Here's to Deacon

Today is also a sad day. My dog Deacon would have been 12 years old today. Two weeks ago I had to have him put down. He has been in "assisted living" for the past several months. Even sadder is Dottie, the lady who was keeping him for me, lost her husband 2 week prior to losing Deacon. Here's to Deacon...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a lot to be thankful for. The opportunity to take this trip is truly "living the dream." Here are a couple of pictures of a beautiful sunset we saw this week that reminds us of how small we are in "the big picture." Here are a couple of pictures reminding us to be thankful that we have not run aground (yet). Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends. We miss you all!!

Let's go to the Movies

Why go to the movies when the movie comes to you? Today a film crew was outside our boat for 8 hours. I have a new appreciation for watching a movie. They must have shot each scene about 10 times. In 8 hours they probably filmed about 12 short scenes. This is for a German TV series about a couple who comes to the US to save the manatees and gets into trouble.

St Pete Week 1

Great week here...the weather has been a little chilly in the mornings but warms up by lunch. This city has so much to offer...beautiful water, mild weather and there in something always happening ...today they had the Pirate Festival....also every Saturday there is the market in the park...fresh pastries, cheeses, produce and of course local craftsmen bring their creations...everything from sculptures made from spoons, jewelry, pottery, and some furniture...we filled the baskets on the bike full! Jerry just loved that.

The dolphins swim close to the boat in the mornings as we are having breakfast, Jerry tries to get a little exercise paddling, of course I am working part of the day everyday.....you know when you leave town things get busy and that is good. We have also enjoyed having my brothers little car to hop around in.....if it sounds like we are having too much fun...remember there is the laundromat, standing on your head making the bed every day, cooking in one skillet and one pot and also NO DISHWASHER...When we are not in the mood to cook....there is an abundance of small cafes , seafood restaurants and the St Pete Yacht Club extended us a guest membership and we have enjoyed their live entertainment and varied menu! To all our friends and family....come join us and be a part of the spirit of St Pete.....we miss you and would love to have you.........Sea la vie for now.

St Pete

Yesterday marked one month, 1000 miles, and 19 locks from Knoxville. Today we arrived in St Petersburg, a short 30 mile trip from Clearwater. We came via the Intercoastal. Jim, Lynn's brother, and 3 friends joined us for the trip. We are staying at the St Pete Municipal Marina right in the center of Old St Pete. This will be home for the next 6 weeks.

Clearwater Continued

Although we only planned to spend a couple of nights in Clearwater we have had such a good time we have spent a week. Today Lynn's brother Jim and his friend Jorge took us out on his jet boat. A great day to explore the intercoastal and enjoy the 80 degree sunshine. The weekend is supposed to be cooler with highs in the 60's.

Clearwater

After 7 days and nights together, David and Rick returned home and Lynn rejoined me in Clearwater. We had a great time together with no major disagreements in spite of having 3 captains on board.

Lynn and I have been enjoying Clearwater this week with tempertures in the 80's. We rode our bikes, went to the beach, drank a little beer, and ate lots of shrimp and seafood.

The Gulf

Saturday, 11/8/08, we got an early start out into the Gulf instead of running the Intercoastal. This route took us about 20 miles offshore to Apalachicola for a total of about 170 miles in one long day. The Gulf was relatively calm and we set several GPS waypoints and used the auto pilot almost all day. We had the TV on watching college football as we ran parallel to the Florida panhandle shoreline. We saw several dolphins playing in our wake. We averaged about 20 MPH arriving at Apalachicola at almost 6PM. The marina normally closed at 5:30 but waited for us so we could buy fuel. We had great oysters as we watched the Florida game.

Sunday the forecast was not great for crossing the Gulf but we decided to give it a try rather than set in port all day. Seas were probably 3-5 feet with wind 12-15 MPH off our port stern quarter. We had spray on the upper deck windshield but not terribly uncomfortable. We took one wave that washed the upper deck and moved some furniture around inside. Again the GPS, radar, and autopilot performed great and took us on a direct course to Clearwater. We arrive in Clearwater at about 3 PM, fueled, and cleaned the salt off the boat. Finally back to civilization after a week on the Tombigbee. Not a lot of pictures for this leg of the trip since the wake looks the same for almost 300 miles in 2 days.

Mobile Bay

Thursday was a short day because of the distance between locks. We only did 2 locks Thursday
and stopped early at Bobby's fish camp. Here you see a couple that we met from Michigan. Their boat is for sale so David checked it out. They have a tradition of cocktails and dress-up each night for dinner aboard their boat so they did not join us for catfish at Bobby's. Friday we got the best start all week due to the lock schedule. We were underway at dawn (5:45 CST) and through the first lock by 6:30. We estimate we lost almost a day if you add the delay at locks. We cleared the last lock at Coffeville and ran about 115 miles downstream to Mobile Bay. It was raining as we went through Mobile Bay. We ran through the fog and rain across the bay using the GPS and radar with zero visibility. We exited Mobile Bay and joined the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to Orange Beach for the evening. At Orange Beach we had to visit Flor/Bama, a giant redneck bar. This last picture is the bridge as we left the Intercoastal to run outside in the Gulf Saturday morning.

Tombigbee

Rick, David and I left Pickwick about noon Monday, 11/3/08. Lynn returned home to catch-up on business and get ready for St Pete. Monday we traveled about 70 miles and 4 locks to Smithville Marina. We had dinner with a guy named Dennis. He is living in his camper with his dog named Nicky. Tuesday we travel about 85 miles and 4 locks to Pirates Cove Marina. We shared the courtesy car to dinner with a couple from Pickwick who is a neighbor of Larry Buse, who is a salesperson at our Savannah, TN plant. Wednesday we traveled 75 miles to Demopolis. In Demoplois we met Randal. Here you see a picture of Randal who entertained us at dinner with his Beadreaux jokes.