Marina Trip

Since we are still making plans about how/when to begin actively participating in the Great Loop exploration, we are having to think about where to move the boat. Since she sits in a land locked Texas lake, the only thing we can do is have her hauled somewhere (yes, we are saving our pennies for the boat hauler!). We can either haul her to the Texas coast and then start from there, or we can haul her to the river system in Tenn/Al/Miss and start from there. Part of that decision rests with WHEN do we get to start really staying on the boat and traveling for any length of time. Because that will be influenced by the hurricane season - we don't want to motor around the gulf or the east coast from about July - Nov.
So this week between Christmas and New Year's we are traveling around looking at marinas in the Pickwick lake area of the above mentioned states. We visited three marinas there:
Grand Harbor, Aqua Yacht Harbor and the Pickwick Landing State Park. Grand Harbor was a little too grand and more like a housing community, plus the road to the marina was very windy and hilly,
The Pickwick Park was very nice - both park and marina. It would be a possibility, but there is a waiting list of 2 - 4 years for a covered slip. The transient slips though would certainly be a possibility for a short term stay.

Looking from the office toward the covered slips.

The transient slips -temporarily full of sailboats.

The second marina is the one we like best. This is Aqua Yacht Harbor. It is where the boat would have to be launched anyway. It is complete with all of the necessary equipment. The slips look good. There are lots of amenities (laundry, showers, cafe, excersice equipment and pool). We met one of the workers, an office staff person and a very nice couple who live on their boat. The harbor master, however, was off for the holidays so we did not get to talk with him, but we think we found out a great deal. This marina is located on the "Yellow Creek" area of the lake and from here it would not be a long trip to get into the Tombigbee Waterway (which would be a necssary trip to get to the Gulf of Mexico eventually).

We also saw the Pickwick Dam and lock. My first lock to ever actually see. Unfortunately it was slow traffic and we just missed seeing a tug pushing several barges go through. The lock is on the other side of this wall.

We also crossed the Tombigbee Waterway - kind of quiet. No boats their either.

We drove to Birminghan and ate dinner last night with diving friends, Bill and Donna Goodwin, who we met in Bonaire last fall on a dive trip. They take the most fantastic photographs and videos of the underwater world! They have both won awards and received recognition for their work. I put a link to their photo work on this blog.

Next, we are off toward Mobile to check out marina possibilities there!

Update

It's not that things haven't been happening and therefore I haven't posted. Many of those things had nothing to do with Hey Jude, just with life in general. And that would take too long to write about! But as for our future adventure and the vehicle to get us there....

My birthday was in November and I asked for and received a sewing machine. Yes, I already own two others, but this one will enable me to sew the enclosures and other items for the boat. We had a bad experience with the business that sewed our enclosures for Bon Dia and did not want to go through that again. Plus, this would be cheaper  (as long as I am successful with the finished products). So I was given beautiful little red Sailrite Ultrafeed LS-1 machine. Here is the link from the Sailrite company:

 http://www.sailrite.com/Ultrafeed-LS-1-Sewing-Machine-Straight-Stitch-Walking-Foot

Now, because I sew a lot of things for Christmas presents, that had to be done first, so I have only started on one small project using the new machine. BUT.... more to come right after the holidays.
I will add one more thing - the Sailrite folks are great. They will get on the phone with you and give you the pros and cons of which machine to buy to meet your needs. They will talk to you about measurements so you order just the right amount of fabric (which is expensive). They have tons of free video downloads to help with projects as well as DVD's you can buy. I will post more as I get more machine time.