Day 24 - Warning — Captain Father John

WARNING – the blog may not be published everyday this week. I might need to group together a few days activities to keep it interesting.

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $45, daily high temperature 78*F.

We are the Joe Wheeler State Park Marina in Rogersville, Al and will be here for five nights. Warm and sunny is the forecast for the entire week. We are here with 236 other Loopers. The function room at the hotel has a capacity of 240. Many Loopers were denied attendance because the rendezvous sold out months ago. Registration is at 3:00 pm and there is a beer and wine reception starting at 6:00 pm and dinner at 7:00 pm hosted by Turner Marine Supply.

We are making many new Looper acquaintances. The trawler that literally squeezed in beside us is from Natick. Ma. This morning there was a commotion around our boat. I felt our boat move slightly as our dock lines were shortened so our fenders crushed into the dock. A single handed trawler m/v Firebird was trying to tie up in the half wide space next to us. He did make it in and we are tied up as if were rafted up with fenders entwined. No wasted space at this marina. This is the situation in several of the slips. The captain of Firebird, Joe Blanchard, has taken his boat to the Bay of Fundy and Newfoundland.

The hotel is running a shuttle bus into Rogersville. The driver keeps making continuous round trips every 20 minutes. There are all the stores you need to resupply and lovely restaurants and shops. We had lunch at the Savannah restaurant which is so famous for its chicken salad sandwich that they have a giant chicken statue on their roof. It was a delicious choice.

Look for the giant chicken on the roof.

I asked the hotel if they had a gym or health club facilities. The clerk said wait a minute while I print this off. This is a map of the hiking trails around here. That is our health club with fresh air and beautiful scenery. I agree, it was.

The Chicago Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Division Championship. Now on to to win the National League series against the LA Dodgers or the NY Mets

Here are some statistics from our cruise to date. We are 2/3 of the way from Chicago to Mobile, Al which is at the Gulf of Mexico.

Miles cruised – 958
Days cruised – 18
Days on layover – 6
Fuel purchased – 929 gallons
Total fuel cost – $2,516
Engine hours on trip – 105 hours
Oil change – 1
Pumped out – 5
Slip fees – $900
Nights at marinas – 19
Nights tied to a wall – 3
Nights on the hook – 2
Miles per gallon have ranged from 0.8 to 1.6 miles per gallon. River currents and boat speed impact fuel economy.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“Now bring me that horizon.”
The last line from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: