Early Spring in Florida

It's cloudy, foggy, grey, humid, and cool in the Panhandle. Not the typical weather you expect if you are in Florida. One storm after another is marching across the Gulf bringing fog ahead of it, rain as it passes overhead, and high gale force winds after it departs. Not so good for boating on the Gulf of Mexico and making open ocean crossings from the panhandle to Tampa Bay.

So we have made several small jumps from Panama City Beach to Appalachicola and now Carrabelle. Our buddy boat, "Cruisin Cat" with Bob and Merrilee Peterson, are moving with us. They are perfect buddies, as they too are on an Endeavour 44 Trawlercat, so we go the same speed. Bob is a former Air Force pilot and flew for UPS for 25 years, so he is a good boater and an experienced navigator. They also have another couple on board who is there long time friends from the Air Force. So we have lots of folks helping us make good decisions on where we go and when.

However, I was in the lead yesterday as we moved the 25 miles from Appalachicola to Carrabelle. The forecast was to get windy and ugly late in the afternoon, so we left early to beat the weather. It was dead flat, until we hit the fog. It was thick, soupy, see maybe 100 ft. type fog. So with my new chartplotter and radar, I lead the way from marker to marker to find our way into the narrow entrance of the Carrabelle River.

We could barely see the shoreline, and again had to rely on the chartplotter to find the marina. The staff there were waiting on us, and worried. But we made it safely. Glad to be in, but we made it. Forecast has us staying in Carrabelle for maybe a week. Yikes! The key now is patience, patience, patience. Damn that is hard. Marc

Panama City Beach, Florida

Rock Chalk was lonely. We have been in Austin since early January, while the boat sat at Bay Pointe Marina in Panama City Beach, Florida, patiently waiting for our return.

While in Austin, we purchased a townhome in Lakeway. It is just across the 18th fairway from our old home that we sold in early 2011. But this is a much smaller home, where everything outside is maintained. So we can truly lock and leave to spend as much time as we want on the boat. Finally we have a place for all of our stuff, and it is a very comfortable place to come home to when we need it.

Now we are anxious to continue our Loop. All of the Class of 2011 Loopers are far ahead of us. We hear from them and most are in the Keys, or preparing to head to the Bahamas. But we intend on getting south over the next month, and we think we will catch up with many of them before they head off to new destinations.

Tomorrow our plan is to leave Panama City Beach and cruise 45 miles south to Appalachicola. Then from there we plan to move a short distance to Carrabelle where we will wait for a nice weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Tampa. It is 170 miles from Carrabelle to Clearwater, so even going fast, that trip will take 12-14 hours. To assure a noon to 2:00 pm arrival in Clearwater, that means we need to leave around midnight and cruise through the night and the next day. It should be fun and exciting, as this will be our first overnight passage of the Loop.

It is raining here today, and more is on its way. We need to let these fronts pass through and the Gulf settle down before we attempt this crossing. Unlike my sailboat passages in the past, you like the good wind and 5 ft. waves are no big deal. That would not be a very comfortable crossing for a power boat, so we will wait for winds less than 10 mph and the seas at 1-2 ft. Lets hope. I will keep you up to date.

Marc

Florida Panhandle in January

There is no one here. Too bad. The weather is "fresh", lets call it, but still very pleasant for January 2012. We left Mobile last Wednesday and have gently bumped our way across Mobile Bay in absolute calm waters and over to Pensacola, then to Panama City.

Pensacola has done a very nice job of revitalizing its downtown. It is one of the oldest cities in the US, where settlements actually predated St. Augustine over on the east coast. We stayed at the Palafos Pier Marina and had the place to ourselves. Many boats just sitting waiting for their owners to return, but no one else were on board their boat.

I actually got Shelley to spend an entire day at a museum. And what a great place to do it. We took a taxi out to the Pensacola Naval Air Station and its Aviation Museum. It is the largest collection of naval airplanes anywhere. It is free to enter and all the work on restoring these beautiful planes has been done by volunteer Naval Aviators over many years. They have the very first planes that Clyde Cessna and Mr. Curtiss built for use in the water. The Navy has had a version of just about every aircraft made to be able to land on a carrier. Plus the museum has many of the Blue Angel aircraft, which are based at Pensacola. The Blue Angels practice here every Tuesday and Wednesday when they are in town. Unfortunately for us, they are out in California this month. The museum was well worth while.

From their it is an easy couple of hours east to Ft. Walton Beach. What we discovered is that there are very few marinas, especially out on Santa Rosa Island, which makes up the beach off of Ft. Walton. Why you might ask? Hurricane Ivan in 2004 did a number on this area. Pretty much wiped out every marina and building on the beaches. So we had to go up the bay quite a few miles, near Eglin Air Force base to find a really lousy marina. But it was just for overnight.

This marina's only good thing was the use of a loaner car which we used to drive back out to the beach for dinner at a very touristy place called the Crab Shack. Normally in season this place would be packed. We almost had it to ourselves except for 8 air force guys drinking on the beach on their day off. The loaner car was exciting. It was a 1970 VW Cabriolet (convertible). The top was torn and was being held together by some duck tape which made an awful noise flapping at 40 mph. That was its maximum speed as the wheels were so rusted they would hardly turn, and the power steering groaned at every move. The driver seat was so broken and laid back, that the owner had left a big pillow in the seat which was the only way to sit up while driving. But it got us to the beach for dinner and back.....barely.

This time of year, every morning brings in a very dense fog layer until 10:00 am. It is pretty but hard to navigate through. So it really shortens your day when it gets dark at 5:00 and you cannot get going until 10:00. But we made it the 60 miles to Panama City and to the Bay Point Marina. This is a very nice marina full of lifeaboards. We will leave Rock Chalk here while we go back to Austin to close on the house. The weather is warm and this is a great time of the year to be cruising the Florida panhandle.

The Holidays are Over

We had a fun time in Austin for the Holidays. We were able to catch up with our children, grandchildren and friends. Not having a home was a bit of a challenge....OK it was more than a bit. I did not like it at all. So much so that we spent a good deal of the 6 weeks looking at Condos, Villas, Townhomes, and Rental homes. Shelley and I definitely want to find some place to use as a base when we are back in Austin.

We found a Villa that we liked and are in the process of trying to buy it. Its in a perfect location, very reasonably priced, and gives us the "home" we can come back to when we are not cruising. But for now we are back on Rock Chalk in Mobile, Alabama, and preparing the boat to head south. That cannot come too soon, as it is cold here. It was freezing last night, so its time to move south.

There are a couple of Loopers still in this area, so we are hoping to meet up with them to make the crossing to Clearwater in the next few days/weeks. We'll see how the weather gods treat us and how long we will need to wait in the Panhandle before we find a good window. It feels very good to be back on the boat however. Very comfortable. So tomorrow we will head out of the Dog River and cross Mobile Bay and head east down the Intercoastal. More later. Marc

Currently a Landlubber

I haven't posted for many days, as we have temporarily moved off the boat to go back to Austin for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Rock Chalk is currently at Turner Marine in the Dog River off of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Turners is doing some work on the boat that Shelley and I wanted to complete. I do not normally like to have someone working on the boat when we are not on board, but in this case, Roger Turner is a very trustworthy guy. Hopefully we will have a good experience when we get back.

We are living in a small cottage in Austin that is a temporary solution to our living needs. It is small but convenient. I am trying to catch up with some work issues, which brings me back into my former world. I am missing the boat and the boat life in a big way. We are also missing all our friends we made along the Great Loop. Once again, we feel like Rock Chalk will be behind the gang as many are trying to cross the Gulf to western Florida before Christmas. We will not make the crossing until the first part of January. But we think we will catch everyone in the Keys.

In the meantime we are really glad to be able to see our children and grandchildren here in Austin, Kansas City, and LA. They are all growing so fast, so spending time with them is great. Next posting will be after Christmas. Have a great Holiday. Marc

Back to the Gulf

It's been quite an experience to travel down the rivers from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile. We have driven through Mobile on I-10 many times, but it looks quite different from the water. It is a very busy port, which was such a contrast from the river. These last few nights have been spent out in the middle of nowhere Alabama. Because of the few places to anchor and almost no marinas, the Loopers tend to end up at the same places.

Above right is a place called Bobby's Fish Camp, basically one 100 ft. dock. So when 11 boats show up, the only choice is to raft together. So we did, and it works fine. But it took 7 days to go from the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lake to the Gulf. It really was a beautiful trip. One of the tow captains asked us where we were headed when we were up in the Tennessee, and we told him over the radio we were headed down the Tenn-Tom. "Ah.. the Tombigbee," he said, "its crookeder than a politician" So true.

Now we are back in salt water, and warm temperatures. Put up the sweaters and blankets, and out comes the shorts. That is what I love about boating. Just keep moving until you find better weather. But first we need to come back to Austin for a Holiday break. So we are going to mothball Rock Chalk for a couple of months and leave her here in Mobile to fly home Wednesday. It has been quite a trip since April in Ft Myers, Florida, and we have another 660 miles to cross our wake there. But thus far we have run 4900 miles, 100 locks, 16 states, and two countries in the last 8 months. Whew, time for a breather. Marc

Some call it a Ditch

We have been on the Inland Rivers since Sept. 3rd, and have come 1500 miles, and this has been my favorite part. Many do not like the Tombigbee, but I think it has been beautiful. Most mornings start like this, really foggy. Radar and my Chartplotter let's us safely move in this stuff, but it is not my favorite thing to do. Most mornings we will wait until the fog lifts. After all we are not in a hurry. We have all the time in the world.....right.

Really the fall colors have been brilliant and the weather beautiful. We have had a few cold mornings, but all in all, its been nice. There are 14 locks that lower you from Joe Wheeler State Park at 650 ft. elevation to sea level at Mobile Bay, Alabama. The largest single drop was the Wilson lock at 104'. It drains like a bathtub in minutes. Quite the engineering feat. It's always fun to go to the front of the lock and look over the drop to the river below.

The Loopers are movin south. We have been traveling in packs, sometimes as many as 11 boats in a lock at a time. Naturally we meet at the same marinas each night and its time for cocktails!! Like I said, at the end of this trip, its AA and WeightWatchers.

The cliffs are the White Cliffs at Epes, Alabama. The Tombigbee has cut through these rocks and left miles of beautiful white cliffs exposed above the river. The trees in their fall colors make a beautiful contrast. We saw several pair of Bald Eagles working the river this morning. Breakfast time. They are pretty good at what they do, and beautiful to watch.

Tonight we are in the beautiful city of Demopolis, Alabama. I know....where? Well, if you are a driver of one of these big tows that work the river, you know this place. They stop here for fuel...like 6000 gal. at one stop. They are amazing boats. So this marina is a good place to buy fuel, since they move so much of it. We topped up today and got a pumpout of our black water holding tanks. Now we are ready to finish the trip down to Mobile. We plan to be there Monday. But on a boat, you never know. Remember, we have all the time in the world.......