2/3/2021 to 4/7/2021-- Carrabelle, FL to Sarasota, FL

 

2/2 – 2/3/21 – Drove to Carrabelle.  It was cold and rainy.  We were waiting for our bimini to be finished and installed.  We were also waiting  for good enough weather to take the boat from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs.  We were open to a multi-day trip or overnight.  The weather was not looking promising for the next 10 days so we headed south by car and stayed in Dunedin and Gulfport.  We visited with friends from home for two nights.  We saw that we might have a weather window coming up so we headed back north with a stops in Treasure Island, St. Pete and Cedar Key.

2/22/21 – Had dinner with a brand new looper couple from Texas on on another Mainship 40

2/23/21 – Had lunch with our boat neighbors Larry and Cheryl on Evening Star

2/24/21 -  We left Carrabelle at 4:00pm for overnight to Tarpon Springs.  This is the first weather window in the last month or two.  We headed out through the channel, thru the pass at dog island and after a bit of “adjustment” got our bearing heading to Tarpon Springs.  It was a very calm and perfect for the crossing.  We ended slowing way down around 5:00am so that wouldn’t get into the crab pots before light.  Arrived Tarpon Springs around 10:00am on 2/25/21.  We spent 3 nights in Tarpon Springs.  This is a very nice town with a great downtown to walk.  We had our car brought down from Carrabelle !

2/28/21 – We headed to Bradenton for a slip at Twin Dolphin Marina on a Sunday!  Never do these crazy channels on a weekend. The 60+ miles took us all day.  Ken ubered to retrieve our car from Tarpon Springs.  We were able to get around the area and enjoy various restaurants—plus do laundry, etc.!

3/3/21 – Flew home via St. Petersburg Airport.

3/24/21 – Flew to into Sarasota to head to the boat.

3/26/21 – Allen and family arrived to stay with us.  We had a great time and managed to contain all 7 of us without anyone falling overboard!  I cannot mention all of the eating, etc.  The Easter Bunny visited us in the dark early morning and laid a trail on the deck that sounded like marbles rolling around.  Sunrise brought out the egg hunt and lots of “stuff”!

3/30/21 – We all headed to Sarasota and arrived to finally cross our wake. Sarasota was the furthest north that we had taken Seventh Sun III so that qualifies for us.  It was nice to have Allen, Amy, Vail, Von and Violet along and join in our celebration !  They got to see several groups of dolphins. They learned how to tie up a boat and drive watching the channel markers. Oh, I guess I need to mention that before we came down on 3/24, I fell and broke three fingers on my left hand.  While in Sarasota I slipped on the dock and sprained an ankle.  I was not in great shape but somehow with all the help we made it work.

4/1/21 – We headed back to Twin Dolphins for the 30+ trip and arrived safe and sound but no dolphin sightings.

4/3/21 – Allen’s family departed.

4/7/21 – Ken and I flew home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11-24-20 --12-6-20 - Orange Beach, Al to Carrabelle, FL

 

10/2/20 – Hurricane Sally went directly over the marina and the area suffered major damage including losing portions of the slip coverings.  Our boat sustained only slight damage—a small tear in the bimini.  We had people watching the boat and were able to get it cleaned up before our return.

11/24/20 – We came back from home and found house batteries were all dead, probably from the
period off-line during the marina damage period.  Saunders replaced the batteries and we were able to then function normally.  We had a nice, but unusual for us, Thanksgiving dinner at Jinny Lynn’s at the Wharf. 

11/28/20 – We left OB for Destin and arrived at the Margaritaville dock mid-afternoon.  We stayed for two nights and it was cold, rainy and windy.  Luckily, stuff was within walking distance. 

11/30/20 – We left Destin for the short hop to Baytowne Marina for another cold and windy night.  This is a pretty resort and there was most of what you might want in the area.  It was just quite cold to enjoy much of it. 

12/1/20 – We left Baytowne around 10am and found a slip at Treasure Island.  We fooled around in the mud as we ventured out of the narrow channel when entering the marina.  This area had been hard hit by Hurricane Michael in 2018 and much of the area is still under repair.  I picked up dinner at Sisters of the Sea and brought it back to the boat. 

12/2/20 – We left Treasure Island at 8am and traveled the 65 miles to reach the Apalachicola face dock around 3:30pm.  The weather is still quite nippy.  I picked up dinner at “Up the Creek” and we settled in for the evening.  I was able to trapse around town in the morning and visit some shops and galleries.  We had lunch at “Hole in the Wall where Ken enjoyed some oysters.

 

 

 

 

 12/4/20 – We headed out around 8am for the 30 mile journey to Carrabelle and arrived at C-Quarters Marina about 11:30am.  We tied up and got fuel but then the port engine would not start.  A few bad words and tense time later we got into our slip.  The current was very strong and the fingers were extremely short.  Luckily, we had help from staff and neighbors.  Whew!  Sometimes this stuff is hard.  We ate at Fathoms where Fawn, our new boat cleaner, also cooks.  We soon will find out how everyone around here is related!

12/5/20 – Today is clean up and laundry day.  I met and talked to various boat neighbors and was able to take a nice walk.

12/6/20 – We  took a taxi with Cher to the Tallahasee Airport for home.

8/2017 - 11/4/19 - Grand Harbor, Counce, TN to Orange Beach, AL

 

8/2017 to 9/2018 – Seventh Sun III wintered in Knoxville, TN. due to continued family crisis.

We hired Sam Evans as a captain to take our boat back to Counce, TN where we had departed our loop progress in May of 2017 for the sidetrip to Chattenooga and then Knoxville.  We then had a great deal of work done at Lee Spry Marina.  We then had the boat moved to Grand Harbor Marina.

6/5/19 – 6/9/19.  We visited the boat in Grand Harbor, TN to get more maintenance done on the boat and tour the Muscle Shoals Music Studio.  We arranged more work to be done on the boat before our return to head south down the rivers.

10/22/19 – We arrived in Grand Harbor having stopped for the night in Elizabethtown.  We had dinner at Freddies and headed out on 10/23 after dropping off car and hitting a grocery in Corinth.  We hit the Whitten Lock and waited for 1½ hrs.  We had 8 other boats in the lock with us.  We all traveled to Montgomery and Rankin Lock then to Midway Marina.  We were having trouble with batteries so had to run the generator to keep house electric going.  TJ Jones drove an hour with 3 new house batteries and then found out the alternator was not working.  TJ took the alternator with him to replace.  I got take-out from Midway Marina for dinner.  

10/24/19.  We took the courtesy car to Walmart and had lunch at Fort BBQ.  TJ returned with new alternator about 5:30 and installed.  He said that there were only two in the US and this one had been delivered from Memphis by a 16 year-old boy for $100.  Everything was working well except now it
had begun raining hard.

On 10/25/19 while still raining we fueled up, pumped out and headed out to Smithville Marina to separate from the large crowd in the lock formation.- We left at  12:30 and arrived at Smithville Marina around 2:30pm.  Smithville Marina looked like the movie “Deliverance”.  There were half sunken and very beat-up boats and most of them had people living on them….I’m sure it was very economical.  We used their truck to find a local spot for dinner at Mel’s Diner.  The place was very crowded and served large portions of fried southern foods!  

10/26/19 - We left early the next morning around 7:30 in winds gusting to 30 to 50 mph.  We had gusts, rain and whitecaps in the river but the locks were open at Wilkens, Amory and Aberdeen and arrived in Columbus Marina around 1:00pm. 

10/27/19 – We left Columbus Marina at 7:30am and the Stennis Lock at 10:00 and the Bevell Lock at 1:45.  We anchored at Cooks South Bend anchorage MM227.  I cooked pasta and had a quiet night with only one anchor out.   

 

10/28/19 - We left Cook’s Bend anchorage at 7:30 to catch the Heflin Lock at 8:00am.  We were out of the lock by 8:30 and arrived at Kingfisher Marina in Demopolis at 1:30.  We got fuel and headed into our slip.  We took the shuttle with Pam and Mike from Sea C Rider to eat at SVH Bistro and had a nice meal and pleasant company. 

10/29/19 – We left Kingfisher at 7:00 to hit the Demopolis Lock.  We had a good travel day though there were lots of logs and 2-3 mph current.  We traveled around 14mph and covered about 99 miles ending the day at Bobby’s Fish Camp where we took on more fuel.  A sailboat “It’ll Be All Right” shared their horror story from a recent storm.  Dave and Penny from Southern Cross and Carl and Mackie from Endorphin Voyager arrived for the evening also. 

10/30/19 - We took off early morning following Southern Cross in a heavy rain and fog.  It was great to have a leader.   We covered about 80 miles and decided to anchor in the Tensaw River.  It was a great location with easy holding and a slight current holding us straight.

10/31 – We left Tensaw River around 9:00am and caught up to Southern Cross and Endorphin Voyager and followed them again all day into Mobile Bay.  This is a very commercial area with many moving boats and barges.  The other two boats stopped at the Convention Center and we headed on to Dog River Marina.  We had high winds and very choppy water which made a long and bumpy ride.  We had a hard time docking even with help.  After we finally were tied up, we took the courtesy car to dinner at the Mariner.  It was very windy all night and their docks were not in great shape.

 

11/1/19 – We left Dog River at 11am in high winds and we had a hard time getting off the dock.  We headed across Mobile Bay to Fairhope, AL in choppy seas.  We arrived around 12:30.  We were under cover but with miniscule fingers.  We got a rental car around 4:00 and drove into Fairhope.  We went to a gallery opening and then back to Sunset Point for dinner.  The next morning, we went back downtown for breakfast at Jill Wins.  We went to Office Depot to print a temporary AGLCA flag as our burgee.  I took a couple of walks around Fairhope.  It is an extremely nice town to visit even though our marina was too far from downtown.  We had dinner at McSharpy’s Irish Pub and met Fairhope Fire Department Treasurer, Mark Poilluci, and his wife.Our 2nd burgee is below and then our printed and lamenated temporary burgee is on the right.

11/3/19 – We left the Fairhope Docks around 9:00am and arrived at Lulu’s Restaurant—she is Jimmy Buffet’s sister.  One mile later, we had an alarm go off.  It turned out to be the port engine overheating.  We shut down that engine and headed off to Saunders Boat Yard just ½ mile behind us.  We tied to the wall and tried to contact the staff to notify them.  Southern Cross and Aquaman were docked here and we were invited to ride along with them to a Looper gathering at The Wharf for about 20 people.  The Wharf is a very nice marina with good amenities like the restaurant where we ate, the Villagio.

11/4/19 – Saunders contacted us early and came to the boat. We had to move all the items under the couch so that we could get both engine hatches open and then find somewhere to store that stuff, we added water to be able to run the boat on one engine to Orange Beach Marina.  Saunders will work on the cooling pump on the port engine.
We left the boat in Orange Beach Marina and we drove back home.