Surviving our first hurricane

Well, okay, it wasn't technically a hurricane by the time it got here but these storms are unpredictable at best (and deadly at worst) so the watchword is caution. Of course you may ask (as I did) if we are so damn cautious how in the world did we get ourselves into this position. The truth is that hurricane season is generally considered to be over in November; by this time of year conditions don't usually support development of storms of this magnitude, or if they do develop out in the Atlantic they do not commonly come ashore in the US.

Knowing this we planned to arrive in Mobile in November, but this year Mother Nature decided to mess with us and so we found ourselves waiting for Hurricane Ida. We were both a little uneasy, well, make that downright edgy. As you know Miss Lauren Grace was sitting on the hard, insurance companies like this because in their experience boats ashore do not sustain as much damage as boats in the water. We didn't like the way it felt as the boat was buffeted by the wind. Generally when a boat is in the water she is better supported and does not shudder as much, also when a boat is anchored (as in a thunderstorm) she lies with her bow to the wind and presents less resistance; throughout this storm the wind was on our stern.

About noon on Monday the storm was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm that was also when the rain started. We worked until nearly dark finishing our preparations (detailed here Monday evening) and then all we could do was wait. Sometime mid-afternoon they were predicting landfall around 2:00 a.m., at some point they moved that up to midnight which was fine with us as we were ready to get it over with. Even though we were very tired from a long day of hard work we were too edgy for sleep so we spent the evening watching the storm on the local weather and on the computer (do we know how to have fun or what!). As we watched the storm was slowing down and landfall was being pushed back; finally about 2:00 a.m. I was unable to keep my eyes open any more and fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. At some point Larry must have crashed as well because when I awoke around 4:45 am he was sleeping. The wind was from the North and our stern was facing North, our stateroom (a fancy word for bedroom) is in the stern and I think that there was a change in the sound of the wind but whatever it was I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and checked the computer only to find that Ida had slowed down and was taking her sweet time. That was probably good news because the longer she spent over the cool water of the Northern Gulf the less punch she would pack when she did come ashore. The bad news was we were still waiting. Larry got up and checked outside where it was still raining hard then he went back to bed.

The record shows that Ida first came ashore on Dauphin Island at 5:40 am on November 10, 2009. For those not familiar with Alabama geography Dauphin Island is about 20 miles or so South of Mobile , it is a barrier island on the Western mouth of Mobile Bay. After Dauphin she crossed the bay and came ashore again near Bon Secour which is on the Southeastern tip of the bay. then she churned North up the bay. Because the eye wall had fallen apart we did not get the wind shift that generally accompanies a hurricane and the winds continued strong and gusty from the North/Northeast.

We had been expecting a storm surge and an extremely high tide, the arrival of the storm coincided with high tide and by 5:30 there was about 2' of water in the lot at Dog River Marina. This photo was taken about 6:30 am because I forgot all about getting the camera earlier.

In the photo above where you see the posts there is a dock behind those boats that is underwater, the long silver things you see are sailboat masts that were on blocks beside the dock, as you can see they are awash.

By the time I remembered to start taking pictures the tide was already going out and by 7:30 the dock was awash as you can see

And by 8:30 the flotsam had been stranded on the lot and things were mostly dry.
Here is Miss Lauren Grace with here pretty new bottom paint, the big timber you see floated under us on the tide, amazing that it could come in between the blocks that are supporting the keep and come to rest against the forward block. The final photo of the flags was taken about noon and you can see that the wind was still quite strong.

The day continued raw, windy and rainy but this morning (Wednesday) dawned bright and sunny, although still quite windy. So today we spent the entire day drying out the lockers on the flybridge (and all the contents) and then returning the "stuff" to the locker. We took the opportunity to re-arrange things a bit as well as divest ourselves of some stuff that we decided we don't need to haul around anymore. There was even water inside the table on our sundeck that my brother-in-law Hank made for us to keep our spare props in! We had stuff (ropes, bag chairs, swim flippers, fishing tackle) spread out all over the foredeck to dry in the sun.

To summarize we have spent a day preparing, a day drying out and putting things back together (and we still aren't finished), and some tense hours just waiting. What did we learn from Ida? Perhaps just that we can.

"On the hard" and waiting for Ida.

I have had a few questions about the photos that I included in the last post showing Miss Lauren Grace out of the water so perhaps a little explanation is in order for the non-boaters out there.

The blue contraption that you see in the photo is called a travel lift, you can see way better photos if you click on the link. Simply put it has two big slings that are suspended between the two sides. The lift is driven by the operator out onto two concrete piers that have conveniently been placed at exactly the same distance apart as the legs of the lift. The slings are lowered deep into the water and the boat is driven in between the concrete piers. The operator slowly tightens the slings and lifts the boat out of the water, then he drives the lift (with the boat resting in the slings) over the ground to a parking spot where the boat is slowly lowered and supported by blocks placed under her keel. At that point the lift is driven away from the boat and stands are placed to help support the hull while she is on land, aka "the hard".

We have spent most of today getting ready for Hurricane Ida. Actually she was downgraded to a Tropical Storm about noon but precaution was still the order of the day and so we moved everything that could blow loose or blow off out of harm's way. You don't realize just how much "stuff" this is until you have to put it somewhere; I mean if we had somewhere else to put it it wouldn't have been there to begin with. For example the seat cushions on the flybridge live on the flybridge, there is no room for them elsewhere; likewise the cushions for the chairs on the sundeck. Ditto for the long handled brushes, the boat fenders, flags and coolers. We put the window coverings, the fenders, the buckets and the cushions in the back of the truck; which, conveniently, we had moved down here from Northern Alabama this weekend while Ida was busy blowing up into a Category 2 storm.

The biggest job was taking down all of that new canvas enclosure we had installed last summer and carefully rolling it in sheets so as not to scratch it. This process involves at least 15 zippers and more snaps than we can count. Of course by this time it was raining and so we had to carefully dry the Strataglas before we covered and rolled it.

Finally we moved the truck a few miles up the road to a parking lot at the grocery store to protect it from the possible storm surge. So now we are sitting inside waiting for Ida to arrive, with "stuff" stacked on every available surface. We have a path to walk through and a seat for each of us down in the cabin. Perhaps the best description would be "organized chaos", with emphasis on chaos. It feels like we are camping out in our own living room.

Stay tuned and we will fill you in once the storm passes.

Hello from Mobile, Alabama

Here we are in Mobile, AL at good ole Dog River Marina waiting to see what Hurricane Ida is going to do. Miss Ida has come calling very late in the season but that does not necessarily make her any less dangerous. Then again the water temperature is cooling and so she may fizzle out before she gets here, time will tell.

We arrived in Mobile last Friday and the wind was blowing from the SE, this meant that the weather was warm and humid and the waves on Mobile Bay would be up, and on our bow. Really we started picking up waves for the last 10-15 miles down the river. The worst part of the trip was on the river due to all of the floating debris (in the form of large logs) which was difficult to see because of the waves. Yes we could have waited a day, but a cold front was forecast to come through overnight and we reasoned that the next day would be just as windy from a different direction (N/NW) and with the wind on our stern we would wallow down the bay in the cold. We opted to travel while it was sunny, dry and warm.

Miss Lauren Grace has been hauled out to have her bottom painted and some new zincs installed, a minor transmission repair and new cutlass bearings will complete her "well baby" check-up.

Since she was lifted out of the water last Monday the painting & zincs are completed; now we are waiting to see what the storm will do before she is disabled (by uncoupling the engine shafts) to fix the cutlass bearings. That is because if Ida heads this way (considered by many to be a slim possibility) we will need to take her back up the river to hide out until the storm passes; if the storm fizzles then she will get her new bearings early next week and we will be on our way East to enjoy the Florida Panhandle.

Our ride down river from Demopolis was mostly uneventful but we did have the most frustrating locking at Demopolis that we have EVER experienced at any lock. Our departure from the marina was seriously delayed due to early morning fog that we thought would never burn off. Quite a number of boats in the marina and a nearby anchorage were calling the lock on both the VHF radio and the phone (which probably ticked him off) and his response was always the same: “I won’t lock anyone until this fog clears” along with the information that he had “a northbound tow in the pit and cannot lock anything until he leaves and I cannot force him to leave until he is ready”. Eventually a Southbound tow moved down to a position above the lock (moving in the fog) and so now there are two tows ahead of all the pleasure craft. Finally about 10:00 am the lock called for all southbound pleasure craft that want to lock down to come and hold above the lock”. Off we go; the southbound tow is already in the lock and he does not have to be split so we expect things to go reasonably quickly. Only it does not. The lockmaster decided to call the boats in one by one and tell them exactly where to tie up and only when a boat was secured did he call for the next boat, it took forever to stack the boats in the lock. Then, just as the last boat was getting secured, two more boats called and ask him to hold the lock. He still had one pin left and he did hold for them which cost us another 15-20 minutes. When the water level in the chamber was down he called us one by one and told us we could untie and exit. Never have we had a locking like this in the U.S. By the time we exited Demopolis lock over 2 1/2 hours had elapsed since he called us down! Needless to say our mileage for the day was disappointing, however I did have plenty of time to take this great shot of the roller dam there.

On the bright side due the delay at Demopolis lock changing the pace of our travel south we found a delightful anchorage that we had never used before. We had not known there was such a pretty little lake just off of the waterway about 64 miles above Mobile. A couple of sources mentioned Three Rivers Lake but others did not, everything I could find was complimentary and so we decided to give it a shot and we are sure glad we did because we enjoyed a restful night and met new friends Sue & Dave aboard "Saltwater Therapy" in the process.

I must say that the homes along the Lower Tenn-Tom are a sore disappointment after the beautiful environs of the Tennessee River.

Along the way we saw a couple of boat names that we particularly appreciated. “Alligator Hilton” was an 80’ houseboat with two satellite antennas (for TV reception) and a hot tub on the top deck. We could only speculate on the origin of the moniker “Locomotive Breath”, on a sailboat no less! And we couldn’t help but chuckle when we saw a big Grand Banks with “Wrong Knee” emblazoned on her stern; yep, it was just what you thought an operation on the wrong knee earned him a new Grand Banks for his pain and suffering!

It's so Cliche, BUT...

It really is a small world or at least a small country since I haven’t really seen all that much of the world. I know that I have shared other experiences in this vein but this is the most incredible story.

In this small world is the small town of Demopolis Alabama on the Tenn Tom Waterway. We don’t particularly care for it here and had not intended to be here longer than a fuel stop and overnight dockage but the weather (don’t worry I’m not going to wine about that again) caused us to remain a day longer than we anticipated. More for entertainment than any real need we borrowed the courtesy car for a run to the grocery store which is on the northern edge of town. Since the marina is on the southern edge of town we had to travel through the “downtown” area and that is when I noticed, in the window of a cute little shop, some Christmas ornaments. Of course we had to stop.

As we entered the store a clerk asked if she could help us and I replied that we just wanted to check out the ornaments. She then inquired where we were from, our accent (or lack of one) was probably her first clue, and then again it's likely she knows everyone in town. We never know how to answer that question because we are no longer from any particular place; however, recognizing that others want to know where visitors to their town hail from we often say St. Louis; which is what we said yesterday. The clerk smiled and said “I used to live in St. Louis, well St. Charles really”. Naturally I replied that I had grown up in St. Charles. The usual kind of conversation ensued.

Clerk: “Where did you go to school”?
Me: “I went to a small little country high school at Orchard Farm.”
Clerk: “I went to school there!”

This was just too surprising because I grew up in a rural area North of the town of St. Charles which was then a fairly small town itself. I think my graduating class (of about 40 or so) was the first class to spend all fours years at and graduate from O.F.H.S.. Prior to about 1962 high school students were bussed to the town of St. Charles because there were too few of them to warrant a high school (there were only 3 scattered elementary schools each with about 4 rooms). Talk about small! Then came the amazing part.

Suspecting that she was younger than I am I asked what year she graduated and we determined that she must have been a freshman back when I was a senior. As we were chatting about what a coincidence our meeting was the clerk said: “I was there when they did the play The Sound of Music”. “OMG, I was in that play, I was the crabby nun” and she replied, “I sang in the back-up chorus”.

As I said it was a small school and I grew up there and had no recognition at all of this person which surprised me a little. When we asked where she lived she said her parents lived in a trailer court; then we mostly knew that she lived right on highway 94 just outside of town. A little more conversation and we were able to determine which of the 2 trailer courts she had lived in (Princess Jodi, for those of you who remember). We tried to see if we had any mutual acquaintances but nothing clicked there. It might be important to note that at this point in the conversation none of us had introduced ourselves. Then she said, “people had unusual names up there” and I replied that there is a lot of German heritage so that might be why they sounded strange to her.

“Well”, she said, “I remember one name was Valentine”! Unbelievable! Larry said that his name was Valentine.

Clerk: “Where did you live?”
Larry: “You know that subdivision that was across the highway from the gas station and about a block down, I lived in the only two-story house in that subdivision”.
Clerk: “I’ve been to your house!”

Oh My God! She couldn’t remember why she was at his house, just that she had gone there with several other girls who lived in the trailer court; perhaps to visit some of his younger sisters/brothers.

The strangeness continues because we learned that Ann (by now we are on a first name basis) only lived there for two years before returning to Demopolis. And Larry’s family only lived there for two years before they returned to Texas. We aren’t sure if it was the same years but there was obviously some correlation in the time.

What are the odds that we would ever encounter this person? Even if we both stilled lived in the area I would think the chances would be slim and here we are many miles away.

So here’s to a really small world; and to Ann Jones, from Demopolis and Larry & Theresa Valentine also from Demopolis, at least for today.

No More Whining

Before I go off on a tangent I want to remember to tell you that I have started adding something called "hyper-links" to the blog. Don't ask me to explain them because it would be beyond the scope of my ability. BUT using them is simple enough; when you see text that is a different color than the rest of the type you can click on the text and it should take you to a website that will give you more information about the topic. Try it, you'll like it.

Last time I posted I apparently got so caught up with whining about the weather that I forgot to tell you about the fun stuff that we saw (and some that we didn't see) in Florence, Alabama.

At the top of my "things to see" list was Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller who you might remember as the blind and deaf girl who learned to sign and speak and read Braille back in 1887. The original family home was built in 1820 by Helen's grandfather and was the home to which his son Captain Arthur Keller brought his wife Kate after their marriage. Most of the furniture and objects in the home are pieces which belonged to the Keller family when they lived in the home which survived the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression as it is know in Alabama). Today the home is beautifully maintained by the Helen Keller Foundation.

Those who remember the movie The Miracle Worker" will be glad to know that the original pump, scene of the dramatic moment when 7 year old Helen made the connection between the finger tapping out a code for the word "water" and the sensation of the water flowing over her hand, is still standing in the yard. She must have been incredibly intelligent to have managed to put it all together at such a tender age with the limited teaching methods available in 1887.


While at Ivy Green I picked up a "tourist book" listing 10 things to do in "The Shoals" (as the towns of Florence, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals are known). I noticed that Florence is home to a Frank Lloyd Wright house, I have always been intrigued by photos of Wright's designs but had never visited one, so we took advantage of finding ourselves practically next door to the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Alabama. Let's just say that I was underwhelmed. The home was built in 1939 for the Rosenbaum family and they are the only family to occupy it. In 1999 with Mrs Rosenbaum in failing health and unable to fine a buyer the family sold the home to the City of Florence with the proviso that it would be restored. With the extensive & lengthy restoration completed the home is now open for tours and other public events.

This home was built in the Usonian-style (whatever that means because I did not research it). The exterior was striking but once inside the front door I was amazed at how dark the interior felt despite one entire side of the home having glass walls, well really individual framed glass doors that opened out. The walls were all wood and stained a medium to dark tone, about the color of dark teak wood, the ceiling was also wood in the same tone and the floors were stained concrete in a reddish-brown tone. The ceilings were only about 7' above the floor, all in all I had the feeling of being in a cave. The docent told us that when Wright was questioned about the low ceilings he replied that he "didn't know anyone tall enough to require a higher ceiling". The kitchen was amazing; it was about the size of a powder room in a home today! I am not exaggerating, it was about 8' x 8' with a U-shaped arrangement of counters/sink/stove/icebox (yes, I do mean icebox) along 3 walls, there was almost room in the center of the "U" for one person to turn around to tend to all 3 surfaces. The 4th wall had a narrow doorway opening directly out onto the hallway that connected the living areas of the home to the bed/bath area, across the hallway from the kitchen door was a "dining room" no larger than the dinette on our boat! Actually that kitchen doorway was quite wide (maybe 30"-36", max), at least compared to the bathroom and bedroom doors which were only 24' wide. Not all was negative though; the master bedroom was a suite, not terribly common in 1939 when the house was designed, and the plumbing fixtures were surprisingly modern.

Another item on the "top 10" list was the Coon Dog Cemetery. We passed on the opportunity to check out this "monument to the breed" (their words, not mine) but we talked to some boaters who did make the trip and they said the marker stones were phenomenal. Since 1937 there have been more than 185 certified coon dogs from all over the country buried at the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard. I know you think I make this stuff up, but really it's true.

Everybody talks about it...

..no one does a thing about it. About what? The weather! This was an old jingle that a TV station used to market their weather segment when I was a teenager. Sort of like death & taxes the weather is an issue everyone is required to deal with on a fairly regular basis. It is just when things are going well, the sky is blue and the sun shining we tend to forget that it is "weather" and take it for granted, or at least I do. On those days I tend to take an attitude that is something like "yes, this is the way things were meant to be"! I love the sunshine and the rain that we have been experiencing the last month is getting me down, not to mention slowing us down.

As you might expect, given our lifestyle, the weather governs our day to day life in a fairly big way. For one thing we are outdoors quite a lot; I mean taking the trash out is not just a trip to the garage to drop the bag in the trash can it may mean a half-block walk, or at the extreme a half mile dinghy ride, to put the bag in a dumpster. It's no fun to schlep dirty cloths to the laundry room in the rain, and it is even worse to have it rain on nice freshly laundered sheets & towels.

Then there is the schedule. As you may have surmised we don't usually have a very rigid schedule but even our loose timing is affected by a month of rain, and it is not fun traveling in rain. Yes when we are operating the boat we are inside a covered enclosure but then there is the matter of transiting locks, at which time I have to leave that nice dry enclosure and go out into the rain and catch the bollard and tend the line. Generally on the river there is at least one lock each day and sometimes as many as 4 or five. There is also the matter of docking or anchoring, the big difference between the two is whether it's Larry or I who gets wet; if we are docking I am out handling the lines, if we are anchoring he is out setting the hook or raising it. Not only are thunderstorms no fun they are also potentially dangerous so we do our best to avoid them.

Our plan, such as it was, anticipated the customary nice warm mid-South September with generally clear dry days and cool evenings (good sleeping weather). It was our intent to use this lovely month to sample the beautiful anchorages On Watt's Bar and Guntersville Lake, if you have been checking in you already know how the September plan failed. We had also decided that if the hurricane situation allowed we would plan to arrive in Mobile on Halloween, thus avoiding the potential for frosty weather that can occur by mid-November in lower Mississippi & Alabama. This schedule would allow us time to spend a week in early October anchoring on Bay Springs Lake with a stop to check out the "waterfall anchorage" on Pickwick Lake as we went by.

We have wanted to try this anchorage for a couple of years and every time we go past there has been a reason that we can't/don't stop, this trip was no different. We had run in overcast weather through two locks that day and the forecast was for thunderstorms overnight, feeling that the waterfall anchorage would not afford adequate protection from the expected thunderstorms we found a different anchorage and hunkered down. It did indeed storm but we were protected on three sides by rock cliffs covered with trees so all we got was rain and a spectacular light show courtesy of Mother Nature.

The next day was bright and sunny as we left the Tennessee River astern and pointed our bow Southward on the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Bay Springs Lake. The forecast was for rain the following day and then a glorious stretch of fall weather. That forecast lasted for about a day. The rain arrived, on schedule, the day after we did it just never left. We stayed at Bay Springs 5 days and it rained 4 of them. We finally left and went to a marina near Fulton to visit friends who have bought a home there. We were lucky to make it through all 3 locks and get docked before the skies opened up and it poured rain for 12 hours.

As you might expect given the amount of rain the region has experienced in the past six weeks the ground is saturated so now the Tombigbee part of the Tenn-Tom is flooding (which you expect in the Spring but not in the fall). After 3 days in Fulton we made our way as far as Columbus where we will wait for the water to recede and the debris and trash to float on downstream and watch for a good opportunity to continue down to Mobile. We spent part of last winter here and coming back reminded us how much we missed the people here, the marina manager & staff just can't do enough for you.

Today the sun finally came out, first time we have seen it in over a week. The downside to that is that the strong and windy cold front which pushed out the rain also brought a chance of frost here tomorrow - so much for avoiding frosty weather!

We meet the nicest strangers, mostly

And then again some of them are just, well, a little strange. The most recent case in point was just yesterday at Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, AL. In Alabama (as well as Tennessee & Kentucky) many State Parks have lodges and marinas as well as the usual camping & hiking. Our boat is docked near the lodge where guests with rooms on the water side can sit on their balcony and look out over the marina.

The other day as Larry was walking up to dispose of our trash some guys sitting out on a balcony called to him and he waved in response. One of the fellows called to him and asked if he was on "one of them boats out there", of course that led to a conversation. The guy said he had heard that people could "take them boats from here all the way to up to Canada and then come back here from up in Lake Michigan, is that true". Upon being assured that indeed it was not only true but that Larry had done just that he responded with, .."well I still don't believe it".

So as I said at the outset we meet the nicest strangers, I mean have you ever had that kind of conversation in a hotel lobby?