Geez! We Survive our First Week (Barely)

Well kids, we are 10 days out, about $5,000 poorer, and we've made all of 236 miles to Gulf Shores, AL. Can only wonder what the next 6000+ miles will do to us and our bank account. Turns out that the overheating problem with the engines resolved itself and we were left bewildered and stupidly staring at the mechanic when the problem would not reproduce itself. But, being the good mechanic that he was, he found another serious problem that needed to be fixed. So, there goes $3,800 and we are about 60 miles from home port. There is a silver lining though, the marina felt so sorry for use that they gave us the weekly rate instead of the daily rate when we hit the limit. And there are still issues that we are trying to resolve. We really wish that we had had the time for a shake-down cruise.

Jane navigates GIWW with sign painted by granddaugher Madison

We left Slidell, LA, after frying our super deluxe DC/AC inverter, and started to head for the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Jane voted that we go into Biloxi, MS and the admiral vote counts the most. Got to Biloxi and into a slip next to the Hard Rock Casino. Biloxi Small Yacht Harbor is a nice and accommodating facility.

Fogbound in Biloxi

We decided that since we pissed so much money away on the boat already, that a few more dollars lost to the casino couldn't possibly make make us feel any worse. However, mother nature fulfilled that feeling by socking us in with fog the entire next day, causing us to spend an additional night in Biloxi. Biloxi is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina that hit 5 years ago, so near the water the options are limited. The upside is that Jane could not find places to shop and spend more money.

Oil Rig in Mobile Bay

Motoring on the Intracoastal

Bridge to Dauphin Islan

Today the weather cleared and we decided to hightail it across the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay before we got a predicted nasty change in the weather. We are feeling confident. Nothing major happened and the gulf was calm and a pleasure to cross. And, the boat didn't break! That was the longest run we've had at higher speed and we only hope that we have those conditions when we make the run from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs. At 12:23 p.m. we entered the Mobile Bay ship channel and officially started the Great Loop. We arrived in Gulf Shores, AL at Homeport Marina, and since we hadn't spent any money on the boat in the last 48 hours, we decided to top off the tanks with diesel fuel. Well, 200 gallons at $3.55 a gallon made up for that hollow feeling to the tune of $676. And that was with the Boat U.S. discount. Thank god for Boat U.S.

A meeting place fort Parrotheads

Homeport Marina is really very fine, and of course is known for Lucy Buffet's (Jimmy's sister) restaurant LuLu's. We went there tonight and gorged ourselves on green fried tomatoes, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and the biggest fried seafood platter you can imagine. And they had a gift shop that called Jane's name. You can't imagine what this one stop cost us, but we are on a roll!

Having fun!

Going to LuLu's

Hmmmmmmmm! Mullet Smoothies!

Can only wait to see what the 40+ mile run to Fort Walton Beach will bring.

We Almost Got Out of Our Back Yard!

The next morning we started to head out and make our way through the Rigolets to the gulf and Mississippi Sound. However, while we were getting ready to take off, the temperature alarm on the starboard engine went off. Capt. Lar went down and found the raw water strainer empty, indicating a blocked seacock. When the cover of the strainer was removed and the seacock was opened, the blockage was removed, the engines were restarted, and the temperature gauge returned to normal. We headed out for a railroad bridge and requested an opening. Since there were trains coming we had to wait for 40 minutes for the first train to pass, and while the second train was approaching the bridge, the temperature alarm went off again. Capt. Lar quickly determined that no raw water was passing through the engine. Since we were fighting a 3-4 knot current and the bridge would be opened after the second train passed, we made a split decision to radio the bridge tender that we were having difficulties and returned to our anchorage to further assess the situation. We couldn't determine what the problem was, but decided we needed to have it checked out by a mechanic before heading into the gulf. So we made our way back on one engine to a marina in Slidell and called a mechanic to have it checked out. That wouldn't be until Monday.

Getting Ready to Roll!

During the weekend we became familiar with marina life. When we went to hook up our shore power we were tripping breakers for some unknown reason. We quickly assembled a committee of 6 guys with 6 different approaches and opinions as to what the problem was. Our boat uses twin 30A power, but we ended up with a single 30A source for the night. The next day we further troubleshot the situation and came to the conclusion that we needed to replace our shorepower cords. But all was not for naught, because on Saturday we got to watch a Mardi Gras boat parade. However, it paled in comparison to the boat parades we used to have on the Tickfaw. On Sunday Tracy and Milana brought us our main computer that we left at the house, and we went out for lunch and shopping to pick up some things. They were great to help us out.

Well, the mechanic finally made it to our boat today, Monday, and went to check everything out. Low and behold there didn't seem to be a problem with the cooling system in the slip, so we took the boat out on the lake and put her up on plane. The engines never move above their normal operating temperature, and the situation we experienced on Friday couldn't be reproduced. However, he did discover a crack in our starboard exhaust that was leaking the exhaust into the engine room. So, we decided to have that repaired and will be in Slidell until Wednesday or Thursday. Weather permitting, we will chase across the northern gulf coast then and head for our home in Fort Walton Beach and on to Panama City to meet up with friends.

Love Birds Next to Our Slip

We Start Our Journey

We spent the last weekend before our departure visiting with our children and grandchildren and saying last minute farewells. It was good to see everyone one last time. We also celebrated Capt Larry's birthday with the little ones.

Capt Lar's Special Girls Give Him a Salute!

Fortunately, they didn't put ALL the candles on the ca

 So we are off and underway. We left our home port and made our way over to Madisonville, LA where we tied up on the wall for the night. We sure wish we had enough time for a shake down cruise as we had issues with the configuration of the radios, GPS, and autopilot while underway.

We did make it to Madisonville where Larry's 60th birthday and the start of our trip brought 12 friends and relatives to our boat for a happy hour that lasted longer than an hour and culminated in dinner at a local restaurant. Everyone seemed to have a good time and our phones rang all night long wishing us congratulations.

Showing the Burgee

Great to Have the Neighbors Drop By

The next day we left Madisonville and entered previously untraveled waters on Lake Ponchartrain and the Rigolets leading to the gulf. This was a new experience for us but everything seemed to be going 

Anchored in the West Pearl

Cruisin' Across Lake Ponchartrain

well. Underway we were able to sort out some of the issues with the boat. Instead of going into a marina at Slidell, we continued to a recommended anchorage in the west Pearl River off of the Rigolets. The weather was great and using the anchorage meant that the next day's run to Biloxi would be about two hours shorter and more leisurely. But we had problems going into the anchorage. We entered at low spring tides and the water depths were significantly less than what was charted. We wanted to anchor in 8-10 feet of water just past a 30 foot charted hole which only registered 22 feet on the sounder. It didn't take much headway beyond the hole before we almost ran aground. Capt Larry backed us out of there and we found some depth and put the hook down out for the night. We grilled some steaks and settled down for the evening. It turned out to be an excellent and peaceful anchorage.

Cooking Supper

Getting Close to Starting Our Great Loop Adventure

We certainly have been remiss in keeping up this blog! Yeah, we've been really busy this past summer and fall getting ready to start our loop adventure, but we are just a week away from taking off and felt we must let everyone know we are still alive and kicking and intend to do regular postings about our trip. We have been handing out boat cards and encouraging everyone to follow us here, so we are going to do a quick recap of what we've been up to the past 7 months. We are just going to provide the highlights and present them in reverse chronological order.

We had a "Bon Voyage" party at our house on the river this past weekend with friends, family, neighbors. We had to clean house and made a few appetizers, but our kids (actually the daughters) handled most of the preparation. There was an open house on the boat and we set up a powerpoint presentation about the loop along with all of our charts and cruising guides for everyone to peruse and learn about the trip.
 

Jane with Madison, our oldest grandaughter

Granddaughters Hannah & Sadie

Hannah & Sadie bake Opa a cake for his birthday!

Do you think grandson, Brennan will get much taller while we are gone?

PSJ Gathering

PSJ Looper Hens

 The first part of January we went to our second looper gathering in Port St. Joe, FL. We were able to meet up with friends we had met last year and had a really great time. Although the program covered the same topics as last year, we were able to pick up a few new tidbits and talk to some loopers who were just a few weeks ahead of us. And the social agenda at this meeting is absolutely fantastic! We look forward to meeting up with some of these folks somewhere along the route.

Bavarian Cream high and dry

Jane works on her rowing technique

We had expected to have Bavarian Cream hauled out during the summer, but between the boat yard's schedule and various projects we had going, this was delayed until the end of October. While we are very happy with our yard, there were a number of things that delayed the boat's return. For example, we had the props scanned and just as they were ready to be installed, a crack in the port shaft was discovered. It took 3 weeks to have a new shaft milled and installed. We also ordered a new set of spare props which took 6 weeks to arrive from Italy. So on it went until we finally got the boat back around the middle of January.

Boy, does she have a nice set or what?

Now we really had to scramble to do most of the basic maintenance, configuring, and provisioning to get her ready to go.

Larry tools up the river

We each had long lists of things to try and get done before we launched, but now are finding ourselves sorting the list in "must do" and "will do underway" so we can meet our goal of leaving on February 16. While the boat was in the yard, we continued to work on route planning, ordering parts and accessories, reading all of those user manuals and getting familiar with our dinghy, Cream Puff. We had purchased a new outboard motor for the dinghy and spent the nice fall days breaking it in. So all was not lost with the delay.


Just about the entire summer months were devoted to getting the boat ready. There were a lot of systems to install and update, and of course, general maintenance was necessary on just about everything else. We needed a new VHF radio in the lower helm and really wanted an autopilot to help on many of the legs we would be cruising. Larry easily installed the radio, but the autopilot took him about a month (shortened workdays due to extended happy hours!). Then there was new cabling for each helm's computers, a backup GPS, a new stereo system, and a satellite radio installation. He fashioned new stands for each helm's laptop and is still fooling with the DC/AC inverter he installed. These were in addition to general maintenance items such as repairing a fresh water line leak that drained the tank (and yes, it was located under the head requiring complete removal of the toilet), replacing 3 banks of house, genset, and engine batteries, learning to replace clogged fuel filters (and how air in the fuel lines doesn't help a diesel run), unraveling the mysteries of an anchor windlass, and hours of sanding and varnishing.

Jane & Tracy enjoy a swim in Lake Maurepas

Tied up in Madisonville

But all of that work doesn't mean we didn't have some fun. We managed to take the boat out at least once a week for a short trip up and down the river, and went to the Tchefuncte River with Tracy and Milana for a Labor Day end-of-summer bash. Although we arrived too late to tie up to the dock, we were able to anchor nearby and still listen to the band while relaxing on the boat. After pulling anchor we headed to a local restaurant for dinner then they went home while we tied up at the Madisonville wall and stayed overnight. The next morning we headed back home and hailed and passed through our first swing bridge by ourselves. We're starting to think we know how to do this! In between these events we squeezed in several trips to Florida and the beach, a trip to Ohio for Larry's nephew's wedding and a visit (and stamp!) to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (scratch off another one). We also had everyone out for a cookout and day on the river, and attended the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show in November to pick up some things we needed and look at things we think we needed.

Can you name this hitch?

So here are we now just just one week from the start of our trip. We plan to post our adventures here regularly and hope everyone visits this site frequently. However, since we need reliable internet access to maintain the blog, the posts will likely come in batches when we are in a marina somewhere waiting for good weather or just taking a break. We hope everyone can have a few vicarious experiences through this blog. It should be a hoot!