Day 50: Thursday, October 25, 2012
Underway: 7:15 am Motor Off: 3:20 pm Miles Traveled: 47 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: Saw a raccoon swimming across the river (thought it was an alligator at first); saw several wild turkeys along the shoreline.
Mile 100 to Mile 53: Wow – Day 50! It seems like we left Minnesota forever ago. But it hasnt been two month yet.
We have been really lucky with this long stretch of great travel days. Today was no different with bright warm sunshine and a quiet river just waiting for us to travel. We left early today to try to make some miles and had perfect conditions all day. We passed the 1,500-mile mark about 2:30 pm at Mile 56 – we are so close and have come so far.
The scenery is changing gradually with more cypress and lots of Spanish moss with very little industry, light traffic and no houses at all. This is a remote but beautiful section of the Great Loop. We are thoroughly enjoying the solitude.
We were surprised to hear someone call us on the radio later in the afternoon and it was our friends on Lauren Grace – they were about 8 miles behind us. They suggested we stay at the Alabama River Cutoff and that sounded like a great plan (and a good excuse for another boat-tail get together later). So we soon turned up the Alabama River and found a calm, protected spot to anchor, relax and make dinner while we waited for our friends on Lauren Grace and Eagle One to join us.
We joined Jim and Sue (Eagle One) and Larry and Theresa on Lauren Grace for another great info session and gabfest. Since we had seen them two days ago, Sue had called a fellow traveler they know – Mo – who usually has her sailboat at the Dead Lake Marina – to see if that would be a good place for us to stay. (By chance, we had been considering this option already based on a recommendation from Rumpshaker who randomly found the marina on their trip downriver as they were looking for a place to get their dogs to shore – an odd but welcome coincidence). Well, Mo is on her boat exploring the Gulf until December so she kindly offered to let us stay in her slip at the marina while we wait out the forecast cold front/wind that will force us to hang out for a while. We will be safe and secure for as long as we need to wait for a good weather window. Thank you everyone for looking out for us – we appreciate it immensely and so do our families back home.
