Real Time Update and The Journey Begins

 I hate to let people worry, so I will just tell you now that we are safe and sound in Gulfport, Mississippi. Now, what it took to get us here...well, you will have to read the next few entries of the blog to find out. 

We have been working on the boat and planning our departure from Demopolis since our arrival on October 9th. Now that the hurricanes have finally quieted down and the boat is ready, we were ready to head down the river. We chose Wednesday, November 18th as our departure day. I joined a captains meeting on the night before to discuss the trip with other boats that were departing on the same day. Most of these boats are doing the "Great Loop". Demopolis is a stop on the loop and this is the time of year most people are on this section. We have been seeing them come and go for weeks. We were the only slow moving sailboat in our departure group, so I thought it was going to be a solitary trip. We had a boat buddy for the trip north back in March, and that gives you some piece of mind while traveling the 218 miles to Mobile. There are no real services for the entire stretch, except a small place called Bobby's Fish Camp at mile 118, that has a small dock with fuel and water. We did not plan on stopping on this trip at Bobby's. $1.50 per foot seems a bit much for very limited services. We love the piece and quit of this river anyway. 

The first thing to think about on this trip is the lock at Demopolis. That is at Mile 216, just 2 miles from the marina. I was nominated to contact the lock on behalf of the other boats that were leaving. They didn't answer the phone, so I finally reached them on the VHF and they said come on down. So, I did not have much time to get nervous, we had to leave now! We fired up the engine and got the electric disconnected and before long we were exiting the Kingfisher Bay Marina, our home since April 1. I can not say enough kind things about Fred and Kim the owners, and the staff. We did have one issue with the dockmaster, but she worked hard over the past few months to mend that fence. 

The other boats with us are big power boats including the Lucky Lucky, a 60 footer. All of the other captains were great to talk to. Here are a few shots of us riding the lock down. This lock is about 42 feet.

Honalee forward and Legacy behind on the Port wall all secure ready for the ride down.

Lucky Lucky in front of SHIFT

Down we go

Cool Change is a fast boat. He was planning a 2 day passage at about 15 knots.

All the way down

Kim, my line handler, doing her usual excellent job

We left the lock and the other boats headed down river in front of us. As we left the lock we got this nice look at the water going over the dam. It is low water, but it is still flowing. 

Demopolis Dam

 It wasn't long before we were alone on the river. The motor rumbled along and never missed a beat. I decided to run the engine at 2100 RPM. That is lower than what is recommended, but we had a nice 1 knot current behind us and I really wanted to take it easy on the engine. We cruised along about 5.8 knots over ground.  I added a grand total of 1 quart of oil for the entire trip. I have learned that if you fill the motor to the full line it will push a quart out the overflow. The good news is that I think the engine is good to go for now. 

As we cruised along the river I saw a Tow on my AIS a few miles in front of us. The strange part is that it was not moving and in the middle of the channel. As we approached, I called them on the VHF and talked to the captain. He was in the process of trying to push some barges that were stuck on a shoal. He asked us to hold for a few minutes, which of course we did, and he told us when it was safe to go by. We had to stay close, but it all went smoothly.

The Miss Lillie pushing the stuck barges into a safer position.

That looks close, but not bad

We cruised down the river for mile after mile. It was a cool morning at around 40 degrees. With our dodger open for better visibility, the wind coming in off of the water is very cool. We dress in layers. The vest I am wearing was a gift from a fellow boater the day before we left. Mr. Wright said it was too small for him. I ended up wearing it much of the trip and was glad I had it. I do most of the driving, but Kim can handle the boat just fine and takes her turn at the helm. 

Here I am at the helm as we pass the stuck barges. We had to wait for a while and the boat behind us in this shot is about to pass us.  

We had a plan to make the first day a short day. We wanted to set ourselves up for the rest of our planned stops and the take it easy on the first day. We pulled into a wide spot on the river at mile 177 about 1 pm. We dropped the anchor in 13 feet of water well outside the channel. About two hours later another boat came in to our anchorage. The "Elizabeth" came in a dropped anchor. She is a nice trawler and we expected she would move in front of us the following morning. They normally run at about 8 knots. 

Just as the sun was setting a Tow came by and disturbed our glass water. As you can see we are very safe in our very calm anchorage.

Elizabeth laying at anchor

So that is how our first day on the river ended. We slept well in a beautiful place. The next morning served up a new challenge. We knew we had a long day in front of us, so it was not welcome. In my next entry, I will write about day 2.

Our Plan...Today.

 They say that a sailors plans are written in the sand at low tide. We have been living examples of that saying. We have been waiting here in the marina in Demopolis since being put back in the water on the 3rd of November waiting for all of the factors to align that will allow us to start our 250+ mile trip to Gulfport, Mississippi. 

It seems that all is looking good for a departure on Wednesday of next week, November 18. The hurricanes have left the Gulf of Mexico, although there is a new one in the Caribbean, but it is predicted to stay south. We will watch it closely before we depart. The marina at Gulfport is now open and is ready to accept boats. All we have to do is add some more fuel and do our final provisioning. 

It should take us about a week to make the trip to Gulfport. We will spend about 4 nights on the river and then one or two in a marina in Mobile Bay. We should be arriving there on about Thanksgiving if all goes as planned. 

We have been trying to stay busy while we have been in the marina. We have now completed the teak project and we are very happy with it. We put 5 coats on all of the topside teak. We will just have to see how it looks in 6 months. 

We celebrated Kim's Birthday last Saturday. We made a drive up to Tuscaloosa. We bought a heavy duty sewing machine and then went out to lunch. Kim has some plans to work on some upholstery and canvas here on the boat. So far, she seems to be enjoying the new machine. 

We took the boat out on the river for a shake down cruise. It has been since last May that we have had the boat out, so I felt like I wanted to make sure all is good. We ran upriver for about an hour and then came back down. The good news is all looked perfect and I think we are as ready as we can get for the trip down the river. 

I try to stay active by taking a two mile walk each morning. The days have been near perfect with 70 degree daytime highs and 50 degree nights. We really have liked it here, but we are also so ready to get moving. While I have been out walking I took a few shots of what is going on around here.

This is a shot of the fuel dock with a couple of "Tows" taking on fuel

This is a bit upstream, where the Tows leave the barges while they go and take on fuel. 

Well, that is about it for this entry. I hope my next entry will be from the river. 

Splash Day!

 Hurricane Zeta came and went. She left plenty of damage in her wake that will impact our future plans, but I will get to that later in this entry. We hauled SHIFT out of the water on October 21st. Due to many factors we ended up staying on the hard one day short of three weeks. Zeta certainly impacted the situation here in the marina. Only one boat was damaged by the high winds. A large houseboat was blown off of it's stands and onto the ground. All of the slips in the marina were occupied with boaters that were waiting in this very protected place before continuing south down the river. We took full advantage of the time in the yard. We completed all of the projects on my list and even added a few more. None of those projects was as big as the teak project.

The teak project included stripping all of the old varnish off of the boats teak bowsprit and rails, the eyebrows, the cockpit combing and hand rails on the foredeck. All of this teak was freshly varnished when we bought the boat in July of 2019, but a year of hot sunshine had left it blistered and peeling. We really wanted to do something different. I was reading one night and found another blogger that recommended a product called "Teak Guard". The advantage of this stuff is that you don't have to sand it off to refinish each year. You just reapply a new coat over the old. The stuff is guaranteed not to peel or blister. We ordered a kit and have since talked to some other boaters that swear by the stuff. 

This is what the rail looks like after just two coats. We will put on at least 5.

   

Here is a shot of just the bare wood and the rail forward of the drain with two coats on it.

Here is a shot of the bowsprit with two coats. I just did my 5th today. One nice thing about this Teak Guard is that it has a nice satin finish and it is not slick like varnish. I prefer the glossy finish of varnish, but it is looking better and better with each coat. It is also much easier to apply than varnish. 

On Monday, November 2, they came to put SHIFT into the slings. They let her hang for a night to give Rico some time to finish the painting on the bottom. He did an excellent job and we are very happy with the way it came out. Splash day was November 3 (Election Day).

Not a flattering shot of Rico, but this is SHIFT in the lift. 

Here is a short clip that I shot as we were leaving our home for the past three weeks. It actually turned out pretty cool. We met some very interesting people and we will always remember riding out the hurricane. 

Kim walking with her home. It was a bit nerve wracking for both of us, but they took good care of her.

Hanging 10 feet above the water.

Here we are back in our slip in the marina. The entire process took about a half hour. We were in our slip by 8 am. It feels great to be a boat again.

Now comes more work. We have to complete a number of tasks to be ready to start the 200+ mile trip down the river to Mobile, Alabama. We have to finish the rest of the coats of Teak Guard. We have to put on the head sails. We have to complete some mechanical checks and then we will take a short shake down cruise. Then we check the weather and pick a date. That was the plan until yesterday. I called the marina in Gulfport, MS, which was going to be our destination of the first leg of this trip, but found out they were badly damaged by Zeta. They are hoping to be back up in running in a couple of weeks, but we are now looking at alternatives. The problem is, most of the marinas in the area along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts have been impacted by one of the many hurricanes. And now there is another storm coming to Florida. It has been a crazy year.  For now, we will stay here and wait for the hurricane season to finally end and maybe we will know who the next president will be...Come back to see what happens next. 

We are fine!

 Just a quick update to let you know that we made it through the storm without problem. 

Zeta tracked right over Demopolis. The wind was light all evening with some heavy rain starting at about 8 pm. At about midnight, the wind really picked up and we saw some gusts over 35 knots. The worst of the wind was from the SE, which was good because we had good protection from 2 large boats next to us.

We have a few leaks on the boat that will need to be addressed, but other than that, we are good to go. 

Now to get to work getting SHIFT ready to splash.  

Approaching Hurricane

 This will be a real time update. We are still on the hard in the boat yard. Our bottom paint is on. We still need to put a special coating on the propeller to inhibit growth. Last year the barnacles were a problem, so I wanted to do what I could to help with that. The stuff is expensive, so I hope it works. The big news is that we decided to change our bottom paint color, so here is SHIFT with her new blue bottom.

It took me a while to get comfortable with the new color, but Kim likes it, and that is all that matters. 

Hurricane Zeta is expected to get to us in central Alabama about midnight tonight. The track was heading straight at us this morning, but now it is moving a bit south of us. We are expecting about 40 mph winds and some heavy rain. The good news is that it is moving fast at about 20 mph, so it will not stay long and dump tons of rain. We have large boats all around us, so we should have plenty of protection from the wind. We have taken all of the precautions that we can, so we will stay on the boat and monitor the weather and see what happens. 

We were planning to get back in the water this week, but we are not sure if we can. The marina is full beyond normal capacity. Many boats were coming down the river heading to the gulf for the winter and have stopped here to wait out the storm. Some of these boats are huge! We have two boats that are over 80 feet long. We heard a rumor that one is the comedian, Ron White's boat. 

Every foot of dock is being used. That Aqua boat is 85 feet long. I would estimate that there is more than 100 million dollars worth of boats in the marina.

Full Marina

I will try to post an update tomorrow after the storm has passed. 

Life in the Boatyard

We hauled the boat out on October 14th. It has now been a week living here in the boatyard.  We have been working long hours to get all of the things done that are on our list. The largest project is the teak., but here is a list of what we want to get done before leaving the yard. 

1. Scrape and sand all of the outdoor teak on the boat.

2. Do at least 2 coats of varnish before going back in the water. The other 8 will be done as we go. 

3. Rebed the chain plates. 

4. Service the outboard for the dinghy. 

5. Clean all of the canvas.

6. Clean all of the running rigging. (ropes that run the sails)

7. Use wire brush wheel on drill to take old paint off of the prop. The prop is the correct size for this boat. 

7. Sand bottom, and repaint with new ablative paint. (To be completed by the yard)

This is the best shot I have of what the teak looked like. The old varnish was blistered from the sun and salt water. It all had to be stripped off and sanded to create a surface to varnish. 

This is kind of a before and after. The bowsprit forward has been sanded and the rail at the bottom has not. 

Propeller all cleaned up and ready for special paint to help with barnacle growth. It was a problem last year. 

Here is one of the chain . plates that needed to be rebeded. You remove the 4 screws and then remove the old sealant. Then you add Sikaflex sealant screw it back together and clean it up. All have been completed. 

After three 12 hour+ days from both Kim and I, we have the entire boat sanded and ready for varnish. 

Bowsprit

Looks pretty good. The ropes are the running rigging that are drying on the life lines. 

Our life in the yard has certainly been different. We sit about 10 feet above the ground. That gives us a nice view over the surrounding sea of boats. Some of the boats are very sad. All are someone's dream. I would love to know the story behind each boat. We purchased a small refrigerator. The only place to put it does not allow us to use our table in the salon, so we take most meals in the cockpit. Here is our view at mealtime. 

We wish that Semi was not behind us. We would be able to see the water. We understand that the driver has COVID and the yard owner is allowing him to keep his truck here.

We can see one small part of water and the marina.

This ketch next door was once a beautiful boat. She is badly in need of some TLC.

I like to walk around the yard and talk to the other folks working on their boats. I love the beautiful all wood Grand Banks. 

Here is a final shot for this entry of SHIFT on the hard with no lift around her. She is sitting on big wood blocks and 8 screw stands. It is very strange living in her like this.

I am sitting here in the boat writing this entry as the first coats of paint are being applied to the bottom. Kim decided to change to a different color. I am going to go down and take a look. In my next entry, I will tell you what I think of her new color scheme. 

Some Boat Work Before We Get Moving

 We arrived in Demopolis on Friday, October 9th. The marina was much more busy than it was the last time we were here in late July. This marina is a major stopping point for boats that are heading south to the gulf from the midwest before winter sets in. We have seen a couple of boat arriving and departing each day. 

In my last post I said we had a pirate ship off our stern. Well it is not actually a pirate ship, it is a replica of one of Christopher Colombus' ships the "Pinta". This replica was built in Europe out of authentic materials. It does have an engine in it to allow it to move around much easier than the original square rigged ship. These ships could only sail directly down wind. 

In this shot you can see SHIFT just off the port bow of the Pinta.

In very tragic news, the Pinta's manager was badly injured the day we arrived when she fell down a hatch and hit her head on a counter top. The rest of the crew is taking care of the ship until it's future plans are determined. They brought it up to Demopolis after her sister ship, the Nina, was grounded near Pensacola after Hurricane Sally ripped her dock loose and it was left high and dry on a mud bank in the high water. 

As soon as we arrived in Alabama, the first order of business was to lift SHIFT out of the water and take a look at her hull. I wanted to take a good look at the rudder bearings, the cutless bearing and the condition of the bottom paint. All looked good with the exception of the bottom paint. We have a number of large paint chips that should be fixed. So, we had them move SHIFT to a spot in the yard. We have water and electric and can live on the boat. The only problem is our refrigeration and Air Conditioning systems rely on cooling from the water the boat is in, so those systems needed to be shut down. We made a trip to Walmart and purchased a $109 refrigerator to use for the time we are in the yard. We expect that to only be about 2 weeks, but most things in boat time have to be at least doubled. 

I have decided to let the yard do the work. I will watch and learn, so that maybe next time I may do the work or maybe not. We have many other projects to do that will be much easier while the boat is in the yard. 

SHIFT in the Travelift. They said she weighed 26,000 lbs.

Some of the many paint chips on the hull

More...

The lift had to be done twice, because they could not lift it high enough to get it on land due to our long bowsprit. We had to back out of the lift and go in backwards. 

Life in the boatyard is not too bad. We have met a number of new neighbors that are living on their boats and working on them. Some have been here for a long time and and doing some very cool restorations or builds. All have been very friendly and welcoming. We will work a few hours each day on our projects and hopefully be ready to head south at the beginning of November. 

I will end this entry with a nice sunset from the other night. It is back to taking the time to enjoy the beauty around us. 

Do you like the shot with or without the boats in it?