Spring 2023

 It's Springtime in Mobile, Alabama! It's been a great five months in Mobile, and there were many accomplishments on the maintenance punch-list, but the ice and snow are melting in Minnesota, and we can head north. There was a lot of time spent in the paint shed. The transom was painted ...

All of the hull windows were painted ...

A bunch of other work was completed, and here, we're leaving the shed to go back in the water ...

The old transom graphics were getting pretty bad, so a new one was applied ...

I've not ever tried this, so it was a learning process. It could have been better, but it's not bad for a rookie!

After a day of grocery shopping and loading fuel, we're ready for departure. Here's one of the Crew after knee surgery ...

It's a beautiful, warm evening before our 5:00AM departure ..

And a little relaxation with the Crew ...

4/2/23  We're off to a beautiful morning. It's light winds and a comfortable ride across the Mobile Bay to Downtown Mobile ...

The first 216 miles of this stretch can be a bugger. When it rains, the River level can go up 10 feet in a couple days, then back down in a few more. When the level increases, all of the old fallen trees and branches float into the River, and then we'll have to play "dodge-em". It can make for a long, stressful ride. Knowing the the River was up and on it's way back down, we waited an extra day on our departure. We don't know if it helped, but our time on this section was pretty good. We travel up to the first Lock at Coffeeville, AL, and find a spot for the evening. Ahhh ...

4/3  It's awake to a rain storm. Although the rain was hard at times, at least we didn't have the tornados that occurred farther north. Today is 100 miles in relatively slow current and little debris, so it was pretty nice. The weather was nice and warm, too!

Here, we're approaching the Demopolis Lock, our only one for the day ...

Fortunately, there wasn't any delay and we made into Kingfisher Bay Marina. Because the price is a little less, we'll fill up. 

4/4  We typically are in a hurry to get back to Minnesota, and to do that "hurry up", we'll do pretty long days. This time, we're not in so much of a hurry, so we can take some shorter mileage days. This gives us a reasonable stopping hour for today, just above the Lock.

4/5  Another easy day (pretty cushy!) We need to travel about 90 miles in 2 days, so we thought that we'd  anchor about half-way. Well, the weather started coming in with wind and rain, so we thought it better to travel a little further and ties to the upper wall at a Lock. The staff there was so accommodating and allowed us to do so. Thanks! Here, we can eyeball some of the commercial traffic using the Lock ...