Sunday 11-22-09

Pic of the dolphins running with us today. When you would hear a splash, you knew they were beside the boat. So much fun to watch them playing. We are at Bay Point Marina. Arrived at 1:15 today. We will leave the boat here for the holidays and return mid January to continue.
The Captain has made a big mistake. He taught me to read his charts and now I can/am a back set driver. Traveling the GICWW is different.So much more to see on the rivers. We did go through the "Grand Canyon" on the GICWW. Captain says it looks like a ditch more than anything. There were a few bold eagles and probably gators but didn't see them. We wish all of you have a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for following along with us and watch for us to return mid January. God be with you. Jeff,Cheri and Frizz.... Annie Lee 111 signing off for now.

Saturday 11-21-09

We made it to Ft. Walton, Fla today. Finally out of Alabama! We are at Fort Walton Yacht Club. Fifty cents a foot plus two dollars for electric. Not bad! Again it pays to be a member of the RSYC. Their club house is great. We have a drink with the current Commodore. The rain started right after we got tied up. Perfect. When we were running today, a dolphin was running right beside the boat. So neat to see. I was setting in the pilot house in my first mates seat and I was working my suduko puzzle, I just happened to look up and there was Captain Jeff sound asleep. Yes he was behind the wheel and yes we were under way. And people wonder why I don't like auto pilot! Of course I raised my voice alittle since a bridge was in sight.
This will be the first night we will not need heat. Don't get me wrong, it's not summer here but it is in the 60's tonight.
We are hoping for some sun tomorrow. Lost a finder today (darn!) so Jeff called our friends who are a day behind us(they are from Cincinnati and doing the loop too). He told Bob to watch for it. You really think a finder will just be there, somewhere? Who knows.

Friday 11-20-09

We had breakfast with Norm and Ina, did a little Christmas shopping and decided to hit the waters again. We had planned on staying another night but storms are moving our way so we need to get across the bay to the GICWW. So..at 12:30 we again untied the lines and headed out. We heard there was to be strong winds, rain and heavy chop tomorrow. We had 21 miles to reach the GICWW. We made it to the cut at 1:50 and there were dolphins playing in front of the boat. It was so awesome to see. We arrived at Bear Point Marina around 4:00 at mm #165. We were running right beside the street for awhile. It is really different the the river. It has such a calm peaceful feel about it.
If the weather behaves its self, we will head out tomorrow. If it gets to bad, we will stay put. Good chance to get caught up with laundry.
Neat town! If you ever have a chance to see Fairhope,Ala. do it.

Thursday 11-19-09

We left mm 16.6 on the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Water way at 6:30. By 7:45 we were at Mobil Alabama. Such a welcome (and over do) sight. We made our way through with no problems. Some majorly big vessels out here! At 8:05 we entered Mobil Bay. We are in the wide open water now. It kind of takes your breath away and is very over whelming. We headed to our spot for the night, Fairhope Yacht Club on the east cost of the bay. We arrived at 10:03 a.m and waited for Norm and Ina Carpenter who were RVing to Texas for Thanksgiving. We went to town to watch the lighting of the Christmas trees. This is such an interesting old town.
Hang on to those RSYC cards! We only paid $10.00 a night to stay here and that includes electricity. Only if you are a member of a yacht club.

Wednesday 11-18-09

We pulled anchor from our quiet, perfect night.We work to fog and just waited it out. We had a great day with beautiful weather. We are running alone now.Most are behind us. Tonight we decided to drop a hook at mile 16.6 on a creek called Big Buyou Canot. It had a current running about 4 mph and rising. A fishjerman told us it us going up about a foot every night still from IDA. So, Captain Jeff got the dingy out, rowed (and it wasn't easy) to a tree and tied off the back of the boat. We also dropped the hook at the front. We didn't move all night! My hero!!!! The owls make a crying sound and there were a lot of other sounds that I had never heard before like birds and who knows what. We are now in gator country but haven't seen any. It was very very dark out there. Very dark!

Tuesday 11-17-09

 This is a pic of some bluffs on the Tenn-Tom River. We left Demopolis Marina today at 4:45 A.M. and got locked down before the sun even began to think about showing up. We ran 100 miles today and got thru our last lock on the Black Warrier section of the Tenn-Tom. We are hanging on a hook with 5 other boats at the Old Lock #1. It's dark by 5:00 so or goal was to be settled by 4:00. We had five minutes to spare. Tomorrow we plan on droping a hook about 16 miles from Mobil Bay and we will be in brackish water. Great day and ran with some great loopers!

 
This is a boater that we have passed two times now. He is traveling with a dog and another sail boat (Lazy Day). His boat name is River Rat. We stayed at Demopolis today to wait for a UPS package. Some of the boats we left behind in the fog of the morning at Columbus have caught up with us now. Last Tango left this morning and we will probably not see them again. There was a captains meeting today and they have decided to leave tomorrow morn at 5:00. We are trying to stay ahead of a bunch of other boats. We will all hang on a hook the next two nights so some meals were pre-cooked today and ready to go. The evening temps will be in the mid 30's so it's gonna be a little cold. We hope to do about 100 miles tomorrow and make it to Coffeyville. Mobil Bay is getting closer (finally)!

Sunday 11-15-09

Superman has a summer home on the Tenn-Tom!!!!! This is setting along the bank with a small a-frame house. Only on the river! Last Tango took off at 6:45 in heavy fog but we decided to hang a bit longer. We pulled anchor at 8:00 and headed out. The day ended up being great.Lots of trash in the waters but we still managed to get to Demopolis in 5 hours (50 mile run). We were trying to stay ahead of three other boats.There were very few slips at the marina and we wanted to try to get one of them. We found out that Last Tango had only been here for about 45 minutes soleaving early didn't get them much. We used the marina car and you could make milk shakes in it. The marina cars are greatly appreciated but most shoud have been retired long ago. Oh well, its wheels.

Eagle on the Tenn-Tom. Saturday 11-14-09

 

This is a pic of one of many eagles we are seeing on the Tenn-Tom. The Captains decided to leave in the early morning fog to head out to Demopolis. The fog was so thick you could not see the front of the boat and the first mate was standing on it! We felt our way to the lock with the radar and headed on down. After the sun rose and burnt the fog off, it was such a beautiful day. We will find a spot and hang on a hook with Last Tango tonight.

11-13-09 Friday

Beautiful weather here today.It is such a shame we are stuck here at Columbus Marina. We went to Wal-Mart (again) to get supplies as the guys are planning on heading out on Saturday night. We will take two days to get to Demopolis Marina in hopes that trash and high waters will stay ahead of us. We are running with Last Tango again but our other friends have decided not to leave until Sunday and some on Tuesday. We plan on hanging a hook tomorrow night. Everyone here is getting cabin fever and are ready to head out.
Picture of Wilson Lock (93 ft lift) on the Tennessee River

11-11-09 Wednesday

Decided that we would leave for Columbus Marina in Columbus,MS (mm#335). We will be going about 30 more mies, not as far as we would like but right now the waters are running to high and the marinas are full. We have been told that waters will now crest at floor stage on Saturday. When we arrived at Columbus, we met up with a lot of the friends we met at Joe Wheeler. Sounds like they are really ready to get out of here since some have been here for over aweek already. At this point most boaters have been advised not to leave before Sunday at the earliest. Sounds like we are here for a few days. Good time to get laundry done. This is a picture of a morning fog.

exit/entrance to Aberdeen Marina

 

Tuesday 11-10-09

We got brave and decided to run a few more miles down river. We ran with Last Tango to mm 358.2 to Aberdeen Marina in the great city of Aberdeen,MS. Talk about a ride!!! We had afew showers and high winds to start. The exciting part was the marina its self. You had to see it to believe it. Captain Jeff called them on the phone because he didn't believe that the sign to the marina was where it should have been. We went thru trees and more trees and yes...more trees.You could not see the marina until you went around and over and thru trees, stumps, and lots of green floating vegetation. Once there, it really wasn't bad. Best beer stop on the rivers so far. They had every kind of beer you could think of in the coolers and they even had a "beer cave". Wear talking about trying to head to Columbus tomorrow if they have room for us. The marinas are all full from this point on so unless some brave (stupid) sole leaves, there will not be room and we will be stuck here for another day.

Monday 11-9-09

We have ran with another boat today, Last Tango. They are delivering this boat to Florida for its owner. The weather has been overcast and grey but no rain today. We went thru four locks today. It seems the sun never shines when you go thru locks! Annie Lee is spending the night at Midway Marina in Fulton, MS. We are at MM #394. Keep in mind that we are running down river so Mobil Bay will be MM #0. Everyone is keeping an eye on the weather. Last report was 25-30 mile per hour winds. You know weather people.....maybe less and maybe more. We will see tomorrow what we will be doing and how far south we will travel. Our goal is to be in Panama City by the 21st of November and then off until the second week of January. We have compiled a movie of some of our pics that I am trying to get on here. Keep watching

Sunday 11-8-09

We made it to Grand Harbor Marina today. This is at the beginning where the Tennessee River meets the Tenn-Tom. The sun sets around 5:00 so we headed out around 7:15 this morning (too early for me!). We had beautiful weather (calm before the storm)the whole day along with calm waters. Shorts and T's were the dress for the day.It was about 79 degrees. We have talked to different boaters and have found that alot of the marinas on south are over flowing with boats trying to stay safe. We are taking it slow and easy to try to stay out of this storm. We called John and Carol Sagle from A dock at Lighthouse who are also doing the loop. They are at Demopolis, Al (mm 216) and they will feel more of the storm than we will but they are safe with other boaters. In case you were wondering, the Tenn-Tom is 450 miles long. We don't know when the boats will start clearing out but we'd guess as soon as the storm clears. Some of them have been held up for two weeks now.
Tomorrow is another day. We hope to get about 30 or so miles on down. It depends on if we can get into any marina.

Saturday 11-7-09

Well, Captain Jeff replaced the new water pump we put in before we left, fix the brackets that broke that connects to the holders for our dingy, put our finder boards in place, changed the wash down hose to the fresh water system,found where our dingy was leaking & washed the boat. He got the steering working before we left last week. It needed some fluid and had an air bubble. I got all the supplies put up, made up a few meals for any nights we are on an hook, played with the cat, wiped off off the windows, played with the cat, fixed super, & got everything ready in side the boat to take off tomorrow (I had to make it look like I do as much as him!).
We are watching the weather really close. Tomorrow we will be at Grand Harbor Marina, the beginning of the Tenn-Tom. Ida sounds like she might slow us down a little but better safe.

Friday 11-6-09

Saturday thru Wednesday night we were with other loopers at the AGLCA rendezvous.We met lots of interesting people and picked up on a lot of information. We have met a couple from Cincinnati that is on the same leg of the trip as us. We headed home on Thursday and back to work for a week. On Friday 11-6-09, we headed back to Joe Wheeler State Park in our "full size" (ha!ha!)car. After a quick stop at Wal-Mart (are they everywhere?) the gent from Enterprise brought us back to the boat. After three trips (one with a cart), we had all supplies on board. We have a few things that need repaired before we take off Sunday.
Thank you to all of our friends who call and make sure we are still talking to each other. So far, everything is great and Jeff is still Captain. I think the cat,Frizz, has moved up to a four star Brigadier General. She rules this vessel.