Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

Good Morning Ya'll,

We finally arrived at a destination that we are staying put for awhile, Panama City, Bay Point Marina.  Actually, that's not exactly true (we are renting a car and driving to Dayton, Ohio either Wednesday or Thursday of this week for Christmas with my sister and family).  The things Capt. Bob has to do to keep his Admiral happy!

Anyway, took a few pictures that I thought I would share with ya'll.  This first shot was me telling Santa what I want for Christmas.  Santa just happened to be passing by Blue Water Bay Marina, on his way to the North Pole to get ready for his big night. Cap't Bob enjoyed the Sunday brunch of smoked salmon, lamb,veggie omellett, etc.

Now we are traveling new territory, after crossing to the east side of Choctawhatchee Bay east of Destin we entered this cut through sand dunes on the ICW to St. Andrew Bay, very peaceful and beautiful.

We made it to Panama City, Bay Point Marina on the Grand Lagoon around  2:30pm.  Refueled, got settled in our slip, and headed for dinner at the 30degrees grill.  As it turned dark, we started to see several of the boats in the marina decorated for Christmas, it was really fun to see all of the decorations. No pictures, though, just could not get camera to cooperate.

Again, a day on the water and all of the Admiral chores, I crashed early and headed for bed.  Obviously, Sasha had the same idea.  It looks to me like she has no intention of letting the Capt. join us in the same bed!

The next morning, I finished decorating the B & B, with lights and red bows on the rails!  Not as much as I would have liked to do, but, as we know, space is limited, and my priority, is NOT totally decorations! 

This is a great marina, lots of folks stopped and visited, some our on the Loop, some have moved here, some were from the Kemah area.  It really is a small world! 

We are watching the weather closely, since this is where we have rented a car and are trying to figure out the best time to start our driving trip to Ohio.  As of now, we are planning to leave in the morning on Wednesday, December 21st.

If we do leave as planned, I will not be posting on our blog until our return, which is estimated to be around next Wednesday or Thursday. Will log on upon our return, to let you know we arrived safely. 

We are scheduled to stay here until January 2nd or 3rd, 2012!  Wow, we will begin our new year!



The Capt. is plotting our trip to Dayton (just kidding), but couldn't pass up this shot of Misty giving the Capt. first-hand advice on 'whatever', while resting in her new found bed, my serving tray, of course!




















Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!  Stay safe & healthy.  Miss everyone bunches!

Friday, Dec 16, 2011

At mile marker 129 (east of the Harvey Locks & north of Dauphin Island) crossing Mobile Bay, Al. Capt. Bob documented the official beginning of our trip.  This is official because at this exact spot we will cross over our wake on our return home about 1 year from now.

Continuing across Mobile Bay we headed for Gulf Shores, Al. Home Point Marina.  Here we ate at the famous LuLu's Restaurant (Jimmy Buffet's sister).  Enjoyed several of their famous Margarita's, not too mention, a beautiful sunset.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Headed out at 8:30am, travelled through Pensacola, Fort Walton, heading to Blue Water Bay Marina, north of Destin, Florida.  Scenery has changed from gas processing  plants and tows to condo's, big homes, and cigarette boats. Reached the marina in time for another beautiful sunset. 



Around 6:30pm a couple of decorated boats came in to have dinner at the marina.  Did not have time to adjust camera for night pics, but you get the idea.

Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011

Left Houma in patchy fog to make our way to New Orleans running across the Barataria Waterway through the town of Larose (beginning of Cajun Country).  Weather was cooperating with sun shine and light winds for this mix of Cajun country and heavy industrial.  Of course New Orleans brings the dreaded 'locks'!  This first picture is the Harvey Lock, as before, we were the only boat in this lock and I could hear the guy instructing me on what and where to do it! He informed us that the Mississippi had risen over 3' the last several days requiring an 11' lift up to the Mississippi and to be aware of logs and trees floating down river in its 5 mile an hour current (made for an interesting trip down the Old Miss.

Then we moved onto my next biggest fear, the Industrial Locks (east side of the Mississippi).  As we approached we were instructed to move in behind this draw bridge and hang tight.  Thinking this was easy, little did we know that we would be 'hanging tight' for more than an hour.  Capt. B was getting dizy going around in circle - after circle - after circle! Finally, we heard and saw this rusted draw bridge begin its squeaky rise.  I was afraid it was going to fall apart at any moment, but we made it!

This tow was a double wide hauling a crane and he was the only other vessel going into the lock with us. If I thought I was nervous, this capt. must have been hysterical, he didn't even have enough space between him and the wall to fit an ant! But, unlike last time he turned off his engines, so I could hear the guy instructing me on what and where he wanted me to hook my line.  This time, I was prepared to the max!  Life jacket that I could move around in, head set to talk to Capt B, heavy duty gloves, ugly deck shoes that did not slip, and my handy dandy 'knife'!  If he gave me any 'lip' I was prepared to take action! Just kidding, but I was more than ready to slit that line if I needed to!  Happily all went smoothly.  So I began to relax when we exited and thought that we were home free. NOT!

As we approached the Florida Bridge at 3:50pm, the bridge monitor informed us that they were closing the bridge until 5:45pm, because of the 'curfew'. What curfew?  There went my relaxing evening!  So here we go again, Capt. B running around in circles, but this time for approx. 2 hours!  Wheeeee, are we having fun yet!

Okay, we finally passed through the Florida Bridge and headed for Seabrook Marina, which was only 20 minutes away.  Now we see that we are going to have to go through another draw bridge and this bridge operator had a real bad attitude (she was probably tired, like me) so, as nicely as possible I had to asked her to repeat, several times what she was saying - well I guess she thought I was being a snit, so after the 4th try, I think she said that a train was coming and "how did she know how long it would be before she could open the bridge for us"!  That was the last conversation we had, so we didn't know if she would let us through or not.  Anyway, we finally made it to the marina and, of course, there was no slip available by the time we arrived.  We tied up to a small fish boat dock, with no shore power, and ran the generator for the night.  When we finally got dinner ready and had a chance to catch our breath, I informed  Capt. B that it must have been at least 2am in the morning, and I was going to bed.  When my head hit the pillow, I glanced at the clock - it was only 9pm!  Good grief, getting old really stinks!

Departed the Seabrook Marina after a quick stop at the fuel dock making our way to Biloxi.  Another cooperative weather day with light winds on Mississippi Sound arriving Biloxi early afternoon for a short day on the water.

Tomorrow we head to Gulf Shores, La.

Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011

Wanted to add a side note that happened last night.   Our cab driver(Coco) took us to the restaurant and brought us back to the boat also. On the way to dinner, we mentioned that is was our anniversary.  When we got back into the cab to go back to the boat, Coco promptly handed us an anniversary card and a box of popcorn!  He said he wanated to give us something better than popcorn, but did not have time to shop for something nicer.  We could not believe he bothered at all, but it certainly made our evening even more special!  What a nice gesture and really nice guy!

Now onto our happenings on Tuesday. We spent the day doing some maintenance stuff on the boat.  It warmed up quite a bit, so we took a walk into town for lunch. When we returned Misty decided she wanted to take a walk also. Sasha has ventured out of the salon a couple of times, so this is a huge improvement from past trips.  Maybe we just might get her to take a walk with Misty! Sure!

As much as I disliked the Shell Morgan Marina at Intercoastal City, La., on our last pass through, this visit was easy and we even enjoyed a nice sunset.  I did not know that the Capt. had taken this picture, so I decided to back-track a couple of days, so that you could enjoy the sunset too!

                                         

Here we are, December 12, 2011 (our 41st wedding anniversary) and we are headed to Houma, La at 7am. Things began without a hitch, until we came upon  such dense fog that we could not see the front of our boat!  Needless to say, one of my biggest fears had just occurred!  Well, all I can say, is whatever Capt. Bob paid for our new navigational equipment, I recommend anyone taking extended trips, spend the $ to purchase the portion that guides you right through fog without a single worry!  We passed barges, tugs, went under a bridge, and traveled for several miles totally depending on this geni on the helm station!  I've lovingly named her 'Gini' because this was a 'wish granted, big time'!  I love you Capt. B and will never question your decisions again regarding equipment for the B & B.  We were so 'saavy' that even all of the barges responded when we informed them that we approaching their vessel and that we would be passing them without a problem!  I'm really starting to enjoy talking to barge captains - because they talk to me, when they won't talk to Capt. B!  It's fun!

After 2 bouts with the fog, things cleared and we enjoying the endless sights of Cypress trees and wetlands.  When the fog cleared the sun came out and it was really very sarine and a pleasant trip into Houma, arriving about 4pm.  We are headed to Christiano's Italian Restaurant for dinner to celebrate our anniversary.

Side Note:  One good thing about traveling when the temperature is really cold (to Texans), so far, we are having no problems getting into marinas that are 'first come - first serve'. We are the only crazy people traveling in this kind of weather.  The bad thing, I have no one to dress up for, since we make dinner and go to bed!

Day 1-2-3 Catch Up

Hello Ya'll,
Arrived at Bord DuLac Marina (Lake Charles 12/9/2011) at 6:30pm (13 hrs after our VERY early morning send off  at 5:30am by several of our 'diehard' neighbors.  Thanks to those of you that participated. Due to our late arrival, we stayed 2 days in Lake Charles.

We ventured to the fuel dock around 11am with the idea of getting fueled up early - head back to the marina - then take a brisk walk into town for a nice relaxing lunch.  Now, here comes the fun part!  As Capt. Bob started to fuel, he bumped the rail and promptly dropped his phone into the water!  I asked him to at least take a stab at trying to fish it out of the water, and after 10 tries we actually retrieved the phone!  Obviously it did not work. We did learn from several people (whom we suspect might have had a similar experience), that we should place the retrieved phone in a bag of rice and leave it for several days, in the hopes that it just might dry out and actually work! Will keep you posted.

Next, we aborted our relaxing lunch, hailed a cab and headed for the nearest ATT store.  After about 30 minutes of driving around 2 malls and listening to our very 'unique' cab driver, we found the store & were promptly told we could not get a new phone replacement, even though we have been paying monthly insurance fees! The ATT store told us to go to Walmart and buy a "To Go Phone" for $15.  Go figure! More interesting conversation with 'cabby'.  After an afternoon of driving around town (with the taxi meter running) we returned to the marina.   Needless to say, Bob has no contact list, at this point in time, but he does have the same phone number!  So we are sort of back in business!

On a good note, the Christmas decorations were fabulous as we pulled into the marina the first night. 

On our trip to Intercoastal City Marina (one of my past least favorite spots) we passed through Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, which Capt. B said was beautiful, unfortunately, I was taking a nap, since our alarm went off at 4:30am so that we could get an early start. We arrived at our destination without any problems and got to watch a really lovely sunset!

Tomorrow we head to Houma, La.  Talk to you soon.  Hugs Admiral Bonnie

Anticipated departure date - mid December.  Stay turned