10 Nov 17

Last day on the water in this boat in the eastern US. We were up early again to make a good start toward Mobile Bay. The weather is still cold (42F), but it was clear as a bell all day. We had the anchor up by 06:30 and motored out into the stream, amidst the “smoke on the water” of the early morning. We spent a lot of time during the day meandering along with the river and twice had to either stop or go really slow to let a tow pass or before we could safely overtake; lots more commercial traffic on the river as we got closer to Mobile. At 11:30, we spotted a 6’ long alligator sunning himself along the LDB at Mile 23.4; I got a couple of good photos before he crawled into the water. I tried to get the Admiral to go for a swim to see if he would come closer for a good photo-op, but she demurred, even though the water temperature was a balmy 70F. At 12:40, we came up to the Louisville and Nashville RR Bridge, which was, naturally, down to let a train pass. Clearance with the bridge down is 10.8 ft, so we had to wait until the train passed and then got through at 12:55. This is the last lift bridge we will have to deal with for a long, long time. Between 14:00 and 14:22, when we hit Mile 0 on the Tombigbee River, we traversed the very busy Port of Mobile; there were tugs going every which way, break-bulk ships loading on both sides, a very busy shipyard (Austal) building littoral destroyers (catamaran and trimaran hull shapes) for the US Navy, in all Aluminum, an offshore (oil platform) supply base, and a floating dry dock facility. At the supply base, the “Uncle John” was berthed; this is an offshore soil boring vessel that I was last aboard as a young man. Then, we were in salt-water again, for the first time in 14 months. Mobile Bay was fine and the current from the Tombigbee continued to assist us until we made the 135 degree turn to starboard to head up the very narrow, very shallow channel to the Dog River, to find Turner Marine. For about 40 minutes, we had fun looking for the very rare channel markers and keeping an eye on the depth sounder while the wind and current conspired to try to push us off course. But we managed it all successfully and found our way to Turner Marine, where we tied up to the berth in 4.9’ of water (we draw 5.6’, so we plowed a nice furrow along the bottom for the last 50 feet) at 16:10. After we got settled in, we found our mast and boom, which were delivered yesterday. After happy hour, we walked over to the Mobile Yacht Club for a celebratory dinner. Then, it was early to bed after 3 long days in a row.

That’s it. We have completed the American Great Loop and crossed our wake; we now get to fly the Gold AGLCA burgee; incidentally, we also completed the Down East Circle Loop and will be flying that burgee as soon as it is delivered. It took us 5 seasons, over 4 years and nearly 9 months, exactly 12,569.8 N-m by boat, who knows how many locks and lift/swing bridges (I’ll count them up over the winter), several groundings, one transmission, 5 or 6 lobster pots, one back-stay, 3 mast un-steppings and transports, uncounted friends accumulated along the way, numerous sing-alongs, gallons of planning fluid, 2 countries, 26 states and 5 Canadian provinces, and a World Series win for the home team Astros. Man, what a ride!!

Which begs the question, now what? The current plan is to load “c’est le bon” on a truck and haul it to Anacortes, WA over the winter; we will spend the next several summers cruising the PacNW: around Vancouver Island, Glacier Bay, Alaska, maybe another trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands, plus all of the coves and inlets in BC that we have not yet visited and many that we already have. Ten or twelve years worth of future adventures anyway. More on that later.

30-33.985’N, 088-05.370’W; Log = 63.7, Sum (2017) = 3403.2 N-m, Sum (since leaving Houston) = 12,570 N-m;  

2013 - 2289.2 N-m

2014 - 2863.0 N-m

2015 - 2720.8 N-m

2016 - 1293.6 N-m

2017 - 3403.2 N-m

Total - 12569.8 N-m

11 Nov 17

This was a work day, getting the boat ready to leave and ready to be loaded on a truck. Naturally, I woke up at 04:30, planning the day’s work in my head. I finally gave up on sleeping at 06:00 and got up. It was cold again this morning, but warmed up rapidly as the sun rose. We had a quick breakfast and then launched into the work. Primarily, we have to remove anything that is more than 13’-0” above the keel, to avoid a huge extra charge on a permit load. Obviously, the arch and the radar pole have to come down, as well as the davits. We measured everything again to confirm that the pulpit, pushpit, dorade protection arches, and binnacle are all low enough; everything is well below the limit. We borrowed the marina courtesy car and made a run to Lowe’s to pick up packing supplies and did a quick grocery shop. We have a 12’ box truck rented for 3 days starting Monday morning. All the canvas came down, the radar was lowered and disconnected, the dodger arch was lowered. The filthy (from all the locks) fender covers were washed, the inflatable Hobie kayak was packed up, and I changed the oil and oil filter on the generator; I also changed the impeller (after I foolishly started the engine, having forgotten to open the raw water supply valve after cleaning the raw water strainer). We also emptied the lockers under the forepeak berth of all manner of now-surplus-to-requirements charts, chart books and guide books - must be at least 100 pounds worth. Since we have to rent a truck to take “Swallow” home, we are taking advantage of the opportunity to do a major clean-out of all the excess stuff we have accumulated on the boat over the last 5 years; an amazing amount of junk - anything that has not been touched in a year is leaving the boat. To help clean out the fridge, we had dinner aboard, then showered and went to bed about 21:00 (sad, really, to go to bed so early on a Saturday, when we should be out dancin’ the night away; maybe next week).

12 Nov 17

It was cool and cloudy with light, intermittent showers when we woke up, so it was a struggle to get out of bed, but we finally got moving at 08:00. The intermittent rain kept us inside most of the morning, but we got all our clothes, excess books, surplus charts and cruising guides packed up. Later, I got the dodger arch lashed down, the stern light packed and stowed on the stern rail, and the radar wrapped and packed into the starboard lazarette. I spent 3 hours cleaning the decks of weeks of accumulated filth; we also picked up a bunch of carbon steel dust (presumably from the Thyssen-Krupp steel plant), which has left dozens of rust spots on the the deck.  We declared happy hour a few minutes early, then had a shower on board, followed by an early dinner and early to bed; it is so weird with the sun going down at 17:00 or so and pitch dark by 17:20 - 2 hours later we are crawling into bed. But, we need our rest because tomorrow is loading day; I can feel my back tightening up in anticipation.

13 Nov 17

We were up fairly early, collected the courtesy car just after 08:00 and drove into town to collect the Budget rental truck. We spent the rest of the morning and half the afternoon moving all the stuff listed above from the boat to the truck. Then, I finished getting the boat ready for the overland trip. We finished just before dark and staggered over to a local motel for the night, exhausted.