Should we head out? 12-7-2014

Sunday, December 7^th, 2014

Today marks the start of the 4^th month.

As we left the locks behind a long time ago, that little stat will not be included anymore!

We have traveled 1533.7 miles

Stayed at 25 marinas

Anchored out in 10 anchorages

We were ready to be on our way, and were up before dawn. 

As with all mariners, we checked the weather.  The day promised to be cold, with 18 knot winds, gusting to 22 knots.  That is approximately 20-25 mph.  As we have mentioned before, Mobile Bay is very shallow.  That means the water will be very choppy, not conditions that Sea Fever is amenable to.  We cancelled our plans to leave, and hoped for fairer conditions on Monday.

Boat Repairs, and Boat Parades, Week of December 1, 2014

Week of Monday, December 1,2014

It was a busy week.  La Quinta was about 20 miles from the marina...and there was sunshine in our eyes in both directions as we drove to our destinations.

Most days, both Tim and Kathy drove to the marina, and Kathy went back to the hotel.  After all, laundry still had to be done, sodas and treats needed to be purchased, and other errands needed to be completed since we had transportation. 

So Monday morning, we headed out early to make certain that we would be at the marina to talk to "The Guy" about the repairs necessary on the boat. He showed up about 8, as promised and he and Tim consulted.  After the consultation, Tim authorized the work, and Kathy headed back to the hotel.

Kathy found a Regis hair salon that did an excellent job on her hair…too bad she will never have the opportunity to go back there!  She also scored some new jeans, a necessity since the one’s she brought from home were stretching out!



After four days, repairs to Sea Fever were completed, and she was returned to her slip! Friday, we left the comforts of LaQuinta, and returned home to the boat.



Everything back in
place in the cockpit

 

Sea Fever's new strut
 under the cockpit 



Saturday, December 6th, we spent time getting ready to head out for Panama City, Florida.  We would be anchoring out 3 nights, and hoped we could leave on Sunday.  We again headed to Dog River Marina. pumped out the head, came back to our slip at Turners, loaded the GPS and the hand held radio with batteries, and finished our last load of laundry at Turners.

Saturday night promised to be fun. Holiday boat parades are a very big deal down here where boats actually stay in the water throughout the winter months.  Folks deck out their boats with lights, music, and treats, and parade up and down the bay. 

Along about dusk, we wandered over to the end dock with our friends Mel and Mike, and Marcia and Bill.  Slowly a crowd formed.  Wine and other beverages were being consumed.  For Christmas Girl Kathy, the festive air was just what she needed.

We think, even though we are not Jewish, this was one of our favorite boats.

Shalom Y'all

But there were other cool boats, as well.  It was a wonderful parade…folks throwing things to the crowd…beads, candy, plastic cups.  Folks cheering and clapping. Music coming from the different boats.




Holiday Boat Parade in Dog River, Alabama

The six of us headed to the Yacht Club for dinner and had a great time.  We returned to our boats hoping Sea Fever could leave Turner's the next day, and head across Mobile bay in yet another leg of the waterway, taking us toward our final destination...the west coast of Florida.  Mel and Mike, and Marcia and Bill  wanted to make certain that we had time to say good byes in the morning, and promised to see us off.

 

It will be another leave taking.  It is amazing what you learn about folks in so short a time.  And how you know that you will miss those folks as you (and they) sojourn out to different destinations, different waypoints.

 

We have talked, in this blog, about the kindness of strangers.  I would like to add a few words to that.  There is the also the "friendship of strangers".  How you meet folks, and hope you will keep in touch.  How they touch your heart. How you meet them in different marinas, or even up at the laundry.  You exchange stories. You exchange history. And you connect.

And you become friends of the heart.

Fairhope,. AL, 11-30-2014

Sunday, November 30^th, 2014

We drove over the bay to Fairhope.  Here is where the rich folks live!  And, apparently, those folks don’t shop on Sunday, as most of the shops were closed.  Fairhope downtown is kind of a cross between Stillwater and Grand Avenue.  Art shops, clothing shops.  And a kick butt restaurant!

We had the best meal that we have had so far…and we have had some good ones.  The crab cakes that Kathy ordered were more crab than cake. Tim's crab and asparagus omelet was great…not too rich, just really good.

We walked around the downtown area, stopped in the shops that were open, and then walked down to the beach.

It was a warm calm Sunday.  It was pleasant to just sit on a park bench and watch the water.

Fairhope AL pier

 

Thanksgiving Week, 2014

Thanksgiving Week, 2014

We spent a lot of time waiting for parts to arrive and for work on the boat to commence. A couple of fun things happened Thanksgiving week, though. And a few not so fun.
 

The first fun thing was Monday, the 24th, when one of the owners of Turner Marine ran down the docks, thumping on boats, yelling that the shrimp boat was in. 

So, many of us boat owners grabbed Ziplocs, Kroger bags, and whatever else would hold shrimp, and headed for the end of the pier at the end of the road.  Sure enough, there was a shrimp boat that could have been right out of a reality show.  Craggy guys, beat up boat, and tons of shrimp.  The local restaurants had already pulled up their trucks and toted off their allotment.  Then the marina folks brought their bags and assorted containers.  The cost was 2# for $10.  But who was measuring?  

Shrimp anyone?

Ready for the cleaning


We bought roughly two pounds, removed the heads, tossing them back into the bay for other critters to eat.  We ate the sweetest shrimp we have ever had, and the next night had Shrimp Caesar Salad.    MMM Good.

Wednesday brought yet another trip to the Urgent Care, hopefully to get the stitches out of Kathy's lip.  We are getting to be very good friends with Dr. Jimmy, chief and only doctor at the Urgent Care. It turns out that it was just a check to see how the lip was healing, NOT to remove the stitches.  We had to wait for Friday for that!

But while visiting with Dr. Jimmy, Kathy thought she would mention that her side still hurt, ALOT, from when she had taken the unexpected dive between the boat and the dock.  Dr. Jimmy thought X-Rays were in order.  Turns out a rib was broken.  Also turns out that they don't do anything about it but send you away with a list of things to not do...like bend, stretch, pull lines or stress her right side.  We should have brought in a picture of the knuckle dock!  Tough duty on a boat!

The next neat thing was a Thanksgiving lunch hosted by the Turners the day before Thanksgiving.  They deep fried a few turkeys, roasted a few more, and provided dressing and mashed potatoes.  The rest of us donated cranberries, wild rice, sweet potatoes. A dozen pies, and other things.  It was fun, albeit, cold outside.  But then, what Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t get served a bit cold!

Waiting for Thanksgiving Dinner

At least 50 folks attended.
 

Thanksgiving Day was low key.  We caught up with family, and had Jiffy Pop popcorn for supper.

Friday brought Kathy's last visit to Dr. Jimmy at Urgent Care...stiches came out!  Now, in about 4-8 weeks, the rib will heal, and she will be back to normal...or as normal as she gets.

Also on Friday, the boat was finally pulled out of the water to get the things done that needed to be done!  With any luck, she would be back in the water by the end of the day, and we could start getting ready to head across Mobile Bay!! 

 

Sea Fever pulled out of the water

 

We wanted to power-wash the bottom to remove any fresh-water slime and remains of Zebra mussels still clinging to the hull after our long journey south. We also likely needed a bit of touch-up to the bottom paint. In addition, Tim wanted Turners to investigate a strange vibration and noise we occasionally encountered. Assuming the noise/vibration was nothing serious, we figured all of this could be done in one day. Two days tops.

Kathy let Tim supervise the boat repairs, and went to the Estuariam of Dauphin Island with Elizabeth and Daniel from Brisa.  The Estuarium is an interactive museum of aquatic animal and plant life of the Mobile Bay and Gulf Coast area.  The Estuary itself exists because of how those waters come together.
 

The Estuarium was fun.  Tim, back at Turners, didn’t have quite as much fun.  When we returned, Sea Fever was still up on the hard (out of the water) and supported by jack stands.  The jack stands meant she wasn’t going back in the water right away as we had hoped.

Sea Fever on jack stands

 It turns out that the noise/vibration was caused by a loose prop-shaft strut. The prop-shaft strut is a bronze support designed to hold the propeller shaft in place while it rotates. The strut is not supposed to move. Ours did. Quite a bit actually, and that caused the shaft to vibrate when the engine was in gear. This is not an ideal situation and needed to be fixed.

We weren’t sure what the fix required but were told that on Monday “a guy” would stop by and let us know and how much it will cost.

Two things were clear though. First, we would be here another week at least and second, Tim had a bunch of work to do before “the guy” got here on Monday.

 

The support strut sticks out of the bottom of the boat but it is anchored in copious amounts of fiberglass inside the hull. Unfortunately, the inside part is located under the newly-installed hot water heater and other assorted equipment.  

So, a few things need to be removed to reach it. Things like the water heater, all the water hoses, two bilge pumps, the fresh water pump, the fresh water system accumulator (don’t ask) and the shelf on which the water heater resides.

We decided to stay at a motel for the week because once all the equipment was removed, it had to go somewhere and inside the cabin was the only somewhere we had available.  Also the boat would have no water and required boarding via a 10’ step ladder.

Staircase to heaven

Tim made reservations at the La Quinta hotel in Mobile.  The hotel was a nice change with its king size bed and a shower/bathroom that only the two of us shared. We even had a TV!  This was the first time we had slept off the boat since we left Lake City on September 7th.  Kathy believes it is also the first time she had checked into a hotel with her stuff in plastic bags in a very long time!

Tim got all the stuff torn out of the boat on Saturday.  Since he had installed it all just a few short months ago, it was an easier task to remove. Small consolation!
 

On Sunday, we plan to head over to Fairhope, AL.  We had planned to anchor there for a few days, but with the luxury of a rental car and time on our hands, we plan to drive over there, and see the sights. And perhaps do a little Christmas shopping to get in the holiday spirit!

 

 

 

A long walk down a short pier, 11-16-2014 thro 11-22-2014

Sunday, 11-16-2014

Our first day at Turner's Marine, and it is time to figure out the lay of the land. We straightened up the boat, and stowed things away.  We had been away from a marina for six nights.  Time to do some clean up fix up. As we knew we were going to be at Turner's for awhile, we put away the GPS, stowed the hand held radio, nestled the binoculars.

We headed for the showers, because we could, with laundry next on our agenda. The laundry has only two washers and two dryers, so you use it as soon as it is free. The weather was still brisk, so we were dressed in fleece sweatshirts and pants.    Got our laundry started, talked to our friends about the marina.  Apparently the neighborhood around the marina is not the best, so every night there is an announcement at 4:50 that the gates are being locked and closed.

Turner’s Marine and Supply is a rustic marina, with their primary purpose boat supply and maintenance. The folks are quite friendly, but the bathroom/ shower facilities are small.  The women’s room sports one toilet and one shower, both in the same room. 

The other interesting thing about this marina is their finger docks…or as Kathy calls them, knuckle docks.  They come off from the main dock in a rounded triangular fashion, and on our assigned slip, the end of the dock didn’t even come as far as the cabin top.  The only thing to hold onto are the boat lifelines, or the piling.  It also requires boarding the boat at one of its narrowest parts.

Kathy boarding Sea Fever at Turners

We went back to the boat, and in about ½ an hour, Kathy started up to move the laundry to the dryer.  She didn’t quite make it.  She did take the proverbial long walk on a short pier.

Tim heard the thunk, and then the splash.  And heard Kathy screaming for someone to help her.  Her boat shoe had slipped off the knuckle dock, and into the drink she went, between the boat and the knuckle dock.  All the way in.  All the heavy clothes.  Two dock mates heard her screams, and between Tim and them, and a swim ladder, she was finally wrestled onto the boat, scared almost to death. All the while she was in the water, holding on to one of the dock lines, she hoped the alligator population did not hear the splash.

And wondered if Johnny Weissmuller was alive to fight the alligators.

One more shower.  One more load of clothes. 

There was an impromptu dock party that evening.  We think we had the best story of the day…albeit one that we wished we didn’t have to tell!

There is a tradition at many marinas whereby there is a table set aside for extras...extra parts, extra line, extra shoes...stuff that is in good condition, but no longer needed by the current owner.  It is a marina version of a paperback library.  Someone had no longer needed some handles, and so one of our kind neighbors decided to install it on our piling.  Made it much easier to get on and off.


Kathy and her handle
 (and her Coach purse adorning her Walmart T-shirt)

The rest of the week went without consequence or results.  No work on the boat, Ordered parts.  Waited for parts. Went to Walmart, of course.
Until Saturday, November 22.  Kathy caught her shoe on a nail on the dock, and fell on the knuckle dock. but kept herself from another dive into the alligator invested waters by breaking the fall with her lips and chin.  Upon the advice of two friends who were nurses, and one EMT (all of whom were boaters in the marina), we hustled to an urgent care, and Kathy’s face earned 4 stitches.  Enough with falling! She steadfastly refused to have her picture taken with the stitches! It was enough that her nickname was now Crash. 

On to Mobile, and Turner's Marina, 11-15-2012

November 15, Saturday

The day dawned sunny with little wind.  We got ourselves going.  What a difference a day makes.

We heard from our friends on Brisa and Eclipse…they were looking forward to seeing us at Turner’s Marine and Supply in Mobile.  The day was pretty normal, and then we hit the port of Mobile.

What a busy place it was.  It is a shallow bay, one of the many reasons Tim thought it wise not to attempt it in high winds yesterday. And how right he was.The winds kick up high waves when the water is that shallow. As we went through, the water was calm.

We made Mobile Bay at Mile Marker 0.0 at 11:28 AM.  What an accomplishment!

Mobile from the bay

It is a busy port, with huge boats that made our sailboat seem tiny.

Container boat in the Port of Mobile

We still had about 10 miles to go to get to the marina.  Our friends had taken a quick list of grocery items, and promised to have them waiting for us. 

And both the crew of Brisa and Eclipse were watching for us. Kathy’s phone started beeping with text messages saying “We see you!  We see you”.

Closely following the guide book directions to get into the channel to get to the marinas, we found ourselves way outside the channel in a sea of crab pot and in very shallow water.  Tim navigated our way out of the 3 ft water and we made it back to the channel!

As Turners has neither fuel, nor a pumpout, we headed first to Dog River Marina to fill one tank, and empty the other.  It was low tide, and we almost got stuck in the muck going into the entrance to Turner's, but Tim's excellent skills once again got us course.

And sure enough, the crew of Eclipse met us at our dock, and helped us in.  They fed us soup, and we had sandwiches for dinner. Long day, but we were in our slip way before sunset. And were glad to be at our home of a few weeks.

Freezing 11-13 thro 11-14 2014

November 13 and 14, Thursday and Friday.

We made an easy get away, and headed for our next anchorage.  It was very cold and raining.  Kathy locker dove for the foul weather pants, and we set off, hoping to make mile number 12.2 by sunset. 

We both are getting weary of the rivers, and long to see Florida’s sunny beaches and feel the sunshine on our faces.

We made the Tensaw river cutoff at mile 12.2.  Tim was so cold that he was losing the feeling in his hands and feet. It was not only the temperature, and the rain, but the wind was fierce and whipped any heat away from his body.



Tim the bandit

Tim bundled up

 



 

The anchorage is one that is known to be a great place to wait out a hurricane.  We knew we were not in a hurricane, but, gosh, it sure blew!

The next thing we knew, we were nodding off.  Much as we had hoped to reach Mobile the next day, we decided to stay put. We made our coffee and tea in the morning, bundled up in our quilts and waited out the cold and the wind.