The Alton Belle Casino in Alton Illinois

The City of St. Louis through the arch.

November 2, 2002     (Admiral's Log)
Today was our longest day of travel.  From Sun up to sun down.  We traveled 110 miles, which would not have been possible had we not had the current with us.  We spent the night in what is called the River Diversion Channel, which was small but had good depth.  There were two other boats in there with us, a brand new Sea Ray named Turn the Page and a sail boat named Carina.

Getting ready to leave Hoppies Marina at dawn.

Dredging operations along the Mississippi.

November 3,  2002    (Admiral's Log)
It was miserable, damp and cold when we got up to leave, so the first order of business was to put on a big pot of chili to chase the cold away.  The Mississippi takes some serious “S” bends here and the water is very turbulent, it boils up into huge whirl pools, that are truly incredible.
We reached the Ohio River and went about 15 miles up and anchored behind the new dam they are building, well out of the way of any barge traffic.  We had dinner and sat down in the living room for the evening.  We had both fallen asleep, when suddenly we heard a “May-Day” on the radio.  The two boats we had anchored with the night before had decided to stay near the mouth of the Ohio for the night and I guess they didn't choose their location wisely.  WE heard that they had been hit by a barge.  The new power boat had extensive damage to his boat, broken windshield and fiberglass damage.  We were not sure how much damage the sailboat had but knew that his radio ended up on the bow of the barge. Fortunately no one was hurt.  It kind of made us nervous for the rest of the night.

November 4, 2002     (Admiral's Log)
It was overcast and cloudy today but at least there was no rain.  We made good time and reached Paducah Kentucky by noon.  We quickly found the post office and Library and then trucked off ten blocks to the grocery store.
Paducah is an amazing city surrounded by a 12 mile long breakwall along the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.  Each section of the wall is painted with murals depicting the city's history.  Very well done. The old downtown core is being painstakingly restored to it's former glory to house museums, restaurants, art galleries and shops.
Our choice for dinner was the Whaler's Catch. .35 mussels cooked any of 4 different ways. Mmmmm Good.  For the main course I had Swiss Scallops and Colin had what they call their Boiling Bag.  It is a huge cheese cloth bag filled with 2 clusters of snow crab claws, oysters, shrimp, crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn.   “Awesome”!

This lock is under water-- we drove over the dam-- not real fast!!

November 5, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
It rained all night and was still raining when we were ready to leave. We took the Tennessee River up to the Lock at the bottom of Kentucky Lake.  We had read and heard from others that there could be a wait of up to 7 hours to get through that lock due to heavy barge traffic.  On our approach we called the Lock Master, who informed us that they were working on the lock and it would be about ½ an hour before anything would be going through.  He instructed us to tie up to the mooring cell and wait further instructions.  We made a quick lunch and we had no sooner finished our sandwiches when he called us to come ahead into the lock.  We are not sure what happened because there were barges on both sides waiting to go through and they have priority, but he took us through first.
When they opened the doors to let us out there was a hug barge staring us right in the face, but fortunately they had left enough room for us to get out.
We pulled into “Green Turtle Bay Marina” for the night.  A huge Marina with loads of room to maneuver around.  They made a reservation for us at a local Restaurant called “Patti’s 1880 Settlement”. .....WOW!  They came right to the marina to pick us up. The place is like a small town and is totally lit up with Christmas lights.  It was like walking into a wonderland.  This place has several gift shops, mini golf, a petting zoo and 2 restaurants.  The one we went to was excellent. Each.  The whole thing is divided up into small rooms with a bout 5 tables in each one. Each room was decorated in a different colour scheme or theme.  Ours was all done in blue and silver, miles of ribbon bows and thousands of silver and blue large and small decorations.  Their specialty is a 2 inch thick pork chop.  I could only manage a 1" thick one and Colin had the 20 oz. Porterhouse.  It was awesome!  They are also renowned for their deserts.  We settled on butterscotch pecan pie (the description was, so sweet it will    Make your teeth chatter) It was the best pecan pie I had ever tasted.  After walking through the grounds they gave us a ride back to the marina.

Line up of Tow Boats at the side of the Mississippi.

Barge awaiting us as we exited the lock.

November 6, 2002  (Admiral's Log)
Before we left in the morning I went into the marina office.  They have a one for one book exchange library.  I had 8 books to trade.  This is great, 8 new books and it didn't cost me anything.  We waited for the fog to lift and then headed out onto Kentucky Lake.  This lake is truly beautiful, dozens of sand beaches and endless little bays and coves to duck into.  We drove till dusk and pulled into a small cove for the night.

Neat little River Boat in Green Turtle Bay.

Maid of Steel parked at Green Turtle Marina.

November 7, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
“”SUN”“!!  It's a great sunny day and there is no rain.  Colin has come down with a cold so we took turns most of the day driving.  In the morning while I drove he went up and transplanted all his vegetable garden on the flybridge.  When time came to pull in for the night there was just nowhere to go so we pulled into the “Cuba Landing Marina” They gave us a courtesy car and we drove the 22 miles in Waverly Tennessee to stock up on some bulky items that we needed.  They also had a liquor store and that made Colin happy.  We drove past Loretta Lynn’s Buffet Restaurant and also past her Dude Ranch.  We didn't see her though.

Please, can't we share?

November 8, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
Another bright sunny day and the temperatures are reaching in the high 60's.  We actually had the windows open in the boat all day.  What a welcome change.
It was an uneventful day and we were anchored by 4:00.

TennesseRiver Cliffs.

Laundry Day on the boat.

November 9, 2002     (Admiral's Log)
We battled a strong current today to reach the Pickwick Lock and Dam.  In the lock we were tied to the wall and there was a medium sized house boat tied to us.  We found out that they were from Grand Bend neat London Ontario.  Mom, Dad and two young boys off to Cuba in their house boat!
Not me thanks!  I won't do it in this boat, let alone a house boat.
We went into the Pickwick State Park Marina.  This is a huge park with marina facilities, Conference Centre and camping.  The Conference Centre has a buffet Restaurant so we got their car to pick us up so we could have dinner.  It was a really nice warm night so we walked back to the Marina instead of taking the car.

Yes, beleive it or not this boat is going to Cuba!

Pickwick Landing Marina

November 10, 2002      (Admiral's Log)
Colin was convinced that yesterday he heard a noise coming from one of the engines and insisted we check it out before we go any further.  We sat at the dock , did some fiddling around, forward, reverse, wheel cranked one way and then the other. He even went so far as to call a Marina where we could get hauled if there was a problem.  By the time we left, we both decided that we were having a severe case of paranoia and really it was nothing at all.  Having said all that, we didn't go very far today, but we are at the beginning of the Tombigbee waterway.

Along the Shores of Kentucky Lake.
 
 

(SPECIAL MENTION) Hello to everyone at Doering and Brown in Barrie.  I am so glad that you are enjoying our saga.  It's nice to know that someone actually reads what I write when I sit here bleary eyed late at night trying to remember everything that happened.  That and the fact that I have risked life and limb catching all those good shots with the camera.  If you wish to email me with comments or requests, I would love to hear from you at margaret@werner.ca  It may take a few days to get a response back to you as we try to do all our email correspondence at local Libraries along the way.

Channel joining the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee River.

Largest Lock on the system  84' drop.

November 11, 2002  (Admiral's Log)
We woke up to dense fog, which made our departure a little later than we had hoped.  As we were leaving a large boat in front of us hit a log and had to turn back.  Thankfully we missed it.  We ran all day and anchored in less than day light.  Everything we are reading suggests that we use a trip line on our anchor because of the large number of stumps on the bottom of the river bed.  Well it probably works really well if you don't run the trip line over.  Yes it was wrapped around the prop.  We got out the Ginsu knife and were able to cut away without too much difficulty.  Okay so now we have discovered that we really didn't drop the anchor in the right place.  Bring it up, drop it again.  Only one problem there is about a bushel basket sized clod of clay stuck to it.  Dropped it again anyway, of course it didn't hold.  Haul it up again........clean it off.......drop it again.....finally it held.  Two hours later, we were anchored.  The wind got up pretty good through the night which made the anchor chain clank all night.  All in all not a very good night's sleep.

November 12, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
It's a sunny day but quite windy.  We did 3 locks, and then spent the afternoon being buzzed by the Columbus Air force base training Jets.  We stayed over night at the Columbus Marina.  We made arrangements to a seafood place with 4 other people from another boat.  We used the Marina courtesy truck and Colin drove. It was a big 6 seater ford diesel.  It took us a while to get there though with 4 other people giving him directions that were not right.

 November 13, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
Fog has held us up once again and we were unable to leave till 8:00.  We locked through the first lock just outside the marina with 5 other pleasure craft and traveled with 3 of them for the rest of the day.  The 4 of us all anchored in the Sumter Recreational area, which was a good anchorage.

Antebellum style information Centre.

Nosey big bird.

and his friend!

November 14, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
Guess what........ fog again.  We had to wait till almost 8:00 again to leave the anchorage.  We did one lock today and then anchored for the day with the day with the same 4 boats in Rattlesnake bend, another really good anchorage.  We met the people off the “Hale Kai” and invited them over for a drink.  They have done this trip before and shared some valuable information with us.

CHALK BLUFFS

Senic view on the Tombigbee river.

November 15, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
We were the first boat of the 4 to leave this morning and after fighting serious logs in the water all the way down, we were at the Demopolis Yacht Basin by 9:30.  We fueled up and moved over to our slip as we intend to stay for 2 nights here.  Shortly after the other 3 showed up.  We had a walk around the marina and then Colin got to work on fixing a small fuel leak we had discovered.  He took it apart, figured out what parts we need and then got cleaned up and headed for town.  The Library was our first stop and when we came out it was pouring.  We ducked into a hardware store in hopes that it would let up while we were in there.....no such luck!  We had to leave because some of the others had agreed to meet us at the grocery store with the courtesy car and we didn't want to miss them.  We were hoping that we would see them along the way but we beat them to the grocery store by about 5 minutes.  We were soaked to the bone, even with raincoats.  My running shoes were oozing water.  It was nice to have a dry ride back!
Judy and Denny from the “Hale Kai”, Sally and Bob from “Sally O” and Jim and Sharon from “Blue Angel and Colin and I went for dinner at the Marina Restaurant.  We had a really fun time.

November 16, 2002  (Admiral's Log)
In the morning I took all my laundry and dried it and Colin finished with the fuel system repairs and did an oil change.  In the afternoon we took the courtesy car and did a house tour of the Gainswood Antebellum home in Demopolis.  Judy came with us.

Antebellum home, the Gainswood in Demopolis.

YOU CAN HEAD SOUTH IN JUST ABOUT ANYTHING

November 17, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
We were pulling away from the dock at 6:00 am.......way too early for me, and it was cold!  8 boats in total headed to the Demopolis lock.  All big ones (78' +-) the lock master complimented Colin on how nicely he brought the boat in......that’s the second time in as many days, I think all this practise is finally hitting home.
We are making good speed today due to the current, although there is a lot of debris in the water.  We spotted some wild turkeys on shore, so that was neat.  We anchored overnight at the mouth of Turkey Creek.  It was kind of eerie as there were all these floating plants surrounding the boat.  Colin joked that they were boat eating plants.

Alabama Icebergs at the last lock SEA LEVEL!!!!!

Current below the lock!

November 18,2002 (Admiral's Log)
And for a change this morning we have fog.  While we were waiting for it to clear we could hear the two huge boats that were about a mile ahead of us radio the Lock Master to see if they could get through yet.  They were in some kind of a hurry!  The lock master told them that they may as well wait because he couldn't even see the end of the lock wall.  It started to clear slightly where we were so Colin decided by the time we pulled our anchors and went slowly toward the lock it should be fine.  As we slowly passed where the 2 big boats were tied, they saw us and there was flurry of engines starting and ropes being untied and they both passed us before we got to the lock.  Just as one Mr. Speedy got in front of the lock all this steam started coming from his port engine, he was overheating badly, but, he still managed to beat us into the lock. Some people just never slow down.
We traveled 66 miles today and anchored for the night in Bates Lake, small inlet off the main channel lined with fishing shanties.  There were 2 other boats that we had seen in various places along the way.  “Lone Star” and “We three” were there as well.

Hey.... I can see myself!

Bates Lake Anchorage at dusk.

November 19, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
We were underway today by 6:28 and ahead of the other 2 boats in the anchorage.  We reached Eastern Shores Marina on Mobile Bay by 4:30 and were followed shortly by “We three”
It was Camille’s birthday and her husband had promised to take her out for dinner but we had already booked the courtesy car.  We invited them to come along with us , which they did.  Camille had taken a picture of our boat coming down the river in the fog, and before we went for dinner she brought it over on disk.  It was a really great picture so Colin finally broke down and printed cards for us with our names and the name of the boat on it as well as email.
We had a nice dinner at the Nautilus Restaurant with Camille, Ray and their 9 year old son Taylor.
 

SALT WATER AT LAST, MOBILE BAY

Mobile Alabama

Tow Boats in Molbile Bay.

City of Mobile skyline.

November 20, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
We left eastern shores marina by 11:30 and crossed Mobile Bay in a dead calm.  As we entered the ICW we had Dolphins jumping right in front of the bow of the boat.  Poor Colin Just about had a stoke he thought they were logs.  We anchored for the night in Ingram Bayou, were we have been told the Dolphins come in, in the morning to feed.  The Cameras are ready for this one.

November 21, 2002  (Admiral's Log)
Colin was all messed up and decided to get up at 4:30. He was dressed and had the coffee going before he realized what time it was.  He finally came to his senses and went back to bed.  We left the anchorage at 6:30. Unfortunately there were no Dolphins to be seen till we got out into the channel.  Of course we would see them, I’d run out with the camera, and then they wouldn't surface again.  Oh well we will keep trying.  We pulled into the small town of Destin Florida today at 3:30.  We did our library run and had dinner and then came back to the boat.  We have the whole day here tomorrow, so we get to play tourist.

November 22, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
It was cool when we got up, so we had a big hot breakfast to get us going.  Before we left for the day we booked our flights home.  We leave on the 15th of December and come back on the 12th of January.  Splash is going to learn how to fly on an air plane. (That should be fun).
We took the dingy and went around the whole perimeter of the bay.  We stopped and tied the dingy about where we thought the seafood market was.  Perfect guess, we walked up the hill and there it was right in front of us.  Before we bought anything we walked to the other end of town to go to the library to see if our E-Tickets were in but they weren’t.  We stopped and had lunch at the Lucky Snapper, (Excellent crab stuffed Grouper).  The restaurant was open to the outside and all these little birds had been hired as clean up squads for crumbs on the floor, they were so cute.  After lunch we walked back to the seafood market......the last 100 feet through these wonderful little sharp burrs.  By the time I had them picked off of me, my fingers were bleeding!
At the seafood market we got 15 lbs. Of fresh oysters, 2 Florida Shovel nosed lobster tails, a piece of Amber Jack, some fresh Shrimp and some smoked tuna dip.  The oysters were a messy chore to clean, but what a feast when they were all cooked up!!!

Feed Me

Feed Me

Pecking order

Margaret says this is a duck

How many gallons sir

November 23, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We were underway by   7:30 this morning under bright sunny skies.  We travelled 60 miles.  Each time a Dolphin came out of the water I would run outside like a fool and naturally he would not surface again. I think that they were all laughing at me and trying to make a fool of me. It was working too! We  stopped in a small bay just across the water from Panama City Florida.  It was  really too late to do much else than put down anchor and make dinner.  Colin is all excited because he has his Florida fishing licence, so now he can fish.  Mind you he needs to take his book out to identify his catch and then he has to check another book to see if he can keep it or not.  Should be good for a few laughs.

He stayed too long

What --- is that!

I can help

November 24, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We got up and had our morning coffee our on the back deck.  We got in the dingy and went across the waterway to Panama City in search of a breakfast buffet. We ended up at the Hawk’s Nest and enjoyed a really good breakfast.  From there we took a walk around the city, found some groceries and then headed back to the boat to pick up some cold drinks the dog and a towel.  We headed out again in search of the white sand beach. Splash just loved running free on the beech, the only problem was she also liked eating the sand and drinking the salt water.....YUK!!  By the time we loaded back into the dingy she was very tired.  When we got back, Colin made dinner and I gave the dog a bath.  It was a good day for all!

Panama City

mmm Buffet

Finally  she sees a Dolphin

Ooops, where did the water go

Bow wow watch

Capt'n Colin

Wild beach dog

November 25th, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We were at the gas dock by 6:45 this morning.  We took on fuel and some water.  We thought we were going to have to take the outside Gulf route today because a bridge was under repair, but as it turned out it did not cross the Intercostal where we are going.  This will make for a much shorter day.  We pulled into the amazing town docks, for a place the size  of White City.  (300 families).   We took a walk to the Gas Station/Grocery Store/Car Vacuum/Propane Supplier/Bait Store/Post Office/Ice Cream Parlour.  On the way back we saw it.......The most patriotic Red Neck this side of the Mississippi.  He had a pick-em-up truck, with a lawn chair cooler and Rottweiler in the back  A huge American flag was attached to the back of the cab, and when he was driving it flew the whole length of the box.  too.  After dark the same truck came around where our boat was parked and now he was sporting Christmas lights all the way up the flag pole.  This guy had style!!

Its a bird, its a plane, well actually its a shrimper

November 26, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
After the mist lifted this morning we left for our trip to Carrabelle.  We pulled into the anchorage just outside the harbor by early noon.  We decided to take the dingy in and check things out.  Coming into the harbor is very picturesque.  Lots of fishing boats and shrimpers.  We did a tour of the marinas and checked out what was on shore.  We were hoping to find a restaurant for dinner.  Lets put it this way, Carrabelle has some issues, what isn’t out of business was closed.  We did however learn of a seafood restaurant by the name of Julia Mae’s, at the end of the bayou, which was by now of course dark.  Undaunted we headed off with our trusty spot light in hand.  One wrong turn but then it came into site.  It didn’t look like much coming up to it from the back, but the smells were good.  We pulled the dingy up to this fishy smelling little dock and I proceeded to tie it up.  (Didn’t do a good job) I proceed to leave the dingy.....well the dingy went one way and I went the other!  By the time the dust had settled I was left clinging to a post on the dock frantically looking for footing in the dingy.......meanwhile Colin was doing his hardest not to laugh.  Amazingly I managed to get back in the dingy and then onto the dock without getting wet.  The things I do to go out for dinner.  The food was good but not spectacular after all that.

Early morning White City

1 hour later

He stayed too long

November 27, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We did a few things on the boat this morning and then headed into town to do some grocery shopping and pick up some bits and pieces at the hardware store.  We have been holding off of leaving to wait for a good weather window.  We bought our groceries and also managed to round up a 30 lb. Sack of oysters and some really nice shrimp.  Seafood on the boat tonight!  We then went back out and brought the big boat in to fuel up and get water.  It was dark by the time we were done.

30 Lbs of oysters $8.00. I can't believe we ate the whole thing!

November 28, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
When we got up the next morning there were about 20 people milling around on the docks.  They had big turkey deep fryers all set up (that’s how they cook em down here) and were cooking Thanksgiving turkeys that had been pre sold to raise money for a children’s charity.
We went back to the anchorage as the weather was still not conducive to travel yet.  Colin rebuilt our anchor roller, so now the chain does not slip off it anymore.

Sunrise Carrabelle

November 29, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Today we did our longest open water stretch of 82 miles in the ocean.  We made the river anchorage in Steinhatchie by about 4:00.  The first part of the trip was fairly calm then it got rougher for about an hour and then settled down again to quite calm.  We could not believe the numbers of small fishing boats going into this river.  There must be a lot of fish here.

82 Miles Later

....and later

..... and later

November 30, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Waiting for weather to cooperate we will spend the day in Steinhatchie.  There is not a lot here except tons of little fishing boats.  We took a trip up the river in the dingy .  There are all kinds of houses along the water, very pretty.  We came back and found a seafood  place called Roy’s and had lunch. When we came out there was a million seagulls sitting on the railing.  I had a few fries in a take out box so I held one up in the air to see if they would take it......Oh Ya!  They even  went for my finger before the fry got there.  Well that was fun.

Red headed hole maker

They stayed too long. We must keep moving!

We want your diner