Apalachicola, Florida - another favorite stop! 11/18 - 11/21/21

 

This was certainly my favorite stop since Paducah, Kentucky, weeks ago!  Dock space in Apalachicola is extremely scarce, and, therefore, pretty expensive.  We are used to marinas, where you get a slip with electricity, water, and there are restrooms and showers.  In Apalachicola, you have a choice of several ‘marinas’.  One, the City Dock, is first come first serve.  You pay $2 a foot for the privilege of using their wall – no facilities, no electricity.  Two, the Ice House, again is a wall with room for only 3 boats.  You pay $2 per foot, and for that you do get electricity and water.  No facilities.  Three, Sciota Creek Marina, where you pay a whopping $4 a foot for a full service marina!  Yikes, that is more than we paid to stay in downtown Chicago.

Before coming here, we had thought to just leave for our Gulf crossing from Apalachicola.  However, once discovering the price of dock space here plus the fact that the next ‘weather window’ meant waiting for the Gulf crossing for another week, we decided to follow the crowd to Carabelle, Florida.

However, now that I’m done complaining about the cost, the town of Apalachicola is charming – lots of restaurants, several bars with live entertainment, lots of interesting shops.  It’s a very old town, kind of funky, but absolutely fun.  People are friendly.  There was an interesting wedding at the city park – a few people at the wedding had dogs.  Apparently the couple is into rescuing dogs.  One dog was even a flower girl – aided by a dancing guy throwing rose petals in the aisle!

Once again, we encountered Mary and Jeff on Many Moons.  We had fun with them for a couple of dinners and visits to night spots. 

Cool upside down canoe in an old restaurant!

Bar in the old restaurant

Christmas decor in an old fishing town!

Full moon on the water

Full moon, in full color!

Rising moon!

Baptismal font next to the Baptist church!

I love old houses, especially those with big front porches

Pretty house - two porches!

Lovely house

Old mailbox

Lovely old house...beautiful porch!

Old house with front porch and huge balcony!

Lovely old house, porch - private!

This is the old house where the restaurant now lives...beautiful

Lovely old church

Picturesque, but not used any longer (thank goodness!) fire house

Downtown Apalachicola

Downtown

I'd say this entry piece has been here a while!

I just taught one grandson this card game!!

Downtown stores

Inviting storefront

Love the light fixture

a bit raggedy looking -   but still nice.

There must be a story to go with those legs!!

Cool mural

This place had a great band that night.

The dock for which we paid $2 per foot!  These folks had a challenge at low tide just getting on and off!

Working fishing boat

Lovely boats on the ICW

She's a working fishing boat, and I thin she's beautiful!

Traveling on the ICW

Evidence from the last hurricane, an abandoned boat

Fairhope, AL, Orange Beach, AL, NAS Pensacola, FL, Two Georges Marina, Shalimar, FL, Lighthouse Marina, Panama City, FL

11/9 - 11/17, from Fairhope, AL. thru Panama City, Florida

11/8/21   Fairhope, Alabama, just across the Mobile Bay.  We stayed at Fly Creek Marina.

There was a very good restaurant right on the grounds, so we took the easy path and had dinner there.  Good food, good drinks, fair prices.

Next morning, we got out our new E-bikes and rode into town.  We were really glad to have the e-bikes – it was probably 1-1/2 miles to town, up and down hills.  Fortunately, there was a nice paved path all the way – those bikes are fun!  We walked around town, taking pictures of the quaint storefronts and flowers.  We had a great breakfast, then hustled back to the marina to get underway. 

 

Cool sculpture in downtown Fairhope, AL

street and old style pharmacy in downtown Fairhope

lovely flowers all over downtown

lovely park and flowers

downtown street with more flowers...

11/9/21  The Wharf, in Orange Beach, Alabama

Beautiful marina that is part of a whole complex of stores, movie theatre, ferris wheel, restaurants and bars!  The marina facilities were the nicest we’ve seen. 

To get from Fairhope, Alabama to Orange Beach, we were back on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  The last time we experienced the ICW was on the east coast when we first bought the boat.  This part of the ICW is well marked, but is twisty/turny, sometimes no wake zones.  We try to be especially conscious of that, but locals don’t really pay attention and just cruise through quickly.  The only boat that waked us, though, was a Coast Guard RIB!  And, they came by three times!  Things that had been on our counter in the galley for weeks ended up on the floor.  I couldn’t believe that behavior!  Dan had a conversation with some ‘Coasties’ once we arrived in the NAS Pensacola marina.  Their story was “It wasn’t us!”  Hmmm. 

The ICW is interesting – the Corps of Engineers constructed it during WWII to keep our ships protected.  Parts of it use naturally occurring waterways, rivers and lakes, and the rest is dug/created by man.  There were miles and miles twisting and turning with absolutely no stopping spots – it is plenty wide for large and small boats to pass, but nothing more!  Occasionally, we’d see a little fish camp, or even a chair or something small.  But, mostly, just scrubby growth, lots of pine trees with no lower branches.  This part of the country was devastated three years ago by the hurricane Michael, and is still recovering.

 

The Wharf is a very nice place!  

street view at The Wharf, lots of stores, movie house

Interesting sculptures...

11/10 thru 11/16, Pensacola, Florida, at the NAS Pensacola’s Bayou Grande Marina

The Bayou Grande Marina on the NAS base was great.  They have only a few transient slips, and there were several other Loopers already there.  It’s always fun to talk and compare stories.  The laundry is FREE!!  Woohoo!  We had a couple of occasions to use Uber from the base – they aren’t allowed to come on base, so we drove our e-bikes to the front gate, locked them up, and met the Uber driver.

The downside of this marina is that there are not good walking opportunities.  I got spoiled last year when we were camped at the Navy campground – it was on Perdito Bay, with literally miles of walking trails, on the beach and through the woods.

While we were in Pensacola, Dan used the opportunity to get some past due maintenance done.  The oil change was done, changed the fuel filters, reinstall our battery charger.  I’m Dan’s gofer and ‘hand it to me’ and hold that light for me.  We also gave the boat a good washing – from our time on the rivers, it was filthy!  The next part of our trip will involve quite a long trip over the Gulf of Mexico – Dan wanted to make sure the engines and systems were in perfect running order.

Also, while we were in Pensacola, we rented a car and met my daughter, Laura and her son, Brody in Montgomery.  I hadn’t seen them for almost a year.  Montgomery was about half way from their home in Dahlonega, Georgia to Pensacola.  We enjoyed some conversation, some meals, a trip to the Montgomery Zoo.  I taught Brody to play Go Fish – then, I beat him 2 hands out of 3!  I was so glad to have seen them.  Brody gave me the longest hug of my life as they were leaving.

Next, we thought we could get all the way to Panama City, but, turns out that’s almost 100 miles!  So, we stopped at a marina called Two Georges Marina, in Shalimar, Florida.

 

While we were in Pensacola, we got to meet my daughter, Laura and grandson, Brody in Montgomery.

My spider broom - I use it daily!

sunset from the marina on the Navy base in Pensacola

lovely sunset

sunset looking over the bath house/laundry at the marina

Kittiwake on the dock in Pensacola

This lighthouse is on the base - we have toured it and the grounds

long view of the lighthouse as we come into the marina

sad to see boats on the ground, since the last hurricane

another grounded boat

11/16/21  Two Georges Marina, Shalimar, Florida

Here, we came upon some people we had met before on this Loop journey.  That keeps happening!  Mary Hanson and Jeff (last name I can’t remember) on Many Moons was there, along with another couple from Harbor Beach, Michigan – amazing that three boats from Michigan landed in the same marina in Florida!  The marina wasn’t much, but was adequate.  They had built a two story deck, with seating and tables, and had not put it to use very much.  The three boat couples gathered just before sunset to enjoy a wide view of the sunset – we weren’t disappointed!  We just spent the one night there, and moved on to Panama City, to the Lighthouse Marina.  We were lucky to find a dock, since many marinas are still rebuilding, or possibly not going to rebuild, after that last big hurricane.

 

Coming in to the Marina

sunset

almost gone!

Going down!

11/17/21  Lighthouse Marina, Panama City.

This marina was in the Grand Lagoon – to get there, we had to cruise almost into the Gulf, turning at the last mile back into the Grand Lagoon.  Again, we only spent one night here.

Lighthouse Marina, Panama City, Florida

view of the sunset from the marina

Our neighbors at the marina

End of rivers....MOBILE!!! 11/8

 

From our last anchorage on the river (YAY) at mile marker 64, we cruised all the way to Mobile, mile marker 00.  Mobile Harbor is one of the largest in the country.  The number of barges, huge ships, even Navy ships, was astonishing.  Large docks to handle the big boats, huge cranes and lifts for the boats.  We came into the harbor on Sunday, and there was still plenty of traffic, albeit less than on a weekday.

On November 7, we tied off at a very high, very rough wall at the Mobile Convention Center.  There were no amenities, i.e. electricity or water, and the charge was $50 for the privilege of docking there.  We put out almost every fender board, fender, ball that we own – the boat got ‘waked’ a bit, mostly from small go fast boats, not the big commercial ships.

Being there at the Convention Center put us in a great spot to explore downtown Mobile.  We found the town to be charming.  Every person we encountered was friendly.  Downtown reminded us somewhat of New Orleans, with the wrought iron balconies all over.  It also reminded us of Savannah, with some lovely squares with big live oak trees, benches, and sculptures.  In addition, much in the way different cities have had contests where an animal or other symbol of the place is painted and put in public places, in Mobile, we saw several large representations of an oyster shell decorated and on a stand in the park.  Cool!

That evening, we strolled up Dauphin Street, taking in the sights.  One woman had recommended the Crockmiers Restaurant for dinner.  We stopped there, ordered a drink and appetizers.  Charming place, with lots of dark wood.  Another advantage was that from our seat on the street, we had a great vantage point to watch people!  Dan said it was almost as good as our favorite spot on Green Street in Key West…Our waitress was very sweet, and I asked her if she’d always lived in Mobile.  She said she had, except for 3 years when she lived on Long Island!  What a different place than Mobile!  She had gone to help a friend who needed her for while – that’s when being young and brave comes in handy!  But, as soon as she could, she came back home to Mobile. 

We strolled around until dark, with me taking pictures of pretty architecture and one huge and beautiful church.  There was one place, Wet Willies, that sounded pretty lively – too much for us, but fun to observe.  Near there was a big parking lot, and there were 10-12 people riding electric scooters all over the parking lot just for fun.

We stopped at a friendly bar called Alchemy.   Dan sampled a different Jamiesons and the bartender whipped up a sweet cocktail for me.  Yumm!  When I asked the bartender if he had always lived in Mobile, he said he had except for a few years when he wandered.  But, he’s back home and doesn’t see any reason to leave.  We had a discussion with him about the city – seems there are lots of businesses starting up.  We noticed that, even though there were quite a few empty storefronts downtown, a goodly number of them are in various stages of renovation.  The bartender told us that the huge company Airbus is planning to build a big plant there, and has been buying up lots of land.  So, the energy level in the town has inched up a notch because of the changes coming.

At our last stop for the evening, a bar/restaurant, we had one last drink and a light supper.  On the walk back to the boat, we saw a place on the corner that looked interesting.  At first, we thought it was an ice cream place, but it turned out to be a daiquiri bar!  They had what looked like 15 different flavors.  Cool. 

We decided to have one more fabulous meal in Mobile for breakfast.  We picked the Red Slipper, since it had been recommended by a couple of the folks we encountered on Sunday.  The Red Slipper did not disappoint!  Unfortunately, Dan didn’t feel like eating much, so he just had some fruit and some potatoes.  Gena, however, was ready for a real southern breakfast!  Two eggs, bacon, biscuit, and a slice of fried green tomatoes!  YUMMMM!

Thank you, Mobile – we could have spent more time there, but time marches on!

 

Kingfisher Marina, Demopolis, AL, Demopolis Lock and the last river anchorages!! 11/5 - 7

 

Kingfisher Marina, Demopolis, Al. and Demopolis Lock, last river anchorages!   11/5 - 7

This is the very last marina on the rivers – over 200 miles of river left!  Sooo many loopers here!  The Demopolis Lock is about 2 miles from the marina.   We were told that this lockmaster insists that all boats leaving the marina come in to the lock at the same time.  There were so many boats leaving the next morning that there were two shifts.  The second shift, our shift, had 15 boats in the lock together!  Several had to ‘raft off’ to another boat.  We let the ‘herd’ go out of the lock first, and we took our time. 

At Kingfisher, the first people we saw was Paul and Joyce on Four Pikes!  They have a 'go fast' boat and had left the IVY marina before us - we had not seen them since.  Turns out, they've been stuck at Kingfisher with a bad motor for two weeks!  We spent some time with them, commiserating on their problems.  The Caterpillar repair folks finally came - their verdict was a rebuild of the engine's head for $28,000!  We will see them again, but had to leave them there...  

From Kingfisher, we anchored twice more on the rivers.  On November 5, we were in Bashi Creek with 6 other boats.  We were there first, and we decided to tie to trees on the bank fore and aft.  The creek was plenty deep all the way to the bank.  Only trouble was the amount of vegetation/trash on our boat after we left! 

On November 6, we anchored again in Three Rivers, mile marker 64.  Three Rivers was almost 100 miles from our last anchorage!  We were anxious to get the rivers behind us! 

Anchorages, Columbus Marina 10/31 - 11/3

 

Dewayne Rec area anchorage, Columbus Marina, Bevill Lock anchorage, Rattlesnake #2

October 31, the next night, after Midway Marina, we anchored in a very nice spot, at the Dewayne Hayes Recreation area.  We could see campers back in the woods, but we had a very quiet night.  The mornings out here are beautiful, with mist rising off the water.

November 1, we pulled into Columbus Marina, a small place, but a welcome stop on these rivers where marinas are scarce.

November 2, we anchored out just past the Bevill Lock.  That gave us a nice early and easy start the next morning!

November 3, we stopped in another anchorage, called Rattlesnake #2.  Don’t want to have to think why it might have been called rattlesnake!  This anchorage was just a short run to Kingfisher Marina, in Demopolis, Alabama.