Crossing the Gulf to Clearwater, Florida

After waiting out Tropical Storm “Ida” in Orange Beach, Alabama, we departed November 12th for a great anchorage in Pensacola at Ft McRee. We passed this sign as we arrived in Florida and received an escort by dolphins.  Along with “Meander”, “Dar Sea” and “Bullitt” – including about 100 other boats – we anchored on the beach to view the Blue Angels Homecoming yearly air show. While there, we took the dink to a local fish market for fresh fish and shrimp and spent the afternoon on the beach to view the show.  Pictures below of "the crews" on the beach with the Blue Angels overhead.Good time had by all. Early on Saturday, we moved to a marina in Pensacola, rented a car and visited the house where Pia’s parents lived for 10 years and took the chance to reprovision. We left the marina on Sunday and, over the next week, made our way 200+miles through the intracostal waterway to Apalachicola to prepare for our greatest challenge so far – an overnight trip across the Gulf (Stopping overnight at several quaint fishing towns along the way ). We arrived in Apalachicola on the Panhandle on Thursday the 20th to wait for the right weather window to cross the Gulf.  The picture on the right is "Still Busy" at the Waterstreet Marina, taken from the dingy.

From Apalachicola on the northern Gulf, the trip to Clearwater on the Florida west coast is 185 statue miles with no place to stop in the middle. One option is to leave prior to dawn, travel fast – 15+ MPH – and try to make the crossing in daylight and hope we have enough fuel. The other option is to travel at a slow speed – 8 MPH to conserve fuel - requiring a 20+ hour trip and overnight travel. Along with 4 other Loopers, we chose the latter, leaving our marina at 11AM on Monday the 23rd and arrived at an anchorage in Clearwater on Tuesday at 9AM – a 22 hour trip. In 2 hour shifts, we alternated between driving and sleeping. The 2 pictures above are sunset in the Gulf after we were on the water for 5 hours and sunrise in Clearwater as we arrived the following morning.  The night was overcast with a quarter moon so our visibility beyond the bow was minimal and we followed the GPS and lights from the boat in front of us all night. The seas were rolling 3 – 5 feet so the entire night was choppy. When we arrived in Clearwater harbor at daybreak on Tuesday we were obviously tired but happy to be on this side of the Gulf. All day Tuesday was spent recovering (i.e. sleeping) and we then joined “Meander” and “Spey” on Tuesday evening for a celebration of our safe crossing. WOW – what a trip!

One of the best aspects of doing The Loop is the great people we have met. While in Clearwater, we contacted a Looper – Fred and Sharon from “Perfect Remedy” -that we have interacted with a number of times since leaving Charleston in April. “Perfect Remedy” finished The Loop a few weeks ago. When we contacted them that we were in town, they immediately offered to bring us a car to use while we are in town as well as an offer to tie up to their dock, which we will do on Saturday. Along with Ron and Marji, we used their car on Thanksgiving Day to drive to Tarpon Springs - the sponge capital of Florida, picture below of sponges being off loaded - for the day and to a local restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, we all ate too much but still enjoyed the time with friends and the chance to think about all we have to be thankful for.

Our plans are to leave Clearwater on Sunday and take a week or so to travel the 100+ miles to Punta Gorda where Ron and Marji have offered us the chance to leave “Still Busy” at their dock when we fly home for the holidays. Over the next few days, we will spend time in Tampa, St. Pete, Sarasota, and other places of interest along the ICW before arriving in Punta Gorda. When we continue our trip in January we will travel to The Keys before heading up the east coast of Florida and/or the Bahamas. We are looking forward to a warm winter in tropical Florida!

We are now in The Gulf of Mexico!

At our last posting, we had arrived at Grand Harbor Marina at the beginning of the Tenn-Tom waterway, 450 miles from the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico. We have been on the inland rivers since leaving Chicago and look forward to completing this phase of our journey. The inland waterway which connects Chicago to Mobile is almost 1300 miles long and includes the following Rivers – Chicago, Sanitary Canal, Des Plains, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, Tenn-Tom, Black Warrior, Alabama, and Mobile Rivers. After many weeks traveling the 1300 miles of the inland waterways, we arrived in Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, November 7th along with Hurricane, turned Tropical Storm, IDA. As we post this update on the blog, IDA has passed over us and is now headed NE into the Carolinas after a lot of wind and rain at our marina in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
Before leaving Grand Harbor Marina on October 30th, along with John & Dottie on “Dar Sea” and Ron & Marji on “Meander” we spent a sobering day touring the battlefields of Shiloh National Military Park where over 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives in the Civil War as the Union forces began the campaign to recapture the Mississippi Valley. The day spent at Shiloh (the sight of one of America’s National Cemetery ) was as impressive as our time spent at Arlington Cemetery while in Washington early in the trip.
We are always amazed at the sights we see coming down the rivers - from white cliffs that are majestic to rural houses on the edge of the eroding shore. Our 450 mile trip from Grand Harbor Marina at the entrance of the Tenn-Tom to Mobile Bay took seven days and included a good mix of marinas and anchorages as well as the final 12 locks on our journey. Our first night out was on anchor on Bay Springs Lake just before our first lock at Whitten Dam. We rafted with “Dar Sea” and “Meander” and had a “pot luck” Halloween dinner with no tricks, but many treats (if we count the good food and wine). We departed early on Sunday the 1st, traveled through six locks to one of the most rural marinas we have visited. The next three pictures are of the marked channel off the river to Aberdeen Marina, the Marina/gas station (notice the marina gas at the back and auto gas in the front), and “Meander” in the early morning mist as we departed the marina the following morning. The combination of trees, stumps, and shallow water presented a challenge.
In the last few weeks, this part of Mississippi and Alabama has received a tremendous amount of rain which has resulted in strong currents and debris in the river. This next picture is of the grass and logs which have collected in one of the locks, requiring us to actually dodge debris while attempting to lock through. After 3 more locks and 70 miles, we anchored at Cochrane Cutoff along with 2 other boats already anchored when we arrived. Once again, we rafted with “Dar Sea” and “Meander” for the evening.
The last marina before reaching Mobile is Demopolis Yacht Basin in Demopolis, Alabama at mile 216 of 450 on the Tenn-Tom. For the next few nights, we have no choice but to stay on anchor. Consequently, Demopolis also is the last chance for fuel before arriving in Mobile Bay and is a popular marina for loopers and other boaters headed to Florida. We stayed for two nights, which included sightseeing, and provisioning. This next picture is of all the boats waiting for the lock on Thursday the 5th as the sun was rising. The race is on to find the best places to anchor for the next few nights before arriving in The Gulf.
Because of the recent rains which resulted in strong currents downsteam, we were able to travel almost 90 miles to the Okatuppa Creek for our next anchorage. This next picture is of us in the narrow creek as we anchor for the evening. As we were leaving on the 6th, the fog was thick and actually got thicker in the river, forcing us to “hang around” in the river and hope we didn't meet a tow. This picture is of “Meander” and “Dar Sea” in the fog.
After 143 locks since leaving Charleston, we performed our last lock through at Coffeeville Lock at mile 117 on the Black Warrior River on Friday, November 6th. Pia had the honor of taking us into the lock as Jack handled the lines and took this next picture. We are happy to be close to the Gulf, sandy beaches, and warmer weather. We are happier to be finished with LOCKS!
We arrived in Mobile Bay (last picture below) on Saturday, November 7th with reservations for the weekend at Eastern Shore Marina in the east side of Mobile Bay. On Saturday, we visited Fairhope, Alabama and were looking forward to spending the weekend in this charming seaside village. A little shopping and sight -seeing, even took in a Motorcycle parade, with Santa as the star ! On Saturday evening, we bought fresh shrimp from a local shrimper and had boiled shrimp at the marina with the crews from “Dar Sea” and “Meander”. Dinner was enjoyed by candlelight at a picnic table at the marina. We were awakened early on the 8th by another looper in the marina that advised us that the east of Mobile bay was not the place to be with the approaching Hurricane Ida from the Gulf. We were fortunate to find a marina in Orange Beach on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway which was fairly protected from the approaching downgraded Tropical Storm. The wind from Ida was strong and the rains were intense on Monday and Tuesday. However, not nearly as bad as we had feared !!!! The marina was well protected and our plans are to leave here on Thursday to begin our 250 mile trip along the Panhandle of Florida before crossing the Gulf to the Western coast of Florida. The Blue Angels have a homecoming air show in Pensacola this weekend and we hope to be anchored for the show. We actually saw the Blue Angels while in Annapolis earlier in the trip and am sure we will enjoy the show again!

Joe Wheeler State Park to the Tenn-Tom Waterway

We made it back on the water after a very enjoyable few weeks at home. With many friends and family, we celebrated Jack’s 60th Birthday along with our 1st year wedding anniversary. Thanks to everyone that participated in making this a special time of celebration. This first picture is at our house at the party surrounded by good friends. The next picture is at one of our "hangouts" at home - Big Al's with wings and beer.

While home, we were able to spend time with the “Carolina Grandkids” – Jackson, Garrett, Grace, Olivia, and Stella. The next three pictures are Jackson, Garrett & Grace, and Olivia & Stella.

We are also able to keep in touch with the “Canadian Grandkids” – Keegan, Maija, Makenna, Ethan – via frequent webcams. It is hard to believe that it has been only one year since our entire family was together for the wedding and we are amazed at how much all our Grandkids have grown.
We drove back to the boat on Tuesday, October 20th after almost 3 weeks at home. It’s hard to believe how dirty a boat gets by sitting in a slip – even a covered slip – so we spent a couple of days cleaning and reprovisioning before moving “Still Busy” from Bay Hill Marina to Joe Wheeler State Park Marina – a distance of 10 miles down the Tennessee River - for the “Fall Loopers Rendezvous”, a yearly meeting of past, present, and future Loopers gathered to share experiences of the looping experience. With over 250 people in attendance, including 25+ “currently looping” Looper boats, we attended 3 days of sessions on what to expect in the final phase of our journey into the Gulf, around Florida and up the east coast. Based on what we learned at the meeting, we are really looking forward to the next phase of our adventure back in salt water and the challenges of tides and currents.
The rendezvous ended on Wednesday the 28th and we departed at 6:30 AM on Thursday, along with 12 looper boats (including “Dar Sea” and “Meander” that we have traveled with since Canada), in heavy rain. We back tracked through Wheeler and Wilson locks down the Tennessee River 60+ miles to the beginning of the Tenn-Tom waterway. In early October, we traveled this same route up the Tennessee River to Wilson Lake to leave the boat, return home and back to attend the Rendezvous. Wilson lock was once the world’s highest single lift lock but now ranks 6th in the US and is a challenge with 12 boats in heavy rain. We all made the trip safely and arrived at Grand Harbor Marina located at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tenn-Tom late afternoon.
The Tenn-Tom Waterway is 450 miles and 12 locks, connecting the Tennessee River, via the Black Warrior River, to Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. Weather permitting, we should be in Mobile in 10 days to begin the trip around the “Big Bend” of Florida. As we get deeper into the Tenn-Tom we don’t expect much cell and Internet coverage but will try to keep the blog updated as much as possible. This final picture was taken, just before we left the Tennessee River to enter the Tenn-Tom, of a waterfall in a small anchorage off the river. We were impressed with the waterfall as well as the foliage of the early fall leaves. One of the prettiest sights we have seen since entering the western rivers.
As a final note – when we were home many friends expressed the desire to leave comments on the blog but wasn’t sure of how. For those that wish to leave a comment, the procedure is as follows:
· At the bottom of the posting, click on COMMENT
· Type your comment on the right side of the screen in the box provided
· Below the comment box, type the Word Verification as it appears
· Finally, check “Anonymous” and “Publish Your Comment”
We always enjoy reading your comments and look forward to hearing from all of you.

Tennessee River - Kentucky Lake to Wheller Lake, Alabama

At our last update, we had arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina on the Cumberland River for the weekend of September 18th, 19th and 20th. As we submit this posting on October 6th, we are back in Charlotte for a planned visit home to celebrate Jack’s 60th Birthday on the 8th and our first anniversary on the 11th. It is great to be home to share these two events with family and friends this weekend. However, we will also miss sharing these events with our “looper” friends and look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming Looper Rendezvous at the end of the month. When we continue our travels in late October after the rendezvous, we will provide another update to the blog as we travel down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile and the Gulf.

We departed Little Turtle Bay Marina and made a short trip down the Cumberland and turned to port to join the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River begins just north of Knoxville and flows 650+ miles to the Ohio River, flowing southwest through Tennessee into Northeast Alabama before turning north through western Tennessee into the Ohio River just north of Paducah. Our travels will take us up the Tennessee, past the beginning of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, 287 miles to Bay Hill Marina in Athens, Alabama. Because of the strong current created by a lot of rain recently, we once again changed our plans to travel to Chattanooga, deciding to leave the boat in Athens, rent a car for sightseeing in the area, travel to Charlotte, return to attend the rendezvous in Rogersville, Alabama before continuing our journey on the water.

We began our 287 mile trip up the Tennessee River departing Green Turtle Bay Marina on September 21st and made a short trip – less than 20 miles – to a great anchorage at Sugar Bay on Kentucky Lake. "Meander" decided to stay a few days in Sugar Bay as we departed early the next day. We will see Ron and Marji at the Rendezvous. The following 3 pictures were taken on our 2nd anchorage at Clay Bay on Tuesday evening. The first is "Still Busy" on anchor taken from the dingy before the rain storm shown in the 2nd picture followed by the 3rd picture of a beautiful rainbow following the storm. What can't be seen in this photo are the deer eating grass on the side of the water. One of the most beautiful scenes we have seen on the trip! (remember you can click on the picture to enlarge)

It is great to be back into “lak’n” for a change after all the rivers and canals we have experienced recently. Over the next week, we anchored 4 nights, stayed at 2 marinas before arriving at Bay Hill Marina on Wheeler Lake on September 28th where we rented a car for our local and home travels over the next few weeks.

Below is a recap of our journey over the last few weeks in pictures:

This next picture is us anchored at Double Isle, just off the river behind two islands with a barge traveling down the river. Know I know why we look for anchorages out of the waterway!

In Canada, we traveled with John and Dottie aboard "Dar Sea" and last saw them in Lake Michigan just before they left their boat to go home for a few weeks. We have traded many emails and voice mails trying to reconnect and they finally caught up with us on Friday in Clifton, Tn. This first picture is "Dar Sea" passing us at a marina and the 2nd picture is both of us anchored at Diamond Island on the River. In spite of the heavy current, we dropped the dingy and joined John and Dottie for cocktails and snacks and stories of grandkids. It is really great to see them and look forward to traveling with them again. After the Rendezvous, we hope to reconnect with "Meander" and "Dar Sea".

We arrived at Bay Hill Marina on Wheeler Lake on September 28th and, as mentioned earlier, used the rental car to explore the area including a day spent at the NASA Space Center in Huntsville as well as seeing downtown Huntsville. A great day of sightseeing. This next picture was taken at NASA and I couldn't resist posting it on the blog with the title "I Am Glad We Don't Live in a Yellow Submarine". Looks even smaller than "Still Busy".

We secured "Still Busy" and began our drive home on Friday, stopping first in Chattanooga and staying in a Marriott for the first time in a long time using some of the many Marriott points Jack accumulated over the years of business travel. In the afternoon, we visited the famous Chattanooga Aquarium and attended a Blue Grass Festival on Friday night. Before leaving on Saturday, we also visited the "more famous" Chattanooga Choo-Choo before driving to Asheville, NC through the mountains. Once again, we used points to stay at the Marriott downtown Asheville and visited one of the largest single family homes in the US on Sunday - The Biltmore House.

St Louis to Green Turtle Bay, Kentucky

In one of our first blog postings describing our trip and the route we were taking, we referenced the western rivers of The Great Loop as the most challenging of the entire trip. Although we have had many challenges with wind, waves, weather, etc, the next 3 days of our trip down the Mississippi to the Ohio River to the Cumberland River was indeed the most challenging.
We departed Alton Marina early Tuesday, September 15th and met other loopers at the Melvin Price Lock just south of Alton. We now have a flotilla of 9 Looper Boats – “Mayalisa”, “Perfect Remedy”, “Meander”, “Rick ‘n Roll”, “Morningside”, “Sterling Lady”, “Riff Raff”, “Pookie II” – as we travel the ~300 miles to Green Turtle Bay Marina on The Cumberland River. The trip will take 4 days with limited resources (fuel, marinas, etc) along the way.
Having visited the arch over the weekend, we were thrilled to see this familiar structure from the waterway as we passed St. Louis. Unfortunately, there are no marinas or facilities in St. Louis for pleasure boaters to stop so we continued our journey to one of the most interesting “marinas” we will ever visit. Hoppies Marine Service is located at mile 158 on the Mississippi – 40+ miles from Alton Marina. Hoppies is a must stop not only because the next fuel stop is Green Turtle – 242 miles away – but is a great resource of information about the river. Hoppies is actually three very rusty 100 foot barges tied to the cliff with cables. Our “flotilla” arrived around 2:30 and took turns getting gas and tying up for the evening. The picture on the right is Hoppies with "Still Busy" tied to a barge on the inside. The barge we were rafted on had a leak and we heard the bilge pump emptying the barge ever hour or so all night. Hoppies is located at Kimmswick, a small village with very quaint shops, restaurants, and bakeries. We walked into town for shopping and arrived back in time for Hoppie and Fern to brief us on what to expect further down the river. This next picture is a "typical" sight on the Mississippi - barges, trains, industry. The picture to the right is an island on the river.

We decided to leave at first light on Wednesday with the intent of traveling 110 miles to our best anchorage out of the river at Little Diversion Channel – a narrow river that empties into the Mississippi. When we arrived at Diversion channel, we rafted in 2 groups – 5 in one and 4 in the other – some stern to stern. The current was not strong, we all settled for appetizers and drinks aboard and an early night. We are very encouraged by our fuel consumption as we are traveling with the flow behind us and have no doubt we can make the trip to Green Turtle for our next fuel stop.
The flotilla pulled anchor early on Thursday prepared for another long day on the River. Late morning, we turned off the Mississippi into the Ohio River. We have traveled over 200 miles on the Mississippi and will miss the current pushing us along as we now travel 50 miles up the Ohio with the current on our bow. We can feel the difference in GPS and water speed. We arrived at our first Ohio River lock mid afternoon and experienced the most difficult lock we have been in so far after ~150 locks. The lockmaster allowed us to lock through only if we don’t tie to the bollards and float in the middle of the chamber – 9 boats with 15 knot winds “floating” in the middle of the lock for almost 1 hour – a very exhausting experience! Here is a picture from our boat of all the boats "floating" in the lock. However, all passed the “bumper boat” test! When we arrived at our 2nd lock of the day, near Metropolis, Illinois, we were advised by the lockmaster to anchor below the lock for the night and we could all lock through in the morning. There were multiple barges and tows waiting in line to lock through and the lock will operate all night. The flotilla was able to find anchorage out of the channel and we all anchored separately after another long day of travel. We are now less than 50 miles to our weekend destination at Green Turtle Bay just north of Paducah.
Once again, the flotilla was up at first light to line up for our lock through - here is a picture of the flotilla as we waited for the lock at sunrise. When asked if we preferred to tie up to bollards or float in the middle we immediately reached a unanimous decision – all based on the previous days experience. We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina around 5 PM after fighting a lot of current on both the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. In spite of the distance of 240 miles and the strong current after we left the Mississippi, we arrived with ample fuel. While at Green Turtle Bay, along with Betsy, Rick, Ron and Marji, we took advantage of the courtesy car and drove 26 miles back to Paducah to visit the Maritime Museum and the National Quilt Museum. Both were worth the trip. Paducah is trying very hard to be an “artsy” little rivertown and we enjoyed it very much.

The last 3 pictures are 1) Leaving the Mississippi into the Ohio Rivers, 2) Leaving the Ohio River into the Cumberland, and 3) arriving in Green Turtle Bay Marina after a long 3 days on the Rivers.
We now really look forward to traveling the short distance into the Tennessee River after spending the weekend at the marina on the Cumberland. In addition to the 9 boat flotilla, we were joined in Green Turtle over the weekend by 6 more looper boats as everyone is pacing to arrive at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the looper rendezvous. Our original plan was to continue up the Cumberland River to Nashville but, because we would like to travel home early October, we plan on leaving Monday and taking our time for a 400 mile trip up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga where we will rent a car and drive home for a few days. When we return, we will backtrack 200 miles down the Tennessee River to Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the Looper Rendezvous in late October before traveling down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile.