AGLCA Rendezvous, Tenn-Tom, Bottom Paint & Pensacola

We attended the AGLCA Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park where we got our usual spot and for the 4th year volunteered to handle the boat parking for 60+ boats that were coming in.  The marina would give us the list and slip assignments and we would be "traffic control" for groups of boats coming in from the lock and get them into their assigned slip.

We were there a few days early as boats come in early and socialize prior to the rendezvous.  We had two boats in early that had just completed the loop and we had a celebration party on the pool deck for them.



Later we had friends new and old gather on the back of SEASEA and share stories.  This would be a regular occurance for us during the week.

One boat came in that caught our eye.  It is a canal boat originally used on the Erie Canal.  It is 41 feet long and only 10 wide.  A professor at Penn State University owned it and had converted it to run on either electric or diesel power.  It was an interesting boat to visit for three reasons.  One is that we have two nieces attending Penn State, the second is that we have on our "bucket list" to charter a canal boat in France, and the third is that I was interested in the electric power system that was installed.

We left the AGLCA Rendezvous on Friday, Oct 29 and headed to the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway to go south to the Gulf. We anchored at the head of the Tenn-Tom (Zippy Branch) for the first night and then anchored at Bay Springs staging to go through 6 locks to make our way down to the Old Tombigbee River channel.  From there we went to Cochrane Cutoff and then to Foscue Creek at Demopolis. 

Along the way we saw the usual river sights.  Among them this all too common occurance - a house that once was along the river bank is now almost in the river.  The Tenn-Tom is constantly altering it's shore line and this is the danger of being too close.



We met up with our friends Ed & Lucy on "I Love Lucy" at Foscue Creek where they had a wonderful meal ready for us.  We had been running long days and it was good to see them again and spend a couple of days there before heading on down toward Mobile.  We rafted together at Okatuppa Creek, Alabama River cutoff and the Tensaw River cutoff. 

I had a good time playing with their new dog Brie. 

When we entered Mobile Bay we headed to Dog River Marina and Ed & Lucy headed to Fairhope.  We were going into Dog River to haul out SEASEA for bottom paint. 

We were hauled out on Monday November 8 and spent the week preparing the bottom and painting two coats of bottom paint.  We were very pleased with the condition of the bottom.   We had no blisters and it only took minimal prep to get the bottom ready for new paint.  We use ablative paint that wears away slowly as you cruise (like a bar of soap) so we don't need to do extensive sanding in preparation for new paint. 

 After leaving Dog River marina on Saturday we headed to one of our favorite anchorages at Ingram Bayou.  We could not get back in the water a day earlier at Dog River in order to get to Pensacola in time for the Blue Angels air show but did get quite a few boats in the anchorage that night that had come from the show.

We remained in contact with boaters we met while at Goose Pond (Bob & Ellie on "Sunshine Lady") that live in Gulf Breeze (Pensacola) and they suggested that we anchor at Little Sabine Bay so that they could come by car and let us use the car to go to the Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola.  We were not able to see this museum last year and we jumped at the opportunity.  We saw the entire history of Naval Aviation at the museum and it was very interesting to any gear head or aviation buff.

We had dinner with Bob and Ellie on at their beautiful home in Gulf Breeze and then headed back to check on SEASEA since we were in the middle of a fairly heavy blow and rain.

We are currently anchored at Little Sabine Bay waiting out the bad weather today.  We have winds of 20-25 with higher gusts.  We plan to leave here tomorrow and head on toward Panama City where we will plan to spend Thanksgiving with the Vernons.