Location: Still in Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina, Iuka, Mississippi

We just learned that our muffler replacement cannot be completed until Monday. So we are stuck for now. We'll edit this positing with any new information as it develops.

Last night we did take the courtesy car to check out the local area. After driving only one mile from the Marina we saw a sign "Welcome to Tennessee" so we are getting closer. We saw what looked like a good BBQ Rib joint so we stopped and had dinner.

Today is Mary's birthday but it is unfortunately marked by the passing of our dear friend Barbara Crisman in Florida. Barbara was Mary's roommate for many years before we married. She was much more than a good friend, she was family, was deeply loved and will remain in our hearts forever.

View Larger MapLocation: 34 59 27.00 N, 88 14 51.00 W – Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina, Iuka, Mississippi, Tenn-Tom 448.7

Our passage today was 54 miles on a relatively cool day into stiff north winds. We left Midway Marina with a companion vessel owned by a couple who wintered at Midway. They are moving their home port to the Knoxville area and perhaps Fort Loudon Marina. They have been living aboard for many years and recently bought a condo in Cape Coral, FL at a bargain price. They intend to summer on their boat and winter in Florida. We had 3 locks to transit in the morning. The first two had lifts of 30 ft. The third lock was a whopper at 84 ft. We have 6 remaining locks on the Tennessee River and one of them, the Wilson lock, has an even greater lift than we just did today. We can’t wait!

Take a look at the photo inside the Fulton lock looking to our stern at the boat behind us. To provide perspective, that boat is a 40 Ft Present trawler. Those lock doors are absolutely huge. The photos just don’t do this gigantic hole in the water full justice.

Now for some statistics: As of today we have travelled 1067 miles since leaving Punta Gorda. We have run the main engines for 114 hours for an average speed of 9 miles per hour. We have consumed 951 gallons of diesel fuel producing a calculated fuel burn of 8.34 gph or 1.12 mpg.

The scenery was varied from the relatively narrow confines of the divide cut (where they dug more dirt than the Panama Canal) to the wide expanse of Bay Springs Lake. The terrain has changed from the flat land in the south to the beginnings of hills. See the photo taken in the divide cut with the hill in the distance.

Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina was on our original float plan and we made arrangements to receive our mail and replace the generator’s muffler. Both our mail and the new muffler arrived today. Some work on the muffler was done today and it should be completed tomorrow. Diesel at the marina was $2.59 /gal. and overnight tie-up is $1.25 /ft.

View Larger MapLocation: 34 17 50.00 N, 88 25 11.00 W Midway Marina, Fulton, Mississippi

We made a last minute decision to turn into the marina. We had planned to anchor but the anchorage was open and exposed and we had a 10 mph wind from the west. For a $1 /ft we opted for a secure tie-up. Actually the Marina is a nice setup. The dock master Pat met us on the tie-up dock, helped with the lines and electrical hookup. Another factor in the decision is that we have a leaking muffler on the generator. Part of the work done yesterday was to reduce the flow to a trickle but the muffler needs to be replaced, Tom found the input nipple on the muffler was wrapped with black electrical tape so the previous owner must have had a problem. It looked like the nipple could have been broken off and was jury-rigged by sliding in a piece of PVC and wrapping it with tape. It worked for the 10 years we have owned the boat but the muffler will be replaced tomorrow. Tom made arrangements for the replacement at the next marina.

The passage today was about 60 miles and we went through 4 locks with lifts of 27, 25, 30 and 25 ft. We had one small mishap in the Fulton lock. The combination of wind and swirling currents in the lock frustrated Tom’s attempts to get close enough to the bollard so Mary could lasso it. It did not go well and Tom wrinkled about a foot of the stainless rub rail at the starboard aft rail. It’s not a big deal but Tom was not happy. He can fix it so it’s not a problem.


We checked out the marina and Tom found his first rocking chair. He then moved from one rocking chair to the next as we roamed around the marina. It’s a nice setup. They have a very nice boaters lounge with most of the comforts of home. They have a bright clean laundry with 4 washers and 4 dryers. They also have a hot tub deck with two hot tubs for boaters. There is also a restaurant at the marina with fried catfish as their specialty. We’ve had our fill of catfish for now so we settled in for the night and had Mary’s chili over pasta.

Location: Still in Waverly, Marina, WestPoint, Mississippi

We decided to stay another day to do some work on the generator. The output voltage on the generator has been varying randomly in a range of about 30 volts. There are multiple possible reasons so we thought that we would track the problem down. Tom hates to work on the generator because it is enclosed in a sound shield that has to be dismantled before any work can be done. Tom did find and tightened the main ground connection and then proceeded to check and tighten all other connections. While working on that problem he noticed that a hose clamp on the raw water side of the heat exchanger was missing (found broken) and raw water was leaking into the bilge. He replaced the hose clamp and noticed an even larger leak at the generator's exhaust connection to the water lift muffler. Tom disconnected the exhaust hose, inspected the hose and the nipple on the muffler. The conclusion was that the hose was a little too large for the nipple so Tom wrapped tape around the nipple and then reattached the exhaust hose which fixed the leak. In all Tom spent 5hours in and out of the bilge and sprawled over the generator. It is all part of the joys of owning a boat. We'll be leaving the dock in the morning looking to complete another 50 - 60 miles.

This has been a nice out of the way marina. They have an outdoor bar and lounge area where they get a lot of local business. We spent some time at the bar talking with many of their regulars. The folks here are down to earth and very friendly. This was a good place to stop. If you're planning a trip to this area stop in and say hello to Cliff and Rita.

View Larger MapLocation: 33 34 39.50 N, 88 29 39.50 W – Waverly Marina, WestPoint, Mississippi

We reluctantly left our anchorage this morning for another 50 mile passage taking us in and out of Alabama and Mississippi. There were lots to see along the shoreline as we moved from forest to developed areas. The river does not wander north of Demopolis as much as it did to the south. The shoreline has more development ranging from shacks to beautiful homes. In some areas conventional homes are the norm while log homes appear in other areas. Water depths are not as deep as we saw in first half of the Tenn-Tom. Today we saw a lot of areas with 10 -15 ft of water. We’re use to thin water with our years on the Gulf side of Florida so we were quite comfortable. There river is well marked all along its path with daymarks along the shoreline and also conventional red nuns and green cans floating in the current.

Today we did the Bevill and Stennis locks. Both have a 27 ft. vertical lift and again the mechanics are the same as the previous locks. The lock-masters prefer that you call on 16 a couple of miles in advance so they can plan their operations. Their working channel is 14 and once you move to the working channel they want you to standby on 14 until you leave the lock. We have now gone through 5 locks and in each case the lock-masters were helpful and polite. They also try to coordinate multiple lock transits and it helps them to know if you intend to transit the next lock. The lock-masters apparently communicate between locks to help coordinate traffic.


When we passed the Bevill lock we saw the Snagboat Montgomery on display along the shoreline. The US Montgomery sternwheeler was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. She was built in 1926 and worked the rivers until 1982. You can learn more by clicking on www.montgomery.sam.usace.army.mil/ When we were approaching the Stennis lock we saw this Corps of Engineers dredge at work. This is the first working dredge we’ve seen and we have traveled 338 miles since Mobile. In one of the wilderness areas we saw our first Bald Eagle. We were able to use the binoculars and we could see the bird had a fish in it’s talons and was heading for a perch in the trees. We tried to get some photos but we were not quick enough.

The Waverly Marina at mile 338.7 is out of the way and not visible from the river. There is a grain loading port in the river and the marina is behind the grain port on a cutoff. We chose this marina (instead of Columbus Marina) because of a lower fuel price. The price is $2.25 /gal. and the bonus was the overnight tie-up rate was $0.75 /ft. It is a simple marina as you can see from the Satellite photo with a turnaround basin where some live-aboard houseboats are located. Transients tie up along the entrance channel which also serves as the fuel dock. 30 and 50 amp power is available. For the $0.75 /ft. they also offer a courtesy car. We took the car and drove first to the Waverly Mansion. Unfortunately they were closed but you can learn more by clicking http://www.wpnet.org/waverley_mansion.htm We then drove into Columbus, Mississippi with a recommendation from Rita the Marina manager to find Rubin’s Catfish and Steak restaurant. We both ordered a 10 oz ribeye and two catfish filets. Dinner was good and it was well worth the 6 mile drive.

View Larger MapLocation: 33 02 46.00 N, 88 13 27.00 W Anchorage, Cochrane Cutoff

We left Demopolis aware of the forecast but uncertain of the weather. We stayed 3 nights in Demopolis Yacht basin in miserable weather that gave us time to rest, do a little routine maintenance and reflect on our past 22 days of travel. It was time to move on. We left about 7:30 AM heading to an anchorage about 54 miles further north. This section of the waterway has more variety along the shoreline.
There is still a lot of forest but we see more houses and other development. Running the river today was like running an obstacle course. The river was loaded with floating debris. Mother Nature was throwing a lot of wood at us and while we did our best to dodge the sticks and logs we couldn’t see them all. We did chop a few of the smaller ones but thankfully we missed the big ones.

There was more tow traffic today than we have seen in the past. The skippers are very friendly. When approaching a tow in either direction we call the skipper and ask what side they want us to pass. They will tell us one whistle or two whistles meaning to the right or to the left. They also prefer that we don’t pass on the turns because they may take up most of the river to get around the bend.


Every day we have a lock to go through. Today we went through the Heflin Lock for a 36 ft. vertical lift. All the locks use the same floating bollard system and today’s lift was without incident. Life jackets are required when in the locks. Notice Mary’s inflatable vest as she helps keep Persistence off the wall.

Our anchorage was just a couple of miles past the Lock. We had reports that the entrance to the anchorage may be silted in so we gingerly probed a few spots with the bow and put her in the mud on both attempts. We gave up and immediately came up with a plan B about 18 miles further north at mile 287.4. Cochrane Cutoff is one of the many remnants of the old river path. When they dug the waterway they “cutoff” many of the zigs and zags as the river turns to produce the bows as seen in the satellite photo. The entrance to the cutoff is 10 ft and quickly rises to 8 ft and then varies between 6 and 8 ft to our anchorage. There is a light current in the cutoff but that keeps us away from the river banks.
Mary likes this quiet spot and sat on the bow for quite a while. A visitor stopped by to visit with Mary. The butterfly stayed with Mary, flew around a little but would return to Mary to rest. As you can see from the photo we have a nice afternoon, some sun and blue sky and an absolutely beautiful place to spend the night.

Coordinate format for pasting into Google Earth.
Thanks to Ron Levis for his help with determining a compatible format that you can copy and paste into Google Earth. The format we will use going forward will be 32 31 36.00 N, 87 50 20.00 W Since we are now providing a satellite image for every location this cut and paste format may be redundant but it will provide another option to see where we are.

Location: Still in Demopolis, AL

The weather is heavy overcast with off and on rain. Tom aggravated his pulled chest muscles again and is a hurting puppy so we’ve decided to stay in Demopolis for another night. Tomorrow we will move on for our planned anchorage 65 miles north.

As an addendum to our Bobby’s Fish Camp post, fuel cost there was $2.50/gal and overnight tie-up was $1.00 per ft. There was no electricity available except for a single orange house extension cord that barely reached the ramp to the dock. There was also no water available other that a short hose coming from a single spigot that also stopped short of the boat ramp. It was a no frills one boat tie-up situation with great catfish dinners just up the road a piece. They are actually in a perfect spot strategically located between Mobile and Demopolis.

Fuel cost in Demopolis is $2.22 /gal and overnight tie-up is $1.00 per ft. Early last night we borrowed the courtesy car to drive into Demopolis. Much of Demopolis is on the National Historic register. The city was founded in 1817 by officers who served in Napoleon’s Army. Their plan was to establish a “vine and olive Colony” using land grants they had been given. The whole thing fizzled because they didn’t know how to raise grapes and olives and the land and climate would not favor those plants. Many of the store fronts downtown were empty, there was little traffic in town and a local we met in the marina described the city as something like Mayberry. We stopped at WalMart to restock on fresh fruit and then went to a popular local restaurant, The Red Barn, for dinner.

View Larger MapLocation: 32*31’36.00"N/87*50’20.00"W, Demopolis Yacht Basin, Demopolis, AL

We decided to get an earlier start this morning because we changed our plan to anchor 50 miles north. There were two possible anchorage locations and neither made us comfortable. Both anchorages were not protected from the river and were little more than pull to the side of the river and pray that a river barge doesn’t run us down at night. The third option was to run 100 miles to Demopolis. In order to transit that distance in a reasonable amount of time we decided to blow the fuel budget and crank up our speed by running at full cruise of 2200 RPM which normally would translate to 17 – 18 mph. Since we are still running against the current our actual speed over the ground was 15 to 16 mph. That translated to about a 6 hour passage at that speed. Persistence got up on plane and performed beautifully.

Our passage today was another zig-zag course line where we could travel 3-4 miles to travel 1 mile north. The photo shows the typical path of this winding river. The shore line continues to be heavily wooded with lush vegetation all along the waterway. Water depths vary but average 25 -30 ft with some deep spots of 60 to 80 ft.

Near the end of today’s passage we had to go through the Demopolis lock. The Coffeeville Lock we went through yesterday had a vertical lift of 34 ft. Today the Demopolis lock was 40 ft. There are a total of 12 Locks on the Tenn-Tom. The smallest lift is 25 ft and the biggest lift is 84 ft. The lock photos show the entrance to the lock and a floating bollard that we tie a line to and a photo as we exit the lock. Essentially we used two ball fenders one aft and one forward. We tie a line from our mid cleat around the bollard and back to the cleat where it is made fast (tied tight). We have a sharp knife available to cut the line should the bollard get stuck. We will go through a lock every day we are on the Tenn-Tom. On one day we will have 4 locks to go through. It will be good practice for the even larger locks on the Tennessee River. When our trip is complete we will have climbed a mountain of nearly 900 ft above sea level.

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Location: 31*45’50.00"N/88*09’28.00"W, Bobby’s Fish Camp

We left Bates Lake early again because we knew we had to transit through the Coffeeville Lock just two miles from our destination after 7 hours of running time. Along the way we went under a unique span lift train bridge. As can be seen in the photo the entire bridge span lifts vertically. We have seen only one other span lift train bridge located in Cape Cod Massachusetts. The Cape Cod Bridge runs over the Cape Cod Canal.

The scenery along today’s passage was in many ways more of the same. That’s not to imply it was boring but it is truly mostly a wilderness scene along the river. Once again we wandered back and forth following the winding path sometimes traveling several miles to only move a mile north. Our apprehension increased as we approached Coffeeville Lock. This would be our first lock on the Tenn-Tom. We’ve been through many locks in the past but this was the first of 18 Locks we would transit on this cruise. We were so focused on doing this right that we neglected to take photos. The lock operator was patient and friendly and the captain and crew worked like a well trained team. We locked through without incident and we now know what to expect for the remaining locks on our cruise. We will be sure to get some images in the next lock.


A few miles after the lock we arrived at our destination for the night. Bobby’s fish camp consists of a 15 X 35 ft. floating dock with a fuel pump on top. The satellite photo shows an extension of the fuel dock. It was reported to be 160 ft. long. When we arrived there was no extended dock. The fuel dock doubles as the overnight tie-up location as well. Persistence is now sipping on sweetwater for the first time and has thoroughly flushed salt water from her cooling systems.

Bobby’s Fish camp is also a restaurant. It is very rustic and original and the main course is fresh caught catfish prepared in a variety of ways. We beat the rush hour and sat down for dinner around 6 PM. Within the next hour the restaurant was full and we were amazed that this back-woods location would have so much business. The people were friendly, the food was good and it was a pleasant evening.

Delayed posting for Wednesday May 20th
Location: 31*12’46.00"N/87*56’.46.00"W, Anchorage Bates Lake, off Tom Bigbee River

We got an early start today expecting to rock and roll again in Mobile Bay. The bay was already lumpy at 7:30 AM but it would only be worse later in the day. We ran 12 miles to Mobile harbor passing by shipyard, terminals, cranes and all the machines that keep the busy port moving cargo. We were again grateful for the shelter of the harbor. We’ll have flat water for the rest of the trip. We did see an unusual ship as we passed through the harbor. The ship’s shape gave it away as a stealth military vessel. If you click on the image to enlarge it you may see the gun turret on the bow. The ship is a tri-hull configuration and looks like it would be very fast. After passing under the I-10 Bridge we transitioned into a more rural scene along the river. The shoreline quickly turned to marsh and a wooded shoreline.


View Larger MapThe lower section of the river is called the Black Warrior and eventually leads into the Tom Bigbee River. The entire waterway from Mobile to the Tennessee River iscommonly referred to as the Tenn-Tom Waterway. The river flow seems to be running between 2 - 3 mph and slowing us correspondingly to 7 to 8 mph since we are running against the flow. We passed by the junction of the Alabama River as we continued north. We expected to see a lot of debris in the river. We did see some but not nearly what we expected. The river winds back and forth and in some areas we would travel 3 or 4 miles to effectively travel 1 mile north. The I-10 Bridge in Mobile is mile 0 of the Tenn-Tom waterway and we traveled for about 54 miles before turning into our anchorage called Bates Lake, although as you can see from the satellite image it is just a creek off the main river. We are at anchor for the night in 20 ft of water and well protected from the wind.

Delayed post for Tuesday May 19th
Location: Still in Dog River Marina – Mobile, AL
We had a lazy morning today and just puttered around the boat. This afternoon we played tourists , took the courtesy car again and went looking for Battleship Memorial Park to see the USS Alabama and any other items on display. The photos speak for themselves so see below. Click on any image to enlarge.

We neglected in our last post to say that Dog River Marina have been very helpful and seem to make friendly service a priority. They provide free WiFi Internet access and offer the use of a courtesy car. We did take their courtesy car for a few hours. We turned on our Automotive GPS that we brought so that we could find our way back to the marina and then asked the GPS to find us a Super Walmart. We bought all the supplies we needed and headed back to the marina.

In a recent comment Dan Diggs, Commander of our Tellico Cruising club pointed out that the location format we have been using is not the same as Google Earth and it may confuse some people. Thanks Dan and we will try to clarify. Google Earth default coordinate format is Degrees, Minutes and Seconds. We have been unable to find the degree symbol in this blog editor so we were using the decimal point. We'll change that to the asterisk and we'll use the apostrophe for minutes and the quotes symbol for seconds. So Dog River Marina would then look like 30*34’03.00"N/88*05’.30.00"W We hope this will make it easier for everyone trying to follow our cruise with Google Earth. Thanks Dan.

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Another suggestion came from our son Jeff who proposed just pasting in the Google link to get the image right in the blog. We gave it a try and here is the Marina image below. The image can be manipulated (zoom in/out and scroll). Thanks Jeff and we'll try to make it a part of future postings.

Location: 30.34’03N/88.05’.30W Dog River Marina – Mobile, AL

Our passage in the Intracoastal this morning was a pleasant ride. We were familiar with some of the area because we have been to Orange Beach a couple of times to visit but from the water it was a new perspective. We had hoped to stop and visit with our son’s mother in law who lives in Orange Beach. We called Ashley to see if we could meet last night at Pirate’s Cove Bistro or Lulu’s (Jimmy Buffet’s sister) restaurant but she has been under the weather and couldn’t make it.

We knew from the weather reports that Mobile Bay was not going to be fun and it wasn’t. As we moved further out into Mobile Bay and started heading north we were back to rocking and rolling. The seas were a wild 2 - 3 ft chop in typically 8 -10 ft of water. To shorten our misery, we cranked up our speed to 17 – 18 and while the ride was faster on top is was not more comfortable. We had heavy spray all over the boat including the flybridge obscuring visibility. We ran on plane for about an hour and then dropped back to displacement speed. We had about 30 miles in open rough water to cover. We ran outside of the ships channel because there were some very big ships running the channel. They can easily cruise at 20 so we could be overrun from behind if we were oblivious to the threat. The stilt building in the photo is adjacent to the ships channel about 20 miles north of the entrance to Mobile Bay. We assume it has some role in the management of ships traffic.

The photos show a marina just behind the bridge at the entrance to Dog River. We arrived at today’s destination Dog River Marina and as always immediately filled our fuel tanks. We average around 6 – 7 gallons of fuel per hour of running time for our boat. At our most efficient cruise speed of 10 mph if we consume 7 gallons of fuel… that’s 1.3 miles per gallon. Non-boaters are probably groaning with that number but most boaters will appreciate that efficiency. We have traveled about 625 miles so far and have about 875 to go. That’s still a lot of fuel. Our boat carries 370 gallons.

Location: 30.19’35N/87.32’.18W Roberts Bayou Anchorage – near Orange Beach, AL

We started out today at 8:30 AM for a 65 mile run to our new anchorage. We passed Destin and saw an unusual sight. It was a flying dingy. Click on the photo to enlarge it to get a better view. Not long after seeing the flying inflatable we saw another unusual sight. This tower with the radome one top must be part of the coastal watch and weather radar system. It certainly is unique.

Another sight along the way was a colorful group of homes on the shore of Perdido"s Big Bay. This was just one of a large number of colorful homes in this community.

We ran into a strong thunder and rain storm just before Pensacola Bay. The storm was pretty wild with torrential rain and very poor visibility. We reduced our speed, and navigated primarily using our Radar and our electronic charting system. The storm lasted about 30 minutes and gave the boat a good cleaning. The weather forecast is more of the same for the next couple of days as a new frontal system moves in.

Tonight’s anchorage is a cozy, well protected basin. The entrance as you may see in Google Earth is very narrow (perhaps 20 ft) but has a 10 ft depth. As you approach, it is not obvious that it jogs to the right. It clearly is not wide enough to turn around. So it’s uncomfortable and you wonder if you can get out again. The channel jogs to the right and then again to the left and opens into a large basin with an average depth of 5 - 6 ft. As you can see from the photo there are a couple of Schooners that make the basin their home. The locals call this hurricane hole “Pirates Cove” and right at the entrance is a restaurant that bears that name.

Location: 30.30’07.08N/86.26’33.28W Rocky Bayou Anchorage – about 8 miles northeast of Destin, FL
We left Panama City around 8:30 AM to travel about 55 miles to the Destin area. The ride today was calm and Persistence did a fine job. We hit something along the way in 15 ft of water. It was most likely a piece of wood or other partially submerged debris. We didn’t see it but it sure got our attention. A thorough check of the bilge and a vibration check indicated no obvious damage. In the anchorage Tom considered taking a dive to check the props and then decided it was not necessary.

Mary spent much of the day working on crossword puzzles and watching an occasional dolphin playing in our wake. It was a nice ride. Tomorrow, we will head to Pensacola.

You can get a better look at the photos in the blog by clicking on any photo to enlarge the image. Comments are welcomed and you can make comments by clicking on the word comments and the end of each posting. Your comment will not be immediately posted. We review all comments prior to their being published.

Location: 30.10.06.86N/85.42.13.86W St. Andrews Marina, Panama City, FL
Our passage today was a pleasant change from our previous rough ride. We traveled on the protected Intracoastal in flat calm water through some very beautiful country. The twist and turns of the rivers added interest and variety to the landscape and caused us to wonder what would be around the next bend. We encountered very few souls along the 55 miles we traveled today. We were looking for wildlife along the river. We could hear the birds in the woods but did not see many. We thought we would see some deer but Bambi didn’t show her face. It was that kind of uninhabited, natural and wild landscape that made today’s cruise so enjoyable.

St. Andrews Marina is owned by the city so some of the services you come to expect when paying for a slip were absent. There was no help available for docking. Tom backed into the slip and we hoped we wouldn’t wipe out the adjacent boat while Mary tried to lasso a piling or cleat. We tied up without incident but some help on the dock would have been nice. We walked around the marina and it is very nicely done with floating concrete docks and a decent ships store.

Immediately outside the marina is the St Andrews historic district. It is a nice little section of the larger Panama City. A grocery store is well within walking distance about 15 minutes away. There are many small stores, boutiques and restaurants. We had a recommendation for the Captain’s Table for dinner so we gave it a try and enjoyed another seafood dinner. We walked around town some more and headed back to the boat to do some laundry and settled in for the night. We’ll be off the dock again in the morning bound for an anchorage near Destin called Rocky Bayou.

Location: 29.43.54N/84.59.15.9W Water Street Hotel & Marina, Apalachicola, FL Please note the corrected location coordinates. Thanks Ed for pointing out the error.

We had a great day today exploring “Apalach” as they call it. We started out at Tamara’s café Floridita for breakfast (brunch). Mary had a vegetable omelet wrap and Tom had cranberry pancakes. Both breakfasts were fantastic and it was a great way to start the day. The town is wall to wall antique shops and art galleries. This town has some old Florida character with many wood frame buildings It is one of those small towns essentially devoid of traffic and where golf carts are a frequent means of transportation. We had a good time going from shop to shop and walking all over town. There was a good incentive for Tom to make the trek because there is an old fashioned soda fountain downtown with Blue Belle ice cream. Mary checked out every boutique in town while Tom checked out every chair and bench he could find. Apalach has a working waterfront like Tarpon Springs but offers more to see and do for visitors.

Tom took an afternoon nap following the town tour and then spent some time doing routine maintenance on Persistence getting her ready for tomorrow’s run to Panama City. We had planned to anchor 40 miles west of Apalachicola but instead will make up for some lost time by running 55 miles to Panama City. We will be staying one or two nights at the St. Andrews Marina.

We walked back into town for dinner after getting a recommendation from an Alabama farmer we met who was admiring our boat. We invited him onboard and chatted for awhile. He recommended the Owl Café so we gave it a try. We both ordered their ribeye special but were disappointed with the meal. We settled back aboard Persistence for the night to do final prep for our early morning departure.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Apalach.

Location: 29.43.54N/84.59.15.9W Water Street Hotel & Marina, Apalachicola, FL
We were certainly rocked last night in our anchorage. Winds increased after midnight and the boat rocked and rolled like crazy. NOAA indicated wind at 20 Knots with severe gusts warnings to 60 in the storm cells. We don’t think we saw 60 but winds were sure stronger than 20. Mary took the first anchor watch until 1:00AM and Tom took the next anchor watch until 3:00AM. The anchor was holding beautifully according to the GPS so Tom hit he sack and let Mary rest. Sleeping was an off and on situation just like being in bed. We think a good invention in such situations would be bed belts (like seat belts). We were nearly thrown out of bed many times. We were so exhausted we finally woke up around 8:30 AM and we were still rocking away. We pulled the anchor and headed to Apalachicola 30 miles to the west.

We stopped at Miller Marine for fuel before heading to the marina. Apalachicola City Marina was unable to provide a slip so we created a plan B and made a reservation at Water Street Hotel and Marina. It is a brand new facility with new concrete floating docks and pulled in with hotel staff assistance. They are affiliated with the Boat US discount program so the rate is $1.20 a ft. They are located on Scipio Creek just off the Apalachicola River. After we tied up and washed the boat, we walked into town and walked around, bought an ice cream and walked back to the marina.

Nancy Brewster said Apalachicola has absolutely the best oysters and we had to try them. We went to Papa Joe's Oyster Bar and Grill for dinner. The fried oysters were terrific, just as Nancy remembered. We’ll explore the town again tomorrow.

Location: 29.47.07N/84.39.541W Dog Island, Carrabelle, FL
The oil leak was found to be at one of the hydraulic connections to the transmission cooler. The connection was disassembled, Teflon tape sealant was applied and the connection was reassembled. The connection was tested with an 8 hour passage from Steinhatchee to Carrabelle with no further leakage. We ran a straight line about 80 miles across the Big Bend to Dog Island, which is a barrier island just outside Carrabelle. When we arrived at Dog Island we were heading right into a thunderstorm so we dropped the anchor in a protected cove on the north end of the island. The wind shifted and as we write this message we are rocking and rolling tethered with 200 ft of chain in about 20 ft of water. We have made it through many storms in the past so we have great confidence in our ground tackle. More storms are forecast for the night so we’ll be rocked to sleep.

Our passage across open water started out smooth in an east wind and as we moved offshore the seas were lumpy again with 2 -3 ft whitecaps on top of 4 ft swells with an occasional 5 or 6 ft pileup. It was uncomfortable to say the least and Tom had to steer manually (instead of the autopilot) to maintain control of the boat. We were accompanied on the passage by several pods of dolphins. They stayed with us for quite some time and included a large dolphin with spots and a small baby. All the dolphins were jumping and passing under the boat from side to side. About 30 miles out from our anchorage the seas quieted down again and we were able to run the last 30 miles with the autopilot.

We arrived in time for a sunset after the storm passed. We always look for a sailboat in a thunderstorm to snuggle next to. That lightening rod pointing to the sky provides some measure of protection for us. We have now settled in for the night watching NCIS and The Mentalist on TV. Tomorrow, we will go to Apalachicola for a couple of nights in the City Marina.

Location: 29.40.15N/83.23.20W Sea Hag Marina, Steinhatchee, FL
Yesterday we were in Cedar Key. Our overnight anchorage was a good spot. We had a good bite on the bottom in spite of strong tidal currents in the area. We were anchored just southeast of the launching ramp so there was activity during daylight hours but it was quiet overnight. We left Cedar Key using the northwest channel. There was only one 4 ft shallow area between market 15 and 17A. Our passage from Cedar key to Steinhatchee was okay but it was a bit lumpy. We had a 1 - 2 ft chop with 3 ft swells coming from the west. We were spoiled from our previous days so the lumpy seas were not much appreciated. The real potential problem was the shallow water in the area where we were to transit. In some areas we had only 7 ft of water depth. We actually altered our planned course further west to give us deeper water. As the simple math would show in 7 ft of water at the bottom of a 3 ft swell it does not leave much water under the 3 ft, 9 inch boat draft. We should have outfitted the boat with wheels before we left!

One problem that we first noticed on the way to Cedar Key is that we were losing transmission oil on our starboard engine. It is a small leak at about 1.5 quarts over 8 hours. We recalled that our mechanic mentioned that there was a small external leak on the transmission cooler that he repaired. The transmission pressure is 300 PSI so it must be a very small pinhole leak. The transmission sump capacity is 1.2 gal so we assume that we were within safe limits and that there has been no risk to the gear. Our mission while we are here at the marina is to find the leak and repair it before making the 80 mile open water passage to Carrabelle.

Today, we plan to take the courtesy golf cart to tour the village and visit the grocery store. We just learned that there is also an ACE hardware store in town so that will give Tom a place to visit to buy more oil. More news to come from Steinhatchee.

Location: 29.40.15N/83.23.19W Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee, FL
Just a short post today to let everyone know we arrived safely in Steinhatchee. We will be here for 3 nights while we make some needed repairs. More details will follow in the next posting.

Location: 29.08.136N/83.01.489W Cedar Key anchorage. This posting is a day late due to the poor signal quality in the anchorage.
We left Tarpon Springs ready for an 80 mile passage taking approximately 8 hours. It’s open water with no protection for the next 250 miles to Apalachicola and four stops along the way. We received a couple of e-mails from non-boating friends asking how we know where to go. Like Marco Polo we have a compass and nautical charts (the equivalent of maps). There are no roads so we make our own routes. Aside from the basics we also have some technology to make navigation much easier. You can see in the photo our navigation display. This photo shows a segment of our trip to Cedar Key. In the photo you can see the route lines with the circle at the center bottom representing our boat. We bypassed our side trip to Crystal River in the center of the screen and went directly to Cedar Key at the top right of the display.

We have been fortunate so far with great weather and calm seas. Today’s passage was flat calm. We were off the coast by 20 miles and we could see the bottom passing by in 15 to 20 ft of clear water. We were visited again by several dolphins. Several swam with us right in front of the bow. One jumped the wake. The main channel into Cedar key could be a bit visually confusing but the pre-planned route gave us a path to follow. We would have liked to go ashore at Cedar Key but there is no place to comfortably tie up the boat. The city dock wasn’t much and it was getting late so we opted out of taking the dingy to shore. It looked like it would be a good place to spend a couple of days.

Location: 28.09.30N/82.45.26W Tarpon Landing Marina, Tarpon Springs, FL. Pirates in FL? Here's the evidence. We encountered this pirate ship as we were leaving Clearwater for Tarpon Springs. TS is on the Anclote River and it is still a working commercial waterfront. It was a short run today and another beautiful day in the Gulf. We saw a large turtle on the surface today and a few dolphin. We stopped for fuel at F&Y Products in TS before looking for the City Marina where we had a reservation. F&Y was $2.05/gal and was setup for fueling the commercial fleet. We arrived around 2 PM and should have realized that since it is Friday and a city owned Marina we

were in trouble. It turns out that the Marina office was closed and there was no one around. Another boat had the same disappointment so we both landed across the river at the Tarpon Landing Marina. The City Marina had around 6 slips and they appeared unsafe and were in absolutely terrible shape. Tarpon Landing was a good Marina with floating docks and was the same price at $1.50 per ft. It turned out that Tarpon Landing has a great outdoor bar and restaurant called Captain Jack's with live entertainment. We walked into town, walked the waterfront and stopped at Mykonos for dinner.