We arrived in Fairhope/Daphne, Alabama on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay on November 2. An unusually large number of us Loopers had been clotted together between Demopolis, AL and Bobby’s Fish Camp on the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway. It seems that each of us has boat insurance with a stipulation about where you CAN NOT BE during “Hurricane Season”. Some insurance companies specify June 15-November 1 as hurricane season; others, June 1- November 15. Whichever date it is, your boat cannot travel on water south of the 31st parallel. On the East Coast of the U.S. it is just above the Cumberland Islands of Georgia. On the Gulf Coast it is in the vicinity of Demopolis with it’s one marina. Since we were only two days away from our deadline, 11/1, and no named hurricanes were brewing, we called our insurance company to ask for a variance and we were given one! We were cautioned, however, that if we had continued past the specified boundary without their approval, our insurance would have been ruled null and void for any damage incurred, hurricane or not. Who knew!!
Mobile, Alabama’s Ship Basin was really alive with tugs creating tows from the barges tied up and down the shoreline. A ship was being piloted in from the Gulf and a tug was waiting to help with docking. We were totally relaxed in the midst of all this activity, keeping up with their comings and goings on our VHF radio. It wasn’t until we were out in the relative quiet of Mobile Bay that we recognized how far our comfort-zone had expanded since our life on the water began in December of 2014 when we purchased Summertime.
From the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay we now have 500 miles before we cross our wake and claim to be Thru-loopers... a bit like Thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail. We’ve covered 5,500 miles in about 8 months. Our decision to tuck our trawler into a slip in Fairhope, AL and complete the Great Loop in January came easily once we understood what the next 500 miles entailed. We not only have 6 long cruising days to get to Carrabelle in Florida’s Panhandle, but we have an overnight 170 mile open water crossing to get from there to Tarpon Springs down Florida’s Peninsula. We want to see the sights in Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, Port St. Joe and Appalachicola; we also have to wait for a two-day window of safe weather to open in order to make that all important crossing.
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| A gathering in Fairhope,Alabama before heading for Florida |
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| Fairhope's French Quarter |
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| The Marina Kitty |
We had too many “have-tos” to coordinate and still make it back to Maine for the holidays.... we decided to drive a one-way rental car 10 hours to the Clearwater/St. Pete area on November 5th. Once there, we used our own car that has been under cover at Wally’s family’s condo since late April. We gave the condo a last up-date before it goes on the real estate market. On the afternoon of November 10th we flew the non-stop Allegiant Air flight back to Bangor, Maine. Our trip to Orono in the Ellis family car took less than 20 minutes. We started our visit out by attending a U of M Women’s Hockey Game on the Nov. 11th Veteran’s Day holiday. Today, Nov. 12th, we continued the festivities with Wally’s 69th birthday celebration... waking up to a Brett-cooked scrumptious apple pancake breakfast. (By the way, it was a blustery 28 degrees at 7:00 this morning. We haven’t felt that temperature in a while...Br-r-r-r!) Nevertheless, we are absolutely delighted to be with our precious grand-daughters, Emily and Bailey, and Erin and Brett and puppy Cupcake for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!
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| Watching a U of Maine women's hockey game Created by Darcy O Campbell |
1 comment:
Happy Birthday Wally! I plan to head to Florida in January also, I hope we can meet up.
Rafe Williams
Cat Daddy
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