Date: January 9, 2014
Day on the Cruise: 202
From: Dog River Marina, Mobile, AL
To: Dog River Marina, Mobile, AL
Statute Miles: 0.0 SM
Time: 0.0 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 5,183.5 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Tonight we are still at Dog River Marina in Mobile, AL getting ready to depart to "Finish this Thing", our Great Loop trip.
It is warming up here in Mobile! Today was actually pleasant, if not a little cool. The marina fixed the pump out system, so we moved the boat to the fuel dock from the covered slip this morning. We got the much needed pump out and filled up with fuel. They also turned the water back on and had to fix some leaks in the PVC water pipes, but by noon, all was good and we filled our water tank also. While we were taking on fuel, we had a low fly-by by a bald eagle that was being chased by a cormorant. Right over our heads! Very cool! We also saw a large number of Pelicans flying today.
We decided to keep the boat on the transient dock instead of putting it back into the slip. The gelcoat guy came to the boat this morning to fix a couple of places that he had missed in December. This is an agonizingly slow process. With all due respect, I cannot rationalize why it takes so long to fix a gelcoat pop out. The guy was on our boat from 9:00 to 2:30 and still needs to finish the sanding tomorrow.
Glen Warwick helped me replace the windshield wiper on the windshield panel in front of the lower station. The windshield has three glass panels with a windshield wiper on each glass panel. The wiper on the glass panel in front of where you steer stopped when we were on the Tombigbee River and we were operating from the lower station. I found that the wiper blade arm had corroded where it attached to the motor shaft. Glen got me a new arm and attached it to the motor shaft and the wiper blade and we are good to go. If we are forced to steer from the lower station in a storm, I will be able to see! This is always helpful.
Glen also got the electronics guy back on the boat to check the depth finder issue. It turned out that he had not set up the depth sounder when he re-programmed the chartplotter. He found the transducer and then entered the data into the set up menu and Bingo, I was able to get a depth reading on the plotter. What a relief!!!
Glen checked with Furuno, the chartplotter manufacturer, and they can inspect the unit and give me a price to reprogram it and fix the software. I removed the unit from the console and gave it to Glen to send off to Furuno.
Glen Warwick has been wonderful to us here at Dog River. He has kept tabs on the work being done and communicated with me on questions, status updates, issues, and needs. He has a sense of urgency and makes things happen. Thank you Glen for all that you have done for us!
This afternoon we made a run to West Marine and to WalMart. We picked up a little space heater to use on the flybridge if it gets really cold again. We got some boat soap and spare fuses at West Marine.
Dinner tonight was with Ben and Amanda and little Charlotte at a Mexican place. It was very good. We heard all about their trip to Pasadena to see Auburn play in the National Championship game. They had a great time. Ben rode back to the boat with us then took our car to keep at their house while we cruise.
Getting rid of the car makes the reality of starting this trip again very real. Tomorrow is the day! We leave about 11 to go across Mobile Bay and East to Orange Beach, AL. The time is finally here! We are READY! Let's Finish this Thing!
Thanks for Reading!
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