TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE

November 6, 2017

We are currently in Orange Beach, AL at The Wharf Marina. We arrived Saturday 11/5. The plan is to leave Wednesday for an anchorage near Pensacola & a free air show. While here we found a diver to change the props. We hit a dead head in the ditch after the last lock. He seems to think we will be happier with the 4 blade vs 3 blade. We shall see.
Now if we can just get the radar to work. Someone looked at it, but found no solution. Tim is now taking it apart.....to be continued.

We have been doing long days to get here. Anywhere from 50 to 70 miles per day. At not quite 10mph, that is a long day filled with tows & locks. Speaking of locks, we went thru our last one till we get back up north. Once thru the Coffeeville Lock, we hit salt water. Tim & Craic both shuddered. They are still quietly sobbing. 😢

The monotony was broken by wildlife sightings. A large coyote was standing on shore just watching us pass. Eagles flying low to catch dinner. And last but not least an alligator. It was huge, (at least I thought it was). My guess 12 feet. And my personal favorite, moths. I have never seen such BIG moths. First time I heard one, I thought Black Hawk. I swear it is only a slight exaggeration. 😇

Arriving in Mobile Bay was a shock after days of traveling the ditch. Civilization! Big & bustling. Ships, tows, barges, city buildings. We left the shipping channel & cut across the bay. It was odd to see so much water with so little depth. Average about 7 foot. Once again my eyes were glued to the depth finder. We made it to the GICW without incident. Nice area.

Anchoring presents a challenge for Riley. Tim can not take him to shore after dark due to the wild creatures. Just not safe for either of them. That makes for a long night for him, Riley not Tim. Not to mention the lack of grass. Grass is his toilet. I told him he could relieve himself on the boat, but so far, no go. (Pun intended). Speaking of Riley, he did not need to go to the vet. His limp is gone. A dock hand suggested he may have been bitten by fire ants. She said that happens to her dogs. Given what Tim said about him just standing in the grass when he yelped, it made sense to me. Limp is gone & he is running like the wind again. His new favorite thing to save us from, Pelicans.

Here's a little ditty (no not Jack & Diane) about the garage & the inflatable. We carry the inflatable on the swim platform. Works well. We also have a very large "garage" in the transom. When we first saw the set up we thought "this is great. Storage & an easy way to carry the inflatable". Now the problem. The garage is packed. We mostly stern into a dock for ease of egress. When sterned in, we cannot get the inflatable off the platform. Hence no access to the garage. It has become a standing joke. When someone asks for something, we say, oh yea, we have that, but it is in the garage. People we have been traveling with automatically say, "I know, it's in the garage." We have slowly been moving things to other places on the boat or going without. Moral: Theory & practice do not always jive.

One day while running the river, I was taking down canvas. All of a sudden the engine noise was very loud. I looked at the cockpit floor & to my great surprise, saw it opening. I started yelling, "What are you doing?" Tim of course denied, he had anything to do with it. Riley was trying to find a place that was stable. I, of course, was still blaming Tim & telling him to stop. He was yelling, that I was causing the problem. Not possible, I'm just taking canvas down. Turns out it was possible. Unknown to me, there is a switch on the side of the ice maker which controls the floor. I just happened to be balancing with my foot pressed against the switch. Moved my foot, put the floor back down & all was well. Of course I apologized profusely for blaming him. 😁

We have run into some very cold weather. I did not pack for that. We were going south. It's warm there, right? Wrong. We have had nights in the 30's & days with wind, no sun & 50 -60. Hopefully that is behind us. I had on so many layers, I looked like the kid from the Christmas story.