August 3,4,5,6 2007

August 3, 2007 - The goal for today was to come from Demopolis, AL to Bobby’s Fish Camp and refuel and be ready for tomorrow when he hoped to run from there to Mobile Bay. We made it to Bobby’s place and fueled up and it was only noon so we decided that instead of paying a dock fee there we would go the three miles to the last lock on the trip and after going through it just anchor somewhere downstream where it looked like a good place to do so. Thus we are anchored about 30 miles downstream and traveled 150 miles today with no trouble at all. We are running the fan off the inverter and will use the little generator to run the microwave so we can cook. It is too hot to even think about starting the Coleman Stove. Gary has been in swimming and now is on the sand bar stalking something. The flies are terrible and we will put the screens up when the breeze dies and continue to kill the ones who show up. We are hoping that out here on the water it will be cooler sooner than it has been doing in a marina that is off the channel and in a little bayou somewhere. We have had more commercial barge traffic today and since we anchored here two more have gone by going upstream. This also completed all of the locks on the Great Loop Cruise for me as my destination is now Crystal River, FL.

We have really enjoyed the varied scenery that we have had going down the river. It has had some industrial plants but mostly it has be clays, sand, rock and even again today some bluffs in places that I would not have expected them to be. We see some neat birds every day and today was my first time to ever see a kingfisher at work fishing. Finally we saw a small deer today alongside the waterway. We also have seen lots of summer homes and RV’s but more within reach of the average person instead of these huge mansions’s which I saw many times on this trip. We had expected the waterway when we got this far south to be consisting of swamps and such but so far it has not.

It is about time to fire up the generator so we can cook our stuff fast and then shut it off before it heats everything up.

August 4, 2007 – This morning we woke up on the Tombigbee River at mile 71 on anchor. It was a very peaceful and quiet night with only two tows that we heard go by and they sort of light up the cabin when they sweep the shoreline as they proceed through the night toward their next destination on the river. Since we had gone through our last lock for trip all we had to do was eat breakfast and pull up anchor and start on down the river. We hated to disturb the silence as there was a deer foraging on the shore next to us. The shoreline today contained some really large Cypress trees with lots of the cypress knots that grow in the root system just above the water. There were also some large pine plantations and along with them the paper and pulp plants which produce the Alabama scent of money so you can’t complain about the smell. We passed some more tows on the way to Mobile where we encountered numerous different things we happening on the water such as fleeting of barges and unloading and loading of ships. We reached the head of the bay in the city of Mobile about noon today and it was just about totally smooth with the exception of all the wakes made by all the fishermen out on a Saturday and running around the bay here and there. We followed the buoys down to the mouth of the bay where we made a port turn to get into the Intracoastal Waterway going east toward Florida. We are not very far from the Florida border the way we see it on the chart. Tomorrow morning when we get up we will pass Perdido Pass on our way east. It has been seven days since we started this leg and we believe we have already logged 700 miles toward Crystal River, FL. This is an exciting time again because we are in waters which we have never navigated in before and having two sets of eyes is really helpful. We also are contending with all of the weekend traffic and as an example of that which is very typical of Sea Ray Captains one just stopped in a narrow channel and then proceeded to back up across the channel and then turn around and when we went past him he yelled and shook his fist at us because we evidently did not wait for whatever other maneuver he had in mind to do at the time. The channel we were in was barely two boats wide at the time and we thought he might have gone aground while he was doing it because we heard someone call for Sea Tow right at that time and he was definitely out of the channel which something you don’t do in Florida unless you have local knowledge.

The place we are staying tonight is Zeke’s Landing Marina and they have a whole fleet of fishing boats and a restaurant that will cook the fish you catch while they are fresh from the gulf. They are also having a fishing tournament and so there are bunches of people here and boats as well. We are again the orphan back in the corner but they put us right next to the lower priced restaurant on the dock and the smell of fish has us believing that we just may have to indulge ourselves with something good. We of course think we deserve this because of the wonderful day we had crossing the bay and because it is another hot humid day. I am just watching a huge double-decker fishing charter boat going out to the pass. We are on one side of the road and on the other side is the Gulf of Mexico and the beach. Of course there are Condos everywhere in sight which is blocking the Gulf breeze. We are also in palm tree country again. The seafood smells is overpowering and remember the choices are seafood or Chef Boyardee or Dinty Moore so need I say more about who might win out. Then tomorrow it will be onward and eastward toward Crystal River.

August 5, 2007 – I am sitting here watching a very beautiful sunset fade away in darkness as I write the day’s installment. We traveled from Orange Beach, Al to Apalachicola, Fl which is 30 miles from our next destination which is Carrabelle, FL and then the final leg to Crystal River, FL. Today’s run was 187 miles in total distance. Also as I am sitting here there is a giant alligator that they say is seventeen feet long just cruising through the harbor looking for handouts from the fishermen who are coming in with their boats this evening. He also has a buddy who hangs out with him but who is considerably smaller than he is.

Today’s travel was through large bays, narrow canals and then through some salt marshes this evening on our way here. We had some pretty good chop on the bays and traveled through some terrific downpours of rain which had no lightning in them. The longest bay was thirty miles and some sections of the river channels were about fifteen to twenty miles before the next open water. There was more of the swampy type of terrain today with large cypress trees with all of the knees sticking up on the root system. The bay water averaged probably ten feet deep and the beach sand was white and looked like sugar. This being the weekend we also had to watch the boat drivers and make sure we did not hit anyone of anything that was around us.
The shrimp fleet is up the river from Scipio’s marina and they have been heading out to the gulf ever since we got here in every type of boat imaginable.

August 6, 2007 – This report will be very short because the only move we made today was from Apalachicola to Carrabelle, FL on the Apalachicola Bay which did not give us much to see or do in thirty miles other than watch for markers, shoals and make sure we got into the correct place at Carrabelle. The marina is called The Moorings at Carrabelle and it is a first class marina. We have been sitting here since we arrived and going over the chart for tomorrow and making notes and finished putting in the waypoints we will use on the Gulf portion of the trip which is just more navigation over open water and making sure we arrive where we want to be.

We just finished lunch and are going to do laundry this afternoon so we have that done and once we get to Crystal River and find a way home that will pretty much be it.
This is the first time in a few days that I am going to be able to post. I could not get a good cell tower the signal some days as we were too much in the boondocks or the cell lines were all used up on the weekend and I kept getting a busy signal