Day 39 - 17 Turtles — Captain Father John

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

Eastern Shore Marine (EMS) has personality. It is a working boat yard not a marina. The channel is open to the west so it is lumpy in the slip. However, the cast of characters it attracts makes it interesting.

We met Randy Ferrand at the docktail area. His house burned down in a major forest fire near Pikes Peak. He didn’t have house insurance because the house was paid for. “Why would you insure a house that doesn’t have a mortgage?” He decided to buy a sailboat instead of a house and has been a live aboard at ESM for a year. His plan is to sail his 40 steel ketch to Guatemala and build a rental storage facility. His lease expires at ESM on November 10. He has minimal sailing experience. His claim to fame is bicycle riding. He alleges to have ridden his bicycle around North America including Alaska, South America, Scotland, Australia and the mountains of Nepal. Each of these events took at least a year to complete. He would work for a while to save money and then just take off on a bike trip. Randy will leave all of his memorabilia from his bike rides in his car. That way if he does not survive his single handed gulf crossing his legacy will live on.

Randy’s steel ketch.

We were fortunate to arrive at EMS on a Wednesday. Every Wednesday night a local group of musicians perform dockside. They remind me of an open microphone night at the Island Tap in Libertyville. It is an eclectic collection of musicians and instruments. There are several guitars, a snare drum, harmonica, tuba and a washtub designed to play the notes of a base fiddle. It is alleged that the man playing the washtub is a Rhodes Scholar that took a different road. The musicians set up on a dock that was lighted by the flourescent lights of a nearby shrimp boat. Two or three of the musicians would play a song together and occasionally they would all join in. It was a very fun experience especially during the tuba solos.

This musical event seems to be supported by the the local canoe, kayak and paddle board rental shop called 17 Turtles Outfitters. EMS is on Fly Creek which flows several miles inland. We will take our dingy up Fly Creek and report back.

Washtub music – you just don’t get that in every harbor.

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives helped us find a funky little restaurant in Fairhope called the Gumbo Shack. The Gumbo Shack was featured on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2008. The Gumbo Shack is not a diner or a drive-in so that only leaves one other category. The gumbo was excellent. In addition, Dale and I had front row seats to watch the World Series on the big screen TV while Priscilla and Andy wandered the streets of Fairhope in the dark searching for a post office.

We took a dingy ride up Fly Creek without a paddle. Half way up the creek we found a paddle and put it in our dingy. So we were up a creek with a paddle. It is a narrow creek with many docks. This is prime real estate because it is a great protected anchorage that leads to Mobile Bay and the Gulf.

Priscilla and Andy went to the farmers market with Jeanie from the Oceans Alexander trawler in the slip next to us. They bought fruit, vegetables and bread.

We will be in Fairhope for two more days.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.
If it’s going to happen it is going to happen out there. – Captain Ron