This is how it should be

A wonderful day in Fairhope  (my idea of how to spend Black Friday) spent with a bike ride to town, meandering through the shops and lunch at Panini Pete’s. Then Sat bright and early, we head down Mobile Bay to the Gulf Inter-Coastal Waterway (ICW).  Sunny days with highs of 70 and lows of 60 is sharp contrast to our trip 2 years ago when we were weathering cold and rainy storms.  As we made the left into the ICW we saw our first dolphin since the Atlantic coast-mom and baby.  Ingram Bayou in Orange Beach offers a perfect anchorage about 3 hours outside Pensacola for the night.  The Vols play Vanderbilt this afternoon so we will anchor early and get our game face on.  If the panhandle stayed this way throughout the winter the marinas and anchorages would have a waiting list. 

Fairhope Yacht Club offers reciprocal dockage with Rock Harbor, it is about 2 miles from town and is a perfect stop for us. Two years ago we had Thanksgiving dinner here with Tom and Nancy. 

 

The city of Fairhope has a lot of consignment/estate shops, Christmas stores and great restaurants

 

Thought of our buddy Glen from Rock Harbor as he is recovering from surgery

 

Entering the Gulf ICW

 

Ducked into Barber Marina where our friends on Lauren Grace are docked--all buttoned up, we figure they are home in Missouri for Thanksgiving weekend

 

LuLu's is on one side of the ICW in Gulf Shores

 

Tacky Jacks and Acme on the otherside

 

Happy Thanksgiving!



Here is a shout out to all our wonderful family and friends—Happy Thanksgiving!  We had our dinner yesterday with our friends from Nearly Perfect and about 80 other boaters who gathered for a covered dish lunch at Turner Marine (next door to Dog River).  We certainly ate our share and I got the opportunity to fix our traditional cranberry/apple casserole.   The weather is coming together for good travel for the next few days—I guess being away from the family on Thanksgiving paid off because we are poised to travel when the conditions are nearly perfect.  Eat a little extra for us today and we will see all our folks in Nashville in 3 weeks.   Fitz and I are so thankful for our lucky life and for all of you. 

Such fun new friends with Jack and Patty and their family

This is the dessert plate for this petite lady 

Glimmers from home

We missed Dave Caldwell but Princess is from Rock Harbor too.

The Turners were gracious hosts

Dog River

Weather rules!  While the rest of the country is doused with snow and hard freezes, we are sitting in Dog River Marina in Mobile with cold-ish (50 lows-60's highs) and strong winds.  For the boater that means you stay put but comfortably.  Terry is happy with boat projects and Dog River is the place to get batteries and all the bla-bla that goes along with that project so were figure there are worse places to spend a holiday week.  Our sister Vivian came over from Hattiesburg, MS for the day and we haven’t seen her since she and Sue came to visit at Mackinac Island—good to catch up.  Looking ahead we want to be in Dunedin on December 15^th and that is our only hard goal.  We would like to stop in Fairhope,  Pensacola (definitely- the Navy Air Museum), Fort Walton Beach and or (San) Destin, Panama City, and on to Apalachicola to await good weather for the Gulf crossing to Dunedin. Turner Marine does a potluck Thanksgiving dinner on Wed. before Thanksgiving that is sort of a Looper event so we will go to that.  We heard from nephew Kelsey that he and his sweet Jamie are engaged and that his future in-laws live in Fairhope -- we are going to try to get with them before we hit the ICW.  Nearly Perfect (Pat and Jack from Houston) is here for the week too so we will have good company for docktails and dinner out.

Dog River Marina

 

I love the light headgear that Fitz wears in the engine room

 

Grand Mariner is a restaurant/marina across the way

 

Beautiful sunsets all week

Demopolis to Mobile Bay

My most favorite National Geographic photo of the trip--eagles were plentiful along the Tombigbee

Anchorages with our friends on Fugitive at Baschi Creek, Lock #1, Tensas River were really beautiful and calm.  That said we had very spotty cell service and bad weather in between anchorages.  Tuesday the winds were gusting up to 40 mph, then on Wed. the rain (with an occasional lightning) persisted all day—we did manage to anchor in between rain storms.  Thursday we woke up to thick fog which burned off by the 8am start engine time.  A terrific warm sunny day will take us into civilization once again.  We passed very few boats and more than our share of barges.  The tow drivers were all very adept at the complicated switchbacks of the winding Tombigbee and helped us in their very unintelligible language to pass them on their 1 or their 2.   The language that the tow drivers use is one without vowels and only the close ear can get what they are conveying—I listen carefully for the words “1” (right) or “2” (left) and then repeat back what I think they have said.  It is a 50/50 proposition.   Thursday afternoon we settled into Dog River Marina and promptly found Looper friends from Nearly Perfect.  They crossed their wake here about 3 weeks ago!  We all went out to dinner at Felix's--a Mobile favorite--and talked about our trip.

Storm clouds gather as we pull anchor at Lock No. 1

At Baschi Creek,  Terry got to use his hedge clippers

Charts are a must even on the ditch of the Tombigbee--we were startled to learn that we came through the Promised Land

Janis and Brian aboard Fugitive rafted with us in the anchorages on the Tombigbee

New friends made in Baschi Creek--Hattitude (Vebbie and Roger) is out of Kenlake in KY and we share some friends

Out to dinner in Mobile--Fugitive and new friends Jack and Patty on Nearly Perfect

Impressive Port of Mobile

The pirates are out here too (this one is for Leeton and Holden)

 

Columbus to Demopolis—news from France, so sad

We went out to dinner with our running buddies in Columbus at Huck’s Place (Great!) and ran by NAPA where the manager had left the bla-bla belt for Fugitive in the bed of his pickup.   Brad and Mary on Dollinger are from outside Minneapolis and have a manufacturing plant there that has something to do with hydraulics.  They, like Brian and Janis on Fugitive, are still very active in their businesses –a new type of Looper—50 somethings using the internet to stay in touch with business.  After leaving Columbus on Friday,   we made our way to Sumpter Landing to anchor by 3pm. It was so calm at this anchorage we got television signal and saw in horror the massacre in France—it got down to 35 degrees during the night - we needed to cuddle anyway.  Dollinger had gone on another 40 miles and a cool Hatteras took its place and  made the run into Demopolis with us.  We are going to spend a couple of days in Demopolis—it is a great marina but also we want to slow walk to Mobile Bay—it is supposed to be stormy and windy on Tuesday and Wed. So if we stay Sat and Sun in Demopolis (the fact that there will be great football and NASCAR those days is a bonus) then we will have 3 days at anchor and go into Mobile Bay on Thursday.   

Running in the clouds

Janis and Brain in Sumpter--we all got naps

We rafted up for only the second time--it works

Beautiful sunset in Sumpter

Think anyone under 30 knows what this shore art is?

Thought of the joy this scene would have brought our grandson!

Have to take the picture of the White Cliff of Epps--most interesting feature of the Tombigbee

 

Grand Harbor to Midway

There is a lot to be said in having experience under your wings.  We go down the Tombigbee for the second time and now WE are the experienced travelers.  Dollinger, Fugitive and Sunny Days all traveled together and while we all travel at different speeds there is comfort in traveling with friends.  Dollinger travels about 17mph, Fugitive at 7mph and we are somewhere in the middle.  The first day Dollinger swept in passed us and the tow we were caught behind and made it to Midway Marina by 3pm.  Fugitive and Sunny Days got into Midway barely before dark.  Day 2 we called the lock outside Midway, all was clear so we all locked through the first of 4 locks by 7am.  After the last lock we all headed for Columbus Marina but Fugitive noticed a bad screech and found his bla bla belt had twisted. They got it going but needed to slow down and watch for overheating.  So we dialed it back and Dollinger went on to the Marina in case we needed a part.  Bottom line—they made it to Columbus and as they pulled into the slip the belt broke. It was great to have running buddies.

Leaving Grand Harbor

Big Eagle
 

The Tombigbee is a big ditch
 

Cool sculpture along the way

Fugitive--a great running buddy

Dollinger in Midway

Sunny Days crosses her Wake

On Nov. 14, 2013, we pulled into Grand Harbor at the top of the Tombigbee from our homeport of Decatur, Alabama and started our big adventure.  Almost 2 years and 6,000 miles later we pulled into almost the exact spot at 3PM Nov. 9, 2015 and completed the Loop. 
   All week we have been reflecting on different aspects of the trip—the wonderful new friends made--we still keep up with the Valentines with whom we crossed the Gulf, Rahn de Vous from northern waters, Captain's Choice in Canada, and GimmeTime, Fugitive and Kat in the Hatt the second leg (and many, many more too numerous to count--really docktails were almost nightly). We loved hosting the sisters  at Mackinac Island  and the kids  at  Chicago.  Conditions we went to  school on--the cold, rainy start, the refuge of the Keys, the opulence of the Atlantic and Chesapeake waters, the ICW as opposed to the canals.  There was the uniqueness of going into Charleston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago and visiting those cities via the water. The small towns that charmed us—Apalachicola, Dunedin, Southport, Canajoharie, Saugatuck, etc...  Canada was great with its nice people, cottages on big rocks and beautiful scenery.  Trips up the Hudson, the Potomac and the Cumberland added to the mileage but were high points in our experience. 
   Here at Grand Harbor we are docked beside fellow Loopers—Dollinger we had met in Nashville had left to go home and Sequacious II was an empty Silverton with a clean white Loop flag—an obvious newbie (I think I am jealous).  Tomorrow our friends from Penetang, Canada, aboard Fugitive are arriving from Chattanooga after a trip home and we will continue down the Tombigbee toward the Gulf with them as running buddies.  It is a quiet happy dance you hear from us today. A great way to end up the Great Circle Loop. 

Well used white Loop flag--we will retire it to a frame

Freddy T's --scene of the celebration

We earned this trophy together and had a blast doing it.

No rips or holes

Terry changes out the white for the gold





Grand Harbor --a nice place to make our crossing.

The Tennessee River

We didn’t really take our time and savor this last leg of the Loop but we did notice some things we hadn’t noticed before.  There are plentiful terrific anchorages up and down the TN that we did not see anywhere else on our travels. The shore is dotted with beautiful homes, fish camps and retirement type trailers.  People boating these water should not take these for granted as well as the clean, wide waterway—we had no trouble passing the occasional barge at all.  Radio stations were a hoot -- there is nothing like small town radio.  An Oldies station (the Frog) out of Paris, Tn. stayed with us on the upper end and had great music (Horse with No Name, Ramblin Man) plus funeral home reports (one man was to be buried in Republican Cemetery—wonder if there is a Democrat Cemetery?) In the lower end we had a Savannah, TN country station (The Worm) that we enjoyed -- it reported the menu for the Hickory Pit Restaurant (side dishes included sliced cucumbers and jello).   We pulled through the cut between Lake Barkley (Cumberland River) and Kentucky Lake (TN River) mid-day on Friday afternoon and headed for Kenlake anchorage.    Saturday-on to Pebble Isle Marina where we could bring in the Vols football game against South Carolina (yoo-hoo we pulled it out-- ugly).  Tammi and Randy are the owners of Pebble Isle Marina and have made this a “must stop”.  Very nice people in a protected marina but we are on a mission so we are up early and headed out to try to get half way (Swallow Bluff anchorage)  to Grand Harbor where we cross our wake.  We already have the courtesy car reserved at Grand Harbor to go to the steakhouse Freddy T’s to celebrate our Loop Monday night. 

Pretty and warm day to head out the Cumberland to the Tennessee

 

The cut between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake

 

Essential tools of the trade--phone, computer, binoculars, and coffee--along with our bikes and the dingy

 


Pebble Isle--beautiful sunset

Cool house on the TN

Perryville and Clifton have a lot of "retirement" homes--they don't want them to flood

Swallow Bluff --a beautiful anchorage