Port St. Joe, FL - 12/27/10

Just a quick update of the non-events of the past couple days. We did go to Christmas eve services in Waukeenah which was a 2 hour drive so we spent the night in a motel near there. That was a nice change from rocking and rolling on the boat. The service was very nice and a dear friend of Ricki's brother had decorated an alter in the corner of the sanctuary in his honor which was acknowledged by the minister during the ceremony. The folks here are so genuine it makes us feel guilty leaving. Many even remembered us from our last visit many months ago. The down side of the trip was a little bug that I had caught a day earlier that showed up again with gusto and caused us to miss the Christmas dinner at the Monroes' the next day. Being a sharing person, I shared it with Ricki who started the 3 day regiment of staying close to facilities by Christmas day.

Sunday and Monday we stayed pretty close to the boat for a couple reasons, one being the gale force winds that were predicted and did show up (see the picture with the red flags) as well as not feeling too great. The wind was so strong it flattened several of our fenders which I hope will re-inflate but I bought a couple new ones just in case. The weather has also been pretty cool .. 40's in the daytime and into the 20's at night but that will start to change Tuesday with daytime temps rising the rest of the week. With New Years coming up and the return of the loopers to the marina, stories about last year are starting to surface. I heard this morning about several that took a New Year eve swim across the marina. I am sure more will be heard as time goes on. We are the only looper occupied boat currently out of 3 boats, but by the 29th several more are expected with a total of 30 - 35 folks expected for the seminar 1/7 thru 1/9. Hopefully we will connect with someone that will have the same float plan as us in crossing from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs after the meeting. Tomorrow perhaps we can get some boat chores put to bed, laundry done and shop for a new microwave that seemed to crap itself recently before everyone starts coming in to the marina.

Port St. Joe - 12/23/10

After spending 2 days on the road, today was a lazy day for us. We drove over to Panama City (about 30 miles) to do a little shopping at Walmart. On the way we passed thru a small town of Mexico Beach with some great views of the Gulf of Mexico. Ricki also took a few pictures around the marina which shows our slip at the dock along with low tide and the stuff that will grow on your bottom if you stay in one spot too long.

Tomorrow we will travel about 100miles to Wacissa, FL where Ricki's brother lived before he passed away a couple years ago. We will be attending Christmas eve church services at his church with his close friends the Monroe family. They have also invited us to their family Christmas day dinner.

This morning the mechanic from Gulf Diesel came shortly after 8 a.m. and removed the injector pumps from both of our Cummins engines which had been dripping fuel to send them out to be rebuilt. They should be back in a week. Boats have a lot of human traits ... as they get older things don't work as well as they used too!

Port St. Joe, FL - 12/22/10

We arrived back at PortSt. Joe early afternoon and had a very nice lunch in the Dockside Cafe which is part of

the marina building. On our way back from Raleigh we stopped in Wacissa, Fl which is about 25 miles east of Tallahassee to place a decoration on Ricki's brother's grave site as well as visit a friend who we will be joining for Christmas eve church services as well as Christmas morning service and dinner. As we traveled west from there we stopped at The Moorings Marina in Carrabelle to see if we could make reservations for a slip in preparation to crossing the Gulf, however their computer system would not accept them until after 1/1/11. We also stopped by Appalachicola and Ricki determined a road trip is in order to shop there.

The pictures attached are scenes from WV we left behind plus a couple of photos here at the marina.

We have contacted Gulf Diesel who will be here tomorrow to take the injector pumps off of both engines that have the small leaks and send them away to be fixed. This should take a week then we will be ready to move on after the rendezvous here at the marina 1/7 thru 1/9.

Returning to the boat - 12/21/10

What a whirlwind trip ... we left the boat to return to WV on 12/7 which took 2 days travel. After trips to get haircuts, we celebrated an early Christmas with our sons on 12/10 , attended our yacht club Christmas party on 12/11 then left for Germansville, PA on 12/12 returning to WV on 12/14. Several doctor appointments on 12/15, had dinner with the Hanna's on 12/16 and made plans for them to join us later on the west coast of Florida then had dinner with the Weese's on Friday 12/17 and made plans for them to join us in Florida. Ricki also worked in a pedicure and massage on Friday as well. On Saturday 12/18 we left for Raleigh, NC to celebrate Christmas with the Hadley clan and left this morning and are currently about 60 miles east of Tallahassee for the night and will be back on the boat in Port St. Joe by tomorrow. We need to get back so we can slow down and rest although being with all the kids and grandkids is really special. Of course being in 65 degree temps instead of 25 degree temps is also a plus. Don't miss the snow either! Now we will have several days to drive around and enjoy some of the sights of the Florida panhandle that we have either missed or will not get to see on our watery travels. The staff at the marina is sponsoring a looper rendezvous 1/7 thru 1/9 so we will not be leaving until 1/10 to start our preparations to cross the Gulf for the western part of Florida.

Port St. Joe, FL - 12/8/10

We left Panama City Marina about
8:05 a.m. for the 40 mile run to Port St. Joe arriving at 1:30 p.m. (forgot the time change back to EST) which was an hour later than we had thought. The run was pretty uneventful thru the East Pass until we got to the canal which was very narrow and very shallow. In fact as we were moving thru the actual channel as shown on the Garmin, water got really skinny, at less than 2 ft under the hull, and I pulled the throttle back and threw it out of gear just as we went thru mud. No problem except to churn up a bunch of mud and we motored on. Ricki did finally get a still picture of one dolphin that played with us but we have a bunch of pictures that are just a splash. When we turned right to go down the short channel to the Gulf which is lined with pure white sand banks, we saw this unusual craft sitting in a boat repair yard then on down the channel before passing under the Rt 98 bridge, MY BOAT and on into the Gulf. It was a short 1 mile ride around to port to reach our destination which is awsome. Now I know why folks stop here for the night and end up staying. We picked up our Enterprise rental and by 7 p.m. we were loaded and headed back to WV. I am writing this from our motel room just south of Atlanta so we still have about 9 hours drive left.

Panama City Marina, FL - 12/7/10

We needed to leave Ft. Walton Beach early today for the 69 mile run to Panama City Marina and we left at 8:10 a.m. Yesterday I mentioned how tight the pilings were and the first 2 photos are my evidence. The narrow walkway also was very shakey and the first mate had to put on her big girl panties to venture out to the boat beside us which belonged to fellow loopers Bill and Charlotte Langford. That's them on the bow of their boat as we are leaving. They are staying a week here while Charlotte attends to some work related issues back in Nashville. Bill is going to pick us up at Port St. Joe and bring us back to Panama City to get our rental car on Wednesday. We hope to get there before noon so we can get packed and started back to WV. Really looking forward to snow and cold temps (sic). When we left Ft. Walton (N 30 24.147 W 86 37.215 for you Jack), we headed east across
Chocktawhatchee Bay which was an
adventure for us. The bay is very wide (several miles) and a good

portion of the way you had to steer

by compass reading. It was close to 30 miles long and then after passing

thru a canal we had another long West Bay to negotiate. Of course Ricki occupied herself trying to catch a photo of the many dolphins in our wake but got some great video of them jumping. The picture out the stern of our boat on the bay will be one of my favorite shots I am sure. Then as we approached the marina in Panama City, blue lights appeared on our port and we were boarded by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Very nice young men and were just checking documentation and any outstanding warrants. They actually called our SSN into somewhere to make sure we were not wanted. Glad I paid that parking ticket! After finally docking, another looper boat, GonCruzen III with Greg and Barbara Franklin from MD pulled up and docked at our bow. After shopping at the marina store, we captured a beautiful Florida sunset walking back to the boat and then went to dinner with Greg and Barbara in downtown Panama City. Another nice city that Ricki thinks she could live here.

Our position tonight is N 30 09.001 W 85 39.854

Tomorrow we will leave very early for Port St. Joe (N 29 48.884 W 85 18.566) and since we will be leaving for home probably will not post a blog until we return right before Christmas. Until then ... enjoy the holiday season and accept our appreciation for following our adventure. HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Fort Walton Yacht Basin, FL - 12/6/10

We left Bear Point Marina at 8:10 a.m. after being there for 2 nights due to very high wind. We had decided that we would not venture out when the wind was out of the north at more than 15 mph and it had been as high as 20 mph many times the past couple days. Today started pretty chilly in the mid 30's
when we pulled out but eventually

got up into the high 50's and low
60's. We felt very sorry for our northern friends having all the white stuff on the ground so we took a picture of all the white stuff
we are enduring as we enter Florida. We had winds all day of around 15 mph on the port beam which kept my fuel tanks from equalizing resulting in the port tank showing 1/2 full and the starboard was completely full creating a slight starboard list. As we entered the rough Pennsacola Bay we had a Navy security boat take a look at us but kept going, a large plane was performing some kind of manuver and just kept circling overhead. Then we passed a very interesting tower that did not have any mention about it in our books. Hmmm ... wonder what its purpose is? We got to Ft. Walton Yacht Basin at 2:30 p.m. and had a tough time backing into a slip with the cross wind blowing. Our friends Bill and Charlotte (Precious Time) are in the slip beside us having gotten there the day before so they helped us tie up to the pilings. Yesterday we got a surprise phone call from Parkersburg friends Marie Leadman and Gary Wiggins who have been vacationing in Destin and they were also there to greet us and spend a very enjoyable evening with the 4 of us. Bill and Charlotte have reserved their slip for a week while she completes some work related issues in Nashville so they will not be leaving with us tomorrow when we cast off for Panama Beach. Tonight is supposed to be very cold for Florida so they have actually shut off the dock water to keep it from freezing with temps predicted to be in the 20's.

Dolphin Video - 12/4/10

Bear Point Marina, Orange Beach, AL - 12/5/10

Hunkered down again ... this time high wind. Winds were over 15 MPH all day and had gusts over 20 MPH. Since we were looking to cross the Pennsacola Bay it didn't sound very comfortable and although we are anxious to get back to WV we will not move in weather we don't like. The folks in the 48 ft sailboat in the slip beside us came over for docktails last night. As we have said many times before, the people you meet on this adventure is what makes it great. Today the guy next door offered to take me to the store which was nice since we have been geting rid of food in preparation of leaving for awhile. Later in the day Charlotte and Bill Langford (Precious Time) called from Ft. Walton and indicated they were going to Fairhope to pick up their car and we invited them for dinner on the way back. Very enjoyable evening with friends. We also got a call from some Parkersburg friends who are vacationing in Destin and we hope to catch up with them tomorrow in Ft. Walton. The cold snap is expected to last another day or so here so daytime temps will only be in the mid 50's, but we won't see any snow like our northern relatives. The only white we see is the sugar colored beaches!

Bear Point Marina, Orange Beach, AL - 12/4/10

Finally ... on the move again. We left Dog River Marina under beautiful skies at 8:30 a.m. and got to the shipping channel at 9:15 to turn to a heading of 180 degrees. The water was very smooth to start out but within an hour it started getting a little chop that turned into a small craft warning with waves hitting us between 1 to 2 feet. When we turned into the inter-coastal waterway at marker 26, it was rough with waves hitting our starboard beam. We tied up at Lulu's (Jimmy Buffett's sisters restaurant) for lunch then traveled another 10 miles to our marina arriving at 5 p.m. in a very stiff wind.

Ricki spent most of this part of our trip trying to catch a picture of the dolphins playing in our wake (thank God for digital camaras) without sucess and finally resorted to taking videos. It is too long to attach to the blog, but it is great. I told her they responded to a womans voice singing which turned out to be a mistake. She sang the rest of the way! Don't know what tomorrow will be like but strong winds are being forcasted but I hope we can get to Ft. Walton, FL.

Our position tonight is N 30 18.33 W 87 31.34

Dog River Marina (Day Fifteen) - 12/3/10

Final day at Dog River Marina. We have decided to leave tomorrow morning without the repair for our fuel leak. Cummins never did show up or return our calls so we have put diapers under the leak and are heading out. I called Port St. Joe and they indicated that they could get someone there to fix it so we are not waiting any longer. Now our plans are to spend Saturday night at Orange Beach, AL, Sunday night at Destin, FL and Monday night at Panama City before getting to Port St. Joe on Tuesday and hopefully picking up a rental car and starting home the same day. We are so ready to move! Today we tried to stay busy with Ricki wrapping Christmas gifts and I cleaned decks, charted our course and got the outside stuff ready to travel. As near as I can figure, we will go about 15 miles tomorrow down the Mobile shipping channel before turning east on the ICW and going another 25 miles (+/-) to Bear Point Marina. Since we are leaving reasonably early, we will probably stop at Lulu's for lunch. Lulu is Jimmy Buffet's sister and we have heard that the food is great so we just have to give it a try. The loopers traveling ahead of us have some terrific pictures of dolphins playing in their bow wake so maybe we can be as lucky as well and get some pictures. December in southern Alabama is something we are not used to at all. Daytime temps are mid 60's to low 70's and we haven't seen any snow at all. I think we could like this!

Dog River Marina (Day Fourteen) - 12/2/10

Well another day in the same place. We have been here so long they have offered us benefits! As I was walking to the shop this morning to pick up a couple buckets to change oil in the main engines, I took a few photos around the marina to add some spice to the blog. The shot across the river is Grand Mariner Marina which has a great restaurant which we sampled again tonight with our friends Charlotte and Bill (Precious Time) who drove over from Eastern Shore Marina in Fairhope to have dinner with us. They plan to leave for Panama City tomorrow but we will meet up again

in Port St. Joe after Christmas. They had some battery issues that had to be addressed today so they couldn't leave this A.M. as planned. We are hearing stories that loopers are stacking up in Carrabelle and Appalachicola waiting on a weather window to cross the gulf. I called this morning to move our 12/3 reservations into next week at Port St. Joe and they didn't seem to mind since they are also getting full. The photo of Quest at the transit dock is at low tide which runs about 2 feet here in Dog River. That is about the same that we will see until the east coast when it will get to 9 feet in SC. We didn't see anyone from Cummins today to check out our fuel leak problem so we hope they show up tomorrow so we can get going again. It is supposed to be in the high 60's for the next few days with nothing but sunshine so we ready to move.

I faxed the bill for the new shaft, coupling and prop repairs yesterday evening to Boat US Insurance and got a call this morning before 9 a.m. that a check was in the mail. That seems like amazing service but I am sure that the reputation of this marina repair facilty didn't hurt.

Dog River Marina (day thirteen) - 12/1/10

At 6 a.m. this morning activity outside the boat woke us up and when I went out to see what was going on, they were preparing to get us out of the water and install the new shaft. All went very well and at 9:30 we had the shaft in, new zincs, reconditioned props and ready to give her a trial run. The boat ran beautifully, much smoother than ever before, except ... when the mechanic went into the holy place to check everything, he reported a fuel leak. Long story short ... we are still here and I just received a call from the main man here at the repair facility and he told me that he just returned from the local Cummins dealer and realistically it looks like a Friday repair. They are trying to locate the throttle seals and o rings tomorrow but probably won't get them in time to fix us on Thursday. This screws up all our plans to leave Florida Sunday with my sister for WV so I guess we will have to get other transportation home later next week. All we can say is that everything happens for a reason. If this fuel leak had gone undetected for any length of time we could have had a major issue on our hands. My only response is that we are close to having all the fun we can afford!

Dog River Marina (Day Twelve) - 11/30/10

Still here and hunkered down for the storm.....
Tornado warnings and storms kept us inside until mid afternoon when Ricki decided to finish all our Christmas shopping at the mall and I did the laundromat scene. I took her to the mall around 3 p.m. and went back to pick her up at 7 p.m. All our parts are finally here for installation early tomorrow morning then a trial run with the mechanics before being sent on our way. Let's hope everything goes well!

Dog River Marina (eleventh day) - 11/29/10

Still here......
Early this morning Sonny Middleton, who owns the marina and repair shop, stopped by to tell us that the shaft coupling had not come in as promised last Friday and after checking it was determined that it is not scheduled to be delivered here until Wednesday. He was a little more than just irritated and instructed his parts manager to call them and tell them to overnight at their expense now. So, if it does show up tomorrow, it will be sent to the machine shop to fit it to the replacement shaft and we can expect it to be installed Wednesday. Of course the shaft will have to aligned to the engine so maybe we will get out of here Wednesday afternoon but more realistic... Thursday. This is really putting a great big cramp in our plans of messing around in the Florida panhandle since we need to be in Port St. Joe this coming weekend to catch our ride home and it is close to 200 miles.

We did some more Christmas shopping to kill the day plus we won't have much time when we do finally get home. We are planning an early Christmas with our sons then road trips to our daughters before returning to the boat right before Christmas. We are really looking forward to a kid fix. Since you have already seen pictures of Ricki shopping ... none are attached.

Dog River Marina (tenth day) - 11/28/10

Another day ... same place. I had planned to do some chores in the holy place today, but after cleaning all the bilge openings, I couldn't change the oil because my spare filters had all gotten wet from the exhaust leak and were full of water and rusty. I went to the local Advance Auto but they did not have all the different size filters I needed so I guess that job will wait until Port St. Joe. Ricki worked on getting pictures ready to print while I had the floor sections out. We returned our rental car to the airport in hopes of getting our repairs done early tomorrow and out of here. The weather reports have indicated it could get snotty later Monday afternoon and all of Tuesday so we need to move or get caught here for several more days. I did chart our course on the Garmin GPS for Orange Beach, AL as an optimistic view of things tomorrow, so here's hoping. I am by nature, not a superstitious person but a little over a week ago we hit some rough water and the hand mirror in the master head fell off the counter and broke. Do you suppose?

Dog River Marina (ninth day) - 11/27/10

Road Trip!
We spent the day heading toward the Gulf, stopping first in Foley, AL at a Tangiers Outlet, which by all accounts (particularly the checkbook) was successful. Since we are coming home the first part of December and plan to have an early Christmas with our kids, we have to get with the gift shopping and after several stabs at it are almost done. Then we headed for Gulf Shores, AL which is a typical beach town except for the snow white sand. We took a walk out a verrry long pier which had dozens of fisherman pulling in fish right and left. When we went on east to Orange Beach, AL we decided to look up our friends Skip and Barb Johnson (Moor $tuff) and Jim and Cathy Condon (Merried with Her) at Bear Point Marina. The Condons are from New Matamouras, OH and I had initially heard they were taking this trip in the customer waiting area at Summers Motors in Marietta were I was getting our SUV serviced from a lady from New Mat. We had e-mailed back and forth after that but didn't meet until Joe Wheeler at the rendezvous. They had left Eastern Shore Marina in Fairhope together earlier today along with John and Barb Flint (Scoperta) and it was approaching "docktails time". When we pulled into the marina we gave Skip and Barb a call just as they were leaving to go over to Jim and Cathy's boat, adult beverages in hand. Skip had slipped on the dock this morning on ICE as he was preparing to leave and really messed up his leg. We joined all three couples for cocktails and later for a very good dinner at the marina restaurant.

Tomorrow I hope to clean the boat bilge and change the oil and fuel filters before we set out across the bay for the Florida panhandle. The weather for the next couple days does not look very good unless we can get out early Monday before the front comes through.