Postscript to the Last 10 Years

December 2008 on the Mississippi River

with Jackson Square & St Louis Cathedral

in background

We bought the boat in order to travel the country, but not over the roads by RV.  We wanted to do the boat thing before we got too many aches & pains.  We did get to travel everywhere we wanted to go except for the Bahamas.  In particular, I wanted to take the boat through New Orleans with Jackson Square in the background; below Lookout Mountain on the Tennessee River; and on Lake Erie with Perry’s Monument in the background.  We did it!

December 2008 on the Mississippi passing 

towboat traffic

June 2011 on the Tennessee River with Lookout Mountain

in background

August 2015 at Middle Bass Island on Lake Erie 

(where Sue & I first met) with Perry's Monument

in the background

Best guess is that we travelled about 25,000 miles (not nautical miles) on the boat – all of it at 10 mph!  When adding up all the money we spent on the boat in just over 10 years, it totals right at $400,000 (including dockage, fuel, maintenance), and then we sold the boat for $50,000 less than we bought it for.  But then, there’s nothing to match the feeling of being on the water – the total independence yet dependence on just you & your abilities; the closeness to nature, both to animals & to the weather; having the biggest argument with your spouse being simply trying to decide where to go next; making instant friends with the boat docked next to you; rafting for the night next to someone you’ve never seen before.

August 2015 a replica of Perry's flagship Niagara is lit

by the setting sun in front of the Monument

at Put-In-Bay OH

During the past year that the boat was for sale, we wanted to sell, but then we wanted to continue cruising.  The indecision was frustrating.  We didn’t know that the last time we did something was turning into the last time we did something.  But we have no regrets.  For 10 years we lived the lifestyle that we wanted.  We made many memories.  We were able to expose our granddaughter to experiences she would never have had.  And we had fun doing it.

Now on to the next chapter!

The Beginning of the End

On July 30, as we’re bringing our car from Nashville TN to Florence AL, I get a call from a Power Squadron friend in New Orleans asking if our boat is still for sale.  Turns out that they have a friend of a friend who just retired & is looking for a power boat to do the Great Loop.  Sounded exactly like us, only 10 years later.  So I call Floyd & set up a dinner get-together with his wife Ethel & our Power Squadron friends, to coincide with our upcoming doctor appointments in New Orleans.

Had a good first meeting, with Floyd asking several hundred questions (at least it seemed like it).  They are interested enough to ask to come see the boat while we’re in Florence, which they do.  Their first look was so-so, and they said that they wouldn’t buy a boat for a couple more months.  Sue & I promised to stay in touch, but in the meantime, we’re headed for Goose Pond Marina, another 100 miles upriver.

We depart Florence for the hot 3-day trip to Scottsboro AL, with temperatures at the helm reaching 102 in the shade.  We anchored for the 2 nights, since we enjoy the freedom & independence of it so much, with the second night at Honeycomb Creek especially noteworthy.  It’s another off-the-beaten-path cove with crystal clear water & drop-dead gorgeous scenery.  We went swimming to cool off & to clean the algae from the waterline, grilled salmon on the aft deck for dinner, and sat on the swim platform dangling our feet in the water while drinking our mango-rum frozen drinks, just listening to the quiet surrounding us.  The following morning, we had our coffee on the aft deck watching the morning fog cover the mountain tops, enjoying the total quiet.  THIS is why we anchor out!

Our last night at anchor, although we didn't know it

We finally made the last 30-mile trip upbound & found Goose Pond Marina exactly where we had left it last summer.  As we tie up, we wonder whether this last trip was going to be our last trip, considering the uncertainties in selling a boat which is also your home.  We get kind of an answer in mid-August when we see a surveyor on board Clint’s boat, which is in the process of being sold.  The surveyor states that he is under contract to survey our boat the following week, in preparation for a sale.

I call Floyd & Ethel to see what’s going on.  They are indeed serious about buying our boat, but since both of us are acting as individuals (not going through boat brokers), and Floyd had never bought a boat like this, we were both unsure of the paperwork & the buying process.  But yes, he has fallen in love with the boat & will pursue its purchase.  By the end of August, the boat has had a survey, sea trial, & haul out.

The boat being hauled, and I didn't have to pay for it!

We now set the date of purchase as September 24, primarily to give Sue & me time to move off the boat.  And we start packing.  In hindsight, I’m still amazed at how much personal “stuff” we were able to store aboard that boat!  We are very fortunate that a Power Squadron friend in Chattanooga has a rental house that we can get into immediately, which we do, while we start looking for a house to purchase.  Looks like we’ll be living in Chattanooga from now on!

Early September we make an offer to buy a house & during the next 2 weeks, we continue negotiations on the house, generate massive amounts of paperwork seeking a home mortgage loan, make minor repairs to the boat, drive to upper Michigan to visit Glynn & Jenny at their cabin, & make numerous trips between Scottsboro and Chattanooga to move our personal gear off the boat.

September 24 comes & goes smoothly; Floyd & Ethel experience the happiest day in their lives; Sue & I experience the second happiest day in our lives.  It has been a long tiring two weeks, but everything has finally come to FRUITION!

During the following week, Sue & I make several trips back to Scottsboro AL to show the new owners how things work aboard Fruition.  Floyd learns quickly, having been a tugboat captain for many years.  Two weeks later, we help Fruition tie up in downtown Chattanooga, with the new owners having made their first overnite trip, as well as going through a lock with their new boat.  By mid-October, Fruition is headed south back to New Orleans, of all places, where the new owners will keep her.  Maybe we’ll see her again in her new home!

"Fruition" coming into downtown Chattanooga

without us!

Floyd & Ethel, the happy new owners

of "Fruition"

2018 Cruising Season

For this cruising season, we decide to head back up to the Tennessee & Cumberland Rivers.  The cruising is easy & enjoyable up there, and maybe, just maybe, having the boat in fresh water rather than salt water might make it easier to sell.

Demopolis Dam is a simple weir dam without

gates to control flow, but at high water, the water flow

becomes treacherous (note small fishing boat with

umbrella as sunshade)

We departed New Orleans the first week of May to cruise along very familiar territory of Mississippi Sound, Mobile Bay & finally north on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  Since this was our 7^th or 8^th time along this route, we took little note of the scenery along the waterway.  Instead, we searched for sites we had not visited yet, which was made easier by moving our car northbound along with us.

Along a desolate stretch of the Tenn-Tom, we almost

expect to see Superman changing into his costume!

Sights along the Tenn-Tom

The Admiral doing what she does best!

One of many such markers in

Friendship Cemetery in Columbus

We traveled in very hot weather (98 degrees in the shade on the helm) up the Tenn-Tom to stop for several weeks in Columbus MS.  One trip we took by car was to visit Friendship Cemetery in Columbus over Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day).  This cemetery has the documentation to prove that the custom of decorating military graves, which began in 1866, began right here.  Another car trip was down to Aliceville AL, which had been the location of a very large German POW camp during WWII.  The museum was fantastic & the history of the town was fascinating.

Returning to our car in downtown Columbus MS,

 we are followed by strangers!

When we finally resumed cruising northbound, we stopped again at our favorite anchorage in Bay Springs Lake in northern Mississippi for a couple nights.  A quiet remote cove, crystal clear water, hot days for swimming, cool nights with low humidity to open up the boat, clear nights to view the stars!  We did a few boat chores (a very few), rowed the dinghy around the neighboring coves, grilled steaks, sat on the swim platform in the evening with an “adult beverage” letting the bluegill nibble at our feet, and just enjoyed the cruising lifestyle.  A perfect paradise!

Beautiful water & scenery at the northern end

of the Tenn-Tom

RV park at northern end of Tenn-Tom

really is "right on the water"

Kenlake State Park Marina on

Kentucky Lake

When we met up with the Tennessee River a couple days later, we decided to turn left to head downbound almost to the mouth of the river, & then turn upbound on the Cumberland River.  Along the way, we stopped at some marinas & anchorages familiar to us from our trip here in 2015, and then some new overnight stops.  Finally made Green Turtle Bay marina in Kentucky, only 30 miles from the Ohio River. 

This is a common stopping point for Loopers, as we did in 2015, and is actually on the Cumberland River but only 1-1/2 miles from the Tennessee River.  The land between the two rivers is known as …. are you ready for this?....the Land Between the Lakes.  It is a federal wildlife area with an open range for wild bison and elk herds, horseback riding areas, an animal rehab center, and all kinds of outdoor recreational activities.  As we drove our car through the bison & elk prairie, we got within mere feet of these magnificent animals.  One bison calf went to the back of a pick-up truck ahead of us & started eating the spillage of horse feed which the truck was carrying!

We made the run up the Cumberland towards Nashville, stopping at the nice new marina in Clarksville TN.  Spent a couple days in Clarksville waiting for the thunderstorms to clear, riding our bikes through town, finding a couple craft breweries, and enjoying their hospitality.

When we made Nashville, Sue found a small marina west of town called Commodore Yacht Club, where the people were very friendly, the cost was only $0.75/ft, and the beer was cold.  We stayed for three weeks seeing the sights, and having our great fabulous stupendous granddaughter from New Orleans visit us for a week.  We treated her to a very busy week, including returning to Land Between the Lakes, a day at the water park, a day at the zoo, and watching the Fourth of July fireworks from the Science Center located on a hillside.

We spoiled Maddy enough that we could now send her home.  We then jumped into our car to drive to Chattanooga for dentist appointments, and on the return trip, we visited two sets of old boating buddies, Clint & Leigh in their new house, and Roger & Laura, living in Nashville.  We caught up on each other’s activities & then sat around telling lies, er, I mean sea stories

At this point, we decided that it was time to get serious about moving ashore, to either Huntsville AL or Chattanooga TN.  We would take the boat back up the Tennessee River to Goose Pond Marina in Scottsboro AL for the coming winter (where we had been last summer) & start house hunting in earnest.  We headed back up the TN River, trying to anchor at a few more spots that were new to us.

We cruised upriver just above Pickwick Lock & Dam to anchor in Dry Creek, where we had stayed before.  Thursday night we had the cove all to ourselves, watching the full moon rise over the surrounding mountains to reflect on the calm water.  Just gorgeous!  However, on Friday night into Saturday night, the small ½ mile long cove burst alive with over 100 other boaters ready to party hardy.  Boats rafted up together over 12 wide & music was blaring everywhere.  So we fixed ourselves another “adult beverage” & watched all the people do crazy stuff all day.

At Florence Harbor Marina.  We had met the 

green-hull boat earlier in Mobile AL

By the time we arrived at the marina in Florence AL, we had been out for a total of 8 days without stopping at a marina.  For the past 10 years, that was the longest stretch we had cruised without taking provisions, & we found our fresh water tank empty and our black water tank full.  We stayed at Florence Harbor Marina for 2 weeks while we retrieved our car from Nashville, drove to New Orleans for doctor appointments, ate at our favorite restaurants, and received a visit from our first serious potential buyer for our boat.

Wintering Over in New Orleans

Although the weather was very cold & windy, we really enjoyed our stay in New Orleans, spending time with our family & trying like hell to spoil our new grandson.  He’s going to turn into a real lady-killer with those big blue bright eyes of his.

The crew from ZoBe shares some beignets

at Café du Monde

We got together in New Orleans several times with Glynn & Jenny from “ZoBe”.  They came to eat beignets & act like tourists in the French Quarter; they came to a New Orleans Power Squadron rendezvous to eat crawfish for the very first time; and they came for a couple Mardi Gras parades (again, their first time!), before going back to their boat & having Glynn try to rip his lower leg off getting back aboard at low tide.  We drove to Gulfport several times during his recovery from knee surgery.

Glynn & Jenny enjoyed (?) their first crawfish boil

after they learned how to "bite the tail & suck the head"

Back on the boat, we were convinced by the boat broker that the boat would sell easier if we put a concentrated effort towards compounding, waxing & buffing the fiberglass hull & topsides.  So, we hauled the boat for several weeks to spruce up the fiberglass above the waterline, and put a fresh coat of bottom paint below the waterline.  Of course, the yard was late in doing the work, so we had to live aboard while the boat was on the hard.

After throwing more money into the boat, including getting new canvas around the flybridge (B-O-A-T = Break Out Another Thousand), this inept broker generated only 3 showings of our boat during the 6-month exclusive sales contract.  If you’re ever selling a boat in New Orleans or around the Gulf Coast, DO NOT use Murray Yacht Sales!  To add to our frustration, Glynn & Jenny sell “ZoBe”, since he can no longer go boating with his torn-up knee, and our favorite boating buddies in Tennessee, Clint & Leigh, sell their boat “Barefootin’”.  Instead, we resign ourselves to go cruising for the coming summer.

Heading Downbound

Because all the rivers we travel will twist and turn as they flow to the ocean, as boaters we say that we travel “upbound” or “downbound” rather than saying “north” or “south”.  On October 1 we departed Goose Pond heading to New Orleans for the winter, hoping to arrive before October 25, the due date for our son & daughter-in-law to present us with our second grandchild.

We enjoyed a slow easy trip down the TN River and half way down the Tenn-Tom River system, periodically checking with our son to see how things were progressing.  Around October 10, things were becoming more touch-and-go, so we decided to put the boat up for a week or two at Columbus MS marina & retrieve our car.  Four days later, we got the phone call, only this time the call was a joyous one.  We had a new grandson!   We jumped into our car & went to New Orleans for a week to begin to spoil our new arrival.  Mom & Simon were doing quite well, our son was a proud daddy, & Maddy (now 10 years old) quickly got used to being a new big sister.

Joining the mass migration.  Getting underway
before sunrise to lock through before another
towboat arrives.

By the time we returned to the boat, we were in the middle of the “mass migration” southbound.  We had been in this situation before, on the east coast in October 2014, when most Yankees start heading for Florida/Bahamas for the winter.  This time it was the Loopers (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association), who had just completed their annual fall rendezvous at Wheeler State Park on the TN River.

Playing "follow the leader"

In our 10 years of travel, approaching an estimated 20,000 miles on the waterways, we have normally travelled by ourselves.  Rarely would we travel with another boat.  But from Columbus MS downbound, we were constantly part of a group of anywhere from 3 to 11 other boats.  Quite a sight for us to be one of 12 boats all crowded at one time into a lock chamber.  We got a kick out of one boat named “Ladybug”, home-ported in Luling LA, of all places (we had lived in Luling, a very tiny town, for 30 years)!  They had lived close to our house, knew our neighbors, and we think that their daughter went to the local high school with our son!

Where the hell is Luling LA ?!?

Rafting at anchor with a Looper which we had just met

Leaving the anchorage early in the morning, not knowing
that we were about to run into think pea soup

We agreed to let a boat raft up to us in several anchorages, because he had mechanical problems with his anchor windlass.  Good thing we had heavy ground tackle (anchor & chain) to hold two big cruisers against the river current.  Each day on the river, we encountered fog (warm water with cool air), and ran into some pretty challenging encounters with towboats & barges in the dense fog.  They make quite a large “blip” on the radar screen!  Because there were so many boats travelling different distances each day, we kept running into the same boats at different days, all along the 300 mile trip to Mobile Bay.

Our travel companions take really good pics of us

Just north of Mobile, we had to wait while two tugboats
turned around an ocean-going freighter.  Then we had
to slowly follow him into Mobile Bay.

ZoBe on Mississippi Sound

At our anchorage, we frame the full moon
through the rigging of ZoBe

Once we made Dog River at Mobile Bay, we finally met up with our sailboat friends whom we had met a year ago, Glynn & Jenny aboard “ZoBe”.  They had come down from the TN River earlier & were waiting in Mobile to travel with us across Mississippi Sound to New Orleans.  After waiting 2 days in Dog River Marina, we jumped at a weather window that was unbelievably calm for our 3-day trip.  The first night we anchored off one of the sand barrier islands, let ZoBe raft up to us (a comical sight of a big power boat with a big sailboat rafted together), and enjoyed the full moon.  The thick fog the next morning delayed our departure into Gulfport MS.  Glynn & Jenny liked Gulfport so much that they decided to stay there for the winter, so we made the last leg of the journey to New Orleans alone.

ZoBe shoots the rising sun across our bow

Shortly after sunrise, the fog moves in across the barrier
island in Mississippi Sound

Once the fog finally lifts, ZoBe breaks away from us at anchor

We exchange photo ops

Mississippi Sound is unbelievably calm

This shrimper better catch lots of shrimp, cause
we're back in town!

We tied up at Seabrook Marina on New Orleans’ Industrial Canal, where we had been several times before.  Two days later, we were treated to a close look at a fully restored WWII PT boat, passing in front of our boat.  This boat is owned by the National WWII Museum downtown & was to be hauled out by Seabrook boatyard for annual maintenance.  Not every day you see a PT boat in front of you!

So now we’re done with cruising this season, and maybe longer.  The saying goes, “The happiest day in the life of a boater is when he buys a boat.  The second happiest day is when he sells the boat.”  We’re headed for another happy day.  But, as always, we have our Plan B to go cruising again in the spring, if we still have a boat to do so.  Between now & then, we’ll enjoy our growing family in New Orleans & plan our next adventure.

Our son & his wife took this Christmas photo,
& even provided the baby in the crib!