You know the tired old routine in the funnies where the punch line is that dinner is done when the smoke alarm goes off? Well I have realized that sometimes life does imitate art, at least if you think the Sunday funnies are art.
Let me explain. This morning as Larry was making breakfast, while I was sitting on the sundeck cross-stitching my heart out, I heard the smoke alarm sound. I didn’t panic, I simply thought ‘time to quit because breakfast is ready’. You see aboard Miss Lauren Grace the toaster is directly under the smoke alarm, the last thing either of us does when we make breakfast is put the toast in and when it is almost finished the smoke alarm blares. Thus I knew he was going to say “ready babe” before he even called. So I came in laughing and Larry asked what is so funny. I told him our breakfast is like the funny paper cartoons; breakfast is done when the smoke alarm goes off.
I like predictability in life!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Living on the "Hard"
Life on the “hard” is ….tiring, challenging, chilly, frustrating? Actually it is all of those things. Last Friday Miss Lauren Grace was lifted out of the water and set on the parking lot with blocks under her keel and jack stands supporting her hull.
Those with a good memory may recall that we were also sitting “on the hard” last November during Hurricane Ida, and you would be correct. We had our bottom painted last fall and this summer we discovered that the paint is failing so here we are again.
I am trying hard (no pun intended) not to complain about… climbing up a 8’ ladder every time I need to go to the bathroom (because our toilets require water from the river to flush properly); getting up early to be ready for the workers (who start at 0730) to start, scrubbing, sanding, painting (pick one) and then finding out that they have slotted several other jobs ahead of us and they won’t start on our boat until after lunch; getting up in the cold because our heaters need water to function and having to wait for an electric space heater to warm things up; having to be frugal with my use of water for dishwashing and hygiene because it drains out onto the ground under the boat and creates a mess. If all of this was not frustrating enough I am fairly well pissed that we paid for this job to be done just a year ago and now they are finding all sorts of reasons, some even partially valid, why it is not “their” fault that the paint failed.
Apparently our bottom has “blisters”, think of them as pimples on the surface of the fiberglass. This despite the fact that before we bought her someone had gone to the expense to apply an epoxy bottom finish. Now we learn that those jobs generally last from 5-7 years, so it appears ours is at the expiration date.
Now we have to decide if we want to spend several months with the boat hauled out of the water “drying out” or if we just want to put a band aid on the situation and deal with it later. So far we are leaning toward the band-aid approach.
On the bright side (if you look hard enough you can generally fine a tiny ray of sunshine somewhere) it is not raining and the sun heats the boat up nicely by noon and it is stays warm until a couple of hours after dark. Also the temperatures are forecast to warm throughout the week and the nights won’t be so cold in a couple of days.
Hopefully we will have the band-aid in place and be back in the water by next weekend. Meanwhile we had dinner tonight with friends Paul & Stacy who are sitting right next to us here “on the hard”. I guess life isn't really all that bad.
Those with a good memory may recall that we were also sitting “on the hard” last November during Hurricane Ida, and you would be correct. We had our bottom painted last fall and this summer we discovered that the paint is failing so here we are again.
I am trying hard (no pun intended) not to complain about… climbing up a 8’ ladder every time I need to go to the bathroom (because our toilets require water from the river to flush properly); getting up early to be ready for the workers (who start at 0730) to start, scrubbing, sanding, painting (pick one) and then finding out that they have slotted several other jobs ahead of us and they won’t start on our boat until after lunch; getting up in the cold because our heaters need water to function and having to wait for an electric space heater to warm things up; having to be frugal with my use of water for dishwashing and hygiene because it drains out onto the ground under the boat and creates a mess. If all of this was not frustrating enough I am fairly well pissed that we paid for this job to be done just a year ago and now they are finding all sorts of reasons, some even partially valid, why it is not “their” fault that the paint failed.
Apparently our bottom has “blisters”, think of them as pimples on the surface of the fiberglass. This despite the fact that before we bought her someone had gone to the expense to apply an epoxy bottom finish. Now we learn that those jobs generally last from 5-7 years, so it appears ours is at the expiration date.
Now we have to decide if we want to spend several months with the boat hauled out of the water “drying out” or if we just want to put a band aid on the situation and deal with it later. So far we are leaning toward the band-aid approach.
On the bright side (if you look hard enough you can generally fine a tiny ray of sunshine somewhere) it is not raining and the sun heats the boat up nicely by noon and it is stays warm until a couple of hours after dark. Also the temperatures are forecast to warm throughout the week and the nights won’t be so cold in a couple of days.
Hopefully we will have the band-aid in place and be back in the water by next weekend. Meanwhile we had dinner tonight with friends Paul & Stacy who are sitting right next to us here “on the hard”. I guess life isn't really all that bad.
Upper Black Warrior River
All we can say is WOW! We were excited to explore this river because it was new to us, now having traveled 165 miles upstream from the junction with the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway all we can say is wow.
It is true that the first hundred miles were just so-so, but beyond that the Black Warrior is spectacular. Above Tuscaloosa, AL the topography changes completely, we are in the mountainous area of central Alabama. The forested mountains fall straight to the water, with a few rock outcroppings thrown in for interest. Add a bit of fall color and the scenery was perfect
However what really made this trip special were the people we met along the way. At Eagle Cove marina just above Holt Lock (and Tuscaloosa) we met fellow cruisers Mike & Mary aboard What Daze It. Mike is originally from Moundville and they are staying here now to help his aging parents. Lucky for us because they spent several hours with us reviewing the charts and sharing their favorite places to explore.
Larry and Jim, from our buddy boat, dinghied to an abandoned coal train tunnel and explored all afternoon.
Another day they found a waterfall at the head of a creek and climbed to check out the caves in the hill by the falls
Exploring by dinghy from Franklin Ferry we found Quinn’s Landing, a tiny little marina and restaurant is in a small creek. We had lunch at the restaurant and then, as boaters always seem to do, we walked the dock. We stopped to admire an old wood Chris Craft and a fellow (Ken) came out to talk to us. In the course of the conversation we discovered that he used to live in St. Louis. Naturally we asked where in St. Louis he lived, and Larry volunteered that I had grown up in St. Charles County; that was when Ken told us that he still had a boat at a marina in Portage des Sioux. We inquired at which marina and he replied Sioux Harbor! For those who don’t know that is our old marina where we kept our sailboat after the 1993 Flood. In the “small world” category this has to be a close second to our experience last fall in Demopolis where we met a total stranger that had gone to my same high school. Perhaps Alabama is calling to us.
Heading back downstream toward Tuscaloosa we passed this spectacular waterfall cascading directly into the river
Our last night on the Upper Black Warrior we pulled into a creek to anchor for the night only to be greeted by a couple on a quad runner at the mouth of the creek, who called out “welcome pirates” as we idled past. Before the sun had set we were in their home dining on venison chili. Gene & Karen (who live along the creek) and their friends shared the most awesome hospitality. First we had a “signature frou-frou drink” in the “tiki hut”, then we toured their home and the dipped up heaping bowls of chili before we retired back to the tiki hut to enjoy the evening. If you think a tiki hut is inconsistent with central Alabama I can explain, Gene and Karen vacation in Marathon each winter and they wanted to re-create the ambience of their favorite vacation watering hole. What fun we had with them and their friends, and the following day they sent us an e-mail thanking us for coming!
Life on the river is great!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Checking Out a New River
Ok, so it isn't really a new river, in fact I am certain that it has been here all along, but it is new to us and we were excited to be discovering new places. This is the first time in a year that we are covering new and unfamiliar territory and it is fun to be exploring with buddy boats Eagle One and Driftwood.
Our first day on the Upper Black Warrior led us about 45 miles upriver to a quiet anchorage just below the first lock (Seldon Lock). We anchored in an oxbow of the old river below the dam and put the dinghy down to explore. Here the lock and dam are not together as we usually find them rather they are separated by an island, or at least it is an island today. The dam is on the old river section and the lock is on what I think is a man-made cut; creating the cut created the island we were anchored behind. It was a great anchorage, wide and deep (almost too deep), off of the river and safe from barge traffic. We wouldn't want to be anchored here when the river was rising though because you can see where all kinds of trees and logs that spill through the dam have come to rest.
When we came back from our dinghy exploration we discovered two new boats had arrived in our anchorage; travelers from Maine and Michigan who are killing some time so as not to arrive in the Gulf before the magic date that their insurance company will allow.
Fortunately for our little travel party this region has been very dry and the river is low, which means that the current is also very slow and there is almost no debris in the water. The lack of current is nice because it allows us to make good time while conserving fuel, an important consideration because there is no diesel fuel available above Demopolis.
The next day we were not so lucky with our anchorage and had to content ourselves with anchoring off to the side of the channel and hoping that the tows saw us as they came by in the night. We do not sleep as well when we are anchored in a situation like this, and we certainly don't go out to play in the dinghy. And so it was a tired group of mariners who arrived at a marina just above Tuscaloosa the next afternoon.
Our third day of travel on the river began early, which was fine since no one was sleeping well anyway. We were rewarded for our early start by getting a great lockage at Oliver Lock just below the city. When we called on the VHF radio the lockmaster told us he had it ready for us and to just come on in, that's what I call southern hospitality of the best kind. The other two boats did not leave as early as we did and they travel a bit slower so they ended up with a long wait at both Oliver Lock and Holt Lock which is just 10 miles above Oliver. The city of Tuscaloosa lies between these two locks
We had heard that we could tie off to an old lock wall in a city park in downtown Tuscaloosa and were sort of hoping that we could find a restaurant. Upon seeing the wall we could not figure out how we would get off of the boats and so we elected to go on through Holt Lock and head into the marina that Jim had made arrangements with.
When the gates opened on the high side of Holt Lock we were so rewarded for making this trip. The river is beautiful up here; deeply forested hills drop right into the water which is clear and deep. There appears to be very little development and we are looking forward to exploring more.
Our first day on the Upper Black Warrior led us about 45 miles upriver to a quiet anchorage just below the first lock (Seldon Lock). We anchored in an oxbow of the old river below the dam and put the dinghy down to explore. Here the lock and dam are not together as we usually find them rather they are separated by an island, or at least it is an island today. The dam is on the old river section and the lock is on what I think is a man-made cut; creating the cut created the island we were anchored behind. It was a great anchorage, wide and deep (almost too deep), off of the river and safe from barge traffic. We wouldn't want to be anchored here when the river was rising though because you can see where all kinds of trees and logs that spill through the dam have come to rest.
When we came back from our dinghy exploration we discovered two new boats had arrived in our anchorage; travelers from Maine and Michigan who are killing some time so as not to arrive in the Gulf before the magic date that their insurance company will allow.
Fortunately for our little travel party this region has been very dry and the river is low, which means that the current is also very slow and there is almost no debris in the water. The lack of current is nice because it allows us to make good time while conserving fuel, an important consideration because there is no diesel fuel available above Demopolis.
The next day we were not so lucky with our anchorage and had to content ourselves with anchoring off to the side of the channel and hoping that the tows saw us as they came by in the night. We do not sleep as well when we are anchored in a situation like this, and we certainly don't go out to play in the dinghy. And so it was a tired group of mariners who arrived at a marina just above Tuscaloosa the next afternoon.
Our third day of travel on the river began early, which was fine since no one was sleeping well anyway. We were rewarded for our early start by getting a great lockage at Oliver Lock just below the city. When we called on the VHF radio the lockmaster told us he had it ready for us and to just come on in, that's what I call southern hospitality of the best kind. The other two boats did not leave as early as we did and they travel a bit slower so they ended up with a long wait at both Oliver Lock and Holt Lock which is just 10 miles above Oliver. The city of Tuscaloosa lies between these two locks
We had heard that we could tie off to an old lock wall in a city park in downtown Tuscaloosa and were sort of hoping that we could find a restaurant. Upon seeing the wall we could not figure out how we would get off of the boats and so we elected to go on through Holt Lock and head into the marina that Jim had made arrangements with.
When the gates opened on the high side of Holt Lock we were so rewarded for making this trip. The river is beautiful up here; deeply forested hills drop right into the water which is clear and deep. There appears to be very little development and we are looking forward to exploring more.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Perfect Travel Day
The sky was blue and the temperature was near 80 with hardly a cloud in the sky and no wind. In short another perfect travel day in a long stretch of beauriful weather that Mother Nature has provided for this trip. Today the Tenn-Tom Waterway was, I think, the prettiest we have ever seen it. There has been no rain to speak of in this area for the past six weeks or so and the river was unbelievable clear; no sediment or flotsam. There was hardly any current and we got a great lock at Howell Heflin, our only lock today. Actually the locks have been treating us very well all along this trip.
Tonight we are anchored in pretty little Foscue Creek, just downstream from Demopolis. Tomorrow we start up the Black Warrior River bound for Tuscaloosa and wherever else we find to explore. More to report as it is revealed to us.
Tonight we are anchored in pretty little Foscue Creek, just downstream from Demopolis. Tomorrow we start up the Black Warrior River bound for Tuscaloosa and wherever else we find to explore. More to report as it is revealed to us.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Its been fun, but not fast!
After brunch & a nap last Sunday we sat Monday out because of the rain. Tuesday dawned bright and sunny with perfect temps and low humidity. You couldn’t ask for a better day to travel, and travel we did. Well for 15 miles before we had to pull off and relax for a few hours. This time however the rest stop was not for food, nor was it part of our plan.
From our anchorage in Second Creek we started our day by locking down through Wheeler Lock and traveling the 15 miles to Wilson Lock. When we arrived at Wilson the lockmaster informed us that there was a tow coming and we would have to pull over to the auxiliary wall and wait for him to bring the tow (a double) up. The reality was that the tow had not yet arrived at his lower gate and he could have taken up down and brought the first cut of the tow up; but part of travel on the rivers is living by the lockmasters rules and so we waited for two and a half hours. I used my time well by whooping Larry at a game of Gin.
From Wilson Lock, which is at Florence, AL for those of you who are trying to follow along on a map, we had a delightful run down to our anchorage on Pickwick Lake. The next morning our start was delayed a bit by morning fog but as soon as it burned off we were treated to a second “top ten” kind of day as we began our run down the Tenn-Tom Waterway. I am always a little awed by the waterway; it is an amazing bit of engineering
The first section of the Tenn-Tom is known as the “divide cut” where the earth was cut and hauled away to connect the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. The Tenn-Tom Waterway was the largest earthmoving project in history, requiring the excavation of nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil, by comparison only 210 million cubic yards were removed from the Panama Canal. The Tenn-Tom is also much longer than the Panama Canal.
Once through the divide cut we arrived at Bay Springs Lake where we had planned a stop to relax and enjoy the beautiful clear water of this natural area. Alas the chilly nights had made the water too cool to be comfortable so we had to content ourselves with exploring by dinghy. One item from our exploration was not especially welcome as we found a sign advertising a future development of some sort; not sure of the details but the sign clearly said “lakeside cottages”, boo-hoo. Most of this land is owned by the Corps of Engineers but apparently they can grant leases or sell some of the land and development follows. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with development but it is just so peaceful and beautiful there and we hate to see it change.
Today we moved on down the waterway to Midway Marina at Fulton, MS and visited with our friends Bill & Donna who live here. Tonight it seems as though a front is blowing through with strong winds from the north and a rapidly falling thermometer. Tomorrow will be a short travel day down to Blue Bluff Recreation Area where there is a free dock for boaters to use when visiting the town of Aberdeen and then on the Columbus, MS, one of our favorite stops.
From our anchorage in Second Creek we started our day by locking down through Wheeler Lock and traveling the 15 miles to Wilson Lock. When we arrived at Wilson the lockmaster informed us that there was a tow coming and we would have to pull over to the auxiliary wall and wait for him to bring the tow (a double) up. The reality was that the tow had not yet arrived at his lower gate and he could have taken up down and brought the first cut of the tow up; but part of travel on the rivers is living by the lockmasters rules and so we waited for two and a half hours. I used my time well by whooping Larry at a game of Gin.
From Wilson Lock, which is at Florence, AL for those of you who are trying to follow along on a map, we had a delightful run down to our anchorage on Pickwick Lake. The next morning our start was delayed a bit by morning fog but as soon as it burned off we were treated to a second “top ten” kind of day as we began our run down the Tenn-Tom Waterway. I am always a little awed by the waterway; it is an amazing bit of engineering
The first section of the Tenn-Tom is known as the “divide cut” where the earth was cut and hauled away to connect the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. The Tenn-Tom Waterway was the largest earthmoving project in history, requiring the excavation of nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil, by comparison only 210 million cubic yards were removed from the Panama Canal. The Tenn-Tom is also much longer than the Panama Canal.
Once through the divide cut we arrived at Bay Springs Lake where we had planned a stop to relax and enjoy the beautiful clear water of this natural area. Alas the chilly nights had made the water too cool to be comfortable so we had to content ourselves with exploring by dinghy. One item from our exploration was not especially welcome as we found a sign advertising a future development of some sort; not sure of the details but the sign clearly said “lakeside cottages”, boo-hoo. Most of this land is owned by the Corps of Engineers but apparently they can grant leases or sell some of the land and development follows. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with development but it is just so peaceful and beautiful there and we hate to see it change.
Today we moved on down the waterway to Midway Marina at Fulton, MS and visited with our friends Bill & Donna who live here. Tonight it seems as though a front is blowing through with strong winds from the north and a rapidly falling thermometer. Tomorrow will be a short travel day down to Blue Bluff Recreation Area where there is a free dock for boaters to use when visiting the town of Aberdeen and then on the Columbus, MS, one of our favorite stops.
Monday, September 27, 2010
On The Road Again...
It seems as though it has been forever since we traveled. Well, that is if you don’t count the trip (75 miles each way) down to the boatyard for repairs after the electric pedestal on the dock “fried” some of our wiring & switches last June.
It has been a long, hot summer in northern Alabama and we have been content to lie in the shade of a covered dock and run the air conditioning. We also made a few road trips; because I agreed to do some work for Bereaved Parents we went to a work session in Dallas in June and the Annual Conference in Little Rock in July. Of course we went to Boise in August and stopped in St. Louis on the way through for our own “well baby” check-ups.
The highlight of the entire summer was taking Lauren to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. What fun we had wading in the water and watching elk and climbing trees. Oh yeah, Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful put on its show and then we climbed the stairs in Old Faithful Inn (several times) and ate ice cream on the porch.
Little Anna is the happiest toddler, which shouldn’t surprise us because she was a happy baby. She is walking now, and loves being outdoors; I call her Sunshine because her smile lights up the room. It was really fun watching her wind grandpa around her finger. She would go looking for him calling “Grandpa”, or something pretty close to that, and he would do whatever she asked.
Back home aboard we cleaned a month’s accumulation of spider poop off the boat, restocked the larder, shopped for “stuff” that we thought we needed and generally got ready to get underway.
Last week we made a short run up to Scottsboro, AL and it was great to be going somewhere. Our plan had been to hang out a few days in a favorite anchorage up there but when we pulled into the anchorage and throttled back it was HOT without a breath of air moving. We looked at each other and decided we would not get any sleep in the heat and decided to pull in to one of our favorite marinas, Goose Pond Colony. That is what is so great about the cruising life since your home moves with you your travel plans can change in a minute. On the dock there we were met by friends (another great thing about cruising) and we enjoyed 4 days of happy hours, dinners and fellowship before we had to leave. It was in the mid 90’s every day and we never did get to that favorite anchorage but we sure enjoyed the trip.
Yesterday we departed our summer home at Bay Hill Marina in company with two other boats and started off on a new adventure. We managed to travel all of 10 miles before we stopped for brunch at Joe Wheeler State Park where friends from Bay Hill drove down to help us eat! Fully sated we made it another 3 miles before we anchored to take naps and read the Sunday newspaper.
Our plan is to head down the Tenn-Tom to the Black Warrior River and follow it up to Tuscaloosa. The Warrior runs all the way to Birmingham and is not often traveled by pleasure boaters. We are not sure what we will find, perhaps a lot of nothing, but it will be fun to explore with good company. This morning it was pouring rain and since we start off with two locks in the first 18 miles we line tenders (that would be me and the other wives) voted to sit the day out and wait for tomorrow’s good weather to travel.
It has been a long, hot summer in northern Alabama and we have been content to lie in the shade of a covered dock and run the air conditioning. We also made a few road trips; because I agreed to do some work for Bereaved Parents we went to a work session in Dallas in June and the Annual Conference in Little Rock in July. Of course we went to Boise in August and stopped in St. Louis on the way through for our own “well baby” check-ups.
The highlight of the entire summer was taking Lauren to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. What fun we had wading in the water and watching elk and climbing trees. Oh yeah, Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful put on its show and then we climbed the stairs in Old Faithful Inn (several times) and ate ice cream on the porch.
Little Anna is the happiest toddler, which shouldn’t surprise us because she was a happy baby. She is walking now, and loves being outdoors; I call her Sunshine because her smile lights up the room. It was really fun watching her wind grandpa around her finger. She would go looking for him calling “Grandpa”, or something pretty close to that, and he would do whatever she asked.
Back home aboard we cleaned a month’s accumulation of spider poop off the boat, restocked the larder, shopped for “stuff” that we thought we needed and generally got ready to get underway.
Last week we made a short run up to Scottsboro, AL and it was great to be going somewhere. Our plan had been to hang out a few days in a favorite anchorage up there but when we pulled into the anchorage and throttled back it was HOT without a breath of air moving. We looked at each other and decided we would not get any sleep in the heat and decided to pull in to one of our favorite marinas, Goose Pond Colony. That is what is so great about the cruising life since your home moves with you your travel plans can change in a minute. On the dock there we were met by friends (another great thing about cruising) and we enjoyed 4 days of happy hours, dinners and fellowship before we had to leave. It was in the mid 90’s every day and we never did get to that favorite anchorage but we sure enjoyed the trip.
Yesterday we departed our summer home at Bay Hill Marina in company with two other boats and started off on a new adventure. We managed to travel all of 10 miles before we stopped for brunch at Joe Wheeler State Park where friends from Bay Hill drove down to help us eat! Fully sated we made it another 3 miles before we anchored to take naps and read the Sunday newspaper.
Our plan is to head down the Tenn-Tom to the Black Warrior River and follow it up to Tuscaloosa. The Warrior runs all the way to Birmingham and is not often traveled by pleasure boaters. We are not sure what we will find, perhaps a lot of nothing, but it will be fun to explore with good company. This morning it was pouring rain and since we start off with two locks in the first 18 miles we line tenders (that would be me and the other wives) voted to sit the day out and wait for tomorrow’s good weather to travel.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Where Does the Time Go?
When we first moved aboard back in 2006 (yes, it has been four years now) many people asked what we would do with all our time. I still can’t answer that question but we always seem to be busy. Actually when I realized that it has been two months since I updated our whereabouts I found myself wondering where that time had gone and what had we been doing that I have not felt exciting enough to share with you.
Aside from out trip to see the girls at the end of April (just after my last posting) I can’t say we have done much that is worth sharing and so I haven’t felt compelled to bore you with the details. Still, people have been asking for updates so here goes.
The trip to Boise was wonderful, as always. Lauren is now a quite mature 5 (“and ½” thank you very much), “You know that you are 5 ½ before you turn 6 Grammy” she told me. She organizes our visits and plans activities; swinging at the park (“watch, I can pump myself now”), lunch at McDonalds play place for chilly/rainy days, playtime, story-time etc. Anna is an adorable 16 months (or was when we saw her); she is just starting to walk, loves rhythm and is generally a joyful little dickens. We were pleased that she was not at all shy with us this visit, she loves being held by Grandpa and would reach for Larry whenever he was in the room.
We got back home at the end of the first week in May and slowly made our way north, up the Tenn- Tom, when we got to Bay Springs lake we stopped for a week just to enjoy the crystal clear waters of that lake. This is land that was inundated when the Waterway was built and is thus a young lake, there is no development along its shores and since the land is heavily wooded there is not as much runoff as in many lakes. We enjoyed anchoring in several spots sometimes with a panoramic view and a delightful breeze and sometimes in a cozy little hole where the wind and waves from storms couldn’t reach us.
Then reality intruded and we had to move on. Why? Well, for one thing it was getting HOT and we wanted to plug in and enjoy sleeping in air conditioned comfort. Yes we do remember spending every hot summer weekends on our sailboat with only a fan to keep us comfortable, but that was then (or maybe we were younger), now when the nights are warm we head for electricity.
Our trip up the Tennessee from Pickwick Lake was interesting….Now I must ask our non boating readers to bear with me while I share the “Locking Thru Story from Hell” with the boaters. From our anchorage in Panther Creek on Pickwick Lake it was 59 miles to Joe Wheeler State Park where we planned to anchor for the night before running the final 10 miles to our destination of Bay Hill Marina; we also had to transit two locks. This is a nice day’s travel for us, especially with the long hours of daylight this time of year and so we left our anchorage about 8:30 that morning, expecting to be anchored by late-afternoon. The first 3 hours passed uneventfully, we saw no commercial traffic nor did we hear any on the VHF radio on channel 13 or 16.
About noon we were probably 30 minutes below Wilson Lock and just about ready to call and let him know we were headed his way when we heard a TVA boat call. Wilson Lock answered and told him that they were working the first cut of a double and then they would get him right through. We called and put our name on the list and slowed down, had lunch and figured we were in for a wait, little did we know how much of a wait!
We arrived at the lock at 12:55 and were a bit surprised to find that the second cut was not yet in the chamber. We also noted that the TVA boat was a single barge and not red-flagged, this was good news since he might let us lock with him. The tow that was in process was the “William Hank” and it seemed as though he was never going to get situated in the lock but finally the gate closed on his second cut.
For the non-boaters that are still with me a “cut” is when a towboat and all of the barges together is longer than the lock chamber; then they push in the half of the barges, disconnect the front barges from the back barges, pull the back half of the barges out (still attached to the tow boat), close the gates and raise (or lower) the front set of barges and winch them out along the lock wall. Then they close the gates, lower/raise the water in the chamber and push in the second half of the barges and the towboat and raise/lower them. Once all of the tow is at the same river level they reconnect the two sets and push out of the lock. Normally the process takes no more than 2 ½ hours; on May 19, 2010 it took a lot longer.
As I said they apparently started locking the "William Hank" before Noon and had the first cut up when we arrived at 12:55 and were working to get the second cut in. From our location we could not see the reason for the hold-up and we could not find the radio channel that they were working on so we could not hear anything either. Lockmasters are not generally chatty, at least not with us “RVs” as they call pleasure boats, and so we had no idea what was happening or how long it would take. Time passed….then more time. At some point Larry called the TVA boat and asked if he was agreeable to us locking through with him if the lockmaster would allow it. “Sure, and he will probably not have any problem with it”, this at least was good news.
Finally about 3:15 he called for the TVA boat to come in and us to follow when he called for us. By 3:52 we were motoring out of Wilson Lock and planning to put it in roar and beat the “William Hank” to Wheeler Lock only 15 miles up the lake; I mean towboats generally travel slower than we do and we can go fast when we need to so we had a plan. Wrong! When we got to the top we could not even see the “William Hank”. We hoped, briefly, that he had gone into a port but we didn’t know where because Wilson Lake is not at all industrial. Twenty minutes later we saw him, he was over halfway up the lake and steaming toward the lock….no way could we catch him. At 4:20 we pulled our power back and slowly made our way to the lock. We arrived about 5:00 and were dismayed to see that he did not yet have the first cut in. We couldn’t tie to the lock wall because he was still using it so we dropped the anchor and prepared to wait.
Remember we had planned to be anchored for the night an hour ago. Wilson Lake is very deep and has few anchorages, we considered going back downstream five miles or so and anchoring for the night but the days were long and so we decided to wait it out rather than take our chances in the morning. Bad decision.
By 5:45 the first cut was in, at 6:50 the second cut was entering the chamber and at 7:05 the gates closed to raise the second cut. Now we figure only 45 minutes or so and he will be out. Not exactly! Due to configuration problems that are too complex to go into here there was a problem re-connecting the two sections of the tow and it was slightly after 8:00 before they cold close the upper gates and start lowering the chamber for us. By now it was dark and I was on the deck waiting to untie from the lock wall (where we had moved to after the second cut went in so that we would be ready to scoot in quickly). So I lost track of time but when I checked my watch at 8:20 (don’t you love those Indiglo watches?) the gates still had not opened for us to enter. Shortly after that we got the green light and our ride up. When we got to the top there was down-bound tow waiting on the wall and his spotlight light was in our face as we slowly inched our way out of the lock. By now it was inky black and we chugged our way up to our anchorage in First Creek about 3 ½ miles above the lock. By the time we had our anchor down it was 9:20 at night and we were exhausted. Including our 6 ½ hours of waiting time it had taken 13 hours to travel 59 miles and transit two locks!
The next day we motored the final and uneventful ten miles up to Bay Hill marina and have spent the past month fighting off mayflies, catching up with cruising friends here, and following the oil spill news as we wonder about our winter plans, and being lazy.
Aside from out trip to see the girls at the end of April (just after my last posting) I can’t say we have done much that is worth sharing and so I haven’t felt compelled to bore you with the details. Still, people have been asking for updates so here goes.
The trip to Boise was wonderful, as always. Lauren is now a quite mature 5 (“and ½” thank you very much), “You know that you are 5 ½ before you turn 6 Grammy” she told me. She organizes our visits and plans activities; swinging at the park (“watch, I can pump myself now”), lunch at McDonalds play place for chilly/rainy days, playtime, story-time etc. Anna is an adorable 16 months (or was when we saw her); she is just starting to walk, loves rhythm and is generally a joyful little dickens. We were pleased that she was not at all shy with us this visit, she loves being held by Grandpa and would reach for Larry whenever he was in the room.
We got back home at the end of the first week in May and slowly made our way north, up the Tenn- Tom, when we got to Bay Springs lake we stopped for a week just to enjoy the crystal clear waters of that lake. This is land that was inundated when the Waterway was built and is thus a young lake, there is no development along its shores and since the land is heavily wooded there is not as much runoff as in many lakes. We enjoyed anchoring in several spots sometimes with a panoramic view and a delightful breeze and sometimes in a cozy little hole where the wind and waves from storms couldn’t reach us.
Then reality intruded and we had to move on. Why? Well, for one thing it was getting HOT and we wanted to plug in and enjoy sleeping in air conditioned comfort. Yes we do remember spending every hot summer weekends on our sailboat with only a fan to keep us comfortable, but that was then (or maybe we were younger), now when the nights are warm we head for electricity.
Our trip up the Tennessee from Pickwick Lake was interesting….Now I must ask our non boating readers to bear with me while I share the “Locking Thru Story from Hell” with the boaters. From our anchorage in Panther Creek on Pickwick Lake it was 59 miles to Joe Wheeler State Park where we planned to anchor for the night before running the final 10 miles to our destination of Bay Hill Marina; we also had to transit two locks. This is a nice day’s travel for us, especially with the long hours of daylight this time of year and so we left our anchorage about 8:30 that morning, expecting to be anchored by late-afternoon. The first 3 hours passed uneventfully, we saw no commercial traffic nor did we hear any on the VHF radio on channel 13 or 16.
About noon we were probably 30 minutes below Wilson Lock and just about ready to call and let him know we were headed his way when we heard a TVA boat call. Wilson Lock answered and told him that they were working the first cut of a double and then they would get him right through. We called and put our name on the list and slowed down, had lunch and figured we were in for a wait, little did we know how much of a wait!
We arrived at the lock at 12:55 and were a bit surprised to find that the second cut was not yet in the chamber. We also noted that the TVA boat was a single barge and not red-flagged, this was good news since he might let us lock with him. The tow that was in process was the “William Hank” and it seemed as though he was never going to get situated in the lock but finally the gate closed on his second cut.
For the non-boaters that are still with me a “cut” is when a towboat and all of the barges together is longer than the lock chamber; then they push in the half of the barges, disconnect the front barges from the back barges, pull the back half of the barges out (still attached to the tow boat), close the gates and raise (or lower) the front set of barges and winch them out along the lock wall. Then they close the gates, lower/raise the water in the chamber and push in the second half of the barges and the towboat and raise/lower them. Once all of the tow is at the same river level they reconnect the two sets and push out of the lock. Normally the process takes no more than 2 ½ hours; on May 19, 2010 it took a lot longer.
As I said they apparently started locking the "William Hank" before Noon and had the first cut up when we arrived at 12:55 and were working to get the second cut in. From our location we could not see the reason for the hold-up and we could not find the radio channel that they were working on so we could not hear anything either. Lockmasters are not generally chatty, at least not with us “RVs” as they call pleasure boats, and so we had no idea what was happening or how long it would take. Time passed….then more time. At some point Larry called the TVA boat and asked if he was agreeable to us locking through with him if the lockmaster would allow it. “Sure, and he will probably not have any problem with it”, this at least was good news.
Finally about 3:15 he called for the TVA boat to come in and us to follow when he called for us. By 3:52 we were motoring out of Wilson Lock and planning to put it in roar and beat the “William Hank” to Wheeler Lock only 15 miles up the lake; I mean towboats generally travel slower than we do and we can go fast when we need to so we had a plan. Wrong! When we got to the top we could not even see the “William Hank”. We hoped, briefly, that he had gone into a port but we didn’t know where because Wilson Lake is not at all industrial. Twenty minutes later we saw him, he was over halfway up the lake and steaming toward the lock….no way could we catch him. At 4:20 we pulled our power back and slowly made our way to the lock. We arrived about 5:00 and were dismayed to see that he did not yet have the first cut in. We couldn’t tie to the lock wall because he was still using it so we dropped the anchor and prepared to wait.
Remember we had planned to be anchored for the night an hour ago. Wilson Lake is very deep and has few anchorages, we considered going back downstream five miles or so and anchoring for the night but the days were long and so we decided to wait it out rather than take our chances in the morning. Bad decision.
By 5:45 the first cut was in, at 6:50 the second cut was entering the chamber and at 7:05 the gates closed to raise the second cut. Now we figure only 45 minutes or so and he will be out. Not exactly! Due to configuration problems that are too complex to go into here there was a problem re-connecting the two sections of the tow and it was slightly after 8:00 before they cold close the upper gates and start lowering the chamber for us. By now it was dark and I was on the deck waiting to untie from the lock wall (where we had moved to after the second cut went in so that we would be ready to scoot in quickly). So I lost track of time but when I checked my watch at 8:20 (don’t you love those Indiglo watches?) the gates still had not opened for us to enter. Shortly after that we got the green light and our ride up. When we got to the top there was down-bound tow waiting on the wall and his spotlight light was in our face as we slowly inched our way out of the lock. By now it was inky black and we chugged our way up to our anchorage in First Creek about 3 ½ miles above the lock. By the time we had our anchor down it was 9:20 at night and we were exhausted. Including our 6 ½ hours of waiting time it had taken 13 hours to travel 59 miles and transit two locks!
The next day we motored the final and uneventful ten miles up to Bay Hill marina and have spent the past month fighting off mayflies, catching up with cruising friends here, and following the oil spill news as we wonder about our winter plans, and being lazy.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
At Home in Columbus
When we get to Columbus it feels like coming home. We have spent time here in the past and the marina staff are like old friends. We know where to find things and best places to eat in town. We can leave Miss Lauren Grace and feel confident they will keep an eye on her while we are away.
Since getting here we have been busy moving the truck up from Florida and getting ready to go to Boise (yea!). We leave in a day or so and hope to be back by May 5th or 6th and continue on up the rivers somewhere.
Yesterday I was doing laundry and the preliminary packing, as well as trying to catch up on computer work and finish these blog entries. Larry was making sure the truck was ready to travel and doing a few boat chores. This afternoon we looked up and noticed a really big boat making its way to the dock, naturally Larry had to go and investigate.
The boat was the American Canadian Cruise Lines 175' Niagara Prince, we understand that she was cruising from New Orleans to Knoxville. At various times of the year the Niagara Prince and her sister ships the Grande Mariner & the Grande Caribe cruise the waters from New Orleans to Chicago, the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway from the Bahamas to New York, the Erie Canal, Lake Ontario and the coast of Maine & Nova Scotia. Each vessel carries 65 to 100 passengers and the fares range from about $3,500 to $6,000 per person. They have some neat sounding itineraries and it would be a great way to see the waterways if you aren't interested in boat ownership.
You know that we boat owners are always thinking about the next boat, aka as a bigger boat; but I gotta' tell you that I wouldn't relish the idea of backing something like this into a dock!
Since getting here we have been busy moving the truck up from Florida and getting ready to go to Boise (yea!). We leave in a day or so and hope to be back by May 5th or 6th and continue on up the rivers somewhere.
Yesterday I was doing laundry and the preliminary packing, as well as trying to catch up on computer work and finish these blog entries. Larry was making sure the truck was ready to travel and doing a few boat chores. This afternoon we looked up and noticed a really big boat making its way to the dock, naturally Larry had to go and investigate.
You know that we boat owners are always thinking about the next boat, aka as a bigger boat; but I gotta' tell you that I wouldn't relish the idea of backing something like this into a dock!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Morning on the Water
Many of you know that Larry and I prefer to not actually witness sunrise. We have a zillion photos (oops, don’t let the folks up in Washington hear that there is such a number... at least not with a $$$ sign in front of it) of sunsets but very few of sunrise. Sometimes though, when we are traveling, early departures are just unavoidable. However after eaving Mobile while traveling up the Tenn-Tom Waterway anchorages and marinas are few and far between making long days, and thus early departures, a necessary evil.
I must admit that on a warm, sunny morning it is a sublime experience to listen to the bird songs and enjoy the morning hush before we crank up the noisy old CATS to get underway. Not that I want to make a habit of it mind you, because those sunsets and twilight can be pretty spectacular too.
Spring morning at Sumter Morning Anchorage above Demopolis. This is one of our favorite anchoragesThe reason we choose to get underway early rather than enjoy that extra sleep in the morning is because on this particular stretch of water you never know what you might find. The river is constantly changing and shifting and silting in; if we arrive at a planned anchorage late and find that it has shoaled too much for us to enter we may not have enough daylight to find a safe haven. By starting early we can stop early if our planned anchorage is good, if it is not then we have a window of time to push farther before dark. Then again late afternoon in a quiet anchorage is hard to beat, especially with scenes like this to enjoy
Generally we plan on it being a 5 day trip upstream from Mobile to Columbus, MS, this year was no exception. This trip we encountered a lot of current below Coffeeville Lock probably due to two factors. First the river is tidal all the way to Coffeeville and the tide was against us and secondly there had been some rain about 24 hours before we started up and the river drains a large area in the mountains of Alabama. Tributaries include the Alabama River that goes to Montgomery and the Black Warrior that goes to Birmingham. The only real harm was that we had to push the power up to meet our goals which resulted in burning a little more fuel this trip. Basically I guess we spent what we saved last fall with the fast current taking us down. High water levels and the fast currents associated with it, along with wake from the many boats (commercial, recreational, and local) combine to wreck havoc with the riverbanks along much of the waterway
You can see that the landowners try just about anything to save their bank. Here the big home has had old concrete paving trucked in & dumped. We also see old tires, wood or concrete bulkhead and regular rip-rap stone. It appears none are totally successful.
Notice the size of the tree that was eroded to the point that it just fell over.The home/cabin below has been abandoned and none too soon, you can see that the front corner is no longer supported.
The scenery is diverse as you can see, the white cliffs are near Epes and they are not limestone but a chalk like rock that is even softer than limestone. I find it interesting that on one side are these high nearly pure white rock banks, while only a few miles up or downstream the rock is grey with the rusty streaks from minerals in the runoff water.
At anchorage in pretty little Foscue Creek near Demopolis, AL we saw the USCG Buoy Tender Wedge moored at the Coast Guard Station there. They could really have used a little of her services on the river below Demopolis where many of the navigation marks have fallen victim to the erosion mentioned above.
This Daymark is about to become another victim of the bank erosion.
On our last day before reaching Columbus we passed a string of nice homes and one had this houseboat sitting out front. This has to be one of my favorite ever boat names!Busy Times in Port of Mobile
When we came up Mobile Bay last week we realized that it’s been four years since we first brought Lauren Grace up from the Gulf on our first cruise with her. A lot has changed in those years, not the least of which was the increase in activity that we observed in the Port of Mobile. There is a huge new cruise ship that was put into service last fall; unfortunately she was not in port the day we transited so I couldn’t include a photo of her. I did get these shots of container ships being loaded. I hope that you can see the crane setting the blue container (looks like a boxcar) in its place on the stack in this photo
Austal also built the gigantic and controversial Hawaiian “super ferry”.
This cool picture is of the LCS2 sitting in the ways at the Austal Yard. Larry thinks this shot is awesome.
In this shot the huge tugboat is applying pressure to keep the ship tight against the wharf during the loading process. Partly this is necessary because of the wakes caused by the activity in the area and partly due to the effect that the tide has on the current and thus the movement of the ship
This shot is of a “dry-dock”. In other words a ship is pushed into this docking device, the water is pumped out and the dock with the ship is raised to the surface in order to provide a dry platform from which to work on the ship. The tarp is probably not hiding any trade secrets; rather it is being used to contain the dust & material sanded from the ship’s hull.
Industry in Mobile is doing better than in many places during this downturn. The shipbuilding firm Austal, working in some sort of partnership with General Dynamics just completed one of the Navy’s new littoral combat ships – LCS2 now known as the U.S.S. Independence. We were lucky enough to actually get to see the new LCS as she was moored in the shipyard when we came down to Mobile last fall. They are claiming that the tri-maran can move its weapons around faster than any other ship in the Navy. The top photo below shows the Mobile skyline in the background as she is underway and the bottom photo is how we saw her last fall. Disregard the date stamp on the bottom picture, I got this from another source because we were a little too busy dodging debris to take any photos last fall.
Do yourself a favor and follow the links above to learn more about the newest ship in our Navy’s line. By the way littoral means “close to shore”, and that's where these ships will operate. They're tailor-made for launching helicopters and armored vehicles, sweeping mines and firing all manner of torpedoes, missiles and machine guns.
Austal also built the gigantic and controversial Hawaiian “super ferry”.
This cool picture is of the LCS2 sitting in the ways at the Austal Yard. Larry thinks this shot is awesome.A short distance up the Mobile River from the actual Port work is progressing on the huge new ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA mill that will be one of the world’s most sophisticated carbon and stainless steel processing facilities. I read somewhere that the project is currently the largest private industrial investments in the U.S. It is a welcome case of job in-sourcing in the U.S. at a time when many companies are moving jobs overseas. The project will create an estimated 2,700 permanent jobs domestically when it becomes fully operational in 2010.
I’m guessing that means that traffic will continue to increase on this stretch of water.Here you can see the work being done at the loading docks for the steel mill
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Miss Lauren Grace is on the Move
I almost hesitate to say it but I have decided to be bold and say that spring has finally sprung. For the past 10 days the weather has been glorious here on the Northern Gulf Coast and we have been enjoying it.
With friends aboard we left our friendly winter home, Port St. Joe Marina, on the first day of spring and had a beautiful ride outside to Panama City. For you non-boaters out there the term “outside” means that a boat travels in the large body of water (in this case the Gulf of Mexico) as opposed to traveling in the ICW which is generally more protected. It’s nice to run outside because it is often (but not always) a shorter distance and there aren’t any “no wake zones”; it can be rough out there as well so we try to pick & choose our days and that day was glorious. The forecast however was for deteriorating weather so we decided to forego a planned return visit to Crooked Island, where the photos below were snapped, (see entry dated March 13, 2010) and head on into a marina in Panama City. This proved to be a VERY good decision.
The next morning was windy and cloudy with rain in the forecast. Our friends, Pete & Linda, had driven down and thanks to a little help from friends on "Eagle One" we had already positioned a car in Panama City with an eye to playing automobile hopscotch across the Panhandle. By doing this we could ensure that their car would be available when they were ready to drive home. Accordingly we took advantage of the rainy day to send the boys back to PSJ to manage a car switcheroo. While they were gone the front came through and we saw nearly 3 foot waves in the marina, most definitely this was not the sort of day to go “outside”!! Heck, for a while it was so rough that we didn't feel comfortable trying to get off the boat and to the dock. Thank goodness that extreme only lasted for 3-4 hours before things began to calm down.
After a long layover at PC waiting for the winds to settle down we enjoyed a nice ride across Choctawhatchee Bay (see entry dated January 19, 2010) before taking another lay day in Fort Walton and then enjoying a beautiful anchorage near Pensacola. Continuing west we had a fun lunch at Lu-Lu’s (a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet's "Crazy Sista", Lucy) and a spectacular anchorage in one of our favorite places, Ingram Bayou, before Pete & Linda had to leave us and head back to work.
After a calm run up Mobile Bay we arrived in Fairhope, AL (one of our favorite places, in fact we might just move here when we grow up) for a quick visit with our old friends the Kelley's. Reluctantly we left there on Wednesday and ran across to the West side of Mobile Bay to fuel up and wait out a day of bad weather before we begin our trek North on the Tenn-Tom. I had hoped to snag a courtesy car for a visit to see the spring blooms at Bellingrath Gardens while we were here in Dog River but none was available so we amused ourselves by fighting off noseeums (which were biting like the devil) and watching this pelican fish for his dinner.
With friends aboard we left our friendly winter home, Port St. Joe Marina, on the first day of spring and had a beautiful ride outside to Panama City. For you non-boaters out there the term “outside” means that a boat travels in the large body of water (in this case the Gulf of Mexico) as opposed to traveling in the ICW which is generally more protected. It’s nice to run outside because it is often (but not always) a shorter distance and there aren’t any “no wake zones”; it can be rough out there as well so we try to pick & choose our days and that day was glorious. The forecast however was for deteriorating weather so we decided to forego a planned return visit to Crooked Island, where the photos below were snapped, (see entry dated March 13, 2010) and head on into a marina in Panama City. This proved to be a VERY good decision.
After a long layover at PC waiting for the winds to settle down we enjoyed a nice ride across Choctawhatchee Bay (see entry dated January 19, 2010) before taking another lay day in Fort Walton and then enjoying a beautiful anchorage near Pensacola. Continuing west we had a fun lunch at Lu-Lu’s (a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet's "Crazy Sista", Lucy) and a spectacular anchorage in one of our favorite places, Ingram Bayou, before Pete & Linda had to leave us and head back to work.
We are set to head North tomorrow, hopefully the rains will hold off for another week and we will have an easy run with very little current as we head up to Columbus, MS where we hope to leave the boat while we go to Boise and visit the girls
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Crooked Island, a little piece of paradise
It finally feels as though Winter might be loosening its grip on the Panhandle, I say "might" because as I write this the wind is once again blowing 25 mph from the NW (with gusts even higher). Last weekend though was glorious, calm, warm, and sunny so we went boating.
About 20 miles to the North of Port St. Joe there is a little anchorage right off the Gulf of Mexico that has been calling our name (however not loudly enough to entice us away from the electric heat, until now). The name of this little slice of heaven is Crooked Island, all fall and winter we have heard how beautiful it is, how great the shelling is, how deserted it is. Last weekend the weather was finally perfect for a run up to check it out and we were so excited to untie our dock lines and see for ourselves. Oh my it was all that and more! We headed out armed with the way points that the locals here use to get over the bar and into the anchorage, and in the company of our friends Ed & Lucy aboard their boat "I Love Lucy". Our plan was to rendezvous with another boat, "Sea Sea" coming down from Panama City and spend a couple of lazy days at anchor and enjoying the beach. I love it when a plan comes together without a hitch!
The sky was crystal clear, the sunsets were spectacular, the shelling was unbelievable. Part of the reason for the great shelling is that the only way to get to this beach is by boat so things aren't picked over by a zillion other tourists. We must have found over fifty sand dollars in just a couple of hours. After seeing the prices of these sand dollars in the tourist shops I sure think the name is appropriate.
An interesting thing about Crooked Island is that the North border of the bay where we anchored is part of Tyndall AFB. One of the things they do at Tyndall is to shoot drones into the Gulf. I thought they were doing this just for our Monday entertainment but Larry assures me there is a more compelling reason. The mission here is to train pilots to intercept and destroy enemy missiles and aircraft. From the shoreline on the North side of our anchorage rocket fired drones are launched out into the Gulf at subsonic speeds, planes then seek to intercept and destroy them. When these exercises are being conducted boaters are restricted from traveling in the "launch corridor"; this means that if you are passing by in the Gulf you must be some distance off of the shore. How far off depends on the instructions that they announce on the radio, sometimes 3 miles and occasionally as much as 12 miles off shore. Boats anchored in the bay must be on the far East end, if you are anchored to the West of their imaginary line you will be required to leave or to move farther East. If you are on the beach they will come and tell you to remain to the East of the "line". These precautions are to ensure that boaters and beachcombers are safe from harm when the booster rockets drop off, or in the event any of these devices crash as they are launched.
This was just another really cool opportunity that our somewhat unusual lifestyle affords us. I mean how many people even know this kind of thing happens, sure if you think about it it makes logical sense but I never actually bothered to think about it before.
About 20 miles to the North of Port St. Joe there is a little anchorage right off the Gulf of Mexico that has been calling our name (however not loudly enough to entice us away from the electric heat, until now). The name of this little slice of heaven is Crooked Island, all fall and winter we have heard how beautiful it is, how great the shelling is, how deserted it is. Last weekend the weather was finally perfect for a run up to check it out and we were so excited to untie our dock lines and see for ourselves. Oh my it was all that and more! We headed out armed with the way points that the locals here use to get over the bar and into the anchorage, and in the company of our friends Ed & Lucy aboard their boat "I Love Lucy". Our plan was to rendezvous with another boat, "Sea Sea" coming down from Panama City and spend a couple of lazy days at anchor and enjoying the beach. I love it when a plan comes together without a hitch!
The sky was crystal clear, the sunsets were spectacular, the shelling was unbelievable. Part of the reason for the great shelling is that the only way to get to this beach is by boat so things aren't picked over by a zillion other tourists. We must have found over fifty sand dollars in just a couple of hours. After seeing the prices of these sand dollars in the tourist shops I sure think the name is appropriate.
An interesting thing about Crooked Island is that the North border of the bay where we anchored is part of Tyndall AFB. One of the things they do at Tyndall is to shoot drones into the Gulf. I thought they were doing this just for our Monday entertainment but Larry assures me there is a more compelling reason. The mission here is to train pilots to intercept and destroy enemy missiles and aircraft. From the shoreline on the North side of our anchorage rocket fired drones are launched out into the Gulf at subsonic speeds, planes then seek to intercept and destroy them. When these exercises are being conducted boaters are restricted from traveling in the "launch corridor"; this means that if you are passing by in the Gulf you must be some distance off of the shore. How far off depends on the instructions that they announce on the radio, sometimes 3 miles and occasionally as much as 12 miles off shore. Boats anchored in the bay must be on the far East end, if you are anchored to the West of their imaginary line you will be required to leave or to move farther East. If you are on the beach they will come and tell you to remain to the East of the "line". These precautions are to ensure that boaters and beachcombers are safe from harm when the booster rockets drop off, or in the event any of these devices crash as they are launched.
This was just another really cool opportunity that our somewhat unusual lifestyle affords us. I mean how many people even know this kind of thing happens, sure if you think about it it makes logical sense but I never actually bothered to think about it before.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Charming Apalachicola
The town of Apalachicola lies about 25 miles East of Port St. Joe on US Hwy 98. Foodies across the land are likely familiar with the name because it is here that some of the best oysters, in fact many would argue the best, in the country are harvested and processed. There are approximately 200 oyster growing appellations in North America so what, you may wonder, makes these so special? Some say it is the nearly perfect combination of clean fresh and nutrient rich water from the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers which meets the salty seawater of Apalachicola Bay to create an ideal estuarine environment where baby oysters enjoy the optimum salinity and temperature to grow big and juicy.
Oysters are bi-valves and feed on single-cell plants they filter from the water passing over and through the "beds" where they grow. the oysters (Crassostrea virginica) that thrive in Apalachicola Bay grow rapidly and generally reach market size in two years or a little less. The Florida Gulf Coast in one of only a few areas where oysters are still harvested commercially from small boats by "tonging". That means that the fishermen use large rake like devices known as tongs to dislodge oysters from the bed and scoop them up and into the boat; talk about hard work.
Whatever the reason for the excellent quality and flavor of oysters grown in Apalachicola Bay we are quite appreciative of the result and find ourselves heading over to “Apalach”, as the locals say, at least once a week to get our oyster fix. Not that that we can’t enjoy the same fine oysters here in Port St. Joe, in fact the marina restaurant has a “2 for 1” weekday special (steamed, baked, or on the half-shell) that we try to take advantage of at least once a week. But the Boss Oyster Company restaurant over in Apalach has the best oyster po’boy that we have found outside of New Orleans and since we are so close, well, it would be foolish not to enjoy ‘em while we can
On our most recent excursion we took the opportunity to visit the John Gorrie Museum. Dr. Gorrie was the inventor of the original ice machine which was the precursor to refrigeration that we now take for granted. As a physician he was looking for a way to cool the air and relieve the suffering of his patients suffering from Yellow Fever. Dr. Gorrie received the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851, however he died without enjoying the commercial success of his work. While the Gorrie Museum was interesting we already knew much of the story and just stopped in because it was open on the day we were in town. The real treasure for the day was our visit to the Orman House Historic State Park for what our friend Joe Rattini described as the “best two dollar tour I ever got". The park ranger that gave the tour was quite a history buff and was a treasure trove of information on the town of Apalachicola as well as the Orman family and the general history of the region.
Apalachicola has seen both boom and bust many times throughout its rich history; first as a thriving port shipping cotton from Alabama & Georgia to Europe. During the Civil War the town's economy was shattered by a blockade that closed the port. About a decade after the end of the Civil War the lumber boom brought the community back to boom times which lasted until about 1930 when the area was finally stripped of Cypress. As the lumbering boom faded Apalach turned again to the rich waters and became the third largest sponging center in Florida. Today the fishing industry thrives and oysters harvested here are shipped around the world. Apalachicola is also working hard to re-invent itself as a tourist destination with more cute shops and new restaurants springing up each season. It sure works for us.
Oysters are bi-valves and feed on single-cell plants they filter from the water passing over and through the "beds" where they grow. the oysters (Crassostrea virginica) that thrive in Apalachicola Bay grow rapidly and generally reach market size in two years or a little less. The Florida Gulf Coast in one of only a few areas where oysters are still harvested commercially from small boats by "tonging". That means that the fishermen use large rake like devices known as tongs to dislodge oysters from the bed and scoop them up and into the boat; talk about hard work.
Whatever the reason for the excellent quality and flavor of oysters grown in Apalachicola Bay we are quite appreciative of the result and find ourselves heading over to “Apalach”, as the locals say, at least once a week to get our oyster fix. Not that that we can’t enjoy the same fine oysters here in Port St. Joe, in fact the marina restaurant has a “2 for 1” weekday special (steamed, baked, or on the half-shell) that we try to take advantage of at least once a week. But the Boss Oyster Company restaurant over in Apalach has the best oyster po’boy that we have found outside of New Orleans and since we are so close, well, it would be foolish not to enjoy ‘em while we can
On our most recent excursion we took the opportunity to visit the John Gorrie Museum. Dr. Gorrie was the inventor of the original ice machine which was the precursor to refrigeration that we now take for granted. As a physician he was looking for a way to cool the air and relieve the suffering of his patients suffering from Yellow Fever. Dr. Gorrie received the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851, however he died without enjoying the commercial success of his work. While the Gorrie Museum was interesting we already knew much of the story and just stopped in because it was open on the day we were in town. The real treasure for the day was our visit to the Orman House Historic State Park for what our friend Joe Rattini described as the “best two dollar tour I ever got". The park ranger that gave the tour was quite a history buff and was a treasure trove of information on the town of Apalachicola as well as the Orman family and the general history of the region.
Apalachicola has seen both boom and bust many times throughout its rich history; first as a thriving port shipping cotton from Alabama & Georgia to Europe. During the Civil War the town's economy was shattered by a blockade that closed the port. About a decade after the end of the Civil War the lumber boom brought the community back to boom times which lasted until about 1930 when the area was finally stripped of Cypress. As the lumbering boom faded Apalach turned again to the rich waters and became the third largest sponging center in Florida. Today the fishing industry thrives and oysters harvested here are shipped around the world. Apalachicola is also working hard to re-invent itself as a tourist destination with more cute shops and new restaurants springing up each season. It sure works for us.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Campho-Phenique, the wonder drug
Well OK “wonder drug” assertion may be a bit too strong, then again….
I don’t expect that a lot of folks reading this, excepting my siblings and possibly my pharmacist friend CJ, will even know what Campho-Phenique Pain Relieving Antiseptic Liquid is. As a kid growing up my Grannie used it for mosquito bites as well as a host of other childhood maladies. As I recall there was practically nothing wrong with us that couldn’t be doctored either by applications of her Campho Phenique or my Dad’s Merthiolate (which, along with mercurochrome, appears to have been taken off of the market due to concerns about mercury). When my sisters and I were together last month we were talking about this wonder drug and the fact that Grannie even used it for the “sick headache” which plagued her (and which we now recognize as migraines). When she had the “sick headache” she would moisten a handkerchief with Campho Phenique and hold it to her nose.
This week a yellow-green pollen has been floating around and gathering on every available surface, even the water. Two days ago I woke up with a horrible headache and sore throat; just as I was about to call my baby sister and rag her out for giving me her cold over the phone (just kidding) I realized that I don’t have a cold it’s allergies. The next day, when I thought my head would explode from the pressure and the Claritin wasn’t even making a dent, I went to the internet to see how long I could expect to suffer before dying of a sinus infection. Can you believe that they aren’t considered fatal; learning that I searched for remedies. One easy thing to do was a steam tent, reading further I learned that some homeopathic practices recommend adding spirits of camphor or lavender oil to the steaming water. Now I am currently located in a very small town where the department store is Dollar General and yes they do have a CVS however I didn’t hold out much hope that I would find lavender oil there. BUT I come from resourceful stock and (you had to know this was coming) I do carry Campho Phenique aboard so I put some in the boiling water, Voila! The headache eased and I got a decent night’s sleep.
Now if my taste buds would just reactivate I would be happy.
I don’t expect that a lot of folks reading this, excepting my siblings and possibly my pharmacist friend CJ, will even know what Campho-Phenique Pain Relieving Antiseptic Liquid is. As a kid growing up my Grannie used it for mosquito bites as well as a host of other childhood maladies. As I recall there was practically nothing wrong with us that couldn’t be doctored either by applications of her Campho Phenique or my Dad’s Merthiolate (which, along with mercurochrome, appears to have been taken off of the market due to concerns about mercury). When my sisters and I were together last month we were talking about this wonder drug and the fact that Grannie even used it for the “sick headache” which plagued her (and which we now recognize as migraines). When she had the “sick headache” she would moisten a handkerchief with Campho Phenique and hold it to her nose.
This week a yellow-green pollen has been floating around and gathering on every available surface, even the water. Two days ago I woke up with a horrible headache and sore throat; just as I was about to call my baby sister and rag her out for giving me her cold over the phone (just kidding) I realized that I don’t have a cold it’s allergies. The next day, when I thought my head would explode from the pressure and the Claritin wasn’t even making a dent, I went to the internet to see how long I could expect to suffer before dying of a sinus infection. Can you believe that they aren’t considered fatal; learning that I searched for remedies. One easy thing to do was a steam tent, reading further I learned that some homeopathic practices recommend adding spirits of camphor or lavender oil to the steaming water. Now I am currently located in a very small town where the department store is Dollar General and yes they do have a CVS however I didn’t hold out much hope that I would find lavender oil there. BUT I come from resourceful stock and (you had to know this was coming) I do carry Campho Phenique aboard so I put some in the boiling water, Voila! The headache eased and I got a decent night’s sleep.
Now if my taste buds would just reactivate I would be happy.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
What’s In A Name?
I am a sucker for a catchy name, I will admit to, sometimes, going into a shop just because of the name or even trying a product or menu item because I like the way the name sounds. So last week when we drove through the little town of Wewahitchka I was smitten. Heretofore I had considered Waxahachie the most memorable town name; we first drove through there over 40 years ago and I’ve never forgotten it. Now I must confess that I know nothing about Waxahachie (I am a bit lazy there was no internet back then to make research easy), but I have the scoop on Wewahitchka. It is pronounced phonetically (We- wah- hitch’- ka) however it did take two tries on road signs to figure that out; my excuse for this is that I’m getting old and have bad eyes. Feeling sure it was an Indian word I went to the internet to find out the meaning of the name, which, by the way, is “water eyes”. http://www.floridavisiting.com/towns/Wewahitchka.html
It was there that I discovered the most interesting bit of information about Wewahitchka; it is the site of Florida’s largest beekeeping operations. I read that it was the setting for the 1996 movie Ulee’s Gold but, not being much of a movie buff, the significance was lost on me. Turns out that the “Gold” in the title refers to the wonderful Tupelo Honey that is produced in Wewahitchka, in fact it is the only area of the country where Tupelo honey is commercially produced. Larry really enjoys honey; I didn’t think I cared for it much until we started sampling locally produced honey as we traveled; now I love it too. Like many products the difference between the commercially packaged nondescript honey available at the grocery and the product that is produced by local apiaries is incredible. When you buy honey from the beekeeper who has a booth at a local farmer’s market or fair it is generally labeled as to what kind of blooms the bees fed on to produce that particular honey. The flavor and color of the honey varies considerably with the nectar source.
Three years ago when we were in the town of Apalachicola for a few days we bought a jar of Tupelo honey and oh my goodness was it wonderful, we have asked for it often in the past few years but never been able to find it and now I know why. The best Tupelo Honey comes from the nectar of the white tupelo, Nyssa Ogeche, which grows in abundance on the shores of the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers here. The flavor is unique, sweet and mild but not cloying. Some people put jelly on their toast but we prefer a bit of honey, and honey on pancakes makes the pancake almost worth eating; on buckwheat pancakes it is sublime. Perhaps the best thing about pure Tupelo Honey is that it will not granulate, even if you have it in the cabinet for some time. This is because of a high fructose to glucose ratio (more fructose than glucose). You can follow these links to find out more about Florida Tupelo Honey
http://www.lltupelohoney.com/ourproduct.htm
http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/tupelofacts.cfm
Next week we are going to drive back up to Wewa (as the locals call it) to stock up on some Tupelo Honey. On the way I plan to pause and check out the details of another sign I saw, it read “Certified Beach Sand”. I just have to find out who “certifies” it and, more curiously, why?
It was there that I discovered the most interesting bit of information about Wewahitchka; it is the site of Florida’s largest beekeeping operations. I read that it was the setting for the 1996 movie Ulee’s Gold but, not being much of a movie buff, the significance was lost on me. Turns out that the “Gold” in the title refers to the wonderful Tupelo Honey that is produced in Wewahitchka, in fact it is the only area of the country where Tupelo honey is commercially produced. Larry really enjoys honey; I didn’t think I cared for it much until we started sampling locally produced honey as we traveled; now I love it too. Like many products the difference between the commercially packaged nondescript honey available at the grocery and the product that is produced by local apiaries is incredible. When you buy honey from the beekeeper who has a booth at a local farmer’s market or fair it is generally labeled as to what kind of blooms the bees fed on to produce that particular honey. The flavor and color of the honey varies considerably with the nectar source.
Three years ago when we were in the town of Apalachicola for a few days we bought a jar of Tupelo honey and oh my goodness was it wonderful, we have asked for it often in the past few years but never been able to find it and now I know why. The best Tupelo Honey comes from the nectar of the white tupelo, Nyssa Ogeche, which grows in abundance on the shores of the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers here. The flavor is unique, sweet and mild but not cloying. Some people put jelly on their toast but we prefer a bit of honey, and honey on pancakes makes the pancake almost worth eating; on buckwheat pancakes it is sublime. Perhaps the best thing about pure Tupelo Honey is that it will not granulate, even if you have it in the cabinet for some time. This is because of a high fructose to glucose ratio (more fructose than glucose). You can follow these links to find out more about Florida Tupelo Honey
http://www.lltupelohoney.com/ourproduct.htm
http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/tupelofacts.cfm
Next week we are going to drive back up to Wewa (as the locals call it) to stock up on some Tupelo Honey. On the way I plan to pause and check out the details of another sign I saw, it read “Certified Beach Sand”. I just have to find out who “certifies” it and, more curiously, why?
Friday, February 5, 2010
“You Went Where"???!!!
To Kansas City, in the middle of winter, what were you thinking? Well, perhaps I wasn’t really thinking, instead I just followed my heart. Many of you know that I have three sisters (and four brothers, but we aren’t talking about them here). The youngest sister, Christina, lives in Kansas City and is nearly 19 years younger than I. The others are Roni, in St. Louis, and Lisa, in Raleigh, NC,
I think part of the reason it was so much fun is because it was really spontaneous, Roni put it together at the last minute and we just did it. Roni had a credit on Southwest for a flight that she was unable to take last year, it was a “use it by ___ or loose it” type thing and since she wasn’t in a position to use it and didn’t want to let it go to waste Roni decided to give it to Lisa so that she could visit Christina on her Birthday. Then an idea began to germinate and she called me in mid-January and asked “can you get to an airport to fly to KC on the weekend of the 30th”? “If you can I’ll drive up and we can all celebrate together.” Thus was born the Sisters’ Weekend and we had a ball.
What did we do? Nothing so special, just talked & laughed, the laughter was the best. We shared pictures of our Grands (Roni’s & mine), remembered our Auntie and Grannie who were very special women in our lives, and played with Christina’s kids. As I mentioned Christina is quite a bit younger than I am and she had children far later in life than I did, so her kids are now 4, 7 & 9 (almost). Like most kids that age they love hearing about when their Mommy was a little kid and boy did we have stories for them.
The kids introduced me to Wii and were a little put off by my limited skills at Wii Sports. Apparently if you normally bowl gutter balls and are unable to connect with a tennis ball in real life you don’t improve any with an electronic wand in your hand! I had heard that the three of them wanted to challenge the three Aunties to a game but I think after playing with me they decided it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to beat any team I was on.
So, despite the freezing temperatures in Kansas City and the big snowstorm forecast for Raleigh that caused a last minute change in Lisa’s travel plans, we had a great celebration. Christina made everyone’s favorite cookies for us; mine are brownies! I must tell you though, we did agree to handle future celebrations a bit differently; we will either gather on my birthday (which is the only one in a warm weather month), or we will gather in Cancun and not KC!
Here’s to sisters!
I think part of the reason it was so much fun is because it was really spontaneous, Roni put it together at the last minute and we just did it. Roni had a credit on Southwest for a flight that she was unable to take last year, it was a “use it by ___ or loose it” type thing and since she wasn’t in a position to use it and didn’t want to let it go to waste Roni decided to give it to Lisa so that she could visit Christina on her Birthday. Then an idea began to germinate and she called me in mid-January and asked “can you get to an airport to fly to KC on the weekend of the 30th”? “If you can I’ll drive up and we can all celebrate together.” Thus was born the Sisters’ Weekend and we had a ball.
What did we do? Nothing so special, just talked & laughed, the laughter was the best. We shared pictures of our Grands (Roni’s & mine), remembered our Auntie and Grannie who were very special women in our lives, and played with Christina’s kids. As I mentioned Christina is quite a bit younger than I am and she had children far later in life than I did, so her kids are now 4, 7 & 9 (almost). Like most kids that age they love hearing about when their Mommy was a little kid and boy did we have stories for them.
The kids introduced me to Wii and were a little put off by my limited skills at Wii Sports. Apparently if you normally bowl gutter balls and are unable to connect with a tennis ball in real life you don’t improve any with an electronic wand in your hand! I had heard that the three of them wanted to challenge the three Aunties to a game but I think after playing with me they decided it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to beat any team I was on.
So, despite the freezing temperatures in Kansas City and the big snowstorm forecast for Raleigh that caused a last minute change in Lisa’s travel plans, we had a great celebration. Christina made everyone’s favorite cookies for us; mine are brownies! I must tell you though, we did agree to handle future celebrations a bit differently; we will either gather on my birthday (which is the only one in a warm weather month), or we will gather in Cancun and not KC!
Here’s to sisters!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Winter in Port St. Joe
We are loving it here in Port St. Joe where we can ride our bikes everywhere and not worry about the traffic. We can walk to the grocery, well, Piggley Wiggley which is the only choice. Larry has found a rifle/pistol range within biking distance and the fresh shrimp are fabulous. Most days are in the 60's but nights are chilly (40's) and every few days brings another front.
OK I promised some history and I must start by apologizing for including incorrect information in the January 21, 2010 entry. The FL Constitution was not signed here in 1838. Rather the convention convened in St. Joseph (now Port St. Joe) in December of that year and the Constitution for the Territory of Florida was signed in 1839; however Florida did not become a State until 1845, by which time St. Joseph had virtually disappeared.
The community owes its rapid growth, as well as its untimely demise, to the fact that it is a natural deep-water port. By the time that Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1821 the area known at St. Joseph Bay was already recognized for the deep bay that provided for a natural port. By 1832 people had already began settling in the area and in 1836 the town of St. Joseph was established.
If you are blessed by nature with a great sea port the next thing you will need is transportation to move goods to and from. Thus it was that in 1839 one of the first steam railroads in the Country, the St. Joseph & Iola, was completed. The primary cargo was cotton that was shipped by rail from Georgia and Alabama to St. Joseph and then loaded on ships bound for Europe.
The town was thriving and movers and shakers of the time were attracted by the mild climate and beautiful beaches. Politicians (especially those from Jacksonville and St. Augustine), not trusting the upstart outpost in Tallahassee, decided on the more neutral location of St. Joseph in which to gather and write Territorial Constitution in late 1838.
The little town continued to prosper. Then in July 1841 a ship entered the Port bearing, along with its cargo, the dreaded Yellow Fever. By August of that year somewhere between 62% and 75% of the population of the town had died; most of the rest had fled. The town dried up overnight, even some of the buildings were taken down and moved elsewhere. We were surprised to see that even the cemetery has no marked graves remaining, although there is a stone that mentions notable people that are believed to be buried there. It is thought that so many were dying that it was impossible to keep up with the burials and it is known that many were buried in mass graves as there were few people to dig the required number of graves.
A few years later in 1844 a hurricane arrived that, in the words of one local historian, “buried beneath the sands of the sea, or swept to the four winds of heaven, all that remained of the proud young city of St. Joseph”. The area however continued to be a favorite of sportsmen and eventually their families leading to the rebirth of the town renamed Port St. Joe which was incorporated in 1913.
Again, thanks to the port, there was rapid growth which gave birth to a lucrative lumber industry. In the 1920’s Alfred DuPont began accumulating property which ultimately led to the creation of the St. Joe Paper Company. In 1936 the St. Joe Paper Company began construction of a paper mill that remained in production until it was forced to close 1999. Today the town of Port St. Joe is small and sleepy, tourists are not too common during the winter and development has been slow to take hold despite the beautiful beaches and mild winters. St. Joseph Bay has been rehabilitated in the years since the paper mill closed and is now some of the cleanest water along the coast, you may want to follow this link for more information http://www.floridadep.org/coastal/sites/stjoseph/description/history.htm
OK I promised some history and I must start by apologizing for including incorrect information in the January 21, 2010 entry. The FL Constitution was not signed here in 1838. Rather the convention convened in St. Joseph (now Port St. Joe) in December of that year and the Constitution for the Territory of Florida was signed in 1839; however Florida did not become a State until 1845, by which time St. Joseph had virtually disappeared.
The community owes its rapid growth, as well as its untimely demise, to the fact that it is a natural deep-water port. By the time that Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1821 the area known at St. Joseph Bay was already recognized for the deep bay that provided for a natural port. By 1832 people had already began settling in the area and in 1836 the town of St. Joseph was established.
If you are blessed by nature with a great sea port the next thing you will need is transportation to move goods to and from. Thus it was that in 1839 one of the first steam railroads in the Country, the St. Joseph & Iola, was completed. The primary cargo was cotton that was shipped by rail from Georgia and Alabama to St. Joseph and then loaded on ships bound for Europe.
The town was thriving and movers and shakers of the time were attracted by the mild climate and beautiful beaches. Politicians (especially those from Jacksonville and St. Augustine), not trusting the upstart outpost in Tallahassee, decided on the more neutral location of St. Joseph in which to gather and write Territorial Constitution in late 1838.
The little town continued to prosper. Then in July 1841 a ship entered the Port bearing, along with its cargo, the dreaded Yellow Fever. By August of that year somewhere between 62% and 75% of the population of the town had died; most of the rest had fled. The town dried up overnight, even some of the buildings were taken down and moved elsewhere. We were surprised to see that even the cemetery has no marked graves remaining, although there is a stone that mentions notable people that are believed to be buried there. It is thought that so many were dying that it was impossible to keep up with the burials and it is known that many were buried in mass graves as there were few people to dig the required number of graves.
A few years later in 1844 a hurricane arrived that, in the words of one local historian, “buried beneath the sands of the sea, or swept to the four winds of heaven, all that remained of the proud young city of St. Joseph”. The area however continued to be a favorite of sportsmen and eventually their families leading to the rebirth of the town renamed Port St. Joe which was incorporated in 1913.
Again, thanks to the port, there was rapid growth which gave birth to a lucrative lumber industry. In the 1920’s Alfred DuPont began accumulating property which ultimately led to the creation of the St. Joe Paper Company. In 1936 the St. Joe Paper Company began construction of a paper mill that remained in production until it was forced to close 1999. Today the town of Port St. Joe is small and sleepy, tourists are not too common during the winter and development has been slow to take hold despite the beautiful beaches and mild winters. St. Joseph Bay has been rehabilitated in the years since the paper mill closed and is now some of the cleanest water along the coast, you may want to follow this link for more information http://www.floridadep.org/coastal/sites/stjoseph/description/history.htm
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Here We Are
We spent the last 3 days traveling in order to reach our destination for the next month, Port St. Joe, FL. We have heard that it is a sleepy little piece of “old Florida” and are excited to explore and play here for a while. Luckily we managed to get into port and secured a few hours before the rain arrived yesterday evening. Today it is windy and rainy and we are doing little exploring at all, instead we are catching up with e-mails, re-setting our clocks to Eastern Time and being lazy.
I understand there is a lot of history here, including the fact that the Florida Constitution was signed here in 1838. Count on more historical tidbits as I learn them.
I understand there is a lot of history here, including the fact that the Florida Constitution was signed here in 1838. Count on more historical tidbits as I learn them.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
On the Water Again
Miss Lauren Grace and her crew started the new sailing year off right with a delightful crossing of Choctawhatchee Bay (between Ft. Walton and Panama City) in flat calm conditions! Considering we have certainly navigated much larger bodies of water you may be wondering why this is noteworthy; the short answer is that we took the worst spanking of our boating experience on Choctawhatchee and we will never forget it.
Four years ago when we bought the Lauren Grace in Florida we brought her North to Kentucky Lake in order to facilitate moving aboard. We left Panama City on a bright sunny morning about 11:00 a.m. heading west; did I mention that we were somewhat inexperienced. The weather was beautiful, from a landlubber’s point of view, and we blissfully enjoyed a short passage through a land cut between Panama City and Choctawhatchee. When we came out into the bay it was WINDY, probably about 20 mph and right out of the West. This meant, for you non-boaters reading this, the waves were right on our bow; and they were BIG waves. Choctawhatchee Bay is 30 miles long, oriented East-West and fairly shallow. It was also noon or later when we arrived so there had been time to work up quite a good fetch over that 30 miles and the waves were probably about 3-4 ft and very close together. At the time I was certain they were at least 10 ft! Spray from our bow hitting the waves was going over the top of the flying bridge as the bow slammed into the trough before burying in the cresting wave. In addition the navigation marks were few and far between and it was difficult to focus the binoculars in order to find them (we didn’t have a chart plotter yet and we were too inexperienced to think to turn on the radar on a clear sunny day). We used our sailing skills and tried to minimize the pounding by “tacking” across the waves and then “tacking” back, this provided only a small improvement in the ride but it did manage to significantly lengthen our trip across, thus prolonging the misery.
We have since had quite enjoyable rides across C Bay but we always treat it with a great deal of respect and always try to have anything that can move lashed down as we approach it, just in case. This time we knew it would be a good day when the porpoises starting playing around us nearly as soon as we got underway.
As we arrived in Panama City friends we cruised with up on the Tennessee this past summer were standing by to catch our lines. It has been a good day.
We have enjoyed being on the move again. When we returned from Boise in early January it was freezing in the Western Panhandle, as it was in most of the country. Too cold to enjoy traveling so we remained in our marina on Perdido Key, Fl (just East of Orange Beach, AL) with the heaters running on high.
Four years ago when we bought the Lauren Grace in Florida we brought her North to Kentucky Lake in order to facilitate moving aboard. We left Panama City on a bright sunny morning about 11:00 a.m. heading west; did I mention that we were somewhat inexperienced. The weather was beautiful, from a landlubber’s point of view, and we blissfully enjoyed a short passage through a land cut between Panama City and Choctawhatchee. When we came out into the bay it was WINDY, probably about 20 mph and right out of the West. This meant, for you non-boaters reading this, the waves were right on our bow; and they were BIG waves. Choctawhatchee Bay is 30 miles long, oriented East-West and fairly shallow. It was also noon or later when we arrived so there had been time to work up quite a good fetch over that 30 miles and the waves were probably about 3-4 ft and very close together. At the time I was certain they were at least 10 ft! Spray from our bow hitting the waves was going over the top of the flying bridge as the bow slammed into the trough before burying in the cresting wave. In addition the navigation marks were few and far between and it was difficult to focus the binoculars in order to find them (we didn’t have a chart plotter yet and we were too inexperienced to think to turn on the radar on a clear sunny day). We used our sailing skills and tried to minimize the pounding by “tacking” across the waves and then “tacking” back, this provided only a small improvement in the ride but it did manage to significantly lengthen our trip across, thus prolonging the misery.
We have since had quite enjoyable rides across C Bay but we always treat it with a great deal of respect and always try to have anything that can move lashed down as we approach it, just in case. This time we knew it would be a good day when the porpoises starting playing around us nearly as soon as we got underway.
As we arrived in Panama City friends we cruised with up on the Tennessee this past summer were standing by to catch our lines. It has been a good day.
We have enjoyed being on the move again. When we returned from Boise in early January it was freezing in the Western Panhandle, as it was in most of the country. Too cold to enjoy traveling so we remained in our marina on Perdido Key, Fl (just East of Orange Beach, AL) with the heaters running on high.
I have made one New Year's ressolution and that is to better learn how to manage pictures in Blogger; if any of you reading this can provide advice to help speed the learning curve of a Tech challenged grandma pleas e-mail me, as you can see below I need help.
Christmas break was perfect as we enjoyed the time we spent in the best gig of our lives, being Grammy & Grandpa, which Lauren is increasingly shortening to Grampy. You can tell that we are absolute fools where they are concerned.
Lauren is 5 already and quite grown up. She is phoning us on her own now and bossing us long di
stance.
Anna, our little sunshine, is just 1 and full of the dickens.
stance.
Anna, our little sunshine, is just 1 and full of the dickens.She is already saying a few words so I expect she will follow her sister's lead and be talking non-stop soon.
I thought nothing was finer than a brown-eyed girl…until little Miss blue eyes arrived!
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