Johann's Great Loop Adventure

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From Seattle, WA to Carrabelle, Fl
March 6 to March 20, 2010

We left the Marilsnick in the Seaview West boatyard in Seattle on Wednesday wondering in what shape she would be when we met her again in Alabama.

The boat did not leave Seattle until the next morning because heavy snowfall had closed Snoqualmie Pass for loads of this size. During the next few days Associated Boat Transport kept me up well informed about the boats progress. It arrived on Thursday, March 4, at the Dog River Marina in Mobile, three days behind the original schedule. A day later, on Friday, March 5, I arrived and rented a car for a week. The boat had not been put into the water yet; supposedly it had to be washed. For the next three days the Marriott Hotel was my home and I had an opportunity to accomplish some last minute shopping.

Some of you remember that many, many years ago I was married to Judy Rogers. She was from the Mobile - Pascagoula area and her family is still living here. We had been in contact over the years and so Judy’s sister Teresa, her husband Joe and their two sons with daughter-in-law and six-week old grandbaby and I had lunch together and then inspected the boat, still on land. It was good to see them, especially to hear Teresa’s voice, which sounds so much like Judy. The next day I visited Judy’s grave, one of a dozen graves in a small family cemetery.

Teresa had invited me to her church the next morning. She had given me the address and I followed my trusted GPS navigator. The church had a small steeple and the people in the congregation, mixed black and white, welcomed me warmly. But I did not find Teresa or her family and wondered what happened to them. The service went on and on and on. The hymns had even more repetitions of each line than in our Lutheran service at Mountain View. I guess it is like popular songs where the same line is repeated until the last person has gotten it. There was a lot of hand raising, even some glossolalia (speaking in tongues). At the end of the service most people gathered in front of the altar and put their arms around each other.

Leaving the service I wondered what happened to Teresa. As I got into my car and drove out of the parking lot I discovered another church across the street. The service was still in progress. When I walked into the door Teresa approached me and we laughed at my mistake.

On Monday morning the Marina people came to work and I waited impatiently for them put the boat into the water. Around noon a huge lift came and gently placed her into the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico. Linda, who had been my contact at the marina, and her boss assured me that things would be done in time for my departure five days later on Saturday. Sunny, the owner of the marina, an impressive man of six plus feet height with a strong handshake and a ready joke also reassured me. Anyone who has dealt with boatyards knows that their idea of punctuality is different than the rest of the world. Several groups of workers had to do the work on the Marilsnick: a fiberglass man had to do the time consuming repair of a seat on the flying bridge. The damage occurred when a bridge in Texas must have been slightly lower than the driver expected. Another man came to hook up the electronics and a crew of three put up the railings and the mast.

Against all my anticipation everything was done by Friday afternoon. The Dog River Marina deserves its great reputation. I had the feeling that each one of their workers was interested in making the boat owners happy. For the first time the bill I received surprised me because of a low amount rather than a large amount.

Another example of how nice the people in Mobile were was Mr. Cunningham. I had noticed that the insert in the V-berth bed, which widens it, was missing and still wonder what happened to it. Discussing it with Skip Williams over the phone he thought a boat upholsterer should be able to replace it. As I drove to town on Thursday night I happened to drive by a shop on the side of the road advertising Marine Upholstery. The only person in the shop was Mr. Cunningham. He listened to the description of what I needed and told me that he could do it. When he heard that I needed it done in 24 hours he said that this was not possible. Understanding my unreasonable request we talked for a while. As I was getting ready to leave he said: “Why don’t I come by and look at the boat”. Half an hour later he was at the boat, took the measurements and by 10 PM the next night the insert was finished.

On Friday night David Berntsen, my first guest, arrived from Seattle. I dropped off my rental car and we shared a cab back to the boat. Teresa and her family had also come by to bid us farewell. The next morning (3/13/2010) we fueled up, emptied the holding tank, got fuel for the dinghy and sailed into Mobile Bay.

The weather report had called for three to five-foot waves in the Bay and this was indeed the case. We carefully followed the buoys - at least what we thought was carefully - and reached the main channel. The winds came from the west and hit us at the beam. Marilsnick is a trustworthy boat but beam seas bother the crew - more than the boat. David and I were confident and everything went well. When we turned into eastern direction and into the Intracoastal (not Inter) Waterway we hardly noticed the seas any longer.

The scenery changed as we entered Oyster Bay, which the ICW is crossing. Many condominiums had been constructed along the shore. There was only little commercial activity. We followed the ICW through Wolf Bay to Amica Bay and decided to stop in Orange Beach. As we rounded the tip of a peninsula to reach the Bayou St. John, the Marilsnick came to a sudden halt. We placed the engine alternately into forward and reverse to no avail: we had grounded.



When planning the journey months and months ago on my armchair at home I realized intellectually that it would be an adventure, especially for someone seventy-two years old. As the boat went aground I realized that the first challenge had arrived. Fortunately I had renewed my BOAT-US towing insurance. We called the company on the telephone and someone connected us with “Captain Mac”, who assured us that he would arrive in ninety minutes.

The wind became stronger and stronger as we waited and the distance to buoy # 59 - I will probably will not forget this number - remained the same. We could not expect help from the wind. On the image below you probably can find buoys 59A and 59. The depth in this area as noted on the chart is two feet! The draft of the Marilsnick is 4 feet.

At exactly the appointed time Captain Mac appeared on his towboat. He carefully approached us checking the depth and then decided to tow us from the bow. We attached a sling, one side to the starboard, the other to the port cleat. He first gently attempted to tow us back into the channel. It took probably about ten minutes of full power towing before we were free again.

We then followed a southward course and then west to reach the harbor and a marina somewhat hidden in Terry Cove, Orange Beach, Fl. The challenge on these courses is to never skip a buoy. If one does one has taken a shortcut and is in danger of running aground. From now one, David would call out the buoy numbers as he recognized them with the binoculars and I would check them against my chart. We made it safely into the Marina where we docked at a free spot since the harbormaster had left for the day.

We had a wonderful and finally relaxing dinner with Caribbean food and were glad that we had survived our first challenge.

The next morning we decided to take it easy and just make it to Pensacola, a 28-mile distance and found the Bahia Marina a great place to stay. Unfortunately the wind pushed the Marilsnick against the dinghy of another boat. David pushed me off. We finally made it into the slip. Why are we so tired every time we reach a dock? Admittedly, following the buoys and boat handling, are still challenging tasks for me.

The town of Pensacola was out of walking range. David went ashore and talked to a few old timers bringing home a marine guide from the 60s and some advice how to cross the Gulf.

The ride the next day from The Bahia Marina in Pensacola to Destin was smooth. Frequently dolphins appeared along the boat traveling with us and riding our bow wave. A couple of times a dolphin rose out of the water with his whole body, a magnificent sight. We observed as pelicans with their wide wingspan and significant body just barely flew over the water. We passed white sandy beaches on the barrier islands on our starboard side. Some of the shores had older and traditional homes while others, especially on the barrier islands, had high-rise condominiums, as one sees them in advertisements of Florida.

None of the bridges were problems for the Marilsnick so far. It might be different as we get to the Okeechobee Waterway.

Destin has developed in the last few years from a small town into a tourist Mecca. A harbormaster of a closed marina directed us into the small Destin harbor. I remember driving by the large 15-story condominium in the entrance of town a year ago. At the foot of this building and integrated into an entertainment complex was the Harborwalk Marina. Just getting into the narrow harbor entrance was a challenge. Later during our stay we witnessed as a sailboat grounded in this area. After docking at the fuel dock a young fellow showed me our assigned slip, which was difficult to enter. An older man, actually he was of my age, Captain Art, advised me exactly what spots to avoid entering. The young fellow then joined us on the Marilsnick and we backed the boat into the slip with only minor difficulty. Most marinas do not have swimming docks and one has to tie the stern on both sides and the bow on both sides on pilings. David did admirably.



We had arrived in the most touristy place so far. The harbor walk was busy with tourists, who were encouraged to purchase trinkets of all kinds, parasail rides or eat dinner. We decided that we needed something to eat and had a nice sandwich.



David had been concerned with the filter intake of the salt water-cooling the engine. Captain Art, whom we had befriended, offered to take a look at it. With a giant wrench he accessed the filter, which had more grime in it than sand. I do not think that I had ever had it cleaned. There is so much to learn about a boat! It never stops.

Since we had made good time so far we decided to spend another day in port and take care of some urgent business. I had to get medication that I had lost. We called a cab that had a most interesting driver. She had been a bail bondswoman in Lynchburg, VA. She told us about an episode when Reverend Falwell confronted her about bailing out “all those black folks”. When she defended herself he asked her: “Do you know who I am?” When she answered him that she did not he told her and then she piped up: “Oh, I heard that you come from the family that made their money with moonshine”. She did not tell us his reaction. She also had been a hospital security officer in Los Angeles. Her hair was done in Rastafarian style. Apparently her daughter had worked for two days to get it into this shape.

Our first stop on the cab ride was the CVS pharmacy, which could dispense only some of the pills I needed, then we stopped at the grocery store and finally at a West Marine store for a chart of the ICW between Miami and Mobile, AL. It was a fast and furious trip because the meter of the taxi was running.

The next day took us leisurely to Panama City, a distance of 55.3 nautical miles. It was at time challenging with many buoys to watch at other times easy because the ICW was wide and had no markers. Apparently this is and indication that it was at least 12 feet deep. That made our cruising easy.

As we entered the marina in Panama City we had help docking from the harbormaster himself. On the neighboring docks two antique sail ships had docked, the Pinta and the Nina. The Nina was a 66-footer, an exact replica of one of the ships that accompanied Columbus on his first journey into the New World. The Pinta was about 50% bigger than the original ship, which accompanied the Santa Maria. Both the Nina and the Pinta had been built to be faster, something that supposedly frustrated Columbus on the slower Santa Maria. During the next day many visitors including school classes came by to tour both ships.

The old town of Panama City was in walking distance from the marina. It must have had its heyday about a hundred years ago but it had been kept up nicely. The streets were clean and even a larger building that was boarded up did not stand out adversely. A church occupied the biggest of the old buildings and two blocks away was another large church. We tried to find another pharmacy - this time I needed my baby aspirins - and must have walked for 45 minutes to reach it. We passed a nice restaurant where we had dinner on the way home. David had scallops and I had shrimp Creole. It was a first class dinner in a first class restaurant, different than the tourist places we had frequented before.

We stayed another day in Panama City taking it easy before we left for Apalachicola on 3/19. In wonderful weather the ride was smooth along the ICW with much bird life, several dolphin sightings and changing scenery. We saw the impressive cypress swamps and pine forests as well as the grassy coast. In some portions the shore had eroded and trees had fallen into the waterway.

We passed East Bay, West Bay and then reached a narrower but deep portion of the ICW, passing the turnoff in the canal to Port St. Joe finally reaching Lake Wimco. For some reason we had a current against us until we the Apalachicola River joined the ICW, when the current carried us up swiftly into the town of Apaplachicola. We found out that none of our phones was working and none of the marinas answered our radio call. After passing a sign “Transients Welcome” we found an empty dock. People seemed to be very relaxed here and the lady at the store attached to the marina told us we could stay as long as we wanted.

After an oyster dinner - I had a dozen fresh and another dozen fried oysters - we took a walk to town. The distance to town again was more than “lazy me” wanted to handle. We saw some of the old homes from the middle of the 19th century gracing this town that has nothing else to distinguish it.

The next morning, March 20, we followed the markers into the ICW. We had expected commercial traffic but were surprised by what we saw: First we noticed a couple of short tugs attempting to move a floating pipeline back and forth. The pipeline, at least half a mile long, was twisted and floated on pontoons. There must have been joints between the pipe segments. This monster was encroaching on the ICW and we had difficulty avoiding a collision. After passing it we had another vessel ahead that was towing a large platform with a derrick on top. We passed it without difficulty.

The remaining journey to Carrabelle was unremarkable except for an event that occurs each time when we leave the ICW and enter a port. Along the ICW the red buoys are consistently located toward the mainland. That changes to “red, right, returning” when we enter a river or bay. One has to be aware of this each time and it has confused us before although we think we have learned our lesson.

Our phones did not work again but the Marina, which also had changed its name since advertising in our cruising guide, answered the radio. Tony, a wonderful fellow showed us to our dock and helped us tie on. He took us around in his gulf cart and advised us of the Gulf crossing ahead of us. The friendliness of the people in the harbors and marinas always impressed us. A catamaran docked behind us. A couple owned it that have done the Great Loop a few years ago and envied us for doing it for the first time.

We have eaten lentil soup, which I prepared with some of Marianne’s spices and tomatoes. A few slices of the German salami gave it a good German home cooking taste. David enjoyed it.

The next chapter will hopefully describe a successful crossing of the Gulf of Mexico. It is the longest crossing the Marilsnick and her crew has ever done. The weather most likely will be the most important criteria when to leave. We are listening to all advice we can find and are equipped with a nice paper chart of the Gulf and the harbors where we can seek refuge in case of trouble. Keep tuned and keep in touch!

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