350 Miles from Mobile to Clearwater

After motoring 1,300 miles of rivers and canals we arrived in Mobile, Alabama where we put up our mast. After all that motoring, the LAST thing I wanted to do was motor a few hundred miles more on the Gulf Coast Intercostal Waterway (GICW).

Day Date in Alton, Il

Going on a "day date" in Alton Il, thanks to our French Canadian cruising friends who offered to watch our kids for the afternoon!

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.