Mobile to Pensacola

We left from Turner Marine on Dog River just off of  Mobile Bay on Thanksgiving morning.  Gemini Dream had left the day before for New Orleans.  They were going there by boat to meet up with some relatives so we were on our own for the first time in a long time.  A sailboat, Flying Free, left a few minutes before us and we agreed to keep in touch as we crossed Mobile Bay.  They go a little slower and were going to take a more direct route across the Bay.  They didn't have an exposed propeller like we do and if they run aground they only hit the keel.  I had just spent a week here getting the boat made right including a wrinkled prop, so I wasn't about to do anything the slight bit risky.  We stayed in the ship channel until we were certain that we would have deep water all the way into starting into the intracoastal.  We had been looking for Porpoise ever since we first came into Mobile Bay a couple of weeks ago.  I had seen some from the helm, but they were way in front of the boat and didn't seem to want to come and play.  Today wasn't much different. Either we weren't going fast enough or it was the wrong time of the day. Cindy and Pat at least got to see some in the distance, but it wouldn't be until days later that they would come swim alongside the boat in our bow wake.

Lulu's

 

We passed Lulu's (Jimmy Buffets sisters place) because it was closed for Thanksgiving. We anchored for the night in Ingram Bayou just off of the intracoastal.   It was a very popular place!  By the time we got there, there was already 4 sailboats rafted together, a  powerboat rafted to a sailboat, and around the corner a sailing catamaran at anchor.  I have been told that you never go deeper in to an anchorage than a catamaran because they don't draw much water. 

We anchored in between

Too shallow here!!

 

Dinghy ride after anchoring

I attempted to anchor a ways in front of them and sure enough when we let out enough anchor to hold, the depth went to zero.  So we moved!!  We  went back to where the power boat and the sailboat were rafted up and I anchored off to their side, but after the anchor set again, I felt we were a little close and might not have room to swing if the wind changed and something new to worry about, the tides now changed directions every few hours, so we pulled up anchor again and I move a few feet forward.  I'm glad I did, because later on, the tide AND wind changed and we swung around closer to the other boats than I would have liked.  There was still plenty of room and the other boats didn't seem concerned.  Flying Free, the sailboat that left before us, came into the anchorage a little later.  Even though they took the "shortcut" we had arrived first.  They had tried sailing but could make better time (5 mph) on their engine.  Since space seemed to be at a premium, I invited them to raft up to us for the night.  One less anchor to set and navigate around.  They came aboard and we shared some drinks and snacks before we both retired for the night.

Flying Free got an early start again, way before we were ready to go.  We knew that we would catch them sooner than later that day.

We were now into the intracoastal.  All the time during my planning I had been calling it the INNERcoastal and have heard a lot of people refer to it as such.  It's actually the INTRAcoastal but it seems funny to say it.  I like innercoastal better.  A few more dolphin (porpoise) sightings today but not anything spectacular yet.

Cindy's first Dolphin photo

Just a short day today and we arrived at Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels.  They have a marina that can hold our boat and we are able to stop here because of my retired AF status.  The only thing that worried me is that the Marina is closed today, the day after thanksgiving.  I had visions of navy boats questioning our presence, but no such thing.  We docked and asked someone if we could spend the night and where should we tie up.  They pointed out a dock next to another boat about our size so we went and tied up.  I found a sign that said that when the marina was closed, to go see the marina host.  Sure enough, behind the marina office was a travel trailer with a guy working on his boat trailer.  I asked if we could spend the night and he said no problem that the marina would be open on Saturday and we could sign in then and pay our .50 a foot fee.

Cheap dock rent, free washer and dryer, military facilities close by, as well as a Walmart, so we decided to stay for a while.  Cindy's son Tim, decided to fly down in a light plane so we located a small airport close to the base for him to keep the plane overnight.  He was bringing Tristyn and Preston so Cindy could get her "grand kid fix".  It has been almost 2 months since she has seen them.  We rented a car from National which came to the boat and picked us up.

We met Tim and the kids at the airport on Saturday afternoon.  Tim didn't want to stay on the boat. so we got him a room on base at billeting.  He and Tristyn stayed in the room and Preston stayed on the boat with Grandma.

On Sunday we gave them the option of going to the Naval Aviation Museum or take a boat ride to try and find Porpoise.  They opted to take a boat ride.  As we pulled out of the slip and into the narrow channel to leave the harbor, they sighted their first (and only) porpoise.  We rode out into Pensacola Bay and down onto the intracoastal a bit and turned around and came back.  Tim still had a long flight that afternoon and wanted to get on the way.  It was good to see them, even though we plan on being home for Christmas and New Years anyway.
                                                                        
Cindy's Observations:  This military marina was again, a first.  The docked boat we visited with here were past loopers and live aboards for 3 years from Maryland Heights, MO.  Since they had  cruised on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers  we brought them up to speed on current conditions and changes/additions the local towns have made.
The blue angels had completed their training 2 weeks ago for the season, so we missed out on being able to sit by the field and watch formation practice.  We had taken a bike ride over to BOQ and upon returning to the boat we were informed it was lucky for us not to have been stopped by the MPs for not wearing helmets.  I feel another Walmart trip coming up.  Note to self, helmets required on military bases.                 

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Seeing the kids was great!  They now can relate to our stories since they experience a short ride out on the gulf water, even if was just the bay.  I was excited for my grand daughter to see the dolphin from our boat. Little Preston and I watched little hermit crabs in the shallow water by the slips.  Later we made pillow forts until he fell asleep on the boat.  I made pineapple upside down pancakes, cinnamon rolls, eggs and bacon for breakfast. We said our good byes at the airport, watched takeoff and went back to boat (boathome, as Tim tells Preston).
Monday we took advantage of the free laundry service. Tuesday Gemini Dream caught up to us and went to the Naval air museum with us the next day.  For the air plane aficionado, this is the cats meow.

New Orleans

This was mostly a side trip for Cindy and Pat.  We rented a car from Alamo for the trip.  I have been here before.  I was stationed at Keesler AFB, in Biloxi Mississippi for 4 years.  It is within a good hours drive from there.  We took the scenic route along highway 90 so we could see the coast and the remnants of the many hurricanes that have passed through since I was last there.

I had left Biloxi just after hurricane Camile in 1969.  A lot had changed.  The house that we had lived in when Cheryl was born was still there.  The Mobile home that we lived in when Michele was born, was not.  I couldn't even find the Trailer Park, things have grown so much.  I think there is a bunch of apartments where it should have been.

Lived here when Cheryl was born (1969) - too many hurricanes have been through here since.

We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott just about 2 blocks from the start of Bourbon Street.  I had some Marriott points left over from my many trips of Oklahoma City when I was teaching classes for the FAA.  I had enough left over for 2 free nights, which is about the amount of time it takes to walk Bourbon street, look at some cemeteries, and take a few pictures.  Thank Heaven it was NOT during Mardi Gras.  It was strange enough as it was.  I will include a few of my favorite pictures then turn it over to Cindy to complete this portion of the blog.

Cindy's Observations:  Larry's right about being glad it wasn't Mardi Gras.  The streets are barely wide enough for a sober couple to walk down.  There are faded colored remnants of past parades left hanging from the  wrought iron balconies, beads. Beads and masks are abundant in many gift shops.  Tee shirts with cleaver phrases are also on every block.  My favorite, I GOT BOURBON FACED ON SHIT STREET.  This is the place to pick your poison and drink yourself to near annihilation and live to brag about it.  The "Ladies of the evening" or "nooners," are not allowed to stand beyond the thresh hold and shy away from cameras in fear of being run in.  Street performers are soulfully playing jazz tunes for pocket change.  Or just paint themselves, mock a few tourists and expect a saw buck.  It is a crazy way of life on this street.

They don't like cameras

Cabaret

Bourbon Street

2 Bars - Hustlers and Barely Legal Hustlers
Always open for auditions

Saw 3 of these guys painted silver???

Probably the other way around!!

 

St Louis Cathedral



St Louis Cathedral from the Mississippi River
 

Cindy's Observations: The Cathedral-Basilica of St Louis King of France is the oldest practicing catholic church in the country. The original place of worship from 1718 was later destroyed by fire had been rebuilt and enlarged to present design in 1851.

The Saint Louis cemetery is one of the oldest in town. One of the more known crypts is that of Marie Louvou. Believed to be a voodoo queen followers still visit her tomb and ask her to fulfill their requests what ever the nature. To properly greet the tomb, knock 3 times above the door and then mark 3 x's on the tomb and give your request.

 

 

I am sure you are familiar with the symbol Fleur De Les for the New Orleans Saints, but did you know this symbol in the catholic religion refers to the Trilogy (Father ,Son, Holy Ghost) on the top 3 points. The bottom 3 points refer to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The area to the right of the cathedral is the French Quarter open market. Crafters and local growers provide an assortment of goods for you to browse or buy. Way off to the left was the Mardi Gras Museum. Don't tell anyone but Pat and I snuck in the back and gave ourselves a tour of the past and current parade paper mache' heads and all sorts of animal things used on floats. There were artist spray painting and carpenters building new floats for this upcoming Mardi Gras. Out in the cafeteria the concessions fellow even gave us a piece of King cake, included in the tour. Traditional Mardi Gras King cake is 2 cinnamon bread rolls twisted together and baked. Then .topped with a powdered sugar glaze. A tiny plastic baby is hidden in the cake, he who finds it will have good fortune.
We had some delicious redfish with craw fish garlic, butter and mushroom sauce at Oceanus. Wonderful seafood is no surprise here.

In the French Quarter at every corner were brass street plaques embedded in the concrete. All of the water main covers were adorned with the cities crest. Palm trees are common landscape trees along with long needle pines and live oaks. The southern magnolias are a definite feature of the south.
At this point of the trip we have all made a sacrifice to the river gods. I was the first back at Kaskaskia with an arch support for my shoe. Larry the second with his communication devise (the gods should have been very pleased with that one) at Demopolis and Pat the last with a flag silencer (velcro strap) at Mobile. While at New Orleans we came upon a mini umbrella cover, which somebody else was sorry enough to loose, that would fit perfect over our flag to silence it for Pat while sleeping. I had extra arch supports, Larry now has a new and improved state of the art "insured" phone. All river gods and people are happy.

Demopolis to Mobile

We left Demopolis yacht basin on a Wednesday morning.  We were now traveling on the Black Warrior river.  The Tenn-Tom waterway actually ends at Demopolis.  Betty L had sent us a text about an anchorage at an abandoned mill about 35 miles from Demopolis.  We arrived along with Gemini Dream at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  We both anchored separately in the small area.  After  settling in for a while, both boats started swinging with the change in the wind.  We were coming very close to the edge of the bank.  Gemini Dream suggested that we anchor in different directions and tie together.  That seemed to stabilize us, and we stayed safely in deep water all night.

When we woke in the morning the fog surrounded us as it has quite a few mornings. We left in a light fog with us following Gemini Dream since my Radar doesn't work so well.

We arrived at the infamous Bobby's Fish Camp at around 1:30 in the afternoon.  Everybody that has done the Great Loop has been by Bobby's Fish Camp and almost every one has stopped and spent the night.  It was important to arrive early, because there is only room for 3 or 4 boats on the dock.  The late arrivals need to raft up to those already there.  There have been times where 3 or 4 boats were tied together side to side.  We planned to get there early and raft up with people we  knew, instead of strangers.  So once again Gemini Dream docked and we tied up alongside.  We have this maneuver down pretty good because we have done it so much.  Our boats are about the same length and height so we match up really well. 

Cindy's Observations:  Just when we were ready to relax, we were told we had to move our boats for an incoming boat.  So this meant taking the boat for a walk.  We have had to do this on a few occasions , but not rafted.  Matt put their boat in gear and gently pulled us along his side for about 7-10 feet. 

While we were there, the Yacht "Freedom" stopped by.  We had seen it at Demopolis the day before.  It belongs to the owner of a chain of southern book stores "Books a Million".  It is 150 ft long and 33 feet wide.  They stopped to replace a sick captain.  They backed it up to the edge of the dock and the captains switched places and they went on their way.

Cindy's Observations:  While talking with the captain of Freedom after he was dropped off at the dock, he informed us there were 5 state rooms for the owner and guests plus 6 rooms for crew quarters.  There was a light crew of 6 on duty while repositioning the boat.  The owners were not on board.  We later learned from a fellow looper who had gotten a tour,  it was what you would expect it to be.  The crews quarters were nicer than any big cruiser cabin.  They have 2 crew on hand just to polish glass and steel when owners are on board to keep the boat fingerprint free.  A chef of course and a very expensive dinghy in the bow of the boat.  The yacht is registered out of the US, so as not to pay taxes.

Gemini Dream, Bucket List and Freedom

 

 

 

Matt and I agree "We could handle that!!"

 Cindy's Observation:  This picture says it all.  Like 2 kids in a candy store.  Matt is saying, "yup, I could ride that for 8 seconds."  Larry just grins and agrees.  Inside the fish camp are memorabilia of days gone by of family and friends.  The biggest alligator gar mount hanging over the fireplace I've seen.  And several alligator heads stacked on the counter.  A local resident named Bodine keeps the camp stocked with those heads from Miss Elizabeth of Swamp People.  We had the catfish and hush puppies with slaw and sweet tater fries.  The best part is the hugs one gets from the cook!  They do believe in being hospitable in these southern parts.  We had been warned by the locals not to let your dog swim in the water here for the gators will get it. We hadn't had any sightings but were assured they are present.  The spanish moss hangs long in the trees here.  It is a little hard to get a clear shot of it though.

 

At the end of each day I review the days mileage, fuel burned, average speed and etc.  I have been questioning why when I plot the course for the day and compare the actual miles traveled that they are significantly different.  I had changed all of the parameters in the plotter to read out in statute miles vs nautical miles.  It seems that the distance is still being displayed in nautical miles.  I have traced the problem to the GPS receiver.  It seems that when I use the receiver in the AIS as the source for the plotter, even though I have statute miles selected, it is still displaying nautical.  When I use the internal GPS,  It displays statute miles correctly.  The good news is that we have been getting better mileage that I thought.  Since I have logged 1200 miles we have actually gone 1380 which increases our MPG from 1.9 to 2.1. Now I have to go back and recompute every days figures and change them from nautical to statute.  Oh, and I am leaving the internal GPS connected and NOT the AIS receiver.

We left Bobby's the next morning and it was very foggy.  We didn't get started until around 9:00.  Everyone was ready at 7:00 but we waited until we could see the next bend in the river until we started.  We had a long day and traveled about 53 miles ( that would have been about 44 KM).  We went into an anchorage at Three Rivers Lake.  It was a considerable distance off of the river and the channel was very narrow and tree lined.  If we didn't know that there was an anchorage there we would not have ventured in.  Once through the narrow channel, it opened up into a nice wide area.  We again anchored in opposite directions and rafted together for the night.

Entrance to three rivers anchorage

Shortly after dark, we could see a spotlight shining in the narrow channel coming into the anchorage.  It came toward us for a while, then stopped and started going back.  Matt jumped on  the radio and called them and told them to continue on in and raft up to us.  It turned out that they were delivering a Trawler somewhere on the Gulf and were looking for a place to spend the night.  Down here they are few and far between so they were happy that we invited them in.

Cindy's Observations:  The dog on board their boat had not been able to do his business for a day so Matt offered up to dinghy him ashore.  The dogs master thanked Matt and the dog was very "relieved."  Even if we did not have fog on the water, we always had condensation on the glass.  Our routine every morning is to wipe and wipe and wipe the condensation off the inside glass and outside.  I keep wondering how much farther south we need to be to rid ourselves of this situation.

Surprisingly enough, there was not a lot of fog the next morning.  We could probably make it all of the way to Mobile in one day, but with my prop vibration I really didn't want to push it too fast.  We decided to do one more anchorage.  Big Bayou Canot was about 42 mile away which would leave us only about 30 miles to do the next day arriving on Sunday.

Big Bayou Canot was a beautiful quiet anchorage, at least until close to the end of the bass fishing tournament whose finish was further up in the bayou.  Bass boats came screaming by wide open and slid around the corner into a narrow channel that merged with the bayou.  I noticed the number "55" on a card on one of the boats, so I know there were at least that many.

Cindy's Observations:  In this Picture you can see a little of the spanish moss hanging on the trees.  The fan shaped palms on the middle right are palmetto palms.  The water is turning from brown to more green.  It is clearing as well.

Shack at entrance to Big Bayou Canot

 

Our anchorage

 

Cindy with Coleen from Gemini Dream Pat and Marley the cat.

 Cindy's Observations:  The girls were relaxing and listening to some tunes. YMCA came on so I had to do the dance. 

 

We left early the next morning for Mobile!!!  Finally we get to see saltwater and maybe Dolphin!!  Going through Mobile Bay started out pretty easy.  Kind of like going through the barge staging areas in St Louis except the traffic was bigger.   At one time I had 50 or so targets giving me "Dangerous Traffic" alerts.  I was constantly silencing the alarms so I shut off the AIS.  Finally, I can concentrate on driving.

 

Coming into Mobile

 

Navy ship in shipyard

Faaaast Navy ship in shipyard

 

 Cruising through Mobile was no problem.  But, when we got to Mobile Bay, we had a stiff breeze blowing across the Bay.  Matt on Gemini Dream said "no problem, light chop".   There was no problem as long as you didn't try to stand up.  Either sit or crawl, your only safe choices.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Light chop my a...  Pictures can not show what you feel in these waves.  All I could think was, is this what we will get in the great lakes?  Ok then, this is practice.  Taking pictures was not a safe thing to do.  Our boat does not have enough grab handles to be secure standing.  Larry and I had had our first experience with the gulf.  Another challenge was reading channel markers threw all the bird doo.  Half the cans were covered up with white matter.  So imagine this: 3 ft waves, binoculars, no hand rails trying to see. This is called an adventure.

 

Fishing boat in "light chop"

Well, it beat us up pretty good.  I had the autopilot on for a while and the little hydraulic pump was pumping it's heart out trying to keep us going in the right direction.  I finally turned it off and steered myself.  At least I could dodge some of the big waves, and ride along with others.  I found out later it should have been classified as "medium chop". We finally pulled into Turner Marine in the afternoon.  We were all glad to be off of the water.

 

Cindy's Observations: Well lets just say we had not been conditioned for this type of water.  Another first!  Shortly after docking we took our usual dinghy ride around the harbor.  Fellow loopers were at the marina next door, Dog River, and Turner.  For dinner we dinghyed over to the fish shack for fresh caught seafood.  There was a couple renewing their vows and a band.  This was the restaurants last nite open for the season.  Before leaving dinner, there was a shrimp boat returning to harbor.  We watched which slip he was headed into.  After dinner we went to the boat and asked if they would sell us some fresh caught shrimp.  Gemini Dream made the deal and left with 6 pounds of fresh off the boat shrimp for $15.  The next night we indulged ourselves with the succulent little delights of the sea.  Coleen had served a meal fit for a king.  For a starter we had home made pumpkin soup followed by the old bay boiled peel n eat shrimp.  It was marvelous.  She even made the cocktail sauce from scratch. 

 

Entrance to Turner Marine

 

We arranged to have Bucket List pulled as soon as possible to have the Port Prop looked at.  We know it was damaged but did not know how bad or how long it was going to take to get it repaired.  It was Sunday and we would have to wait until Monday to get it looked at.

 

Matt and Coleen on Gemini Dream were also nursing a small vibration.  They had a spare prop, so they pulled them first.  Boy, did they get lucky!  They found about 10 feet of rope wrapped around the prop and shaft.  A little quick work with a sharp knife and they were back in the water.  Cheap and easy.

 

Next came our turn.  It could have been worse.  The Port prop had wrinkles in two of the four blades.  Nothing was torn or broken so the repair should be pretty easy and completed a lot faster because nothing would need to be welded.  Just a little "ironing out" would do it.

 

We had the prop back and installed in 4 days!  The price wasn't too bad either.  While we were waiting, I managed to fix my coolant leak with some new hoses and a new radiator cap (the one on it was the wrong type),  I also installed a 12" pedestal for the Radar radome to raise it up so it could see over the Bimini top, and installed a remote control for the autopilot so I can walk around a bit while we are underway.  All in all a very productive week.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Turner Marine is a family owned and operated business.  The house in picture is the founders home.  The grandson Rodger and his wife Christie now manage the marina.  We also took this time to have our small nylon coil single pull tab zippers  replaced with heavy duty vinyl teeth double pull tab ones.  This should end our battles and the war on zipper snafoos. While the boat was pulled we used starbrite hull cleaner to remove most of the stains from hard to reach areas.  When the prop was put back on, it was slathered with grease.  They said it would help prevent barnacles from growing on it.

 

 

Out of the water for inspection.

 

Only 2 out of 4 were wrinkled!!

We decided to stay at Turner until Thanksgiving. We actually celebrated it a day early so the employees could have their own on Thanksgiving day.  They provided deep fried turkeys (4) and a roasted one also. Everyone brought a dish, so there was plenty to eat. There were around 60 people that attended.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Christie and Rodger Turner made us feel like extended family not just that day but the entire time we were there.  Picnic tables were draped with festive coverings and their kids made the center pieces on the tables.  Our Thanksgiving pot luck had all the fixings of home.  Wine, desserts, salads, vegetables, dressings and sweet potato casseroles.  Including green bean casserole.  Grandaddy Turner said the blessing.  After dinner the tables were cleared and the charts came out for the next leg.  Chuck form Kalex was briefing Larry and John from Satisfaction who is also from Grafton Harbor.  We would be leaving in the morning for Ingram bayou, 44 miles east.

Since we were waiting for Thanksgiving to arrive, we rented a car, made some hotel reservations, and took off for New Orleans for the weekend.

Tenn-Tom to Demopolis, Alabama

I have been slacking off on the Blog for a while.  A lot has happened, some good, some not so good, but nothing really bad.

 

We left Grand Harbor on Sunday the 28th of October for an anchorage just before Whitten Lock.  An anchorage called 5 fingers.  The area is full of small finger-like anchorages way off of the main channel.

 

We filled with fuel and water and emptied the holding tank.  We should be good for a few days to a week.  We left at 0930 and headed into the divide cut, part of the Tenn-Tom waterway.  It is the man made portion of the Tenn-Tom.  It's very straight and deep.  We even had a tailwind for the first time in a long time, and the current was with us again, the first time since we  had left the Mississippi.

 

All went well until we reached the end of the divide cut.  We met a tow coming our way.  Our favorable tailwind was a terrible headwind for the tow.  He was pushing empty barges that were sticking out of the water quite a bit and catching a lot of wind.  He was actually coming up the river virtually sideways against the wind.  He radioed to us that he would need ALL of the channel to get by us.  Betty L and I slowly moved to the side of the channel about even with the red channel markers, well maybe a little outside the channel markers.  About the time Betty L screamed "Don't come in here" on the radio, I felt a quick "thump, thump".  The props had bumped against something.  I put it in reverse and backed off a little, and managed to squeeze past the red buoy into a wider part of the channel.  Betty L radioed that she was hard aground (stuck on the bottom).  I told her that the barge wake may float her off when it went by, and it did.  I was getting a slight vibration now, which meant that I bent something.  As long as I kept it under 1000 rpm it was manageable and tolerable and we could still go about 8 mph.

 

We started again for the anchorage which was only a couple of miles ahead.  It was a beautiful spot with calm water.  We anchored close to Latitude Adjustment, Belly L, and Gemini Dream came in later.

Leaving Grand Harbor, Betty L, Satisfaction, Latitude Adjustment, and Proud Lady.

  

Latitude Adjustment "cheating"



Anchorage - Us, Betty L, Gemini Dream, Latitude Adjustment

Betty L and Latitude Adjustment

Us and Gemini Dream

 When we got to the anchorage, Bob on Betty L, decided to dive under the boat to see if he had damaged anything when he went aground.  He returned to the surface and was happy to report that nothing was damaged.   He asked if I wanted him to look at the props on our boat.   I was happy to let him.  Our dive gear was stored under the bed and not easy to get at.  It was also very cold!!  Bob took a look and said that our port propeller had a couple of "wrinkles" on 2 of the 4 blades.  He said that the starboard prop felt good.  That explains the slight vibration that I was getting.  I figured that I would wait until we get further south before I have it fixed.  There are local marinas in Mobile Bay that  can have the prop repaired.  By the time I get there, I'm sure that there will be other things that need to be looked at.  Little did I know just how fast those "other things" would crop up.

 

 

Bob preparing to "dive" under Betty L.

 

Next morning we all got ready to leave and get to the Whitten Lock.  Remember the Port engine that  was giving me trouble?  Well, it wouldn't start!!  Gemini Dream stayed behind to help while the others left for the lock.  I had taken the jumper switch off of the fuel solenoid because I thought the problem had been resolved by resetting some of the oil pressure and temperature sending units.  Now I needed it again.  So with Gemini Dream waiting, I rewired my "cheater" switch and put power to the solenoid again.  It started!!   I turned the switch off and the engine kept running just as it was supposed to.  Gemini Dream and I headed off to the Lock and managed to catch up before the lock closed.  However, just as we pulled into the lock, the engine quit again!!  I managed to maneuver it up against the lock wall so Pat  and Cindy could tie up to the bollard.  After we tied up I went below and switched the cheater switch on again and restarted the engine.  I can't take much more of this, so I was determined to get the engine looked at the next time we stopped at a marina.  We called Midway Marina because they advertised that a diesel mechanic was available and they were close.  A short day, but we still went through 3 locks.  We finally arrived at Midway on the Tenn-Tom.  Gemini Dream was having alternator problems, so they stopped at the same marina with us. The mechanic had no experience with Caterpillar engines, but when I explained what I had to do to get the engines running, he dug into the problem.  After only a couple of hours, he came up with a relay that he suspected was bad.  He said that it was the same as a Mercruiser tilt relay.  So he had someone bring one to us while he looked at the alternator problem on Gemini Dream. 

The relay arrived and the engine started!  I made him put the old relay back to make sure the engine would NOT start.  It didn't!!  I was happy and not too broke when the bill came.  Gemini Dream did not fare as well.  They could not get the alternator that he needed or the parts to fix his old one.

Next morning we headed out together for Aberdeen marina.  It was way off of the channel and took some winding around to get to it.  Once there, a convenience store and a liquor store were within walking distance.

One of the "shacks" along the Tenn-Tom

Me in my environment.

You see a lot of weird things along the side of the river as you can see below.

Phone booth?

Totem Pole?

By now we were traveling together with Gemini Dream.  I guess it's true misery loves company.  The rest of the boats that we left Joe Wheeler with us are now way ahead.  With us stopping for repairs, and my speed being limited by the "wrinkled" prop, we had been left behind.  Not far behind, but at least a day or so.  At times we would almost catch up, but as it turned out, we wouldn't get back together until we got to Mobile.

We arrived at Columbus Marina in Columbus, Mississippi and decided to spend a couple of days provisioning and doing some minor repairs.  I was still nursing a small coolant leak on the starboard engine, and Gemini Dream was dealing with a steering problem as well as the same alternator problem.  We went to a few auto parts places to try to get them an alternator but could not find anything.  So we left and headed toward Tom Bevill lock.

We tied up to the dock at Tom Bevill Lock.  The dock was there so you could visit the old snagboat Montgomery.  You were not supposed to stay there over night, only to visit the snagboat then anchor nearby.  We decided that Gemini Dream would stay tied up to the dock, with us rafted up to the side of Her, until someone told us to move.  No one did! So we spent the night.  No power or water, but  also no swinging at anchor either.

Snagboat Montgomery

Visitors Center at Tom Bevill lock

Bucket List "rafted" to Gemini Dream

Marley on Gemini Dream

Yacht heading south for the winter.

We anchored the next night at a small anchorage and rafted up with Gemini Dream again.  This time we both set anchors and then tied together to give us a more stable anchorage.

 

 

 

Another Lock

 

Next stop Demopolis, Alabama. Stayed here a couple of days also and tried to get parts for Gemini Dream. No luck here either.

By now, I had figured out a solution to another nagging problem that I was having. My radar was not picking up targets that were straight ahead of me. A small problem when trying to run in the fog or rain. The buoys would not show up! I could see them as they went beside me and then behind me, but I wasn't going that way!! I originally thought that the radar needed to be pitched down a little, but when I got up on top of the hardtop and took a good look, I notice that the metal bows on the bimini top were directly in front of the radome. No wonder it wouldn't work! I searched the Internet and found a 12" pedestal that would raise the radome above the bimini. I had it shipped to Mobile where I hoped it would be there when we got there or at least shortly thereafter.

A good place for a party. Matt on Gemini Dream got his portable smoker out and we smoked some chicken, pork and beef. We had a great meal along with the crew of Catmandu. They had been running a little slower than us. They are a Sailing catamaran and don't travel very fast with only a small engine.

We left Demopolis on Wednesday headed for an anchorage. The last thing we did before leaving, was to fill up with Diesel. While doing that, I dropped my cell phone off the back of the boat. I've had a cell phone for 20 years and never lost or damaged one. Consequently I never insure them. I think I'm still ahead of the game, but my new one (which I couldn't get until Mobile) is now insured.