Dreading The Snow!

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

As promised, the update from our Panama City Harbor Host night out on February 12th.  This is Carl and Greg Vernon, AGLCA Harbor Hosts for the Panama City, Florida Harbor.  We had contacted them and they came and picked us up and took us to dinner with a large group (about 17) of other boaters.  It was Mexican Night at the club and the comradeship and food were great. Thanks again Carl and Greg.


Back in Kansas, the forecast is for 8-14 inches of snow by the end of Thursday.  We wish we were back on the boat.  Below is a photo depiction of where JULI-IV has been thus far on this journey.  The purple lines indicate where she has gone and the arrow shows where she lies now.

 

 

 Here is the guardian we left to watch over her.

Rainy Days, End of Another Segment

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Departed for Fort Walton Beach at sun up, had about 6 inches of water under the propellers at the marina entrance as it was low tide.  It is a 46 mile journey today.  A view of the water in Santa Rosa Sound, the lighter area is sandy shoals.

Bob and Sandra Treland

We had contacted friends, above, whom I had worked with in a previous life.  They did some scouting for us and located a marina for us to stop at.  We arrived at the marina and Bob and Sandy were there to meet us, however, the marina personnel were not.  We waited a bit at the onsite “Crab Shack” till one of the owners appeared.  He was dressed up quite a bit differently than the rest of us. 

 He had just come fron a Knights of Columbus event hosting the Bishop.  Luckily this was not the attire that was required at this marina. 

Emil, Dan and Joe.

One of the other marina owners showed up and Joe, wanting to be a marina owner, had his photo taken with them.

Once marina arrangements were coordinated (payment) we set off with Bob and Sandra to do some shopping.  Then they took us to their “on the waterfront” condo for watching the Kansas basketball games and dinner.   ,  

Here is Bob working at his specialty

Mixing and handing out Bloody Mary's, and here is my specialty, watching the ocean from the balcony of their condo, to include the sunset, quite a view.

After dinner, it was back to the boat for the evening. We had determined based on the weather forecast that we would remain in Fort Walton Beach for another day. This was the night that Hattiesburg, Mississippi, just up the way was hammered by the F-4 tornado.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Sunday morning was maintenance morning.  We installed the starboard engine fresh water flushing device.  Normally a 15 minute task, which took only two hours and much mumbling.  Once done, we cleaned up and were picked up by Bob and Sandra for more shopping and touring the Destin Florida waterfront.  Still very cloudy and windy, here Beth is holding her head on in the breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the walk on the waterfront we encountered many interesting creatures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the nautical chart that we used to get this far.

Bob and Sandra took us to an excellent Irish Pub/Restaurant, McGuires.  This place has over $1 million one dollar bills signed by patrons and tacked to the ceiling and walls. One of the bills was missing so they had a line up to determine who the guilty person was.  Can you pick out the real Joe (not to imply that he was guilty) in this line up?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Returned to the boat for preparation for departure Monday morning for Panama City Beach

Monday, 11 February 2013

We got a late start, for us, left at 0730.  We entered Choctawhatchee Bay, which is 24 miles long and open to the 23 mph south winds. (pictured above on our nautical chart)  It was very bumpy. Just prior to arrival at the Sun Harbor Marina, a U.S. Navy boat called us on the radio and told us where to go, as they were monitoring a manned submersible. (under sea sled with divers attached).

  We courteously went where they told us and then were assaulted by a pod of three porpoises.

Secured at the dock in the Sun Harbor Marina in Panama City, Florida, all heck broke loose as severe weather attacked us.  The boat rocked and rolled all night long as there is no breakwater at this marina.  We did discover that the Government does not have the monopoly on dumb signs.  See if you can detect the flaw in this sign:

 

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

 

The waves had subsided somewhat this morning so we are only mildly rocking.  Laundry done and travel arrangements are finalized.  We contaced the AGLCA Harbor Host and he has invited us to attend a function this evening with some other loopers.  An update will follow.

 

Wednesday morning, Beth and I fly home to Kansas to take care of some things while Joe flys on to Tampa to catch a Cruise Ship for a cruise with his family.  We will return on 3 March.

 

A summary of this segment:  643 water miles traveled, 12 locks with a combined drop of 414 feet.

We are on our way to Panama City. Left Fort Walton beach this morning and a little after 10:00 we had a 3-team porpoise escort for about 30 seconds. It was awesome. Unfortunately we were too excited to capture photos...

Warm Weather, Blue Water

Thursday, 7 February 2013 (Continued)

This was the best day yet, weather wise.  70+ degrees and sunny, I finally broke out the pool attire and got some sun on the dock while waiting for the courtesy car to return so we could go shopping.  While I was sunning, Joe was visiting with the dock personnel.

But here was the actual brains for the conversation! 

The courtesy car reappeared around 4:00 and we went to get two 12v batteries and groceries.  Dave, one of the marina guys, had told Joe that we had super special priviledges at the nearby Mobile Bay Yacht Club for dinner, so on the way back from shopping we stopped there.  We wore jeans and tee shirts, so we did not qualify for the members only catfish dinner.  However, dinner was excellent.  Returned to the boat and stored stuff, installed batteries and retired.

Friday, 8 February 2013

 

Awoke to 58 degrees, and no wind.  We cast off and headed 25 miles down and across Mobile Bay.  The water was very smooth.  Here is a view of nothing in sight except for water,  This is also where we spotted our first porpoise's.




Once we got out of Mobile Bay, the journey was pretty much like on the rivers, except the water was clear.  One of the cruising guides mentioned "Lulu's", a fine drinking and dining emporium on the Intra-Coastal.  Beth was at the helm as I came up from below, and low and behold here we were: Lulu is Lulu Buffett, sister of Jimmy Buffett. It is said, that often, Jimmy stops in for a guest appearance.  He did not today.  In his place were about 200 middle shool age children on a field trip.  After much pondering, Joe discovered the reason why they were there. In the attached harbor to Lulu's were the replica ships Pinta and The Nina, two of Columbus' ships on the discovery of America cruise.  We had previously seen these at Grafton, Illinois, on the Mississippi River four years ago.  Beth and I had to have the "CheeseBurger in Paradise" menu item, very tasty.
  
 Many of the customers were admiring this fine Yacht at the dock. 

Continuing on, we were very happy to see this sign: 

Now, after moving into Florida, the water in our wake was exciting in that it was not brown.

 

Moving on through many "No Wake Zones" we arrived at the Naval Air Station Pensacola's Sherman Cove Marina.  A fine example of the best that tax dollars can buy. Here is JULI-IV secured, with the Gulf of Mexico just behind us over the trees.

This is an excellent MWR facility, utilizing all of the best engineering minds that are available, they came up with this:

Now, I am only a logistician, so I am baffled as to how this will save water.  Our delicious dinner layout for the evening:

See you all tomorrow, it's on to Fort Walton Beach.

Finally, Mobile Bay

Friday, 1 February 2013

We departed Pirates Marina Cove (mile 307) at about 0630, still not daylight yet, called the lock and got right in.  (two locks this section, both a breeze) Headed 91 miles downriver to Demopolis Yacht Basin.  Weather was delightful with no debris till 16 miles above Demopolis.  We pulled into the Demopolis Yacht Basin fuel dock (Mile 217) about 4:30 P.M. and filled up with gas.  Wayne, the marina man on duty, said we could stay in the fuel dock basin (old marina) or go back up river 200 yards to the new addition.  We opted to go to the new facility and man was it amazing.  It is two years old with an on dock building with showers, laundry, and big screen television. They provided us an on dock golf cart for travelling to the fuel dock offices for obtaining the marina courtesy car.

  

We met an 89 year old boater named “Buell” who is kind of a year long live aboard on his 36’ Albin Trawler.  He was a wealth of knowledge (which he shared).  After spending 10 plus hours on the river and determining that between Demopolis and Mobile, there was no television reception (or much of anything else) we decided to stay over till Monday morning and watch the Super Bowl there.  Also on the dock, we met two other couples with sailboats doing extended cruising. 






We also found on this dock the local Oasis on which you can see the three of us enjoying the sun.

 We watched the Super Bowl with them and retired for another early morning departure for Bobby’s Fish Camp 99 miles on downstream.

 Monday, 4 February 2013

Departed Demopolis for Bobby’s Fish Camp, (Mile 118) which is nothing more than a dock right on the river, with an allegedly excellent restaurant (open only Thursday thru Sunday). 

 

Got right through the lock (only one today). The dam at this lock does not have gates. All the water goes over the top and it was quite a sight as the river is in near flood stage at this point.

The weather was cold and miserable with little or no sun.  We had to get to Bobby’s for electricity to run the heaters. We made good time to Bobby’s Fish Camp.  We were the only boat to stay the night.  Bobby is now deceased and lies here outside the restaurant entrance. 

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Awoke early as we wanted to get as far down river as we could to find a good anchorage, as there are no more facilities till Mobile Bay (130 miles to Dog River Marina).  After warming up the engines, I called the lock which was two miles downriver, to determine our locking through status, the lockmaster told me that it would be an hour and a half at least.  A hour and a half later I called him and got a bunch of mumbo jumbo about two tows up and one down and that it would be even longer, but the tow headed down called him and told him to let us go ahead, for which we were greatly grateful.  The weather was sunny most of the day.  We found an anchorage that worked for us (Mile 54) located about a half mile up a bayou.  Anchored fore and aft and wrapped ourselves up in multiple blankets for the night.  Planned an early departure for Dog River Marina. Selected scenic photos.

 Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Had set my alarm for 0600 for a early departure.  When we looked outside, there was nothing to see, the fog was so thick we could not see the shore 50 yards away.  The weather report said that the fog would be gone by 9:00 a.m.  At 9:00 a.m we departed into the fog navigating with radar and the fog horn on automatic, (One five second blast every two minutes).  The fog finally disappeared at 12:00 noon. 

The next 54 miles were through bayou country and once the fog was gone it was sunny, hot and pretty. We spotted Joe’s new house along the left bank.

 This is the "14 Mile Bridge, a railroad
 bridge with only 10 feet of clearance.
 We followed this tow through,,,,,,,,, then sighted the skyline of Mobile.

We motored through the Port of Mobile Bay dock area and were amazed at the quantity and size of the ships there. 

 

Here is a mystery ship that we are not sure what it is.

 

We entered the head of Mobile Bay proper and became somewhat nervous as the immense size of the open water, the moving ocean ships, endless debris in the water, and the 2-3 foot seas. 

This was one of three ocean going vessels that we passed during the six miles to the Dog River Turn off.  This video was made for Jermiah who wanted to know when Grandma got to the Big Water.

We had about 6 miles of this to the Dog River Channel, and then another 4 miles into the Dog River and The Dog River Marina Complex.  The Dog River Highway bridge.

The marina personnel, along with some volunteer dock assistants got us tied up.  After three hours of navigating through the fog, and two more in the open bay, we jumped in the courtesy car and went to Waffle House for some comfort food.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

After a calm night we awoke to pouring rain, follwed by a severe thunderstorn with 60 mph winds.  We will stay in port today and reprovision.  All exterior surfaces are now covered with stick salt from the spray. (But it is tasty) There is an onsite West Marine Store and a nearby WalMart.  By 0900 the sun was out and heating up. Tomorrow we head south on Mobile Bay and turn east on the Intra-Coastal Waterway for Pensacola.

Happy Birthday to my big brother, Dave Wingert!!!

Here's wishing our good friend Jim Baugh a very Happy Birthday today!!