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KY to FL by Boat

Yahoo Message Number: 786
From Paducah KY to Punta Gorda FL (The Boat Trip):

Sue and I left Greet Turtle Marina the 6th of Oct and headed up the Tennessee to Pickwick Dam and then into the Tenntom canal and river system. We took a side trip to Shiloh National Cemetery, which was very interesting. There is a 37-mile cut where they moved more dirt than they did for the Panama Canal. A few days before we were at Demopolis the water was very high and river travel was very difficult with currents up in the 5-8 knots. We could see the brown stains on the shore trees up about 8 feet higher than it was when we went through.

We stopped just north of Mobile Bay in Little Lizard Bayou. This is the bayou where a barge hit the bridge a few years and the Amtrak derailed a few people were killed. We could hear hoot owls.
Mobile Bay is real shallow and a strong north wind the next day made it rough but we hugged the eastern shore and road the waves and anchored in Ingram Bay. Fairhope is on the eastern part of the bay.
We stopped into Panama City and visited some friends we had not seen since they taught us how to play bridge in 1962. Weather was warm enough to start wearing shorts. We left after two nights and headed for Carrabelle FL. Carrabelle is the jumping off place for making our run to Clearwater FL. We have to run overnight for 175 of the hurricane south of Cuba there was a lot of wind and we do not like to cross unless winds are less than 15. We reached Carrabelle on Tuesday left the next morning for Clearwater. We just timed it right for the weather window. With a boat you can set up the autopilot and but a guard band out with the radar and the boat takes care of itself. If any other boat moves into the guard area the radar alarm goes off and you pay attention to what is going on.
Well we crossed and kept going for another 75 miles and anchored for the night south of Venice Fl. We are in Punta Gorda now and will drive to KY and get the RV and head for Iowa to see a new grand child and then to Tucson for the winter. We can cover in 3 days with the RV that it took us 2 months to accomplish with the boat.

See you on the road or at Voyagers in Tucson AZ.

AL