Oops, still at Ft. Walton Yacht Club and will be for a few more days. On Thursday we took the boat just a few feet to use the yacht club’s pump out station – in non-nautical terms that would be getting all your sh#t off the boat. Anyway we discovered that the rudder reference indicator for the auto pilot had stopped working. Without it we have no auto pilot – not a good thing. Michael found the problem. Previously someone had cut a connector wire, IN THE BILGE, to install a new reference indicator. That cut was not sealed properly and allowed water intrusion all the way up the wire to the sensor, and it finally failed. Michael has ordered a new one but it won’t be delivered until Tuesday. So looks like we will be here until at least Wednesday. Took the opportunity to do more laundry, grocery shop and get hair cuts, etc….

Sorry this is such a long post – I thought it would be a good time to review our first 30 days “looping”…. We left Kemah, Texas on Wednesday January 9^th to start our adventure. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with not much wind and we cruised just over three hours to our first stop. Since then we have traveled approximately 583.6 nautical miles, taking us through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama to Florida. Thirteen days have been spent on the water traveling and seventeen days have been non-travel days, either anchored, tied to a wall or in a slip at a marina or yacht club. Our shortest travel day was just over three hours and our longest was about thirteen hours (due to lock delays). We had eight days we couldn’t travel due to weather and one day due to mechanical issues. Our comfortable cruising speed is about 8.3 knots at 2200 rpm – in non-nautical terms that means it takes us an hour to travel about nine and one-half statute miles versus cruising down the interstate and going 70 to 80 miles in an hour. So we move pretty darn slow. It looks like we consume just under eight gallons of diesel an hour at an average price of $3.15 per gallon. This is not the very efficient way to travel, but it is a very fun and interesting one.

This paragraph is for our friends who may be thinking about making the trip from Texas to Florida. We did not find much of this information in “Looper” guides. Following, are the places we stayed and nightly charges. Most of the info on good places to stay was either given to us by boaters we were lucky enough to meet while preparing the boat for our trip in Texas or from locals we met along the way. Some of the rates are flat fees but generally the fee is based on a per foot cost plus an electricity charge. So for Scout, at 40 feet, the fee might be $1.50 per foot or $60.00 plus $7.00 for electricity or $67.00 plus tax. I thought this was interesting information. We love staying at yacht clubs whenever we can because we know we have something in common with the members.

• Laguna Harbor, Texas  – Tied to wall in great neighborhood – Free
• Shell Island, Texas  – Anchored in a beautiful cove – Free
• Lake Charles, LA  – Bow Tie Marina-home to USCG – $25.00
• Mermentau River, LA  -Anchored beautiful cove –Free
• Shell Morgan, LA -On wall in commercial facility-  $25.00
• Morgan City, LA – On wall just off ICW – $25.00
• Houma, LA – On wall just off ICW – $25.00
• New Orleans, LA – Seabrook Marina in slip – $41.00
• Bay St. Louis, MS – Bay St. Louis Marina in slip -$51.00
• Pascagoula, MS – Singing River Yacht Club at guest dock -Free
• Gulf Shores, AL – LuLu’s Homeport Marina in slip – $71.80
• Pensacola, FL – Pensacola Yacht Club in slip – $64.50
• Ft. Walton Beach, FL – Ft. Walton Yacht Club at guest dock -$50.06

We’ve had a huge learning curve in this new-to-us boat and new-to-us electronics in these new-to-us waters. We quickly learned about currents and tides, skinny waters, how to navigate locks and how to contact the numerous bridges for openings. We learned the language of the tug boat captains and now know what one whistle and two whistles means and what to do. We learned to dock without cleats and how to lasso pilings. We learned about planning routes using Navionics charts on our Raymarine plotter (including the data limitations of both),  AIS systems, I-pad Pros, cameras and probably a lot more that I can’t remember right now.

After 30 days we’re settling into a routine of sorts that goes something like this on travel days. We usually get up between 6:00 and 7:30 and whoever is up first grinds the coffee beans, makes a pot of coffee and feeds the dogs. We generally watch the local news and weather and then Michael takes the dogs for their morning walk. If we have breakfast I usually make it. But we rarely eat breakfast on a travel day.

You’ll notice that Michael really does all of the “heavy lifting” here. Once we’re ready to leave he checks all of the systems to make sure we’re good to go. He powers up the chart plotter and I-pad to make sure our route for the day is uploaded. He then unplugs the power cord, starts the engine to make sure the boat goes into drive before I attend to the lines. When ready I untie us and pull in the fenders and off we go! I then tidy up all the lines and fenders. Michael does all of the navigating and driving with the help of “auto”. We both pretty much keep an eye out for anything unusual in the waters but he is constantly on call! For the first week or so I spent 90% of my time running after the dogs. Snooki would get pretty freaked out when the engines started and would shake and run around the boat which made me shake and run around the boat after her. We actually gave her some doggie downers in the beginning to help settle her down. Duke was clueless so he just followed Snooki around barking. But all that’s changed now. They have really settled down and sleep most of the time except when they occasionally get up to take a peek outside or to pee (they have a pee/poo pad for times when we can’t get off the boat). We’re all settling in….

So while underway I will make snacks or lunch, take photos and make notes about the trip while Michael attends to everything else. When we’re ready I’m out the door attaching lines, fenders and/or big balls. Once we arrive, if it’s a wall or slip, Michael shimmies up to the dock, if it’s cleats I step off and tie us up- easy-peasy. If it pilings I try to hug or lasso the piling and try to secure the boat to it – an interesting dynamic. Once we are secure enough that we won’t float away I go into the facility to take care of the paperwork while Michael makes sure the boat is properly secured for where we are and plugs us into power. Then we usually hop off the boat and do a little scout-about and take the dogs for a walk.

Once back on the boat – in no particular order – we prepare dinner. Since we have the doggies we don’t usually don’t eat out – it’s just been too cold to eat outside on patios so we prepare dinner on board. I usually do the cooking but Michael does sometimes and then the other person cleans up. We watch a little TV. A lot of time is spent planning our trip, where we’re going, how we’re going to get there and where we will stay. Michael does all the navigation and enters the waypoints into the system. I check availability and make reservations and work on the info for the blog. That’s pretty much how it works on a travel day.