November 17, 2009

We are sitting at anchor at Dog Island waiting to depart to Steinhatchee early tomorrow morning. Judi is out side watching the dolphins put on a show.

We spent the last two days in Apalachicola, FL where I overdosed on oysters. Last evening I had a dozen oysters for an appetizer and another dozen for my meal as well as some bacon wrapped oysters on the side. For lunch I had a fried oyster basket, excellent.

Apalachicola is a neat town that reminded me of what Nantucket was before it became the haunt of the “Rich & Famous”. The town has many small shops and great hangout restaurants and bars. This is a nice relaxing laidback spot.

Our next challenge is to get across the “Big Bend” in the Gulf of Mexico. We have decided not to the 160 mile direct overnight route as there are only the two of us and I do not think it is a prudent thing to do as it a 16 to 18 hour trip.

The present game plan is to take ~ 4 days with stops in various sleepy Florida towns with basically no water under the keel. I am still getting use to traveling with 1 to 3 feet of water under the keel all the time. Perhaps we will be in Tarpon Springs by Saturday if the weather is good.

Some more pictures to look at from the trip and a “fixer upper” boat for those so inclined.

Well IDA has passed through and all is well on JEJUDA. We got a lot of rain and winds ~ 50 MPH with a few higher gusts but we were snug at the Holiday Inn and JEJUDA was snug at Turner Marine on the Dog River on Mobile Bay. We are staying again tonight as there are still 25 knot winds on the bay and that makes for quite nasty conditions for a 20 mile crossing on a bay that is 10 feet deep.

We will depart early tomorrow and perhaps get to Pensacola and stay at the Navy Yacht Club on Bayou Grand at the Naval Air Station. There are still a few advantages of being a veteran.

If we cannot get that far we will stay at “LuLu’s Restaurant. Lu Lu is Jimmy Buffett’s sister and the place is well known as a waterfront hangout with a dock. Rumor has it that they serve adult beverages.

I have posted some pictures of Dauphin Beach where IDA made landfall as well as the entrance to a real southern marina where we had to weave back and forth between the 3” PVC markers to keep out of the cypress swamp. We were following “Sterling Lady” in. Sterling and Judy are from Key Largo and we will surely meet up with them again.

Aberdeen Marina is a combination Marina and gas station with a store/restaurant. Great biscuits and sausage if one is into that sort of thing. Also there are pictures of a five star cruise ship and the Navy's newest class of ships.

Off to the Florida Panhandle and the eastern time zone.

Well we are now in Mobile (pronounced Mo Beal), AL awaiting the landfall of tropical storm “Ida”. We were enjoying the warm breezes of the Gulf of Mexico until yesterday when the weather was predicted to turn bad. We have been here since Wednesday and had decided to stay for about a week so that we could explore the Gulf coast and it now appears we could be here longer. The boat is battened down at the Turner Marina on the Dog River and we are sitting in a Holiday Inn for hopefully, just one night.

Since the last post we had a very pleasant and leisurely trip down the Tennessee River and then a very fast trip down the Tombigbee Waterway as there was a lot of rain and the current was running ~ 4 + knots. We were doing 90 NM days. The lower Tombigbee is a very desolate area. You travel over 70 miles between bridges that span the river.

We stopped at some very “unusual” marinas such as “Bobby’s Fish Camp”. One morning, we left Demopolis, AL early, so that we could get an early locking through the dam with 9 other boats. We were the last boat in and Judi had to throw the line over the floating bollard. I heard this big scream and Judi was standing on the foredeck waving her hands and screaming that there was a snake on the top of the bollard. Sure enough there was a fairly large rattlesnake coiled up on the top. Luckily snakes are Al Gore friendly since they are solar powered and it was cold. He was therefore, in no mood to move as you can see in the picture.

Saturday, we went to the Navy Air Museum in Pensacola, FL. This is also the home base of the Blue Angels. This is a very impressive museum with many historic aircraft. On our way back we went to the Battleship “Alabama” park in Mobile, which has a WWII submarine and more historic aircraft. Judi has had her fill of “historic” aircraft, battleships, and submarines.

Last night we had dinner at “Felix’s Fish Camp” overlooking Mobile Bay. I had crab soup, ½ dozen oysters (actually 9 oysters), camp salad, hush puppies, sautéed mushrooms, and three crab cakes on green fried tomatoes. Judi had camp salad, grilled chicken with mushrooms etc. over brown rice. Add in two draft beers and a glass of red wine and the bill, with tax was $61. The food was excellent with great service.

The trip continues to be fantastic with new adventures and new people to meet and other people to meet again on boats you crossed paths with in Canada or other spots.

It is great to be back in salt water as they smell of the air seems normal again. WARM WEATHER IS COMING.