Day 24 staying in Carabelle while T.S. Andrea passes

Tropical storm Andrea made landfall about 4:00 pm today about 150 miles south of us.  Most of the rain was on the east and south sides of the storm.  The only real effect here was some on/off rain and an extra high high tide this afternoon.  We are now on the backside of the storm so the winds are out of the North but only 10-15 mph here.  It looks like we will be here until Saturday or Sunday. So, you will just have to wait to find out which route we are going to take.  The first picture is of the house bank of 12 volt batteries.

There are a total of 5 large batteries with  about 500 amp hours, which is a lot. We need this capacity to run the boat at night when at anchor, e.g. lights, TV, head, fans, etc.  We also use it duing the day with an inverter to convert 12 volt into 115 volt for the refridgerator. We have 3 other battery banks, including one with three batteries to start the main diesel engines. The other 2 banks are to start the generator and run the anchor windlass. So, part of my day was spent checking the water level in some 11 batteries.  Boring - yes, but necessary on a regular basis.

The other "routine" maintenance was to clean out the raw water strainers that provide cool sea water to cool the three diesels, heat pumps, and raw water wash down to provide high pressure water to clean the anchor and its chain as they are being retrieved. Altogether there are 5 strainers with wire baskets to catch the larger stones, algae, etc. The raw water for each strainer enters the hull though a seacock, which is essentially a large (1 1/2 inch diamerter) ball valve. The second picture shows 2 of the strainers (round top with light colored center), one seacock (with an arm to open/close the valve). Also, you can see one of the propellor shafts where it exits the hull through a stuffing box that allows the shaft to turn but keeps the water out.  All of the 5 seacocks, the 2 propellor shafts and two rudder shafts exit the boat below the water line, and  if any of them were to "break", it would mean big trouble.  Just one 1 1/2 inch hole in the bottom would allow over 2,100 gallons of water per hour to enter the boat, and we have 9 holes that size or larger. To put that in perspective our swimming pool back in Bryan only held 16,000 gallons... So, yes it was not a very exciting day, but these and many other systems on the boat need some tender loving care on a regular basis.

    We had dinner out again tonight at a different restaurant. Both of us had a Grouper Salad. The grouper (salt water fish) was broiled and an excellent topping for the salad. I eat a lot of Chicken Caesar and Taco Salads so this was a wonderful change/treat for me.

The next picture shows a view across the harbor over the bow of Lucky Us.  The harbor looks wide, but the shiny areas to the left of the burgee are actually tidal flats that are about to be dry land as the tide goes down. 

      I will close with one humorous note about the town of Carabelle as seen in the final picture.

The city actually advertises that they have the "World's Smallest Police Station".  We actually visited it and took this photo as proof...

Day 23 arrived in Carabelle -decision time!

Howdy! We arrived in Carabelle, FL about 3:20 pm after 59.9 miles of generally great weather. Docking was something of a challenge...  Our slip is perpendicular to the channel, and the wind was blowing 10-15 mph perpendicular to the dock in one direction and the outgoing tide was perpendicular to the dock in the opposite direction.  Once I figured out that the two opposing forces effectively cancelled each other out in this case then docking was relatively simple.  We had to dock stern first since there is only a 6 foot long finger pier on one side. The bow of Lucky Us is over 7 feet above the water and that makes it impossible to get off there.

We went under a number of  fixed bridges with about 60 feet of clearance and went through this swinging railroad bridge.

We have seen quite a few ospreys along the waterway, but this is the first nest that we have seen on a channel marker, and it came complete with an osprey in residence.

Birds on channel markers are fun to see close up, but the "deposits" that they leave behind can obscure the color/number on the marker... As for me, I'll take the close up views any day even if I have to guess at the number on the channel marker. We did have a few drops of rain, but the weather was so good that I was able to finish a "boat project" that I had begun yesterday. Yes, that really is the Captain using an electric sander to remove varnish from the cap rail on the flying bridge.

I am afraid that the Sun had gotten ahead of me and had badly damaged the varnish. I did not get this repaired before we started, but I figured "no problem". I'll just do it while we are underway... Actually, all I had to do was to start the generator and run an extension cord. You will note the black/blue straps around my back as they are part of my automatic inflating life vest. Better safe than sorry (?).

     ...and now for the rest of the story. I mentioned "decision time" in the title of today's post.  We have come 848 miles since we left our home in League City, Texas.  Except for the first 25 miles from League City to Galveston, we have been in the Gulf Intrscoastal Waterway the whole time. However, the waterway ends here at Carabelle and does not start again until about 200 miles south of here near Clearwater, FL. We have two choices:
     1. Go straight across the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater. At our normal cruising speed of about 8 mph, this requires about 25 hours and would mean an overnight crossing.
     2. Follow the coast line of Florida around the bend between the panhandle and the main part of Florida (aka the "armpit").  This is a distance of about 260 miles with only about 3 relatively safe harbors or rivers in which we could spend the nights.  Thus, the distance is a little longer, but we could make the trip in 3 or 4 days with no overnight crossing.
   Our dilemma is which one to choose as each has its own plusses and minuses... I am going to leave you hanging as to which one we are going to choose. Waiting is the key word since there is a new Tropical Storm (Andrea) in the Gulf of Mexico, and it is predicted to reach Florida near Tampa sometime late Friday or early Saturday. We will have to wait until the storm has passed and the seas calm before we can start either of the two options above.  So, stay tuned...

Day 22 short (but nice) trip to Port St. Joe, FL

Left Panama City at 9:00 am, and arrived at Port St. Joe Marina at ??? The time zone change to Eastern Daylight Time runs along the Georgia-Alabama boarder, which means that it cuts across the Florida panhandle. We are docked for the night at Port St. Joe Marina, and depending upon which cell tower is being used, we arrived either at 2:10 CDT or 3:10 EDT.  Anyway, we had an uneventual trip of 45.7 miles in scattered clouds and light SW

winds. The first picture shows a typical view of an old meander (bend) in a river that was cut off to straighten the waterway. After leaving Panama City we went through a long bay before the waterway turned into a combination of ditch and old stream channels. So far in Florida, we have been in many long bays with deep water (30 to 40 feet) that are quite different from the similarly located bays in Texas, which are usually very shallow (a few feet). The shallow Texas bays are off limits to Lucky Us with our 4 foot draft. However, so far in Florida, our "road" is often miles wide with lots of deep water. Thus, if we had stayed for a period of time we could have gone to different locations way off the waterway every night for several weeks (or more). This freedom to wander has "some" appeal as future longer term cruising grounds for us...

...and yet another dolphin picture. I suppose that the dolphins frolicking in the clear water will become "old hat" but for now it is still very exciting.
     We are off to Radio Shack for an ethernet cable and then out to dinner for Mexican food. I know that sounds strange when we are travelling through areas where the seafood is fresh (and cheap), but we do crave a little variety. The original downtown is a short 3 block walk from the marina with 2 of the three blocks being only about 100 feet long.

We are docked along a long pier so docking was easy with no slip to back into with 10 to 15 mph winds out in the Gulf. The last photo is of the marina office, store and restaurant/bar along with a fuel dock. Since we actually started on the Great Loop in Mobile Bay, the accomodations have been great.  There is just not that much pleasure boat traffic west of New Orleans, and as a result, the marinas are fewer and further between.

This marina is actually on the Gulf of Mexico, but it was only about a half mile from the side channel that brought us to the Gulf from the Intracoastal Waterway, which is 5 miles inland here.
     Tomorrow is another short day continuing to head east to Carabelle, FL where we will take at least one day off to rest. The plan of 3 or 4 travel days followed by one or more days of rest still sounds like a good one.

Day 21 onward to Panama City, FL

 The anchorage 10 miles east of Destin, FL was great.  The only problem was that the wid died completely overnight, and we slept a little restlessly without the AC running.  Not bad enough, however, to force one of us to get up and start the generator...

We were greated with a beautiful sunrise! You can see how smooth the water was, and the anchor rope was just hanging down completely loose.  We were in about 7 feet of water with 60 feet of chain followed by 30 feet of rope.  All of the chain was just lying in the mud and the rope was slack - really no wind or current at all. We started out at 7:00 am with about 50 miles to go to Panama City.  We had about 30 miles in the "ditch" or man-made waterway with 10 miles of beautiful bays on either end of the trip.

The glassy water continued for most of the trip, which meant that the ditch with tall pine trees on both sides was quite warm. The dredge spoil on either side was often quite sandy with very little vegetation due to the rapid erosion (see off white area on right bank).

When we exited the ditch, we still had prefectly smooth water in the first bay that we passed through. Fortunately, the breeze finally picked up to a gentle 7 knot SSW wind, and the last hour and a half were really pleasant. The fluffy white clouds in all of the pictures show how beautiful the sky was for all of our trip.

The absolute highlight of today's trip was the dolphin that frolicked in our bow wave. We were going from a bay and entering the ditch (totally manmade waterway) when we saw these dolphins rushing toward us. Attracting dolphin is not new to us since they like to ride in our bow wave, but what was unusual was the clarity of the water.  When this happens in the "muddy" water of the Texas coast, you can only see the dolphin when they break the surface. In the much clearer waters east of the Mississippi delta, we could easily see the dolphin underwater as well. Hope that you enjoy the video!

   Otherwise, we arrived in Panama City and were safely docked by 1:45 pm.  The city marina is right downtown and next to the city hall and the exhibition center.  The adjacent old downtown has been nicely restored, and we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant there.  We left before it started, but on Monday nights at 7:00 pm, this restaurant hosts the "Life, Love, Learn and Beer" Bible (?) Study Group for a local church...

   Tomorrow, the adventure continues.

Day 20 Orange Beach to just E of Destin, FL

Wow! Our best weather so far -mainly sunny, about 82F and light (5-10 mph) winds. It was an absolutely beautiful day! We left The Wharf at Orange Beach, Alabama at 7:20 am after pumping out the holding tank. The wind was calm, which always helps when maneuvering the boat in a channel that is only 10 feet wider than we are long. Just think about it - imagine turning a Greyhound bus around in a space that is only 10 feet longer than the bus...
    The water continues to get clearer, and after an hour we saw our first white sand beaches. By then we may have been in Florida (?), but unlike on the highways, they do not put up "Welcome" signs and information centers on the Intracoastal. As mentioned earlier, the views continued to improve,

including very high beach ridges (or beach dunes?) between the waterway and the Gulf of Mexico. For most of the day, we would go through a resort area with houses and high rise condos for a couple of miles, and then the barier island would be protected as a (pristine) National Park. We went through Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach and Destin.

As the day (Sunday) progressed, the amount of traffic on the water increased greatly. One of our favorite boat sightings was this gaff riged, two masted schooner. The folks on board were having a wonderful day trip. The background in the landward (north) side of the waterway which often had beautiful houses/mansions. The next picture is the big unknown (perhaps exraterrestrial) "thing" of the day.

It looked from a distance like a skinny water tower, but as we got closer, well, I'm pretty sure that it must be something out of a Steven Gould (Terry's brother) novel... I'm thinking that this is somehow related to teleporting?
Shortly after this we passed by the channel into Destin, FL, and as we did, a Coast Guard patrol boat came racing out of the channel and across the bay (about 4 miles).  As he went past, I quipped that he had "lots of others to worry about". You can kind of tell where this is headed. Sure enough, he raced across  the bay AND back. He circled and came along side and asked permission to board and inspect us.  About 15 minutes later we had shown all of the proper documents and equipment. This picture shows them headed off after the inspection. Very professional and courteous! The good news is that we got our copy of the inspection, which may avoid another inspection for up to 6 months...


     About 10 miles east of Destin, the Admiral found us a great anchorage where we will spend the night after covering some 87.4 miles.

After getting things put up on the boat, the Admiral made a lovely green salad and brown rice and chicken with melted provalone cheese on top (and a sprinkle of Chipolte Tobasco Sauce). A fitting end to another wonderful day.

Day 19 lazy day ay the Wharf, Orange Beach, AL

     The Wharf, including the marina, condos, shops, restaurants, concert arena, etc. is a really nice place. We spent a lazy morning catching up on the blog, facebook, and records. My stomach muscles are very sore from all of the bouncing around on the trip from Biloxi to here yesterday. We had a nice salad onboard for a light lunch before heading to the movie theater (and popcorn).  We saw the new Will Smith movie "After Earth". The movie was only okay, but the popcorn was very good. We took a little walk around the area on the way back to the boat and saw the concert arena from a distance.

The grounds were locked, but you can see the back of the stage (dark, on left) and some of the stands (light grey in trees). It looks like an excellent venue with seating for 20,000. Then we came back to Lucky Us for a short nap...

     We went out for dinner at one of the restaurants along the shopping mall, and I managed to satify part of my withdrawal from Fratella's Margareta Pizza (Bryan, TX) with a pretty good imitation... We then went shopping, and someone, who shall remain nameless, just had to buy something at this store:

It seems that the name was a big draw...  Well, I cannot complain because I was rewarded with 2 scoops of ice cream while we waited for the light show on the mall between rows of stores at 8:30 pm. The first picture shows one side of the mall and ferris wheel brightly lit at dusk.

The second picture attempts to catch some of the light show with laser lights flashing across the mall and constantly changing patterns and colors on the tall palm trees.

You can see one of the many boats (in white) that moved around, and one even "sank" although that may just be my opinion. All in all, it was a fun place to stop and relax for a whole day.

Day 18 Officially started Great Loop

     At 1:05 pm Lucky Us was in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and we crossed the Mobile (Alabama) Ship Channel to officially start the Great Loop.  Whoop!

We were sloging along in 3+ foot waves so there was no "format" ceremony taking pictures of the newly unfurled America's Great Loop Crusing Association burgee on the bowsprit. Instead we chose to remain safe on the fly bridge.

The smiles say it all! At this point we had travelled about 585 miles, and we can now call ourselves "Loopers". After 2 weather days due to high winds, we left the marina in Biloxi, Mississippi, at 6:00 am in 7 knot winds. The forecast had been for the winds to build only to 10 mph. However, by the time we had rejoined the waterway about 2 hours later the winds were already at 15 mph with gusts over 20 mph.  The seas were (only?) 1-2 feet at this time. As we continued to head east across the Missippi Sound we reached a 10 mile stretch where there is no barrier island on the south side to cut down winds and waves. For that portion the waves were more like 3 to occassionally 4 feet. Not unsafe for us, but we did stay seated and firmly holding on during this time...

     After crossing Mobile Bay, the waterway is once again a man made ditch so our last 12 miles to the Wharf Marina at Orange Beach, Alabama were pretty "quiet" by comparison to the rest of today's trip. We arrived at the marina at 4:20 pm.

This photo was taken from the fly bridge looking back at the marina, condominiums, bridge  (far right) and shopping mall (just barely visible, far left).  This is quite the place with a 20,000 seat outdoor amphitheater for concerts, 10 screen movie theater, ferrris wheel, 50+ shops and restaurants galore. We went to see an early evening showing of "Now You See Me". We are staying here for two nights, and tomorrow we plan to see "After Earth". Gotta feed that movie addiction...

This is a partial view of the shopping mall (left), ferris wheel and movie theaters (right).

So far, we have travelled 602 miles, and now we have "officially" started the Great Loop. Let the adventure continue...