Mer Sea

So, here we are, still in Columbus, MS, continuing to wait for the repair of the generator. We’ve had some fun while here, including toodling around with our friends Janet and Jeremy, from Tardis, who rented a car for the weekend, and generously invited us to poke around with them a couple of times. On Friday, we went with yet another couple, Sam and Diane from Niagara Myst, and explored downtown Columbus. It was a beautiful day, and there are lots of lovely buildings in the town. Quite a few antebellum houses as well.

 

We had lunch in a little place called “Fleets Eats” that was recommended by the ladies at the Welcome Center. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, as it was definitely off the beaten path – down a small country road that we were assured by the ladies would be paved, and we’d find just past the pet cemetery. All true. It’s just someone’s house, in a regular residential neighborhood (must not have very strict zoning there…) with a small sign on the door saying “Fleets Eats.” We went early, at 11:30, and there were already plenty of cars lining the street.

 

We walked in the front door and through the front hall into a large room that would probably have been the dining room in another incarnation. In this case, it had crockpots lining the walls, filled with good, home-cooked southern fare: hamburgers in gravy, black-eyed peas, succotash, mashed potatoes, greens, and chicken gumbo. Then there were the platters full of baked chicken, fried catfish, and hushpuppies, baskets with cornbread and some other bread, and many varied and sundry desserts. You just picked up a plate, filled it up, walked into the kitchen and grabbed a Styrofoam cupful of ice, and filled it either with lemonade right there, or iced tea at the table. The tables were set up in a couple of different places, and we chose the heated, enclosed back porch.

 

The food was absolutely wonderful, if you like that sort of thing (which we all definitely did!), and if you don’t get enough the first time, you just go back for more. All for $8, which you paid, if you could find someone to take your money, on the way out. As we were leaving, we had to thread our way through the long line, all crammed into the front hall because it was cold. Obviously a very well known place, and, for those of you on the zoning board, signage was not an issue! If you didn’t know this place was there, there’s no sign big enough to get you there! Yet they obviously weren’t suffering from lack of business.

 

Our “walking tour” of Columbus was after lunch, ably led, with pamphlet in hand, by the intrepid Jeremy, assisted by Diane (who apparently had already memorized the pamphlet!). We had a great time wandering around together, checking out some of the shops, and enjoying the lovely day.

 

Saturday morning, we eagerly awaited the arrival of Sidney and the new rotor and brushes. We planned to go shopping during the day in the marina’s courtesy car as our last big shopping before Thanksgiving, which it looked like we’d be having “on the hook” in a little anchorage. We were thinking Cornish hens…

 

Sidney got to the boat, and we got him settled in, and off we went to the store. Because of the large numbers of transients now at the marina, we were limited to 1½ hour in the courtesy car. Roy dropped me off at the wine store, and he took off to get his hair cut and to get some fuel for the car at Walmart, while I got some wine and walked next door to the grocery store to shop. He met me there, and we finished the shopping (we decided on a nice roasting chicken for Thanksgiving) and made it back to the marina in good time.

 

After lunch, we spent a couple of hours plotting out the rest of our trip, both on paper and on our electronic charts. We were almost finished when Sidney came out of the engine room and said that he’d run into a problem. My heart sank. Apparently, while he was trying to get the fan off to get at a part of the generator, the fan housing broke. And he still wasn’t able to get the fan off.

 

Well, we’d have to order a new housing (this was Saturday, remember?), so we got on the phone immediately and spoke to Sidney’s supervisor, who was able to find one, and schedule it for 10:00 Monday morning FedEx delivery. Looks like we wouldn’t be leaving on Monday, after all… Sidney spent some more time trying to wrestle off the fan, but didn’t have the tool he felt he needed, so it was time to close up shop for the day. In passing, he mentioned that, a couple of times, a little bit of water had splashed in through the hole, and Roy and I looked at each other, trying to imagine just what he could be talking about. We’d made sure the through-hulls were closed before he got started. Well, to give himself more room, Sidney had taken everything, I mean everything apart, including removing the heat exchanger and taking the hose with the through-hull stop on it right off its hole, leaving a 2½ inch hole in the hull just sitting there 2 inches above the water line!!!!!!!!! YIKES!! I’d already suspected, but now was sure, that Sidney’s not a marine generator mechanic. He’s used to working on hospital generators – like he said, “that you can walk up to.”

 

Well, we clamped a hose on the hole, and hammered in a bong, and bid Sidney adieu for the day. Then we looked at our tentative float plan again, trying to rework it for a Tuesday departure (was this too optimistic? Time will tell.) Our only real problem, aside from possible frostbite (yes, folks, it’s really cold, and now WINDY here!), is the airplane tickets and doctor’s appointments we’ve arranged, thinking we had plenty of leeway to make Punta Gorda by the 11 Dec. This was back when we had a brand new, as yet unbroken, generator. So we’re really a bit under the gun to get back to Florida, aside from simply wanting to be in warmer weather. Right now, at 9:30 AM as I write this, it’s 43º and about 20 knot winds, and not really pleasant. So we’re definitely ready to leave!

 

Sunday morning we huddled in the boat, trying to stay warm against the fierce wind (a boat is not insulated like a house…), and went out in the afternoon with Janet and Jeremy and another couple, Roger and Erika, from Tumbleweed. Our first destination was the Tom Bevill Lock Visitor’s Center, which we had some difficulty finding. When we finally did find it, it was closed, which we had known was a possibility. We walked all around it – it’s one of the old antebellum houses, so was lovely even from the outside – and then walked down to the river and looked back up at the lock (we’ll be going through this lock our first day out of Columbus – it’s one of the ones that had been closed for a week for repairs). It was windy and COLD!!!

 

Our next destination was the “ Freedom Cemetery”, home of the very first Memorial Day celebration, and also home to quite a few Confederate gravesites. Again, we had a little difficulty finding it, and when we did, it was COLD outside the car. I didn’t last long before I was ready to be back in the warm car.

 

After we got back to the marina, we invited Roger and Erika to see Mer Sea, as they’ve not been inside an American Tug, and then we got a tour of Tumbleweed, which is a power catamaran. Both boats are 34’, but such different layouts and uses of space! It’s fun to see how “the other half lives.” So far, we’ve always come away from such tours still happy about our choice of American Tug, but you always learn something when you tour another boat.

 

Monday morning, we eagerly awaited the arrival by FedEx of the fan housing and by car of Sidney. Preferably at around the same time. Well, the fan housing beat Sidney by about two hours, but when he got to the boat he went right down to the engine room and began his work. Things seemed to move along without any hitches, and Sidney was putting things back together at around 4:00. He’d almost finished, was just putting on the last part of the outer housing, when he broke the DC cutoff switch. Spare me, I thought. He and Roy tried several things to glue it back together, but were unsuccessful. Well, he was able to set it in the “on” position, and promised to send us a new one.

 

Now it was time for the test…would she run?? Well, we started her, and she started right up, even more easily than before ( Sidney said he’d found that the positive battery cable wasn’t tightly attached), and I relaxed a little. Then we started loading her up. Big loads, small loads, fluctuating loads, turn her off, turn her on, every conceivable combination, and things seemed to be working great. Sidney continued with his cleanup while I messed around with the generator. At one point, I turned it on, then turned on the battery charger, and she just stopped. Error code 12 - related to voltage again. Sidney was dumfounded, I was dumfounded, Roy was dumfounded. There was silence on the boat. I told Sidney what had been running when it shut off (the battery charger only), and he thought he remembered getting some kind of a service bulletin about battery chargers. Something about the magnetic field or something or other that could cause problems to the voltage regulation if you ran them without any other load. We tried starting her up again, and she ran just fine. We put a load on, then turned on the battery charger, and she was fine.

 

At this point, we didn’t really know what the problem was, but we needed to leave Columbus, so if it meant just not running the battery charger by itself, we could handle that until reaching Punta Gorda. Sidney finished cleaning up, we said goodbye, and got ready to eat and go to bed for an early departure the next morning. We both felt somewhat empty and frustrated, needless to say – it’s difficult when you have absolutely no confidence in a major piece of equipment. But such is life…

 

We left Columbus at oh-dark-hundred on Tuesday the 21 st, and headed into the lock. The lockmaster had it filled and waiting for us, as we’d called him before leaving the marina. We were joined in the lock by Simpatica, who’d been docked behind us in the marina, and with whom we’d end up traveling for the next several days. It was bright and sunny, and we were really enjoying being underway again!

 

We traveled further than we’d originally planned so that we’d have a shorter day the next day to Demopolis, where we planned to celebrate Thanksgiving (no way we were going to count on the generator to cook our Thanksgiving dinner – we wanted to be at a marina!). Our chosen anchorage was a small basin, and it was protected and quiet. We dropped the hook and popped our beers and relaxed. The generator performed admirably that night, and we breathed a sigh of relief to be on the way again.

 

The next morning was very cold, and I cranked the generator and turned on the heat, then set about making my tea, then Roy’s coffee. I set up the coffeemaker and pushed the “on” button, and nothing happened. Nothing. NOW what? I inspected it more closely, and saw that the LED display wasn’t showing up in the little window. It seemed that it wasn’t getting any juice. I tried moving it and plugging it in where I’d just heated water for my tea, but still no juice. Finally, I just heated some more water and poured it through the coffee and filter and let it drip into the pot.

 

I didn’t tell Roy anything about this when he first got up, as it didn’t seem to be something that one would want to hear first thing upon rising. After his first cup of coffee I did tell him, and when we looked at the coffeemaker, the display was showing the time. When I pushed the ON button, it came on. Now, wasn’t that strange? The only thing that was different was the temperature – it had warmed up considerably in the boat since I’d first tried to make coffee. But that didn’t make any sense…

 

Oh well, no time to puzzle about that, we pulled the anchor and set out for Demopolis. We caught up with Simpatica in the lock, and traveled together the whole day. They are a great couple who spend the winters in Panama City, working in a boatyard. They’ve traveled the Tenn-Tom many times, and are really familiar with the waters. It was great to have them share their knowledge on the way south.

 

We got ourselves situated in Demopolis, and I went out to explore the town. Like so many of these downtown areas we’ve encountered along the way, there’s not much in the downtown area any more, although it’s lovely, and has a beautiful park in the middle of it, but the “shopping” has moved out of the downtown area to a big strip on the highway where the Walmart is. Yuck. I just hate that the old, historic, charming downtowns are drying up because of being supplanted by these car-necessary, impersonal mega stores. Unfortunately, I end up supporting the new guys, because that’s the only place to shop in most of these places. It’s a real quandary for me.

 

We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner of roast chicken, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. It was a challenge preparing it on the small stove, and in the small oven, with only 30 amps available to me, but I managed, and we really enjoyed it! We have so very much to be thankful for, and paused to make a point of taking note. We are very lucky in material things, and have wonderful family and friends, for whom we’re very grateful. Life really is good.

 

Our next two days were to be long ones, ending in secluded anchorages. We got up early for an early start, and it was cold! Once again, the coffeemaker wasn’t working. Roy was disgusted, and turned on the oven and held the coffeemaker in front of it to warm it up. Worked like a charm! Now we figure, all we need is a hairdryer to get our coffeemaker to work!! A simple, two-step process: use the hairdryer to warm up the coffeemaker, and then make the coffee. Or, we could get ourselves into some warmer weather!!! We like that option best!

 

It was another gorgeous day, and warmed up considerably as the day wore on. We arrived at the anchorage and found another boat already there. This was a narrow creek, and would require two anchors, as there wasn’t enough room to be swinging around. We motored in past the other boat and picked our spot, dropped the bow anchor, set it, backed up and dropped the stern anchor, set it, and put Mer Sea in the middle. Just like clockwork. We were very glad we’d practiced this maneuver once before we had to do it for real.

 

This was a perfectly beautiful, peaceful anchorage. A barred owl (“who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-o-o-o-o?”) was calling in the woods right next to the boat. The woods were thick, and draped in Spanish moss. I could hear chickadees, titmice, woodpeckers, flickers, and plenty of other birds I couldn’t identify. We really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was perfect.

 

The next morning wasn’t nearly as cold (our new barometer: the coffeemaker worked!), and we set out early to catch the first group of boats who were locking through. They’d stopped a little further along than we had, so we hurried a bit to catch them and the lock. We spoke to the lock master as we were underway and let him know we were coming. As it turned out, there was no problem making it. This was our LAST LOCK of the trip!!! I’ll add up and let you know later just how many locks we’ve been through since we left Punta Gorda last March.

 

We had a great day underway, continuing the warming trend we’ve been enjoying, and stayed close to our new friends on Simpatica the whole way. We ran a little faster than they did, as we always want to leave a good margin to get where we’re going before dark. We arrived at the anchorage, and it was another beauty. Dense forest, narrow, and utterly gorgeous. Even had its own resident barred owl. It was lovely and warm in the sun, and I planned to go on top and have a glass of wine. Roy used the raw water washdown pump on the bow to rinse off our big fender balls – we wouldn’t be needing them any more since there would be no more locks!

 

All of a sudden, I hear “SPLASH!” My heart is in my throat, and I run to the cockpit, and Roy is shouting, “The fender ball fell in the water! Quick!! Grab me the boathook!!” I hand him the boathook and he tries to snag the fender as it floats by on the strong current. No dice. Fortunately, the current is running into the creek, not out to the Tenn-Tom, where the fender ball would surely be lost. So, we have the opportunity to practice a quick launching of the dinghy! We keep an eye on the fender while the launching process is underway, and Roy takes off in the dink to go retrieve it. Meanwhile, our friends on Simpatica appear, and they get themselves settled and anchored. I’m on top at this point, enjoying the show. It was quite an evening for our last taste of the Tenn-Tom.

 

We had an easy run the next day to Mobile. Our plan was to stay at a marina in a little town called Fairhope, which is supposed to be a charming town, and where you can access all the town has to offer on foot or bike, unlike the other, more popular marinas closer to downtown Mobile. It was really exciting seeing the skyline of Mobile appear, feeling like we’d reached some kind of a milestone. Well, we were back on the Gulf, and entering salt water for the first time since somewhere on the Hudson River last June, and we had only one last leg to complete our “ Loop.” I guess it was a milestone! We bid farewell to Simpatica, who was going on further than we, and hoped we’d see them again along the way. Perhaps when we’re in Panama City we can hook up.

 

We crossed Mobile Bay, which was beautiful and calm, and found the marina without any problems. We tried to hail them on the radio, to no avail. We tried to call them on our phone, and got an answering service. When we explained that we needed to talk to someone about docking, that we’d made reservations the day before, she told us that nobody was there. This was unbelievable! We pulled into the marina and tied up at the fuel dock, and Roy took a walk around to try to find someone. No luck. Maybe they were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. But no, I’d talked to someone yesterday and made the reservation. But it was definitely deserted. Damn!

 

Plan B: we called the other, popular marina, back on the other side of Mobile Bay, and they had room for us. Off we went, back across Mobile Bay, and found our way to the other marina. We pulled up to the fuel dock to pump out waste and fill up with fuel. We were given our choice of slips, and got ourselves secured in one, and breathed a sigh of relief. Who should be docked a couple of boats over but Katie Sue, minus John and Betty, who were in California for Thanksgiving. But it was fun to see her just the same. It was warm – almost hot! – so I stripped off my long johns for the first time in many days, and even put on shorts! WOW! Mobile and the Gulf at last! We planned to spend a rest day here just to regroup and relax, get some housekeeping and laundry done, and then head out to the Gulf and the last leg of our Loop.