Kim Jo IV: October 27, 28, and 29, 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

October 27, 28, and 29, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012:
We were woke up at 04:05 by the boat rafted to us; he turned on his generator so by 04:20 we got up. It was a mess trying to leave at 05:45. It was still dark and the wind was blowing and the two boats rafting left first, the Roy El, and we were last. The 65 footer would not let anyone raft up to him because he said he was leaving by 05:30. When we left there was no one awake on their boat. All 4 boats were secured in the lock and this guy calls and asks the Lock Master to wait for him so we waited for over a half an hour. By then, a sail boat also entered the lock. So much for an early start. Then when the lock opened the 65 footer tried to pass the other boats and get out ahead of the group; very inconsiderate, someone should teach him "boat educate".

Anchored at Alabama River Cut-off, very windy and not much swing room. We tried anchoring first and the wind blew us into the trees on our starboard side. It scratched our railing and left a little tree on the back deck. We pulled up our anchor and went back out into the channel and waited for Roy El to get there. He went in an anchored as he is about 8 feet shorter than we are, then we pulled in an tied up to his starboard side. We had drinks on Roy El and we were on our own for dinner, we all had left overs. We have a problem with our generator, it says "Low Battery". It would run but did not produce enough voltage to run any thing. Frustrating. So, we ate and went to bed about 08:00. Very cold night, put on an extra blanket.

Sunday, October 28, 2012:
Got a later start and we were just going to go as far a Mile 12.0 and anchor in Briar Creek but after underway we decided to go for it and go all the way into Dog River Marina for a total of 69 miles. When we got into Mobile Bay the winds picked up but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was turning off the shipping channel to the small channel into Dog River Marina. After that, the waves calmed some and we both got here with out incident. Thank goodness for small favors. We knew or had met just about everyone that was tied up at the marina. There were 12 people at Roy El’s for docktails and after Greg and Elvie made steaks for the 6 of us; Roy, Elvie, Greg, Carl, and Keith and me. It was Greg and Carl’s last night on the boat and we had a good evening.

Monday, October 29, 2012: This was a non travel day. We got caught up on things around the boat and talked with Dog River mechanic about what has to be done on the boat. We went out to eat with Roy and Elvie and some friends that we had met 2 years ago at Bay Hill Marina on the Tennessee. We had a very enjoyable evening and it was good to see Dave and Joy again.

CO's comments: The boat that rafted to us on the outside Friday night stated that they would leave with us in at 06:30 the morning so I said OK to raft. Then at 04:30 he said he would just as soon wait until noon to leave. We all left by 06:00.