Day 25 - Looper midnight — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased 0, slip fee $45, daily high temperature 84*F

We chatted up several Loopers at the opening event of the rendezvous. Of the 264 attendees 48% are in the process of Looping, 48% are thinking about Looping and 4% have completed at least one Loop. Each new Looper was invited to the podium to say a few words about their cruise preparation and experiences to date in order to encourage the potential Loopers in the audience to cast off their dock lines and start Looping. I spoke to the group and asked how many boats were cruising with two couples. One other boat raised their hand. I also thanked Looper royalty George and Pat Hospodar who wrote a book on Looping and invited Priscilla and I onboard their boat in Marathon, Fl two years for sundowners. They encourage us to start our Looping as soon as possible. On the first day of our Loop trip I received a phone call when we were entering the Cal Sag canal. It was George Hospodar asking when we going to start our Loop trip.

A couple at our dinner table, George and Sue, have a new custom made 62′ Italian motor yacht. George sold his truck radiator business to his CFO for cash. Their main customer is Caterpillar. The radiators are 12′ X 12′. The CFO knew he could save a lot of expenses by eliminating entertainment for customers. The CFO felt that dinners, fishing trips and tickets to sporting events were a waste of money. Customers should buy his products on the merit of the products alone. George had taken customer relationships very seriously as a key component in building his business. In less than two years George’s old business is nearly bankrupt. The moral to these stories is take the cash up front and move on.

The Looper seminars were very helpful. The first was a presentation on traveling from Joe Wheeler State Park to Mobile. The second seminar was on traveling from Mobile to Apalachacola. The third seminar was on traveling across the Gulf of Mexico from Apalachacola to Tarpon Springs. This is the route we will take over the next month.

The following link will take you to a drone video showing all the boats at the ACLA Rendezvous. Look for Changing Latitudes the three eyed boat.

http://www.mkmartin.com/csa/jw2015

The AGLCA hosted a mussel shoals band concert at the Cotton Gin. The Cotton Gin is an old cotton gin factory converted into a music venue. The band rocked from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm. The band “Fathers and Sons” consists of Will McFarlane and Kevin Holly and features McFarlanes’s son on bass guitar and fellow “Shoals” musician Justin Holder on drums. They claim the Rolling Stones recorded the song Brown Sugar at a recording studio in Rogersville. The Loopers danced like teenagers and cooked S’mores in the fireplace. 9:00 pm is Looper midnight and the yellow school bus came and took us back to the marina.

I think my friend Waly Lowry used to play guitar with these guys.

Andy Arnold’s – Bird Watching on the Rivers / Lakes: A Lesson in Patience

We continue to see many different birds while we travel. The Great Blue Heron is common in all areas of the US and we have all observed many on our trip. Observing the Blue Heron is a lesson in patience. I was fortunate to see a heron feeding from a dock at Paris Landing State Park in TN. It was poised motionless as it scanned for prey, once spotted with lightningspeed it grabbed a fish. The heron turned the fish in its bill and swallowed it whole.

I have enjoyed watching the heron patiently stand quiet and still as they wait for prey. While at the Grafton Marina (Illinois River) for two nights we saw a heron feeding at dawn and dusk from the dock directly across from our boat. What a majestic sight as he moved slowly along the dock, paused, and wouldwait patiently until prey passed by, again with amazing quick action he would have the fish in his bill, breakfast or dinner was served.

Characteristics:

The Blue Heron is a large wading bird, you will commonly see them near the shore of open water and in wetlands. They can adapt to almost any wetland habitat in its range, you will see the heron in both fresh and saltwater habitats. On Lake Barkley we saw a small island with a single big tree almost bear of leaves with what looked like a hundred Blue Herons resting on the branches.

Wingspan of Blue Herons runs from 5.5 to 6.5 feet which makes them a joy to see in flight. They can cruise at some 20 to 30 miles an hour. They have a height of 3.2 to 4.5 feet and weight 4.0 to 7.9 pounds. The herons stride is around 8.7″, and walk in almost in a straight line. Females lay 3 to 6 pale blue eggs which have an incubation period of about 27 days. One brood is raised each year. Both parents feed the young at the nest by regurgitating food. By the time they are 45 days old, the young weigh 86% of the adults mass. Chicks can survive on their own by about two months of age. Herons usually breed in colonies, nesting in trees and bushes near water’s edge.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.
Man marks the earth with ruin – his control stops with the shore.” – Byron