Chicago to Mobile, WE DID IT!

Before arriving in Demopolis, we had the depressing realization that we would not make it to Mobile, AL in time for Halloween. A bummer not only because we wouldn't have a neighborhood to trick-or-treat in, but also because Hobie's NinjaGo costume was shipped to Mobile.

Demopolis "loop" Think

We traveled a short distance to Demopolis, I was in full on "travel" mode and didn't really feel like stopping. I was kinda hoping to fuel up, pump out, fill water and head back out... but we have friends here and LeeAnn wanted to hang out for a night. 

4 Reasons NOT to do The Great Loop

The Great Loop has become hugely popular among boaters in recent years. When we first traveled down the US East Coast in 2007 we didn't hear the terms "Great Loop", "Looping", or "Loopers" a single time. These days it seems every boater we meet is flying the AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruising Association) flag.

Trouble with Engines and Alligators

Today started out like any day.

Great loop: downtown Chicago to Ottawa Illinois

Super excited about this video for a few reasons:

- I added a "previously on" section to the beginning.

- I added an "intro reel" that... could be better... but it's better than nothing. I like it, and I'm proud of it.

- leeann and I had a lot of fun doing a voiceover commentary together.

- I experimented with detaching audio from clips and added extra "b-roll" to smooth out some edits.

- I switched to royalty free music. YouTube has been running ads on my videos to pay the royalties on the copyright protected music I was using. Switching to royalty free means this is my first monetized video ever!!

- I experimented with sound effects in the patreon scene at the end. It's goofy, but I like it and had fun making it. Unfortunately my GoPro was out of commission at the time, so the quality isn't the best during that part.

- I left in a lot more content than I normally do. Stuff I previously would have cut for being "boring". As a result this video is much longer than others I have done. I'm interested in hearing feedback on the longer format.

I hope you like it, and would love to hear your thoughts. What did you like? At what points were you bored?

This video required a lot of extra effort, but I'm proud of the result. I took this video more seriously than others I have done - thank you patrons for the inspiration, encouragement and confidence you give me... just by being patrons!!

I learned a lot on this one, and I'm already excited to be working on and applying that experience to the next video!

Thanks for reading, watching, and following along with us!! Here we go!!

Goats!

We were going to make progress today...Then we saw this pretty little island and decided to stop for a picnic. The shore was so steep, we were able to beach the boat. Something we had never done before. That was super cool!

Fighting against the current

We are 3.6 miles from the pickwick lock and damn. We have both engines running (rare) and are only making 4 knots against the current. Not fun! I'm glad we are almost there!

Once through the lock we enter the Tennn-Tom waterway and I think from that point on everything will be going with the current. 

I hope we make some killer time on the ten-tom. I'm ready to be off this blasted river. We have around 450 miles to the Gulf. 

LeeAnn was at the helm for most of the day today. I have the kids baths, made lunch, etc. My biggest challenge of today was getting Hobie to wipe his own bum. 

It's very windy and cold today, which is a nice relief from the heat and humidity of the previous few days. 

Amazon in the rain

Last night we anchored behind Kelly island. 

It was supposed to be around 10' deep. Ended up being 25'! Luckily the bottom was clay and provided great holding. 

We stopped around 4. It gave me plenty of time to make dinner. Then we sent the boys to their room to watch a PBS show while leeann and I sat outside and enjoyed our dinner in peace. It was WONDERFUL. We talked while the sun went down. Watched an eagle land on the island next to us. It was great. Hope to do it again soon!

They boys were very restless last night. I ended up laying down with them to try to get them back asleep around 3 or 4 am. Charlie kept hitting me and trying to lay on me. By 5am I was getting extremely frustrated... then he started to gag like he was going to puke. 

I swept him up and luckily got to the bathroom in time. 

I stayed up with him the rest of the morning, getting small cat naps here and there. 

We got the boat moving around 9 and traveled 4 hours to Clifton marina where I had shipped some packages from Amazon. 

It started pouring so we hung around the marina until there was a break in the rain. 

Now we are traveling up the river to make a little more progress before stopping for the night. 

Goodbye Kentucky Lake

We left Kentucky Lake today. I will miss the dramatic landscape and plentiful, well protected anchorages. The landscape reminded me of the North Channel in Canada. Rocky, steep hills. It's been a nice break from the rivers. 

We're now on the Tennessee river and I'm not at all looking forward to the crappy riverside anchorages I assume we will have for the rest of the way to the Gulf of Mexico. 

We have 535 miles to the Gulf. Without taking currents into consideration, and assuming we travel an average of 30 miles a day, we have 17 days before we reach the ocean. We are traveling 40 miles today, so I'm hoping we can make it in 12 days. 

We've been traveling with a group of boats. It's fun to hang out with other people, and we've made some super great friends. But in some weird way it adds pressure and expectations. 

Everyone is rafting up, we will look rude if we don't? Do they hear our kids crying? Is everyone eating together? Will we look rude if we leave before everyone else? The group wants to travel another 10 miles, if we stop now, and then they stop, will we feel guilty for slowing them down?

The friends we've made are so nice, we want to hang out with them until it's time to put the kids to bed. By the time the kids are asleep, we are tired from a day of traveling and want to go to sleep. The next day we get up and do it all over. Leaving no time for LeeAnn and I to talk with each other and work through the emotional roller coaster of turning our lives upside down. Or to just be alone with our own thoughts. 

After a few weeks of this, we started to slump into a depression

Traveling on our own has been really nice. We've taken some really easy days and it has made everyone feel better. We can keep to our own schedule rather than the groups, and when we stop for the night we relax and recharge. 

I had also been really stressed about money, and it was making LeeAnn stressed. Then I spoke with a business acquaintance and he asked "if you could do anything for 8 hours a day, what would you do?" 

I thought about it and realized at best all I have is an hour or two for work right now. 

So I don't have time to work for clients or customers, and worrying about money isn't going to solve anything. It's just going to ruin this once in a lifetime experience I'm having.

As my buddy Jon told me: "Don't worry about money (I know easier said then done).  You'll always have the ability to make enough money.  You won't always have the ability to sail with you wife and kids to the ocean."

LeeAnn and I discussed this, and both agreed to just not worry about it. When we get to Florida we will find a nice place to dock for the winter and I'll figure it out then. 

Between traveling on our own terms and letting go of our worries about money, our onboard happiness guage has gone from empty, to half full and rising!

Great Loop: Downtown Chicago

We raised our anchor around 8am and headed the short distance from the Play Pen to the lock.

I called the locktender several times on the designated channel. He didn't respond. So I called him on the phone. He told me to go in the lock and then he hung up on me. Had the lock been open, I would have done so, but he didn't open it until after I called him. I reviewed everything I had done and concluded he must just be an asshole. 

We went through the two-foot drop with no issues and then proceeded through downtown. 

There is no permit or any kind of registration to use the locks. They just let us in. It's a little weird. The river is very commercial, and it felt like we were in a place we weren't supposed to be. I kept thinking we were going to get caught. It was like we had wandered into the "staff only" area of a theme park.

So while it was cool to go past all the buildings in Downtown Chicago, I never really relaxed and enjoyed the moment. Before I knew it we were leaving the city behind. It all went much faster than I would have liked. 

The Illinois river system is pretty amazing. The beginning stretch of it is mainly a canal, but unlike the Erie Canal, the Illinois is still a very busy commercial shipping network. The infrastructure along the walls to load and unload barges is totally foreign and captivating. As we moved along, I continued feeling like we had stumbled into a place we weren't supposed to be. 

We made fast progress down the river and made it to Joliet. Our first impression of Joliet was not great. The docks were decent, I mean, they were free and that included the power, so it’s hard to complain (I’m not). But it’s clear that they have not been well maintained by the city. 

There was a broken beer bottle on the concrete pavers and some people who looked like they had made quite a few wrong decisions in life staggered by openly drinking. I questioned our security and looped several of our dock lines back to our boat. We've heard stories of kids untying boats in the night. 

Generally, people won't get on your boat, so looping a line back can be a good deterrent. But on the Erie canal, we met one local couple who actually locked their boat to the dock cleat with a bike lock. Floating in the Erie Canal might result in a scratch boat. Floating down the Illinois could result in being run down by a barge and killed. 

We could see a playground from where we were docked. Across the street was the “Joliet Housing Authority” It looked like a jail and my suspicions were later confirmed. I thought it was funny that they called it the "Housing Authority." At first I wondered if it was a shelter. 

I asked a few of the moms at the park if the area was safe. They gave me an unconvincing “Yeah, it’s ya know, like anywhere.”

“You mean it’s like anyplace on the outskirts of Chicago? Like any place in Joliet?” I had no point of reference for her “anywhere” but she wasn’t giving anymore clues. 

We headed back to the boat for dinner, then later a long time friend who works in Chicago drove out to see us and bring me to the grocery store. The next morning his family drove out and we all had breakfast. Then we left the dock and headed down the river.