River is closed!!!

This picture from River Bill's site illustrating the high water on the Alton Pool.   This is the statue of Our Lady of the Rivers that every one must pass when going down the Mississippi doing the Great Circle Route.  The statue is normally surrounded by a parking lot and picnic area.   All the Locks are open to water but closed to any traffic as the river is closed!!!!   The marinas on the Alton Pool including us at Port Charles at mile 221.5 are anxiously waiting for the river to return to navigable levels. As harbor hosts JoAnn and I are looking forward to another year of "Great Loopers coming down from the Great Lakes.  We will be glad to assist in any way we can as you come thru. The river should be fine by the late summer and beautiful with the sandy beaches clean from the high water.

Come see us this summer...Dave and JoAnn

Fishermans Village Marina a great place to stay

Going south?? On your way to the Keys??  Take a break and stop at Punta Gorda's Fisherman's Village (Double click pics to see better)

Great camaraderie among the "liveaboards" and transients was par for the course when we were there.  Pumpouts are at the dock.

Marina docks are a short walk to the tennis courts and heated pool that are for your use.

Behind the pool is the first class pier in which multiple restaurants and shops are located. 

The pier viewed from the boat offers great dinning shopping and on the upper floor condo rentals.

First floor shopping at the pier.  Lots of  nautical stuff and everything else.

At end of the walkway bay front dining with casual on first floor and more romantic on the second.

View of Charlot Harbor from dinner table.

Fishing and tour boats for the tourists to take.

Condominiums for rent on second floor

Whole package is a short walk from your boat!

Turtle Cove Marina at Tarpon Springs

Well, once you've made it across the Gulf from Apalachicola or Carabell; where do you go?

REWARD YOURSELF and stay at Turtle Cove Marina at Tarpon Springs.  (no we are not paid to say this)

Tarpon Springs is a delightful town originality settled by Greek Sponge divers.

The working harbor with shrimpers and dive boats adds to the wonderful quaint atmosphere.

Many small tourist attractions centered around

the sponge diving and Greek culture are found on the main street. Its  just  a five minute walk from the marina.

JoAnn at the marina pool. .. The restrooms and shower rooms are wonderful and squeaky clean.

One of two areas to gather with friends and cocktails overlooking the pool.

Rack storage is available.

Fellow Looper at marina slip.

Each slip has its own pump out and they do it for you!!

Rack storage with plenty of parking.Of the many Greek restaurants our Favorite is Hellas.  The food is awesome.

The bakery section is impossible to pass up with out a purchase of something wonderful.

Fellow Looper at rest in the slip at Turtle Cove Marina.

Greek salad anyone????? count me in!!

Sailfish Marina (a favorite stop) In North Palm Beach

Our very first "live-aboard" cruise destination in boating was Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach area. On that first trip we took 7 months to get there and back to St Louis.

Years later, when  bringing our "just purchased" boat, Great Escape home  the docking at Sailfish was a must! It is tricky with a current through the marina but worth it.  (its better to arrive at ebb tide!)

The facility is a virtual resort with a pool, great restaurant, and a five minuet walk to the beach..  Also an island trolley comes to the marina for getting around the area and provisioning at the Greater Gator.

Club house with the restaurant/lounge/bar and ship's store next to it. Sailfish is the closest Florida marina to the Bahamas.  Grand Bahama West End is a short 50 miles due east from the Palm Beach Inlet. Two of my daughters and I have made that trip several times on the "Dream Too" (a scuba boat based on Lake Worth)

Our daughter Robin and grandson Jon in the marina pool. (Jon's cell phone is in his pocket)

Relaxing at pool side with friend Donna from "dock 6" at Port Charles in St Louis.. Robin, Jon, Donna and her husband Doug were our guests, traveling with us on Great Escape from Ft Lauderdale to Lake Okeechobee. on our way home.

That's JoAnn and me in the marina restaurant.. The sea food was wonderful. Our 1st trip to Palm beach was on our honey-moon many moons ago.

Leaving Sailfish in a tropical rain storm.  Beautiful! Maybe you can see the rainbow over those condos on the beach if you click to enlarge.

The last time we stayed there, Sailfish was still a homeland security designated reporting station for boats leaving and entering the USA.

A Night On The Delta Queen

The Delta Queen no longer sails on the great rivers and now is docked in Chattanooga Tenn.  She is directly across the river from the Chattanooga  Aquarium and marina on the Tenn. River. When we were there it  seemed like the thing to do was to spend a night on the "Queen"!  JoAnn in the foreground.

This is the deck outside our room..Our friend Karen who was traveling with us is seated with me as JoAnn snaps a picture.

JoAnn and me in the main lobby / parlor of the boat.  In her day the Queen was very elegant and still displays the many fine appointments of a grand lady of the past.  Most paddle wheelers met their fate from groundings and fire and the Delta Queen no longer can take trips due to the risk of fire.

Lounge area outside our room.

State rooms are small but larger than the "Great Escape". The bed was quite comfy and had great view out the windows.  Could imagine what it would have been like to wake up some where on the Mississippi and look out at the scenery go by. 

Our bath adjoining our room was small but again bigger than on our boat.

Stairway leading down to the lower level and the grand ballroom and dinning room.

The boat was not full of guests, but we enjoyed a nice breakfast.

In spite of all the history  there is a risk she will be sold to a firm that wants to scrap her for profit.

We enjoyed our night on the Queen and would recommend it to you while she is still afloat.

Taking on water at Sea or the Purpose of a Porpoise?

On our last Gulf crossing while leaving the Steinhattche enterance channel to cross to Appalachacola we heard a knocking sound somewhere in the back of the boat.  I couldn't look into it right away since I was trying to navigate the narrow channel.

After leaving the channel and heading out to sea the sound seemed to go away.  It was a beautiful day and a Porpois joined us riding in our bow wave.  After an hour or so JoAnn went down to the galley to russtle up some lunch.  When she came back up to the flybridge helm, she said she could hear that knocking noise again. She said it sounded like it was coming from the cockpit area.  I gave her the wheel and went down to check.  When I opened the hatch in the cockpit floor I was greeted by a foot of water in our aft bilge area!This was not good!

I told JoAnn to hold our present course but decreased the speed to idle.  I crawled into the engine room between those two 370 horse power Cummins diesels.  The noise was deafening even at idle speed.   I noticed at the reduced speed the bilge pumps seemed to be getting ahead of the water and the level was dropping.  When I went back topside JoAnn was teary eyed and said the porpoises were surrounding our boat to help us. I must admit at that point we were both a little nervous having been out of sight of land for an hour at 19 mph.

She was right.  They came from everywhere.  She said that they were with us to help us if the boat sank!

I needed to figure out where the water was coming from.  Was is related to that noise we heard?  How fast was it coming in?  I turned on our extra manual bildge pumps and we stayed ahead of the water. I returned to the engine room after calling Paul at "Port Charles harbor" to try again to see where the water was comming from. 

We were 20 miles out to sea bobing around like a cork and the porpoises were surrounding us. After determining that the pumps could stay ahead of the water build up while running at speed we did a 180 and headed back to Steinhattche.  By then I had figured that the water must be coming from a loose hose connection on the engine (with the help of our phone consultation with Port Charles)

We called "Sea Hag" marina and told them we were coming back and needed a mechanic.  We were happy to see land again as we neared the eastern shore of the Gulf.

The porpoises stayed with us until we got in.We hired a diver to check out the noise we had heard and a mechanic to tighten the port engine's water intake hose clamp.  The diver was an interesting fellow who had been a missionary in "the islands".  He came up following an explosion of bubbles holding a long rope that had been attached to someones crab trap and became caught up on our port prop. We picked it up some where between Tarpon Springs and Steinhattche.  The mechanic gave us his car to drive to the Dollar General  store and a resturant that night. We treated him and his wife to dinner.  Our luck was good in that we didn"t have to wait long for a weather window to cross the Gulf in a day or two.  You cant get a cell phone to work in Steinhattche but it worked 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico?  Go Figure! Good thing the noise from the rope made me look in the bilge or we wouldnt have known about the water.  With a hundred more miles  to go it could have gotten deep down in the bilge and caused problems.