After leaving Chicago, IL on September 9th, we have reached the end of the inland waterways, arriving in Mobile, AL on November 15th. The side trips to Nashville and Chattanooga were by far the highlights, and of course my side trip to Maui was incredible (but I guess I can’t count that for being on the loop!).
For the last 10 days we have been in fairly remote country, just casually winding our way down the rivers. And then, bam, we are in the middle of the very busy port of Mobile, AL with a steady stream of commercial traffic; tow boats, large barges, container ships, and even military ships, so we carefully navigated the shipping channel to make our way to the marina. As we tied up, we were greeted by a looper, inviting us to a potluck at 5:30 p.m. Fun!
From Mobile, we headed east along the gulf coast. First, a lunch stop at Lulus, which is owned by Lucy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett’s sister, in Gulf Shores, AL. It’s a large restaurant, compete with a beach bar and definitely has a “Key West” vibe. As luck would have it, we pulled up to their dock and fellow loopers on Sabbatical pulled in right behind us. We were also joined with retired loopers who live in the area and just wanted to say hi. We spent the night at a beautiful anchorage near Naval Air Station Pensacola, watching navy jets fly over.
The next morning, Dave tried to start the engines and all we heard was a click. Dead engine start battery. Luckily, we can switch to the house battery bank to start the engines. And even luckier, the marina we went to for that evening, was expecting an Interstate Battery truck the next morning and they removed and the installed a new starter battery, only delaying our departure by a few hours. The batteries are very heavy (120 lbs) and 2 strapping young men wrangled the dead one out of the engine compartment and installed the new one. Yippee!!
We then stopped at another stunning anchorage, with the sun setting to our west and the moon rising to the east at the same time. Since we arrived right at sunset, Dave wasn’t able to scope out potential dinghy potty stops for Murphy and although he has gone on his AstroTurf before, for some reason, this time he held it for almost 27 hours. I felt so bad —-he must have been so uncomfortable! He finally went while underway the next morning. Murphy consumed several treats after his big on-board potty event.
Next, we stopped at Apalachicola’s city dock and ate at a restaurant named “Hole in the Wall”, recommended by our friends on Inked Mermaid. We were joined by the crews of Many Moons and Kittiwake, all enjoying fresh oysters. Barbara, our server (and I believe one of the owners), is as surly as can be and a hoot to chat with.
We arrived in Carrabelle on Saturday, looking for the best weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico.
There are two paths. A direct route from either Apalachicola or Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs or Clearwater, FL which can be a 19 to 22 hour run for our slower trawler speed. Or you can go from Carrabelle over to Steinhatchee, FL (a 9 to 10 hour run) then down Florida’s northern west coast, stopping at Cedar Key, Crystal River, and then arriving at Tarpon Springs. For the route stopping at Steinhatchee, you actually need 3 good weather days along the gulf for this path.
Dave had been watching the weather forecasts as we made our way west along Florida’s panhandle and it looked like either the upcoming Wednesday or Thursday might be good crossing days. By the time we arrived in Carrabelle, Wednesday had closed as a possibility, and now Sunday/Monday looked like an option as well as the following Thursday.
As this blog is published, we are hoping to leave Sunday late afternoon, for a mid afternoon arrival in Clearwater, FL. Due to the wind/wave forecasts, we are heading eastward earlier in the trip, which adds a few hours, but should be better conditions. As recommended by the locals, once you leave the marina you travel about an hour out and verify the conditions. If it looks too rough, then head back to the marina and wait for another window. Stay tuned for the next blog (or Facebook update) to find out if we made it to Clearwater or went back to Carrabelle, waiting for the weather gods to cooperate!
Fun Facts: Distanced traveled so far: 5,887 miles in 7 months and 4 weeks, stopping at 149 unique locations, traversing through 79 locks.
Thanks for following along on our adventure,
Brenda with Captain Dave, and large bladder Murphy