Panama City to Apalachicola

We spent two nights at the PC City Marina, which was right next to the old section of town.  Wasn’t much happening at all in that part of town, so we walked to the few restaurants which were there.  Seems that everything has moved out to PC Beach.

At the eastern edge of St Andrews Bay, the
oystermen are using tongs to scoop the oyster beds.
A really hard way to make a living, but Sue's glad they do!

We did get our exercise walking about 4 miles to the county tax collector & back.  "What the heck for?", you ask.  Before we left New Orleans we finally scrapped the inflatable dinghy which was only 3 years old, but I had patched and sealed at least 4 dozen air leaks.  Since the Admiral refused to go to the Keys and Bahamas without a dinghy, we ran out to our favorite place to spend money (West Marine) and bought an inexpensive HDPE dinghy.  Even if it lasts only 2 years, it’s still a better deal than what we had.  But we had purchased it only days before we departed New Orleans, intending to title and register it whenever we could.  Panama City was the place.

A calm morning in Apalachicola, looking at the
US 98 Bridge over the ICW

Wednesday April 27 was windy (SE winds 15-20 mph), which was right on our bow, so we had 25 mph winds over the deck all day.  Luckily we traveled in the ICW, which was like a canal and river all the way to Apalach.  We have noticed that we’re not as hesitant about travel or docking conditions, as we were when we passed this way 3 years ago.  Maybe we have a bit more crusty salt on our skin.

Overlooking the Apalachicola River at sunrise

Obviously, a half dozen isn't enough!

We spent 2 nights in Apalachicola, eating lots of ersters, walking the eclectic shops in town, and preparing for our overnight crossing of the Big Bend “armpit” of Florida.  Looks like it will be a 20-hr run straight to Clearwater Beach.  These kinds of trips make the “pucker factor” increase exponentially.  Each crossing will be memorable, because it was either a trip through hell, or a stroll through heaven.

Back on the craft beer trail, we find the
Oyster City Brewing Company and their "flight of 8"

We found a botanical garden in Apalachicola
& noted this huge osprey nest at the top of the city's water tower.

UNDERWAY

After several days of heavy rains followed by several more days of high winds, King Neptune finally quit fussing & let the seas die down.  We saw our escape window from Seabrook boatyard in New Orleans & on Wednesday April 20 we turned in our landlubber ways in favor of our sea legs and a taste of salt air.

In the narrow ICW east of New Orleans, we
recognize this tow boat

We had Lady Luck on our side when the recalcitrant L & N Railroad Bridge rose up for our passage on our first call to the bridge tender.  That allowed us to travel the ICW to the Rigolets, which was several miles shorter that going out through Lake Pontchartrain. 

As we’re passing the tow boats along the narrow canal of the ICW, we recognize one of the tows boats as one we followed for several days down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in years past.  You know you’ve been on the water a spell when you recognize the tows.  

A gaggle of pelicans waiting for their next meal

And then, as we entered Mississippi Sound, we passed a nice big Hatteras yacht that started to look familiar.  It turned out to be “Critical Mass” and some good friends from New Orleans Power Squadron, who were returning from a weather delay in Gulfport MS.  It started to seem like we knew most everyone we passed!

Crossing Mobile Bay, we meet one of the Navy's new
Littoral Combat Ships.  Using our radar, we tried to get
a bearing line (EBL), but our radar couldn't pick up a target
(can we all say "radar cloaking device"?)

We had planned to go to a Biloxi marina for the night, since our best friends from Chattanooga Power Squadron were at Keesler AFB tending to some medical issues, but we couldn’t make connections with them.  So instead, we continued on for over 100 miles total that day (and over 10 hours of travel) to anchor on the north side of Petit Bois Island, one of the barrier islands along the MS/AL coastline.

We crossed Mobile Bay the next day, and King Neptune kept things very calm for us.  We enjoyed the nice travel weather & anchored at a new cove which we hadn’t tried before (this is our 2^nd time passing through these waters, so we are looking for some new places).  We’ve been using our new anchoring bridle, a high-class, expensive addition which we thought would allow us to sleep better at night.

And, or course, we had to pass Lulu's near Gulf Shores
(Lucy Buffet, Jimmy's sister).  We didn't stop this time
for a cheeseburger in paradise.

We found some dolphins near Perdido Pass
(or did they find us?)

At the Pensacola Palafox Pier marina

On Day 3 we made Pensacola Palafox Pier marina, where we had stayed in April 2013.  We had the restaurants and beer pubs and farmers’ market all scoped out for our 2-day visit.  A serendipitous treat was the front-row fireworks show on Saturday night after the minor league baseball game (the Pensacola Wahoos) right next to the marina.

Weekends in Pensacola bring out some strange folks

At Ft Walton Beach, the locals are enjoying a
sunny Sunday afternoon

From Pensacola to Panama City was a 2-day trip through familiar territory.  When we were stationed in Pensacola in the military, Sue’s brother was stationed in Panama City, so we made this trek by car several times.  The powder white sand beaches were still gorgeous, but the Sounds were not as clear blue as 3 years ago.  Maybe the high winds had stirred up too much mud & silt.

Of note, when I refer to our travel notes from 3 years ago, we were buying diesel fuel for $4.00-$4.50/gallon, and happy to do so.  Today in Panama City, we paid only $1.96/gal (however, we took on about 200 gallons!)

After Panama City, we’ll head east to Apalachicola to eat some oysters (OK, maybe a lot of oysters) as we plan our big 20-hour overnight open water crossing of Florida’s Big Bend area.  When we did this crossing 3 years ago, we had a terrible trip.  This time, we have many more miles under our keel & the hopes of a fantastic weather window.

What’s Happening

Since Christmas, it’s amazing how busy we can be since we no longer have jobs!  But I guess that our “hole in the water” is actually a full-time job.

We made our trips to Chattanooga TN and to Ashland OH to care for Sue’s mother and uncle.  And there’s on-going communications & corrections to their medical and financial affairs.  So that accounts for SOME of Sue’s time.

I get to work through our TO DO list on the boat, starting with over 100 items for this past winter.  We got through the priority items and actually were able to work on some lower items such as cosmetic repairs.  And, of course, we hauled out the boat for bottom paint and an out-of-water survey for our insurance company.  And found the obligatory “OH CRAP” items to spend even more money and time in the yard.

Colorful CAT engine when I'm cleaning and painting it!

"Fruition" on the hard again.  My hole-in-the-water costs more
when it's out-of-the-water

One problem we found was a big crack in the fiberglass just above the
waterline, where either Sue or I (I'm not saying which) hit a log or debris.

But the main reason we spent the winter in New Orleans was to see our super wonderful perfect granddaughter (and her parents of course) & to try our best to spoil her.  Yes, she’s growing quickly (or are WE just getting older faster?)

At Mardi Gras World, we find two more revelers!

The Festival of Balloons, where EVERYTHING is made of balloons,
even Captain Hook.  Amazing stuff

Mardi Gras headress at the Festival of Balloons

And then it was time to start getting ready to go cruising.  Finish up the boatyard work, pay the bill (we almost had to sell our first-born child!), provision the boat, and watch for a weather window (the weather this winter has been cool and very windy).  Hadn’t spent the time I wanted on trip planning, but we’ll start out following the same path east that we did 3 years ago.  And after a week of lousy weather, the window finally opened.

At our winter marina, we prepare for yet another winter cold front
and high winds.  7 dock lines tied to this piling.

Our "last supper" in New Orleans...boiled crawfish, fried shrimp po'boy
from Parkway Bakery, and Barq's root beer (created in New Orleans)

Christmas in New Orleans

In City Park, Santa rides a pirogue pulled by alligators!

A good time was had by all (really!).  The family got together in New Orleans for Christmas & we all made it through the week without killing each other.  Actually, we all enjoyed each other's company, & tried our best to eat ourselves silly.  Someone received a bath scales from Santa, but I don't think we'll like the numbers it will tell us.

We went for a walk to City Park, where the "Christmas in the Oaks" was full of lights.  But, being New Orleans, there were unique light arrangements.

The best thing about Christmas being over, is that now we can eat King Cakes, all the way to Mardi Gras on Feb 9!

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus!
Sue's brother takes a selfie!

On Dec 29, the weather was warm enough to
go for a cruise on Lake Pontchartrain with
our Captain-in-training

Y'know you're in New Orleans, when....

... the largest food display at Walmart was red beans and rice!

Over 1000 pounds of rice with enough red beans to keep a smile on your face for a week!



In the hills of TN, this car has been sitting in one place
so long that the vines have grown up the radio antenna

We are doing our best to catch up on eating all the New Orleans cuisine, which we have missed during the past 7-8 months.  We got our shrimp po-boy (dressed, or course) right away, but Sue had to wait until this week to finally get some boiled crawfish.  And yes, we got our Popeye's chicken last week (when we got Popeye's around the Great Lakes, we were disappointed that the seasoning was not the same as what we get down here).

Late last month we spent an excellent week in the Chattanooga area, sharing Thanksgiving with about 30 relatives, and Sue's mother was basking in the attention all week.  Her mother loved having all the babies (all 4 great-great grandchildren) surrounding her most every day.  All in all, a very good family reunion.

So now we prepare for Christmas this week at Chris & Ali's new home.  Looking forward to another good week with family.



While in TN, we hiked through the mountain trail
to a beautiful waterfall



Touchdown!

At Gulfport marina, the sunset was gorgeous
as the cold front finally came through

After waiting 2 extra days for a slow-moving cold front to come through Gulfport, we set sail west to our winter home of New Orleans.  So now I ask the same question that I asked when we were departing Gulfport 4 years ago:  “Would you rather be stuck in morning rush-hour traffic on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans, or departing Gulfport harbor on your boat into a brightly-rising sun, being escorted by dolphins all around, and entertained by brown pelicans diving for their morning snack?”  This is an I.Q. test!

It was a good final day trip to our winter marina at South Shore Harbor on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, with the sun warming the sea breeze.  The wind was a bit more than forecast, E15-20, but it was all on our stern.  We hit the outgoing ebb tide trying to get into the Rigolets, so that slowed us a bit.

The shrimpers were working hard to
keep up with all the shrimp we're gonna eat!

And then we ran into all the crab traps!  Welcome to Louisiana!  And yes, they were in the middle of the channel, as usual.  Even after we went through the Highway 11 bridge (with the same lady bridge tender for the past many years…  “What’s the name of your vessel?”  “Fruition.”  “Say what?!?  How d’yall spell dat?”) we still played dodge ‘em with the crab traps. 

We found our marina & Admiral Sue made another excellent landing, backing the boat into the slip.  I’ll have to admit, the Admiral has become an excellent helmsman (should I say Helmswoman?) this year.  She is much more confident in her abilities & is usually confident that the boat will actually go in the direction she is trying to make it!

So we’ve come to the end of another cruising season.  We traveled about 4200 miles this season, most at only 10 mph.  Fuel prices were less than we had budgeted this year, so our kids may yet get some inheritance.  We learned a deep respect for other boaters who have completed the Loop, after we survived Lake Michigan as well as the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  And after 6-1/2 months of travelling, we’re kinda ready to just sit at a marina for a while.

But we’ll be planning next year’s intended travel to Key West and the northern Bahamas.  We hope to travel with friends for part of the year, so we’ll start cussing & discussing with them next week.  Postings to this blog will become less frequent for the winter months as we find more ways to spend money on the boat.  “Fruition” is merely resting for a bit before her CATs fire up again with a resonating growl.

The Gulf Coast

As the water is let out of the lock, a white egret
sits on the lock gate looking for a free meal

We made the 450 miles from the Tennessee River down to Mobile Bay in 8 days, a day longer than the last time we took this route.  The biggest difference was the delays at all the locks to await towboats (which take priority over pleasure boats in locking through).

Another quiet anchorage at the river edge,
just "outside the reds"

The northern part of the Waterway has several marinas strategically placed but since we had stayed at most of them on our last 2 trips along here, we wanted to anchor most nights.  In the lower part of the Tenn-Tom, there are no marinas for the last 216 miles, so a boat must anchor for several nights along the way.  We ended up anchoring for all 7 nights on our way south, the first time we’ve been out anchoring for so long.  We did, however, make a quick pit stop in Demopolis for fuel, water, and a pumpout, and then headed to a nearby anchorage.

The Tenn-Tom water levels were all at normal pool, since all the rain water from prior weeks had already flowed over the dams into Mobile Bay.  It made our trip much more enjoyable and the anchorages accessible.



Our friendly towboat leapfrogged us again
while we're at anchor

There seemed to be quite a bit of commercial towboats this trip, more so than previous trips.  These guys run 24 hours per day to their destination, while pleasure boats only cruise during daylight hours.  Along about our 3^rd day of travel, we passed a towboat doing about 7 mph (we can zip along at 10 mph).  That night, while we were at anchor, that same tow passed us.  Then the next day, we passed him again, only to have him pass us that night.  We actually leapfrogged that tow 4 consecutive days.

The river still hasn't made up its mind which way to flow

After seeing all the big towboats along the river,
this little guy just north of Mobile was cute

As we continued down the Mobile River into the city of Mobile, the amount of commercial traffic increased considerably.  We passed all different types of activity – towboats, ocean-going cargo ships, Navy ship construction, etc.  Took some interesting photos.  We entered Mobile Bay, which can be quite rough under the wrong conditions, but was much calmer than we had expected.  After 5 months of cruising in fresh water, we were back in salt water again.  Brown pelicans diving for a fish, and dolphins swimming towards the boat became a common sight.

In Mobile, a drydock held this square-rigger.  Didn't find out
the name.

A new class of Navy ship, built by Austal in Mobile,
with all the stealth technology

Here's a view of the new tri-maran that you won't often see!

The Navy likes to sail catamarans too!

In Mobile Bay, an ocean-going tug passes by.
Hardly recognized it.

 

After staying in a marina just south of Mobile, we gambled on a marine weather forecast in Mississippi Sound (part of the Gulf of Mexico) & left the next day for Gulfport.  The waves were only 3’, but it was enough to cause a roly-poly ride for 8 hours.  At this point, we’re only 1 travel day away from our destination in New Orleans, but first we have to wait 2 days for the thunderstorms and cold front to come through.  So we’ll wait a bit longer to complete our cruising for this year.

And by the time we get the boat to New Orleans, we’ll turn around 2 days later to rent a car to drive back to Chattanooga for our Thanksgiving family reunion.  We gotta keep moving to stay ahead of our mistakes!

Our friends took this photo of us in a lock, sporting
our crusty "moustache"