable along the riverbank vistas. Our first overnight anchorage was Old Lock # 8, river mile 278, near Akron, Al. This is a strategic "off the main channel stop" for boaters who run 10 mph or less, because it is about halfway to Demopolis at river mile 216. Nearby is a Corps of Engineers Park, with a boat ramp and dock, composting toilets, an artesian well, and trash receptacles. Along the Warrior, we encountered about 5 commercial tows each day. It always seemed like we happened upon them in the sharpest curve imaginable! I did my share of bat-turns this trip! The second day, we covered the remaining distance to Demopolis Yacht Basin. Our friends Todd and Brenda on "Lifes2Short" were expecting us, and had arranged a big fish fry with the locals from "B Dock". Todd caught a mess of crappie and they were really good! I helped Todd install a battery monitoring system and we stayed over an extra night to get this accomplished. We left Demopolis on Thursday. The weather had cooled a bit, and the low temperature flirted with freezing for the next few days, although we still had highs around 70. The only fog we encountered was near here, and it burned off quickly after sunrise. At Demopolis the Warrior joins the southern end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. This route has seen a tremendous increase in pleasure boat traffic since the Tombigbee was linked to the Tennessee River in 1985. Hundreds of boats transit these waters each month, mostly going to and from the more northern rivers and Great Lakes to Florida. This day found us running along with about 10 other pleasure boats, all going down-river to Mobile. Thursday evening, we stopped at Old Lock # 2, river mile 168, and anchored with 5 other boats. The boaters all knew one another from their previous weeks of travel down the waterway, and we joined them for a spontaneous sunset gathering onboard the boat next to us. We played leapfrog with these 5 boaters almost every day as we made our way to Mobile. We departed Old Lock # 2 early Friday morning, with Old Lock # 1 at river mile 100 as our next destination. Lock 1 is another of the nice Corps of Engineers Parks, with restrooms, boat ramp and trash cans available for boaters and campers alike. One disadvantage: Both Lock 1 and 2 have the thickest clay on the planet on the bottom and banks! The anchor and chain requires much rinsing. Our feet (and the dogs!) track the sticky mess everywhere! Thankfully we moved out of the clay and back to sand below mile 100. As we reported in our last article, the beautiful sandbars in this area remain overgrown with grass and shrubs. I hope a return to normal rainfall in the future will again bring the cleaning effect of high water. When this will occur is anyone’s guess! We encountered 2 mechanical problems on the trip downriver. The first was the failure of our main personal computer. The PC would not boot up, but it is not essential for operating the boat. We normally use the PC for real-time map navigation while underway, but like one of our Tuscaloosa friends told us, to navigate on the river, you just throw a stick in the water, and follow it down! Also, we had a laptop on board for a PC backup. The other failure was our high-output alternator. Fortunately, we have several other options for generating electrical energy for the battery banks, and we can fix this after our arrival in Mobile with a trip to the alternator repair shop. Saturday was our next to the last day of our river return trip. The temperature was high 70’s, and mostly sunny. We made our way from Old Lock # 1 at mile 100 near Jackson to David Lake at mile 42 near Mt Vernon. David Lake is just off the main river channel, and is about 1½ miles long, and ½ mile wide. The cypress trees and swampy hardwood forest surrounding the lake give it a prehistoric look and feel. Its’ location, just 42 miles north of downtown Mobile, made it an easy final days run to our destination on Dog River. The Grand Mariner Marina will be our home for the next month, and it is just 15 miles south of Mobile, on the western side of Mobile Bay. Since leaving Old Lock # 12, we have traveled over 355 miles in six days. We anchored out 4 nights, and stayed 2 days at Demopolis Yacht Basin. We burned approximately 150 gallons of something new for us, biodiesel fuel. The only performance difference that could be noticed was the exhaust smell- a bit like french fries, and somewhat more difficult cold starts on the near freezing mornings. Here’s an amusing story. On our second day at Grand Mariner, we went across the river to Dog River Marina to visit the 5 boaters we played leapfrog with over the past few days. The guys were on-board, while the girls had gone shopping using the marina courtesy car. While we were visiting, one of the girls called, and began to discuss the possibility of boiling fresh shrimp. They were all from the Northern US and Canada, and had never boiled fresh caught shrimp. After a few puzzling questions, Mary was asked to take the cell phone so she could offer assistance. Here’s what Mary suggested; buy bay shrimp (white shrimp) about 20 count size, head on if possible, about one-pound per person, get a box of Zatarans crab boil, follow the directions on the box for boiling shrimp, serve shrimp with cocktail sauce made of ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice and worcestershire. The next day, they sent us an e-mail and it said, "And your shrimp boil suggestion...........OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! It was delicious. Many, many thanks from all of us." PHOTOS
"Tusc to Demopolis Cruise"--- This shows the route of "What Daze It?" on our recent cruise down the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa to Demopolis.
Ala v Ark Ed C pics--- "What Daze It?" tied along the Old Lock # 12 wall at Riverwalk Park East on the Alabama Campus, with a pushboat, barge and Cypress Inn in the background.
Ala vs. Ark 9-07--- Here are the pre-game watergate activities at Riverwalk Park- everyone is a Bama fan!
Ala vs. Ark 9-07--- This is "Big Al" tied to the Riverwalk Park lock wall, site of the watergate raft-up for many of the Alabama home games.
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Old Lock # 2--- Here is a picture of serene beauty, anchored along the riverbank after a days’ travel. This is Old Lock # 2 at mile 168, near Nanafalia, Al.
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Article # 13- Our 10 Favorite Stops Cruising "What Daze It?" The question we are asked most frequently is "What is the favorite place you have been in your travels?" There is really no single answer to this question, but a short list of our favorite stops. At this point, we feel that we need to explain something about our type of cruising, which is different from most others. Mary and I (and ME and HID too!) like to travel to secret, beautiful destinations, and you would be surprised to know how many of these places are out there. Most of the stops listed here are isolated anchorages. If you asked another cruiser to compile a similar list, I would venture that most of their favorite stops would be marinas. Not that we are right and they are wrong, it’s just a different palette for cruising. Also, our nautical travels have been limited to a certain region (so far!), from the Florida Keys to the Ohio River in Kentucky. Though limited, we have been thorough in finding those secret stops! This was one of our favorite articles to write, but we had to wait 4 years till we had seen and done enough to make a good list! Five years from now, we hope the list will be different! A word about our method of selection- Mary picked her 10 best, and so did I, but we did so separately. We concurred on 6 stops (♂♀), Mary added 2 (♀), and I added 2 (♂). So, from north to south, otherwise in no particular order, here they are:
Photos
"Favorite, Rivers"
"Favorites, Gulf Coast"
Sunrise Tellico Mile 31--- This is sunrise over the Great Smoky Mountains on the Little Tennessee River, mile 31. The water here is surprisingly clear and breathtakingly cold!
Thief Neck Island Sunset- On Watts Bar Lake, this is a good example of the beautiful vistas on this section of the Tennessee River.
Yellow Creek Waterfall --- Nestled in a small cove just off the Tennessee River near the junction with the Tenn-Tom Waterway, is this lovely 45’ high waterfall with a rope swing at the top. The waterfall is spring fed, and runs year-round, even when rainfall is scarce. This spot is crowded on weekends!
"Mike & Richard on Waterfall"--- Here I am with friend Richard at the top of the waterfall. This gives a good idea of how far it is to the water!
"30 barge Tow on KY Lake"--- The further down the Tennessee River we went, the larger the barge tows became. This one was typical for the area know as "The Land Between the Lakes", with 30 barges and a very large push-boat.
"Ingram Bayou"--- This small cove in southern Alabama is one of our favorite anchorages. It lies in the middle of an area being quickly overdeveloped, but still retains its’ isolated feel.
"Blue Angels 05"--- The sun is setting over Ft McRee and the picturesque sand dunes near Pensacola Naval Air Station. We are preparing to gather around the beach fire and tell tall tales!
"Crooked Island Beach"--- The beach is deserted at Crooked Island, 12 miles east of Panama City. Shelling is great here, with sand dollars, whelks, olives and urchins littering the beach around Mary.
"Tarpon Springs Marina"--- This is "What Daze It?" tied to the dock at Tarpon Springs with the sponge docks in the background. The Greek food and shops here are just spectacular!
"Ft Myers from Skybar"--- This view overlooks the Ft Myers Yacht Basin. Know as "The City of Palms", the downtown area along the river, along with Thomas Edison’s Winter Estate, is worthy of an extended visit.
"10,000 Islands ’07 --- Here we are enjoying the beautiful sun, sand and sea in the isolated 10,000 Islands. It’s just hard to believe we could have such a place all to ourselves!
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turns. At mile 444 is Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Facility, a towering mountain with a high, dammed hydropower reservoir. The water falls over 1000 feet through huge turbine generators to make millions of kilowatts on demand. Mike enjoys showing everyone the impressive pictures from this location. (Don’t ask unless you really want to know!)
area that was all rock. This is not uncommon in the Tennessee area and not a new thing for us. However, after we dropped the anchor it began to drag, so Mike backed down on it with the engines. This is what we always do in order to make certain the anchor is secure. Unfortunately, this time, as Mike was backing down, we also had some current we did not account for, and the boat was moving more swiftly than usual. The anchor suddenly caught, and with the added speed, the chain went bar tight with a jolt. We thought nothing of this, as we will often have some difficulty anchoring in rock. After our swim, Mary went to the bow to retrieve the anchor. Upon pulling in the anchor, she saw that it had been slightly bent. That is a surprise, for this 60 pound CQR anchor resembles a farm plow, and is stoutly constructed in thick steel. After this, the anchor would not set properly, and we replaced it with a back-up anchor. Again we ate supper at Calhoun's and Reese comes by after Thea goes home. Sunday we went to church at the First Baptist Church of Knoxville. This was a beautiful marble church with friendly people, a 3000-plus pipe, pipe-organ, and an excellent pastor. We enjoy attending church whenever possible, and this was the first chance we had had in quite a while due to our lack of long- range ground transportation. In other words, if the church is not within walking or biking distance, we are unable to attend.
Mary by suggesting the Riverside Restaurant for catfish further downriver. Mary reluctantly agreed to give up ice cream for catfish, a hard thing to do. When a woman wants ice cream, she wants ice cream! We found the restaurant at mile 453, and tied alongside the dock with two other small boats. There was a hard rain just as we docked, that was okay, we needed to take showers anyway. The catfish was very good, but still no substitute for ice cream. We spent the night at their dock.
about 4pm, and they departed about 6pm from Alred Marina. We returned to Goat Island to anchor for the night.
on Monday. Richard arrives at 5pm. We relaxed for a while, and had catfish at Swamp Johns! Next morning Richard carried us to the Helen Keller home, "Ivy Green". We enjoyed the historic surroundings and the guided tour of the home. We shopped at Wal-Mart on the way back to the boat. Lunch was the famous cheeseburger at Mystic Harbor.
Clifton. The dogs liked running in the sand, they had missed the sandbars too! Next morning, the water was down about 2', and we were aground. We should have anchored out a bit further...! Pickwick Dam began releasing water to generate power, and the water returned by mid-morning.
uneventful trip down to Mobile, where we spent November and December, visiting with Mary’s parents and numerous friends. In November of 2005, Veteran’s Day weekend, we enjoyed the Blue Angels airshow in the waters around Pensacola Naval Air Station. This has been an annual event for us since the late 1980’s. In early January, we set out for Ft Myers in South Florida. One of our favorite stops along the way was Tarpon Springs. Proud of their Greek heritage, the restaurants here offered the best food we had had in quite some time! Also near Tarpon Springs, we found many shells and sand dollars on the beach at Anclote Key. We arrived at Ft Myers on January 19th. We spent a month there renewing acquaintances and completing many needed maintenance tasks. Boat maintenance continues to be a big issue, both in terms of time and money. Some of the projects included: patching a small leak in one of our fuel tanks, installing a sight gauge for our forward water tank, fiberglassing a hole in the bow of our dinghy, cleaning out an engine heat exchanger, changing sacrificial zincs, and changing the oil and filters.
requirements limit the visitors to all but those who are serious about coming. For the casual visitor, there are two fast catamarans that take up to 100 visitors out and back, touring the fort for 4 hours for $150. We had many highlights of our Dry Tortugas stay, with beautiful water, snorkeling at Loggerhead Key, Goliath Grouper under the boat, 3' swells in our anchorage, power-walking the moat walls with ME & HID, trading for Florida lobster, and sunning on the fort beach among them. Following our Dry Tortugas trip, we also made memorable trips to Bahia Honda Key and Islamorada while staying in the Marathon area. The temperatures were very nice, generally 80 high, 60 low, and the wind blew from 15 to 20 mph for the entire two-month period. We had to carefully choose sheltered anchorages due to the wind. We saw dozens of manatees, our first up-close encounters with the gentle South Florida mammals.
Susan, aboard their 42’ sailboat. We drove on to Mobile, where we spent a week with Mary’s parents. We followed that visit with one to Moundville and spent a week with the Hall’s. We were back at Lakepoint Marina on July 29. A week later we had a full day’s work changing the props we bent when returning from Bagby State Park. The help provided by Elisabeth, Joshua & Paul made this difficult job possible. Most people would tell you it is necessary to pull the boat out of the water to change propellers, but we did it while in the water! It took 3 hours and was a great team effort! Later in the week, I changed the starboard transmission fluid, and replaced one of the transmission cooler hoses. The transmission still burned the fluid black within 10 hours of run time.
to remove the starboard transmission, to keep it from exploding. The burned transmission fluid was an ominous sign! Our friend Paul, at Lakepoint, was going to help, but he learned Corky had a recurrence of cancer and helping me became moot. I removed the fluid, cooler, hoses, exhaust system and jacked up the engine, all in preparation for removing the transmission. That day it had begun to rain, and the next day, we had a 5" accumulation. Information provided by the local Corp of Engineers was for the Apalachicola River to crest on Saturday at 9'! Back together goes the starboard engine and transmission parts! After assurances from the Mobile COE office that the Apalachicola River would crest and hold 9' for several days at Blountstown, we departed Lakepoint Marina around noon. We transited the WF George lock, and continued down river, planning to stop at Andrews Lock, which would be closed, and lock through the next morning. We were hailed on VHF 16 by Eddie Hardwick at Columbia, AL, and invited us to use his small dock at "The Pit". The Alabama/Auburn game was on, and they were watching it. They were having a barbecue and fire on the riverbank. We joined them and enjoyed the Columbia hospitality for the evening. Eddie even gave us a 5-gallon bucket of pre-cracked pecans, a hard to come by treat this year!
These are some of the seashells we gathered at Mary Esther and at Crooked Island.
view of Crooked Island in the background. 
friend's boat from Key Largo to Pascagoula. Since we were in no rush to get to St. Petersburg, we decided to spend a few days in Crystal River, about thirty miles south of Cedar Key.
The most popular type of anchor is the lightweight fluke, or Danforth. It is light, easy to store, and has very high holding power. It will set on the first pull about 75% of the time. Affordably priced, it works well in sand and mud. But here is the major disadvantage; if the wind or current changes and the boat swings, the anchor is likely to break free. If this occurs, it’s about 50/50 as to whether it will reset and hold again. If not, you wind up on the bank! We only use the Danforth if we can limit the swing of the boat. This can be accomplished by setting two anchors, one from the bow, and one from the stern, and tightening the lines so the boat is suspended firmly between the two anchors. This is our preferred method for anchoring on the river if we are near the navigation channel.
Probably the most versatile anchor type is the plow anchor, such as a CQR or Delta. Its sharp pointed tip allows it to penetrate a variety of bottom types, such as sand, grass and weeds, or rock. It is strongly constructed, though this makes it heavy. Its holding power is good, but this type is expensive. Larger boats have an automatic winch, or windlass, for deploying and retrieving this anchor. It will set on the first pull about 95% of the time. If the boat swings, it will reset at about this same rate. I personally give this anchor high marks, and it is our primary working anchor.
dockage has increased steadily, and we lamented over what is probably our last visit to this charming marina. After staying in Ft Myers for one month, we then moved to Ft Myers Beach. Ft Myers is actually about 15 miles up the Caloosahatchee River, while Ft Myers Beach is a separate town on the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Beach is known as a tourist destination, it has a slow-down, back home feel about it. We spent 3 days visiting before moving on to Marco Island.
edge of the 10,000 Islands. These islands stretch from just south of Naples down to near the Florida Keys. We would enjoy many visits into the 10,000 Islands while spending about 5 weeks in the area.
