On the Loop again

We stayed at Mobile only 2 nights before heading off with JADE, back on the Loop, towards Florida. On the way out of the Dog River Channel from the Marina, we encountered this Shrimp boat fishing in it. At this point, the channel is only 100 ft wide and 5 feet deep at low water (at the time the tide on the tables was at -0.2ft) so there wasn't a lot of manoeuvering room.

We cut diagonally across Mobile Bay, through the spoil areas, as it was showing between 6 and 12 ft on the charts and lopped off about 5 NM of distance from using the commercial channnels. It got a bit skinny (down to around 5 feet) just before re-entering the ICW, but it was bottom of the tide, so we felt reasonably safe. The topography was certainly changing as we moved futher east. Although the vegitation was similar to that on the rivers at first, the evidence of increasing population density was becoming more evident. You could feel for a few miles that you were out in the boonies, then come round a bend to a highway, or bridge, or Condo's with associated marina.

We spent the first nght anchored in a nice sheletered Bay called Inghams Bayou. You were surrounded on three sides by low-lying swampy banks covered in trees and ferns. However directly behind on the shore of the other side of the ICW about 3 mles away, were 7 blocks of Condo's. The next nights anchorage, Joes Bayou, was in a small Bay about the size of Owhanaki where we were completely surrounded by multi-million dollar homes and Motor Yachts. Earlier that day we had crossed into Florida from Alabama, and we had seen our first sea fish being landed by a fisho in a small fizz boat. It was a decent sized fish that looked very much like a Trevally, so I am going to get some fishing gear at the next opportunity. It also seems to be warming up a bit and the North wind doesn't have the same bite to it that it has had for the past few weeks. We are even back in shorts.

 

There is a stretch of the ICW nicknamed "The Grand Canyon" which was dug out between Choctawatchee and St Andrews Bays.

See we ARE having fun

This part of the ICW is still regularly used by tows and a group of Loopers all seemed to converge on one, going the same way as we were, in the middle of the canyon. When we got to him, the canyon was quite narrow and the tow was smack in the middle and doing about 6 knots. As we passed, we had about 20 feet clearance from him and only anothe 40 feet or so to shore - and only 8 feet of water. A little nerve wracking, and it seemed to take forever, but we got by OK as did all the other Loopers.

We reached Panama City that afternoon, and on the way in to the harbour, I could hear splashing coming from the side of the boat. I looked over and a large dolphin was cruising alonside of us, leaping out of the water, landing on his side and flicking water at the boat with his tail. Carolyn had been taking a nap, but was woken by water being splashed through the open portholes. The cheeky sod was doing it quite deliberately - you could tell by the twinkle in his eye and the grin on his face! He stayed with us for about 15 minutes and was the most frivolous one we have encountered amongst the hundreds that we have seen since we reached the Gulf. I tried to get pix, but this digital camera is lousy at taking "snap" photos, so this is the best I got.

Thats him flicking his tail

That night we finished up at a marina resort out at Panama City Beach, and that's where we are now. We will be staying here until Thanksgiving Day (everything is closing down so we will share it with other Loopers) and then we will move on to Apalachicola to be ready for crossing the Gulf as weather allows. We are with a group that has similar speed characteristics, so we intend to stay together and cross the 143 NM in convoy. This will be done overnight, as there is not enough daylight to do it in one day (unless you want to burn an AWEFUL lot of fuel) an you need to arrive at the other side well after dawn, as there are crab pots up to all along the coast and you dont want to pick up any of them. Speaking of that, I may take a swim today and check out what we have wrapped around our prop - I'm sure we got something coming back from New Orleans when we ran over the crab pot. The water is clear enough to see the bottom here and even though its only 65F (18C) degrees, I'm sure I can talk myself into it.

 

The boat is still running well and I did an oil change while we were in Mobile. Oil here is $12 a gallon and to change the 10 gallons using the oil changer took 50 minutes, and no mess. Love that auto oil changer

So that's where we are at present .......till next time

 

PS after we leave here we cross into the Eastern time zone, so we are an hour further forward, which means it won't get dark until 6pm instead of 5!

 

NOLA

It took a while, but I finally figured it out too.....New Orleans LoiusianA.

Last post (before the Woody one) we were off to NOLA, but beforehand I went to visit the USS Alabama museum with Henning, off the sailboat (yacht) FLYING FREE, while his wife Joanne and Carolyn went off and did "girls stuff". As well as the battleship there was a submarine, but not as good as the one in Manitowoc, and a bunch of airplanes including a B52. It was a great museum and took the whole day to get round it. Considering its age, USS Alabama was an incredible piece of technology, and you get to see a lot of parts of a warship you will never see anywhere else.

To get to NOLA, we had to travel the Mississippi Sound. This is an 80 nautical mile long, 10-12 mile wide stretch of water between the mainland and the Gulf Barrier "islands" (I put the word islands in quotation marks because they are in fact little more than sand banks, some with a few trees). The mainland itself is very low lying and the sound is very shallow - only a few feet deep in places. The Intracostal Waterway through the Sound is a dredged channel 12 ft deep with many "spoil areas" (presumably where they dump the dredgings) alongside it and the lateral channels to the ports along the coast. Straying off the channels is dicing with disaster as grounding could be a long term issue, bearing in mind there is only one tide a day and while there is only two feet of tide change, a strong North wind can lower the tide by as much another 2 feet as well. Although the Barrier Islands provide little shelter, the weather on the way to NOLA was kindly and we spent our first night at anchor near Cat Island, just off the waterway, arriving right on dusk. Here, when the sun goes down, it ges dark real quick - so we were just in time. Because the islands are so low, you actually have the phenomenon of having both the sunrise and sunset over water, even though you are not actually at sea.

sunrise

 

sunset

The area is also full of oil rigs, one of which caught fire today, as you have probably already heard (we were atb the marina office when the Coast Guard were calling it in on the VHF this morning).

Not this one

The following day we made New Orleans, after passing by some impressive land works, started after hurricane Katrina, designed to keep the Gulf of Mexico out of town.

 

We stayed 4 nights at New Orleans in a new marina/RV park near Lake Ponchitrain. We probably wouldn't have stayed that long, but the weather turned quite dirty with cold Northerly winds and rain, and we didn't fancy being out in the exposed Sound in that. New Orleans was quite underwhelming. We did a bus tour of the city which included the famed 9th Ward that suffered so badly from Katrina. After 7 years there are still a lot of derelict houses and buildings but, quite frankly, it didn't look a lot worse than some of the other parts of the country which have been effected by the recession rather than a natural disaster. The much vaunted French Quarter I found somewhat grubby and sleazy - maybe it appeals to those under 40 but it didn't do a lot for me. The city looks poor and gives the impression it has been like this well before Katrina, and considering the money that is being poured into its infrastructure, you would expect to see a little more enthusiasm from the locals. I got plenty of pix of the posh Antebellum homes and all sorts of other stuff, but found the whole NOLA experience somewhat depressing. I was not disappointed to be leaving, other than the lumpy trip back to Mobile and another overnight stay behind Cat Island that is hardly an island in Northerly winds averaging 25 knots, and our first encounter with the dreaded crab pots - one of which we got round a prop shaft.

 

A wee aside about the Ponchitrain marina. It was new and had all the amenities, but wouldn't take our reservation without a credit card, which was charged prior to arrival. When you plugged in to shore power, they read the electricity meter and you were not allowed to leave without going to the office and paying the electric first. This means they had to read the meter, and since the office didn't open until 8.00am, you could not leave any earlier. When we went to leave, the electric bill was printed on a separate invoice for the princely sum of $0.15 - yes folks 15 cents! Any one contemplating staying there who wants to leave early iI would suggest they just leave 50c on the pedestal.

 

Anyway, we're now back in Mobile and will head East tomorrow for the Florida panhandle where I am lead to believe the ICW is far more anchoring friendly and the towns and cities quaint and picturesque

BTW, since we started the Loop at Frankfort (so not counting the shakedown trip up the Wisconsin coast of Lake Michigan) we have done 1503 nautical miles, and the engines have done double their hours in 5 months than they did in the previous 9 years.

So......How's Woody doing?

For those of you that are wondering what our precious dog is up to, below is an email from Aunty Lyn keeping us up to date.

 

"Woody is very fit and I’m trying to keep up – we go for a walk down the paddocks most days, even though they’re pretty rough (The paddocks that is). Both dogs hurtled about madly, then Woody rolled in two separate lots of calf poop and followed that by racing down to the dam and having a swim.  Man, did he STINK!!!!

Anyway, here are a few pics I took when Andrew and family were staying prior to heading south.

Abby decided she wanted a nap one afternoon and she was on Woody’s sofa, so he joined her.  Had to laugh.

He enjoyed lots of tummy rubs when the kids were here.  Ryan was especially sorry to leave Woody behind.

Then there were turkeys.  I told you I’d been training Woody to chase turkeys and that he’d found a hen nesting in the Park by the fallen pine tree.  He checked it out every day and chased the hen off down the paddock.  The eggs all disappeared and I assumed one of the many hawks had helped itself.  Then hen #2 arrived and laid HER eggs almost on top of the old nest and both hens sat on that clutch, being chased off from time to time by ‘you know who’.

 

One afternoon I hadn’t seen Woody for a while so went out to the Park and there he was, turkey egg between his paws.

He was having a great time cracking the shell, then I heard the egg cheeping!!

I quickly rescued it and put it back on the nest to hatch properly.  Bad move – that was HIS egg and he promptly brought it out again.

At this stage I went inside, couldn’t bear to watch.  When I returned later both egg and chick were gone and Woody had four more eggs between his paws.  Yep – those all went as well.  I had visions of him throwing up shells and feathers overnight but he’s been fine.  Now I know why he hadn’t been eating his dog roll – over the past couple of weeks he’d consumed some 15 turkey eggs, the second lot all having chickens in them!!

However, he doesn’t show any interest at all in other birds; the Paradise Ducks have 5 babies and he goes nowhere near them – only the turkeys are fair game.  Lois reckons he’s doing a great job keeping the population down.  Needless to say, the turkey hens have given up on that particular nesting site.

A week or so before that, I took both dogs for a walk to the beach.  I walked, they ran, having a dip in the dam on the way down and again on the way back.  Woody had a shower that night!!  They had a wonderful time at the beach but had a wee rest on the way back.

Woody dug a hole in the wet sand under the bank and they stayed still long enough for me to get this pic.

Perhaps not as exciting as your doings but I think Woody is enjoying life on the farm.  I’d hate to think of him falling off your boat and being eaten by one of those alligators!!"

end of email...............Obviously he misses us a lot!!

 

In the Sea - Finally

In the last travelogue installment, we were waiting for JADE to come down from Pickwick Lake so we could "buddy up" for the rest of the river trip, as they like to anchor and are great travelling companions. Jack is an ex Neurosurgeon from Brazil, who retired early in 2003 to fulfil an ambition to sail his 48 foot passagemaker trawler around the world, accompanied by his wife, Denise. Look at www.projetojade.com. However, after reaching the USA, along came Beatriz (now 3 years old) - so the bigger plan was replaced by a detour around the Great Loop, at least until Beatriz was a little older. We first got to know JADE in Hammond, Indiana, but I realised later that we had originally met them in Frankfort where I had taken a picture of a cute wee toddler having trouble with her dog tangled in its leash -and of course this turned out to be Beatriz.

Although we expected JADE to take three days to catch up with us, they arrived in two, so we were ready to go by 31st October.

The original plan was to spend two nights on the river to get to Demopolis, but a bunch of loopers were planning on heading downriver the next day and there are only a few anchorages available, so we prepared to go at 8.30am to cover the 65 miles and 2 locks to the Sumpter Recreational Area in one day. The first problem was that the first lock, immediately downstream, was in use so we had to wait till 9.00am for them to call us to come on down. From Columbus marina and through both locks, the river was full of floating islands of water hyacinths. While they looked kind of pretty, some of them hid rather large and ugly bits of wood. They were also easily sucked into bow thruster tunnels and wrapped around propellors, shafts and rudders - so it was necessary to dodge them all the way to Sumpter, where even the anchorage was full of them.

The next day was another 54 mile run to Demopolis, with only one lock. We lucked in there as a Northbound tow was coming, and tows get priority, but he dropped us (rather quickly) just in time to meet the tow heading towards the lock. If the lockmaster had given preference to the tow, we would have been waiting up to 2 hours - and you are not permitted to anchor, you just idle around until he is ready for you. We passed the interesting white cliffs of Epes (not quite as spectacular as the ones at Dover, England) and made Demopolis at 3.00pm. This is actually the end of the Tenn-Tom waterway, as just before Demopolis the Black Warrior river conjoins and it is then the Black Warrior -Tombigbee (BWTB) waterway.

We spent two nights at Demopolis Yacht basin, and during a shopping visit (Walmart of course), we passed an old mansion that turned out to be Gaineswood, a National Historic Landmark that started as a two room cottage in 1821, and was added to until by the 1860's it was one of the finest Greek Revival homes in the USA. All built by the original owner. Unfortunately nobody had brought a camera, so we've got no pix of it - but I'm sure those interested can look it up on the net.

Below Demopolis are two more locks and not a lot else. There are no marinas in the 216 miles to Mobile, and only one fuel stop at a place called Bobbies Fish camp, which is just a floating dock on the bank of the river. The miles start at Mobile which is mile 0, and Demopolis is mile 216. Bobbies is at mile 118.9, which is right on halfway - too far to go in one day. So we decided to bypass Bobbies and do it in three days, stopping in anchorages at Bashi Creek (mile 145), and Three Rivers Lake (mile 63.8). A bunch of 7 Loopers left at 7.30am to lock down, but we and JADE had to fuel up, and the dockhand didn't arrive till 8.00am. By the time we were done, the Lockmaster said he was ready for us and we locked straight through. Demopolis Dam was the most picturesque one yet so here are a couple of pix:

We passed a number of tows that day, going both ways, and of course, at mile 158, there was the 'Gator. I'll show him again, in case you missed him the first time!

We arrived at Bashi Creek just before dark and we, and another looper ECHO anchored up in the small creek, which required a stern anchor as it was so narrow there was no swing room. Four tows went by overnight, the first at 3.15am and the other three just before daylight - which is why you anchor off the main river overnight.

 

The Coffeeville lock the next morning was the last on the river, and once below that we were effectively in the sea, although still 116 miles inland from Mobile. This was the one where I had the amusing repartee with the lockmaster mentioned in the last posting. We got up at 7.30am to run the 80 miles downriver to Three Rivers Lake, only to discover that daylight saving had just finished and that it was actually 6.30. We finished up arriving again just before dark and, again, had to use stern anchors to hold us in the creek, as we now had tide currents to contend with as well. About 4.30am the following morning we heard an increasingly loud whine approaching which about an hour later turned into a very large tow going by. The reason we heard him for so long was that we were in a very winding section of river and, although he came around 8 miles downriver, in the beginning he was only about 3 miles from us as the crow flies. Here's a shot of that section of the river on the iPad, which is typical of that part of the BWTB.

 

The final day was going to be a short one, with only 64 miles to go. Still, we departed at 6.30 as it was well into daylight by then, and we anticipated being at the marina in Mobile by around 1.30pm, since there were no more locks. The terrain changed considerably as we got closer to the Gulf and by the time we were 20 miles out, it had become mainly swampy bayous and you could well imagine an ideal alligator habitat.

 We began to see many more seabirds and even a racoon digging for shelfish in the sand along the riverbank.

We arrived in Mobile at the expected time and trundled quietly past the commercial docks with all sorts of interesting vessels, including this wierd looking naval vessel.

Once past the docks we began looking round for the marinas, but we suddenly found ourselves out in Mobile Bay, heading down the main shipping channel towards the Gulf of Mexico. It turned out that the marinas were in Dog river, on the western side of the bay. The problem is, that the bay is so shallow outside of the main channel that to get to Dog River, you have to follow it due South for about 5 miles before taking a dog-leg channel back North West for another 3 miles before you reach the marina. This channel is only 5-6ft deep and very narrow, so you drive it very carefully. The result was that  we didn't actually get tied up at the dock until around 3.45pm. The tidal range here is only around 2ft, so the marina has fixed docks, and there is only 1 tide a day - so that takes a bit of getting used to. We are staying here a few days to have a look around - there is the battleship Alabama here and an associated museum, which we are going to visit tomorrow. We plan to get away on friday, and we have been convinced by JADE that it is worthwhile to turn right instead of left at the entrance to Mobile Bay and run the ICW down to New Orleans, which is only 136 miles away.

So that's where we are and that's where we are going and that's probably where you will hear from us next.

There ain’t no place I’d rather be. There ain’t nothin’ I’d rather be doin’

Hoodaw…..Ahm beginnin to rart like they towk dun hayer.

Here is the second installment of “setting the record straight”. It would appear that some folk back home have got the impression that our trip is a series of disasters and we are simply lurching from one to the next. In the attempts to be helpful and informative, I seem to have overlooked to tell people whether or not we are enjoying ourselves. Well, the answer to that is in the heading/??

The most common question we are asked over here (after “did we really bring the boat all the way from New Zealand” - which gets a variety of responses, depending on how mischievous I feel that day), is “are we enjoying the trip”. The answer is an (again) unequivocal “ yes”. When asked why we are enjoying it, we tell people that it is everything we hoped for, and better than we expected. Every day is different from the day before, as each one brings a change of experience, scenery and people that are immensely interesting. I never thought that driving a boat for up to 8 hours a day at 8 knots for mile after mile after mile could be as enjoyable as it is - when doing the planning, the sheer magnitude of the distance to travel was somewhat daunting. Then there are the other bits, like locking through, getting bridges lifted so you can pass under, cruising in “skinny” water 10-12 feet deep (with the occasional 6ft), passing massive tows that appear out of nowhere in the tightest of places with tug captains that talk a language all of their own, dodging floating logs and anchoring amid sunken ones….all of which spice up the daily routine. As Carolyn said to me today; “how could you NOT enjoy this?” 

There are also the totally unexpected happenings, like yesterday. From responses to an AGLCA posting a few months back about where alligators could be expected in the Tenn-Tom waterway, we understood they were a rarity and unlikely to be seen. Well, yesterday, 158 miles and 1 dam and lock upstream of the Gulf, this puppy was sunning himself on the bank of the river. He was every bit of 12 feet long and sat there while I stopped and got his pic (excuse the quality, but I was hurrying and he was a bit of distance away, and my camera ain’t that good). I called Carolyn from her afternoon nana nap to come and look, but by the time she got to the bridge to see, our wake had caught up with us and scared him back into the water.

Suffice to say, she no longer has the burning desire to swim in the rivers.

We are also asked what we have enjoyed the most on the trip so far, and the answer is “nothing in particular and everything in general….but if there was any one thing, it would be the people we meet”. We have met a lot of really cool folk, but therein lies the only downside. Each time you meet people you like, when you part company it is with the feeling that you may probably never see them again in your life, and many times this will be the case….in the words of the Seals and Crofts song…”we may never pass this way again”. However this is balanced out by the pleasure of running into someone further along the way who you thought you may never see again, and being able to spend more time with them. There are also people with whom we communicate that we may never meet, like some of the followers of this blog, tow captains, lockmasters etc. who provide us with advice and entertainment, which we hopefully reciprocate.

A good example of this was today at the Coffeeville Lock, the last lock on the Tenn-Tom before Mobile (pronounced “Mobeel”), Alabama, and the sea. As is the usual protocol, we called the lock on approach, requesting to be locked down. As his first response was in a VERY thick southern accent, asking me to repeat what I said, I knew we might be going to have a communication issue. I repeated the request more slowly and he replied that we could lock down in about 15 minutes and to stand by until he called us into the lock……all standard procedure. Then he asked for our name and registration details. When I replied with them, he asked if I could speak English and could I spell the boat name. I told him I would try with my very best southern accent and proceeded to spell (phoenetically): Lima..Oscar..Oscar..Papa..Yankee…..Kilo..India..Whiskey..India.
This got the response “don’t give me that military stuff – just spell it!!” (and I thought the ARMY Corps of Engineers ran the locks!). So he got back: “Ell oh oh pee wah….kay ah dubblya ah”, which he seemed to get. Of course the registration was En Zee 1844 (zed just doesn’t work over here) and hailing port was Noo Zeeland. No doubt it kept other listeners to VHF channel 16 amused for a few minutes.
So, apologies to anyone who was unsure if we are having a good time…because I can assure you we are.

PS  This was written at anchor on Sunday 4th, but won’t get posted until tomorrow when we reach Mobile and WiFi. I’ll also continue the Travelogue then