Great Loop Overall Statistics to date:
Statute Miles: 5411.2
Average Miles/Day: 50.6
Total Hours Underway: 719.2
Average speed (mph): 7.6
States Transited: 19
Total Days: 218
Travel Days: 107
Locks: 75
Fuel Purchased: 1351.3
Miles / Gallon: 3.5
Nights at Extra Days
Marinas: 60 108
Anchor: 33 6
City dock: 6 1
Free Wall: 9 4
Mooring: 0 0
Travel Day 101 Leaving Coffeeville, AL
We left early again with another boat to make it to the lock together about an hour downriver. There was much less fog this morning - only a mist on the water. There was a few-minutes delay at the lock, but we were soon through and headed further south. We chose an anchorage, Three Rivers Lake, near McIntosh, AL, that not many loopers would go into. The narrow creek entrance to the anchorage had trees extending out into the clear path area that made navigating tricky. We kept the propellers turning slowly, or off and coasting, for most of the way -- in case there were stumps or logs under the shallow water. The creek deposited us into a beautiful, but small, lake. We went up to one end of the lake where it shallowed to less than 4ft. Backing off into 8ft of water, we put the anchor down at around 3:30PM.
Travel Day 102 Leaving McIntosh, AL
We waited until the morning was well lit in order to find our way back out of the narrow creek to the waterway. Once out, it was another winding day down the Tombigbee waterway. We had several destination options picked out that we would evaluate along the way as current and boat speed changed. Near the end of the day, we chose to continue on to the Tensaw River anchorage near Mt. Vernon, AL, as it put us very close to our next day's destination of Mobile. 8 other boats entered the anchorage during the evening and were finally all strung out along the northern bank of the river.
Travel Day 103 Leaving Mt. Vernon, AL
We left the Tensaw River anchorage early because the limited-space dock in downtown Mobile was first-come-first-served. We wanted to be the "first come". We arrived first of the anchored boats at the 14 Mile railroad bridge, but the operator said that it would be 30 minutes before he could open - they were welding something at one end of the lift section. 45 minutes later we were through and arrived at a crowded Mobile downtown at around noon. We had to wait for some small boats to leave the long face dock before we could tie up. It was a bit nerve-racking trying to hold position in the river current along with all of the barge traffic nearby to contend with. The downtown dock was very "robust", and we needed a lot of fenders and two fender boards to keep the boat off from damage. This was a very walkable location to access everything in downtown Mobile.
Travel Day 104 Leaving Mobile, AL
We had decided on a short day to spend 2 days at Homeport Marina next to Jimmy Buffet's sister's restaurant, Lulu's, in Gulf Shores. With the north wind, the waves would be on our beam once we made the turn East at the bottom of Mobile bay. Instead of going all the way down the channel, we exited between two marked buoys about halfway down the North-South channel. We turned out of the channel into 10-12ft of water and made a diagonal, Southeast course that allowed us to make our distance east while taking the waves on the stern quarter instead of the beam. Arrived early at Homeport Marina and docked by ourselves as no one would answer the radio.
Travel Day 105 Leaving Gulf Shores, AL
We had booked two days in Shalimar, FL, near Fort Walton Beach, at Two Georges Marina. This would allow us to get provisions from a nearby Publix for the next section of the trip along the Gulf. We left at first light. This was before 6:00AM because the time change occurred overnight. We pulled around to the outside fuel dock and pumped out prior to heading out onto the Gulf Intracoastal waterway. We now have the ebb and flow of tidal current either pushing us along or slowing us down, alternately, as we pass the inlets along the coast. Beautiful scenery and beaches along this part of the Gulf coast. Arrived at Two Georges marina early in the afternoon and were shown to the service bay dock for our two-night stay.
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Great Loop Travel Days (GLTD):
101: McIntosh AL from Coffeeville AL
102: Mount Vernon AL from McIntosh AL
103: Mobile AL from Mount Vernon AL
104: Gulf Shores AL from Mobile AL
105: Shalimar FL from Gulf Shores AL
Map of our Overall Great Loop travel:
GLTD101 McIntosh AL (from Coffeeville AL): We hauled anchor at 6:30 am. We wanted to get out of the creek early so as not to hold up mv Sabbatical, who could not get out from the anchorage until we left, since we were blocking the narrow creek entrance.
SCOUT looked like an armed Star Wars vessel as we snuck out onto the Tombigbee River in darkness.
About 1/2 hour into the cruise, we passed Bobby's Fish Camp, where we picked up 2 more looper boats headed south. It was cold and misty as the sun rose on the river.
⏱ Lock Delay: ~45 min: Coffeeville Lock (34-ft). The lock operator was probably waiting for a 5th pleasure craft for about 10 min, before hailing him on the radio, only to learn he was still waiting to get fuel at Bobby’s Fish Camp.
🔺LAST LOCK ON OUR LOOP: Coffeeville Lock
Ray had a few reasons to be smiling from his happy place at the helm. After exiting the lock, we had about 3/4 kts favorable current, and this was our last lock before crossing our wake on the Great Loop.
NOTE: What looks like dust/dirt on the window is actually a reflection of the water. 😊
🔷 Boater Tip: After this last lock southbound on the inland rivers, the water is brackish and tide influences water levels again.
By mid-morning, we were still getting a favorable push from current and travelling about 8.0 knots.
❎ We still had no AT&T service.
✅ We did have 2 bars of Verizon 3G service... until about an hour later, when it dropped to 1 bar of 1X. 🙁
This may have been caused by the varying elevations of land and trees along the river.
From white sandy beaches….
… to dirt cliffs.
We spotted our first gator on these inland rivers. When we noticed the object was creating a wake as it moved toward the river’s edge, we knew it was not a log.
I photographed a red-tail hawk for the first time. Exciting!
⚓Anchored. By early afternoon, we were ready to snake our way into an anchorage at Three Rivers Lake. The entrance is known to be narrow and shallow. We never saw less than 6 feet of depth, but the entrance was extremely narrow at some points – from fallen trees and branches. mv Sabbatical followed us in.
Ray captured footage of SCOUT’s entry by mounting the drone to the mast and recording it stationary, then flying the drone inside the anchorage lake.
While the creek is used by numerous fishing boats, most of them slowed down to pass by us.
❎ We still had no AT&T service.
✅ We had spotty voice-only Verizon service, so I phoned one of our float support team with an update.
🟠 Life Afloat: We did not leave at first light the next morning as we usually do, since Ray needed to stay put long enough to call in for his presentation to the Great Harbour Trawler Owners Association (GHTA) meeting.
🟠 Life Afloat Tip: When travelling, not only should YOU be flexible, your friends, family, and associates are also sometimes forced to be flexible.
We were in a remote section of Tombigbee River, and internet was weak to non-existent, so instead of joining a virtual meeting, Ray had to lead the group through the presentation with just audio. Thankfully, he had sent the presentation to the GHTA president earlier -- when we had internet service.
His call only dropped twice, and the group of Great Harbour owners and interested future Great Harbour owners were very understanding.
GLTD102 Mount Vernon AL (from McIntosh AL): After Ray’s presentation to the GHTA, we left the anchorage – as carefully as we entered – a little after 11:00 am.
I began seeing more coastal birds. I missed this tern dive in, but I caught him swimming back out of the water.
And it seemed this gull was smiling as we passed by.
We had more crazy curves along the way today. Ray made some drawings of us having to go 4 miles just to get less than 1 mile distance to the west! And another where we could have nearly thrown a rock and hit sv Serendipity, the boat shown coming by behind us – but was over three miles away by river!!
⚓Anchored. We had a short cruise and arrived at the Tensaw River anchorage early afternoon – in time to enjoy an “all-secure” beverage on the cockpit. It had been a while since we arrived early enough and had good weather to sit outside.
Ray spotted this Belted Kingfisher along the shore.
We were the first to arrive at the anchorage at the intersection of the Tensaw River, but …
… within a couple of hours, 8 other looper boats had all joined us in the large anchorage! Lined up for the last day on the inland rivers tomorrow, as we all head to Mobile, AL.
GLTD103 Mobile AL (from Mount Vernon AL): We hauled anchor at 7:15.
⏱ Lock Delay: 1 hr 10 min: 14 Mile Bridge. Maintenance was being performed, and, when the bridge finally opened, 8 boats were waiting.
🟠 Life Afloat: While waiting for the bridge opening, I tried to call in for my presentation to the GHTA meeting.
❎ We still had no AT&T service.
❎ My calls using Verizon service kept dropping.
Although we were closer to the big city of Mobile AL, I had worse luck with cellular coverage than Ray the day before!
👍 A big THANK YOU to my friend on mv Semper Fi, who led the meeting for me, using the presentation I had sent earlier when we had internet service.
Here she is with me in Islamorada when she and hubby (behind, with Ray) drove up from Key West to visit us.
By the time the Tombigbee River ended at the Mobile River, the terrain had evolved to mostly wetlands -- we were getting closer to the gulf!
I captured a photo of this pelican in flight.
Not to Miss: Port/Stop: After a half-day of cruising, we arrived at Mobile Convention Center Courtesy Dock, but a couple of boats were already tied up and there was not enough room for SCOUT. We waited about 40 minutes for a small boat to leave; he had been holding the place for another boat to come and drop off passengers.
We finally docked, and Ray spent about 20 minutes configuring lines, fenders, and fender boards for the unusual wall -- with a permanent "fender" extending almost 2 feet out from the bulkhead.
When stepping on and off the boat, we used the permanent “fender” as a “dock step” (since our gunwale was almost 2 feet from the dock).
Though docking here for 24 hours costs a $50 flat rate, with no power, water, or bathroom facilities, the location is very convenient for exploring downtown Mobile.
By 1:00 pm, SCOUT was secure and we were ready to walk into town find a late lunch.
Not to Miss: Restaurant with a View: Dauphin’s Casual Fine-Dining. The hostess was very welcoming, as she could tell we were enamored with the view from the 34th floor. She invited us to walk around and check it out. We ate at the bar – near the elegant dining rooms.
Not to Miss: Wine Bar: While waiting for the breweries to open later in the afternoon, we stopped in at Firehouse Wine Bar & Shop, located in the c.1806 Mobile Hook & Ladder Company No. 1. In addition to an extensive wine selection, they had several great beers on tap.
I told Margo, one of the owners, that I enjoyed seeing old historic buildings repurposed instead of demolished. When she found out which breweries we were going to next, she told us we would see some beautiful historic homes and buildings along the way -- and she was right!
Churches:
Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, c.1835-1850.
Above, the c.1842 St. Francis Street Methodist Church is now The Steeple, a privately owned multi-purpose venue/space.
At the front door, is a sculpture by Bruce Larsen, Heavenly Metal, made from tools and implements reclaimed from Mobile’s WW II effort. For example, the fingers are spikes from a railroad laid in 1938 in preparation for war.
Old Majestic Brewing advertised lots of stouts & porters on their web site, but they only had 1 on tap when we were there. It was called Stay Grateful Pumpkin Porter. Ray usually doesn’t like flavored beers (usually done “overly”), but this one was quite good. The taproom was large and playful (with leftover Halloween decorations).
Our next brewery tasting stop was in the beautiful DeTonti Square Historic District, which is named for Henri “Iron Hand” DeTonti, an Italian native who served the French crown and sought and established settlements along the Gulf Coast. Ref: https://mobilebaymag.com/tonti-of-the-iron-hand/
Not to Miss: Brewery/Food: In the old c.1927 Hunter Memorial Baptist Church, Iron Hand Brewing also drew its name from Henri “Iron Hand” DeTonti. Unfortunately, they were out of the shepherd’s pie entrée we hoped to have for dinner, but Bangers & Mash was excellent!
The bartender here was also very welcoming. We were starting to feel right at home in this town, after just a couple of hours.
Ref: https://www.distillery.news/places/united-states/alabama/mobile/breweries/iron-hand-brewing-company/
🌎 Small World: While eating at the bar, we met a fellow at the bar who had been in town filming “About My Father,” a comedy starring Robert De Niro and Sebastian Maniscalco, one of our favorite comedians.
The movie, co-written by Maniscalco, is loosely based on events from his own life: On the weekend when an Italian-American man (Maniscalco) plans to proposed to his fiancée, his old-school Italian immigrant father (De Niro) decides to come along.
Our stop in Mobile marks the end of our travel along on the inland rivers. Ray put together a drone video that captures the fantastic scenery of some of the river travels.
GLTD104 Gulf Shores AL (from Mobile AL): The sun was already rising and cast a nice light on the port of Mobile when we dropped lines from the convention center docks.
History:
U.S. Coast Guard Bramble: The retired U.S. Coast Guard ship Bramble, which long called Port Huron home, remains in Alabama after being sold at auction [in 2020]. The Bramble was commissioned in 1944 and was one of 38, 180-foot U.S. Coast Guard buoy tenders built in the early 40's. It made its voyage through the Northwest Passage with the cutters Spar and Storis in 1957.
In 1962, the Bramble was moved to Detroit, where it was used for ice-breaking, law enforcement and search and rescue missions, before coming to Port Huron in 1975, [where it was] decommissioned in 2003 and established as a museum.
2 Hulls Are Faster Than 1: This is the first military catamaran we’ve seen. Impressive! We thought the pilothouse looked like something from Star Trek.
An Australian company builds these “expeditionary fast transport (EFT) ships”. One Spearhead-class EPF, the future USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13) [in this photo, below], is currently under construction at Austal USA’s shipyard, while the future USNS Cody (EPF 14) is scheduled to commence construction in the second half of FY2021.
The sun shined its spotlight on us as we entered Mobile Bay.
These anglers loved having their picture taken. (Shh … We won’t tell them I was trying to catch the huge number of birds following their dragnet.🤐 These were the few remaining by the time I got out to the cockpit.)
The joy in this photo exemplifies the warm welcome we felt in Mobile. 😊
Mid-morning, as we entered Mobile Bay, it was a little rolly with an estimated 1-ft swell on the beam; wind was 9 mph from the stern (behind us). It was a chilly 57 degrees. Ray had on his sweatshirt, socks, AND slippers for the cruise.
He noted that, in Iuka MS, where we stopped just over a week ago, there were freeze warnings. Brrr!!
Dolphins!!! While a few dolphins played in our bow wake for a long time, there was not enough sunlight and/or the water was just brown enough that I could not see them under the water. They surfaced just a couple of times; the water is warmer than the air temperature. 😉
While “the Mobile River Basin is the largest Gulf Coast drainage east of the Mississippi,” Mobile Bay is only about 23 miles from Mobile to the southern coastal inlet; it only took us a few hours to cross. Ref: https://www.fws.gov/southeast/pubs/esmobile.pdf
Around noon, we left Mobile Bay to enter the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Gulf IWW) toward Gulf Shores AL.
This was the lazy welcoming committee. And sticking his tongue out at us – totally uncalled for. 😜
SCOUT was secure in the slip at Homeport Marina before 1:00 pm. This is one of the 2 popular marina stops in Gulf Shores AL.
Jimmy Buffett’s “crazy sista” owns Lulu’s Restaurant (and resort) onsite, so we headed there for a waterfront lunch. I didn’t know it when we ordered, but Crabmelt Nachos are Lulu’s favorite thing on her menu. They were tasty! Ref: https://lucybuffett.com/about-lucy/ This short interview was an interesting read.
🍀 Lucky Find: The annual Frank Brown Songwriters' Festival was taking place for a couple of weekends, and LuLu's was one of the participating venues.
There were performances scheduled every night we were in port. A new group of 3 performers was scheduled every hour for 5 hours each of the three nights we were there! Wow! 😮 We saw many talented musicians, and some of them have written well-known hits for country artists like Brad Paisley, Oak Ridge Boys, Tanya Tucker, Clint Black, and George Strait. Wow! 😮
We ate at LuLu's several times. 😊
Our Great Harbour friends on mv Blue Barnacle arrived the day after us and joined us for dinner and music one night. They are from New York, but that didn’t stop the captain from trying a pickled okra (that appeared on his Bloody Mary).
That was brave! So, I don’t really know why all the rest of us were laughing so hard! 🤣
🟠 Life Afloat: The next day, we joined Blue Barnacle for a 3-mile round-trip walk to provision at Publix. I love the selection at Publix – especially for gluten-free items!
🌎 Small World: While wearing my Clemson orange for college football Saturday, the store clerk reacted to my Clemson attire. She is also a Clemson fan, has family who lives in my SC hometown, and grew up in Ray's SC hometown.
🌎 Small World: Later that day, we had another friendly conversation with ‘someone who knew someone’; a guy wearing Alabama University colors said he used to work with Dabo Swinney and that he was a very nice guy -- almost too nice, he said. (What a nice compliment. 😊)
🌎 Small World: The cute couple on mv Irish III, in the neighboring slip, had met our friends on the Great Harbour mv Quiet Company last winter.
GLTD105 Shalimar FL (from Gulf Shores AL): We left our slip just before 6:00 am. (Time "fell back" last night, so it is daylight early again), we pulled around to the fuel dock to pump-out and started traveling east by 6:15.
Headed EAST! The morning sun may be a bit troublesome, for a couple of hours each day, when the sun glares on the water. The “woes” of cruising…I know -- I shouldn’t complain. 🙄
We were getting a 0.5 kt tidal push. But tides do ebb & flow, so we will only enjoy it until it reverses and turns against us. ☹
🔺 Great Loop Milestone: Back to the state we started in! As we passed Floribama Island, we were back in our home waters!
By the time we passed Fort McRee, our speed peaked at 9.8 kts due to the tide going out in our direction.
What goes up must come down. By mid-morning, just on the other side of the Pensacola Bay inlet, our speed dropped to 5.2 kts!
The barrier islands in this region are gorgeous.
History: Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, south of ICW, was built in the 1830s to defend Pensacola Bay. Fort Pickens had to be massive to look threatening. The design called for a five-bastioned work, consisting of one ground level or casemate tier and a second level or barbette tier. If an attacking army reached the counterscarp [(outer wall)], soldiers then had to pass through a dry ditch that wrapped around the fort. From the bottom of the ditch, the fort’s walls rose about 40 feet.
Passing Navarre FL, we saw thick smoke/haze blowing across the ICW from the north by the north wind. Apparently, this was a prescribed burn: Eglin AFB has one ground prescribed burn planned … for ecological restoration. Ref: https://www.facebook.com/pg/HNFDFire/posts/
If tides are not with you, they are against you: As we neared Fort Walton Beach, the tides were still against us. We had 2 kts of foul current. 🙁
As if on queue, winds pick up to 13 mph just before we arrived at Two Georges Marina in Destin Harbor in late afternoon.
We planned to stay here 2 nights, waiting for good travel weather.
Not to Miss: Food: We walked 0.5 mile for an early dinner at Green Wasabi, where we had sushi and hibachi! (I was so hungry, I forgot a food photo.)
We got back to the boat in time for a beautiful sunset! We think it was enhanced by the nearby smoke/haze. (SCOUT is near center of photo.)
We were both tired -- from the combination of time change and early start this morning, so we retired early.
The next morning, the marina crew were hard at work trying to drag a sunken 28(-ish) foot aluminum boat across the harbor to the haul-out bay. Only the last 3-4ft of the hull was above the water level. After they got it over to the bay, they used the yard’s forklift and a strap to lift it out of the water and onto the ramp.
The marina is also a working yard near Eglin military base. Since SCOUT was docked right next to the ramp, we overheard some of the talk amongst the yard guys working the boat out of the water and it involved phrases like "military exercise", "hell-fire missile", and "I can't tell you that". The aluminum on the hull side actually had droplets of melted metal at the edges!
Later in the day we made a 2.5-mile round-trip scooter run to provision for a few last-minute things at Publix. (Yay! Publix!)
We took an Uber across the bridge into Fort Walton Beach for dinner, but first -- a brewery stop at Props Brewery & Grill. While the atmosphere was a bit “franchise-y”, the beer craft-quality was quite good.
From there, we walked about 0.5 mile for dinner at A.J.’s Oyster Shanty, before Uber’ing back to the boat for another beautiful sunset view.
What’s next? Our next Great Loop milestone will be crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Next week, we will see if the weather cooperates for that challenge!
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