Mobile Area Adventures - Day 55-59 - Fairhope, AL

We have been in Fairhope since Tuesday, November 23, a total of 8 days.  This is such a spectacular area that we could easily stay here much longer but the calendar reminds us that we have to keep moving.

Friday after Thanksgiving, while everybody in the US went shopping, we rented a car from Enterprise and drove a short 20 minutes to downtown Mobile where we had lunch at Wintzell's Oyster House.

Wintzell's is located on Dauphin street, which is Mobile's equivalent of New Orleans' Bourbon Street.  Very colorful even in the rain.

Wintzell's has been in business since 1938 and the atmosphere is unique.  The walls, to quote Wintzell's, is covered with "wit and wisdom."  You could spend a week reading the walls.  The food was also good as was the service.

Wit and wisdom cover the walls.  Particularly helpful for me

Saturday's activity was a visit to Battleship Memorial Park to tour the USS Alabama , a WWII battleship.  The photo below was taken from about a 1/2 mile from the ship.  At 680 feet, it is difficult to get a photo close up.

USS Alabama

The tour, actually three different tours, are self guided and the very easy to follow.  The ship is in amazingly good condition and the exhibits contain relevant artifacts.  Click here for a virtual tour.

Communications room

One very special feature is the ability to explore the barbette where the 2700 pound projectiles are stored and readied for loading.  According to the exhibit, this is the only ship where you can view the barbette's technology.  Absolutely fascinating.

Large naval guns are of particular interest to me as I served as a field artillery officer in the National Guard in a battalion that had an 8 inch howitzers.  An 8 inch howitzer fires a 200 pound round as compared to a 16 inch gun that fires a 2,700 pound projectile.  That's the equivalent of firing a Chevrolet Cobalt (curb weight 2721 lbs) at the enemy.  The process of firing such a projectile is shown in this link.  Short and well worth watching.

Located high in the superstructure is the bridge.  I expected to see a sophisticated array of electronics (at least for its day) and controls and was surprised at its simplicity.  Turns out the radar and navigation equipment is located well below decks in the operations room and is supervised by the ship's executive officer.

Wheel, compass and engine communication device (to the left)

On the Battleship Memorial site is a WWII submarine, indoor aircraft museum, outdoor display of aircraft and weapons.  The propeller in the foreground is one of the ship's four propellers.  You get of a sense of its size next to the aircraft, which I believe is a B25.

Sunday, we took the dingy and ventured south about 5 miles to the Grand Hotel, which is a "grand" hotel managed today by Marriott.  It has its own marina.  We pulled in but could not figure out how to get Kodi off the dingy as there were no floating docks.  The harbormaster seeing our predicament allowed us to tie off on a floating platform used be the Alabama State's Police's patrol boat.  This allowed us to walk up a set of steps.

The grounds are spacious and well manicured.  These photos only begin to give you a sense of the site's beauty.

 
As usual, thanks to Kodi, we got to chat with some of the guests, one of whom was a newly married Marine Major (soon to be Lt Colonel) headed to Afghanistan in January.  We got to talk with him, his new wife and his parents.

On Friday, we turned on the bridge/cockpit heater and were surprised by the fact that although it appeared to be working it would not blow heat.  After several tries, we immediately scheduled a visit with the marina's technician for Monday morning.  Sunday morning we turned it on to verify that it was still broken and sure enough, heat.  So, Monday morning I reported to the marina that the problem went away and suggested that I now had an intermittent problem, which is difficult to diagnose.  Ed, the owner asked me a few questions and then declared that I had an air blockage and that the AC water pump re-primed itself.  Smart guy.  I had not told him that we had pulled the boat two days earlier, which was the cause of the air blockage.  Problem solved and at no charge.

Monday evening Diana captured a beautiful late afternoon cloud formation by the harbor.

Late afternoon clouds on Monday

Speaking of clouds, today was a stormy day although we awoke to 72 degrees and overcast skys.  At around 9:00 AM, just after a lovely walk with Kodi, Ed, the marina owner, advised us that winds up to 40 knots were possible and suggested we move the boat to the fuel dock which is located further into the harbor.  We did so and by 10:00 AM we felt the first gust of the approaching thunderstorm.  It then proceeded to rain cats and dogs for the next 7 hours with the temperature dropping 20 degrees.

We used the time to get haircuts and chase down Innova dog food.  Kodi has been on Innova since we got her at 8 weeks.

You can see the storm clouds approaching Guided Discovery at the west end of the harbor

At the fuel dock 15 minutes before the storm

We expect to be moving tommorow.  Our goals is Orange Beach.

Written by Les.

Thanksgiving 2010 - Day 55 - Fairhope, Alabama

We hope you'll had a good Thanksgiving.

We were so incredibly fortunate to have spent Thursday with other "Loopers" at Bob and Vicki Riggs' house.    The Riggs' completed the Loop in 2008 and are currently the Mobile Harbor Hosts.


Lester, Vicki and Bob Riggs

They own a house here in Fairhope and keep their boat in Pensacola, FLA.    They generously invited all the Loopers in the Eastern Shores and Dog River Marinas to join them for the holiday.   Other guests included their friends and neighbors who also happened to be boaters.  In all there were about 30 people. 

Loopers in Fairhope 11/25/10



Friends and neighbors who are also boaters

Dinner was buffet style and had unique dishes that were both northern and southern cuisine.  It seems southern dressing is made with corn bread.

 

 A lovely buffet with all the trimmings

It was sunny and 75 degrees with light winds.  Quite a change from Chicago

Written by Diana.

One shiney new spur - Day 53 - Mobile to Fairhope, Al

We awoke early and discussed whether we should have the boat hauled to replace the broken spur that we damaged on the Illinois River.  Being in the Gulf now makes spurs more important as there are numerous crab traps with floating buoys that are easy to snag.  Since Dog River Marina is a full service facility we decided to call and see if they could fit us it.

So, at 6:50 AM left a message on their answering machine.  Ten minutes later came a knock at our door (actually the port side of our hardtop).   A gentleman named Byron intoroduced himself as the shop foreman and asked if we were ready to be pulled.

The boat being ready for lifting

Another 15 minutes and she was out of the water and the team went to work.

45 minutes later, the new spur was installed.  Before and after photos.

During the process they power washed the hull and replaced the plastic pads on the port spur which were starting to wear.  So in little more than an hour the running gear was fully operational and the bottom was spic and span.

Meanwhile, as this was all going on, a gentlemen named Sonny came up and thanked me for the business.  I said, "sounds like you are the owner" to which he replied "I think the place owns me."  As Diana and I chatted with Sonny, we learned that he had built the Columbus Marina, found out why the lovely restaurant, called Woody's, was no longer in business, learned that the Columbus Marina was hit by two tornados and that the Dog River Marina was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and with regard to the latter three events, got to see the photos.

Sonny and Diana with a slighly distracted Kodi

The charge for all these services was a very reasonable $569 and they gave us a $50 gift certificate to the West Marine store located right on the premises.

Shopping at West Marine actually took more time than the repair job.  We used the gift certificate to upgrade the dingy's GPS with a Garmin model that has marine charts for the entire US.

Side Story: Why do we have a GPS on the dingy in the first place and why did it need to be upgraded?  The dingy, as you may recall, is a 11 foot Caribe with a 30HP Tohatsu outboard.  It moves through the water pretty good. It came with one of those totally inaccurate speedometer that work on water pressure from a pitot tube.  It said 20 MPH and I knew we were going faster than that.  So, for $100 I bought a very basic Garmin GPS that essentially provided speed, heading and elevation.  Turns out the dingy's top speed was 33 miles an hour.  The upgrade allows us to see water depths and buoys, which will be helpful oparating on the intercoast where there is LOTs of shallow water.

The day was beautiful and at 11:00 AM we departed Dog River bound for Fairhope Alabama, 12 miles across Mobile Bay.  Traveling at trawler speed, we arrived at 12:20 to paradise. 

View of Mobile Bay from where we are docked

Eastern Shore Marina put us on their face dock with a spectacular view of Mobile Bay and then proceeded to give us a free night and BoatUS and AGLCA discounts.  Total cost for 4 nights was an unbelievable $143.   We immediately signed up for the courtesy car and explored downtown Fairhope.  I'll let the photos do the talking.

Everybody's happy

What a difference from the towns on the Western Rivers

Dinner was at Tamara's in downtown Fairhope, an upscale restaurant decorated with modern art (even on the ceiling).  The setting and food was equal to the best of anything in Chicago.
Written by Les.

We reach sea level - Day 52 - Silas to Mobile, AL

We awoke early to partly sunny conditions, a beautiful contrail and no fog on the river.

Contrail viewed on Monday morning

Ed and Gayle (from Gayle Wynds) were up and had already contacted the Coffeeville Lock and Dam, which is three miles down river from Bobby's Fish Camp.  He informed us that they would accommodate us if we got there in 15 minutes.

We never miss an opportunity to lock through without a wait.  So, off we went at 6:58 AM and by 7:33 we had departed Coffeeville, our final lock.  Coffeeville's 34 foot drop (lift) put us at sea level.  We had now descended 590 feet since leaving Chicago.

We had discussed cruising 66 miles to an anchorage called Bashi Creek, staying overnight and making the remainder of the 135 mile trip on Tuesday.  Then, shortly after exiting the lock and cruising at 10 MPH, we said "what the heck, the weather good, it's early, we have plenty of time, let's go for Mobile."  Essentially, I/we had become addicted to the thrill of moving the boat at speed. 

Besides, Fred Myers, author of the Nitty Gritty Tenn Tom, said that there was not much to see on Lower Black Warrior Tombigbee.  He was right.  But it does make a great setting for a fast run. 

In addition to the buoys, the tows and the debris, the only other challenge we faced was attending to Kodi's needs.  We decided that we would try to stop midway.  As we passed the juncture of the Alabama River just before noon we spotted a boat launch ramp with a dock on the right descending bank, pulled over to shallow water on the left bank, dropped anchor and launched the dingy and took Kodi to shore.  The whole process took an hour and by 12:40 we were on our way.

Docks at launch ramps mean not having to get wet and muddy

An hour later we passed the I-65 Highway Bridge, affectionately know, according to Fred Myers, as the Dolly Parton Bridge.  The bridge marks the beginning of civilization.

By 2:46 we had reached the beginning of Mobile Harbor, which is entirely industrial.  According to Fred Myers, its the 12th busiest commercial harbor in the US.  Unfortunately, just before we arrived it started to rain quite heavily.  Finally, at 3:05 PM we reached mile marker 0.0 on the Lower Black Warrior Tombigbee River.

The Mobile Civic Center, Mile Marker 0.0

This marked the end of our journey on the western rivers, which started on October 3 in Chicago.  In 52 days we had traveled the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, The Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, and the Lower Black Warrior Tombigbee rivers. and covered 1,350 miles.

Here are a few photos of Mobile Harbor.

Mobile's ship channel took us south where we turned right between green day marks 65 and 63 into the channel to Dog River.  This channel, which is marked with red and green day markers, is 100 feet wide and 7 feet deep.  As we ran the channel our depth sounder indicated 4.5 to 5 feet of water.

Leaving downtown and entering the ship channel

Note: A day mark looks like a sign on a telephone pole sitting out in the middle of the water. 

We arrived at Dog River Marina at 4:30 PM, after running for almost nine hours (8:37 to be precise).  Since 6;58 AM we had covered 135.1 miles at an average speed of 15.6 MPH.  The engine management system said we had burned 158.7 gallons of fuel.

We topped of the tanks at Dog River taking on 317 gallons at $2.98 per gallon, the most fuel we bought and the lowest price we paid since starting the trip.  The bill was $943.17.  Since leaving Demopolis we had covered 230 miles and averaged 0.73 miles per gallon.  Not particularly efficient but great fun.

We were invited to a looper cocktail party on the boat just across from us.  At the party were Bill and Debbie and Ted and Pam (Patience Patience) who we had  met at Grand Harbor, Ed and Gayle, who we traveled with today and several new friend, Louise and Louis, Jean Louis and his lovely wife who were all from France.

Our hosts in the foreground, Louis, Gaylle and Diana

Louise, Jean Louis and Wife, Pam and Ted

We had decided to go to dinner with Ed and Gayle at a restaurant just 200 feet across the channel from the marina.  To reach it on foot or by car required traveling over three miles across a bridge.  We took the short cut and dingied across.

The restaurant was in the gray building to the left

Written by Les.

Tearing down the Tombigbee - Day 51 - Demopolis, AL to Silas, AL

We had two options for today, travel 70 miles and anchor at Bashi Creek (mile marker 145) or travel 97 miles and tie up at Bobby's Fish Camp (mile marker 119.4).   We took option 2, Bobby's Fish Camp, which required cruising at 27 miles an hour for three and a half hours after clearing the Demopolis Lock.  Our decision is always influenced by Kodi.  Bobby's offers dry land and the ability to walk Kodi at 7:00 and 11:00 PM without having to dingy to shore, which at most anchorages involves getting one's feet wet and everything muddy.

We woke at 7 AM to morning fog and decided to take a walk into Demopolis.  This proved to be great fun.  We spent an 90 minutes exploring while we waited for the fog to burn off. 

Last Resort and Gayle Winds at the fuel dock

The height of the walk, at least for Kodi, was her making a new friends with a gentle fun loving blood hound.  Kodi engaged the blood hound in her favorite game, chase me.  The blood hound tried hard but Kodi is simply fast.

Kodi and her new friend

For us, the highlights were two antebellum homes, one a private residence and the other now a museum.  The private residence was on an entire city block and sported elaborate stained glass windows. Both we located along the Tombigbee River.  See photos below.

Private antebellum home on a full city block

Stained glass windows

Bluff Hall, now the historical society museum

We departed the marina at 9:17 AM and proceed to the Demopolis Lock, which dropped us down 40 feet to 33 feet above sea level. The lockmaster advised us that a tow was going to exit the lock and then turn around and re-enter.  We later learned that the tow had brought an injured worker to the lock for transport to the hospital.  We locked through with the tow and two other pleasure boats, Precious Time and Gayle Winds.  The photos below give you a sense of the 40 foot drop (lift).


The tow just before we descended 40 feet

Compare this photo to the one above to see the 40 foot drop

Kodi supervising the locking process

We exited the lock at 10:10 AM and put the pedal to the medal, 2,300 RPMs, 27 MPH at 40 GPH.  Except for a brief lunch pause, where we slowed to trawler speed (10 MPH), we ran at 27 MPH.

Unfortunately, you cannot capture this experience with photos (except from another boat) so I will try with words.  The Tombigbee Lower Black Warrior River is wide, generally deep and full of switch backs with several 90 degree corners.  We ran this entire section on plane at 27 miles per hours.  To say the least, the feeling is extraordinary as you maneuver a 35,000 pound boat around an obstacle course.  Truly exhilarating.  You have to pay attention to buoys, debris and fisherman along the banks, which requires slowing down and then speeding up once past.

View of the wake after making a turn

Side Story: In 2008, we were invited to a Sea Ray Expo, a private boat show for select clients at Sea Ray's Sikes Creek yacht facility where they build the 52, 54, 58 and 63 Sundancers and the 58 Sedan Bridge.  A highlight of the trip was the opportunity to take a ride on any of the models.  We chose the 54, 58 and 60 Sundancers.  On each of the demonstrations, the captain would demonstrate the boat's ability to quickly get on plane and make tight turns at full speed.  At the time I said to Diana "so what."  Now, I know what.  The ability of the boat to competently take tight turns at high speed and to get on plane quickly is actually useful as we experienced today.  Boating on Lake Michigan rarely requires taking turns at high speed or quick acceleration.  If done at all, its to show friends the boat's capability, which I suspect most would have viewed as I did.  So what.

We did not miss much in terms of scenery, which is essentially the dense woods throughout this segment with an occasional home along the bank.  Still it made for a great setting to enjoy the boat's capabilities.

The scenery flying by

At 2:20 we arrived at Bobby Fish Camp and tied up along their 150 dock.  Bobby's is very primitive.  It is exactly what's advertised, a fish camp.  That said, it sure beats dingying to shore and getting your wet and muddy.  Just like an anchorage, we had to run the generator as Bobby's does not supply electricity.

Guided Discovery at Bobby's Fish Camp

Bobby Dahlberg, the owner passed away this year.  He was a Staff Sergeant in the Korean War.  He his buried at the fish camp just below the sign and flag.  He was 79.  His daugher runs the business.

Bobby's Fish Camp.  A pretty setting

We celebrated this spectacular day on the water with a bottle of Mount Veeder 2005 Cabernet Savingnon, which itself is spectacular.  We were joined by fellow boater (not loopers) Ed and Gayle from Gayle Winds, a 53 Carver who arrived an hour and a half after us (Note: They are from Green Turtle Bay and are heading to Florida).  They brought over some great h'orderves (Havarti cheese, Chicago Flax crackers and fresh delicious strawberry's which went great with the wine). 

The fun came at a price.  We burned 129 gallons of fuel according to the engine monitoring system, which at $3.00 a gallon is meaningful.  Worth every penny.

Written by Les.