Say what??

It seems that fall is arriving already.  The days are lovely and warm - mid to high 80s - but without the unbearable humidity, and the evenings are cool and comfortable.  We have not used the air conditioning for the past several days, and have all the windows and hatches open to the fresh air.  On our walk the other morning, we actually noticed some of the leaves turning colour, and a few early ones falling to the ground.  

With the more pleasant weather, the dock has again become a much more sociable place.  People are out and about a lot more (not hiding from the heat) and group activities are being planned once again.  there will be a big gathering this weekend out on the water, with a pot luck dinner on Saturday.  The following weekend is the beginning of football season - college football, that is, which is huge down here.  Our neighbours have installed their 50" tv on the dock, and are organizing another party for that first game on Sept 1.  

We took a break from boat stuff to go for a drive along the south shore of the river, and to see if we could see the big dam and lock that we will have to travel through on our way south.  We spotted this new use for a boat.  

They are bass crazy down here, and with good reason, as it boasts some of the best bass fishing anywhere.  This mailbox, however, struck as just a little bit over the top!!

We did eventually get to the lock, only to find that we could not get close enough on shore to really see anything.  In the Trent Severn Waterway in Ontario, anyone can walk to the sides of the locks and watch the boats go through.  Even the Welland Canal, which carries the huge lake freighters, allows onlookers to see the passage of ships and boats into and out of the locks.  You can see the whole operation from anywhere along the canal, with elevated viewing galleries, parkland and picnic spots to attract visitors.

But that is not the case here.  Tall fences and locked gates surround the locks, with dire warnings from the US Federal Government to trespassers.  You can almost see the entrance doors from downstream, if you clamber over the rocks to get to the water's edge, but no way can you see into the lock unless you are actually on a boat going through.  We didn't bother to take any photos, especially after we spied a series of these signs all along the road leading to the dam.  Made us wonder if this is how they deal with trespassers!!  

Humming along....

We continue to progress through our to-do list, getting ready for our departure from Alabama in October and heading further south.  The weather has broken a bit in the last few days, with days that are not too hot to work outside, and evenings that allow us to turn the A/C off and open up the windows.

We took a break from work on Sunday, and headed out for a few hours.  Like jet skiers everywhere, this young man took advantage of the wake we created to have some fun of his own.

We found a nice little spot to drop the anchor, have lunch and a swim,then just chill.

Back at the dock, there has been lots of activity at our neighbour's hummingbird feeder.  I've counted at least 4 of them buzzing around - mostly far too fast for photos.  But this little one seems to like the perch holding the feeder.

We went out to a BBQ restaurant the other night, one that we hadn't tried yet.  It was decorated like a hunting lodge, with huge carved wild turkeys mounted on the stone fireplace, and a soundtrack of crickets and bullfrogs to round out the experience.  Our waitress was completely taken with listening to Michael speak - something about his accent captured her attention.  She sent her co-workers over to our table so they, too, could hear him speak.  She even brought us a free banana pudding dessert, just because!

We have discovered that the local cinema has a deal on Tuesdays...don't know if the admission price is cheaper, but they offer free popcorn after 7 pm.  Just bring your own bowl!!  So we're off to the movies tonight for the first time since we came down here.  Amazing what the lure of free popcorn can accomplish.

We watched as much of the Olympics as we could, keeping in mind that there was extremely little shown live.  Michael's Jamaican roots came to the forefront as the men's track team set record after record.  If we had a Jamaican flag, I think he would have flown it!!  We missed the Canadian coverage, which always seems to give a complete world view of events and activities.  London did a wonderful job - it looks so different from the last time I was there!!

A Rude Awakening

There was a glorious sunset the other night, and I sat on the dock across the road from the marina, with a nice glass of pinot grigio and took this series of photos as the sky gradually evolved from pastels, through almost neon pinks and golds, eventually growing dark.  There were a few fishermen out, and the occasional whir of their lines being cast, following by the plop of the lure hitting the water only added to the magic.

As darkness arrived, so did the mosquitoes, and I paid the price with a number of annoying bites around my feet and ankles - the only part of me these pests seem to like.

The next morning, I was woken around 7:30 by the sounds of yelling outside our boat - a most unusual occurrence.  With a large number of elderly folks living here, we first wondered if someone was having a medical emergency and calling for help.  Stumbling out of bed, Michael and I both rushed out to the aft deck, still in our pyjamas, to see what was happening.  We could see two policemen a few boats away, one of whom was looking for a functioning water hose.  At that point, one of our neighbours came along, making his way slowly past the ruckus.  All he knew was that the guy had been on a small boat, travelling way too fast through the marina.  Somehow, the police got him onto the dock, pepper sprayed him, handcuffed him, and frog-marched him up the dock to the parking lot.

As with any small community, news (and misinformation) travels extremely fast.  In no time there were a number of different versions of the story.  What we eventually gathered was that this young man had stolen a small boat from Dock 1, and was using it to cruise along the other docks and liberate various items that folks stored either on their boats or on their own finger docks.  We are on Dock 4, and it appeared he was on his way down our side of the dock when the police did their thing.  How they got involved, and how they got him off his boat is still a mystery.  We also hear there was an accomplice who was helping to unload the booty from the small boat and into a truck.

Poor Michael!  He has told me time and again that he doesn't think there is any crime here, and that we don't need to worry about locking things up.  Things like the door to the boat when we go out, or leaving the keys in the small boat, tied up alongside us. Looks like he will have to rethink.

Catching up...

Once again, time has got away from me, and it's been several weeks since my last post.  It's also hard to believe that we have been living on the boat for 4 months now!  We continue to fine tune the maintenance and repair aspect of getting her 'ship shape' for the big journey coming up.  Latest in the list of things that need to be repaired is the windlass, which broke down on our last trip out, but I'll get to that shortly.

Michael made a quick trip back to Canada in July to help his mother celebrate her 91st birthday!  It was a complete surprise for her, and she thoroughly enjoyed his visit.  I stayed here on the boat, with Edee, and our neighbours made sure I wasn't too bored - there was a margarita party on the Saturday afternoon, then a group dinner out that evening.  It was a wet week, with rain most days, but we did get some lovely rainbows.  If you look closely, you can see that this is a double one!

Last Saturday, we took another trip out on the river, and I was captain for the day (a slight demotion from my usual role of Admiral) which meant that I was responsible for the operation and navigation of the boat from beginning to end.  We left the slip with ease, traversed the narrow channel out to the main river without incident, and selected the spot to anchor and have a swim.  The windlass stopped working as we dropped anchor - not a big problem in itself, as we were able to let out enough anchor rode by hand.  We spent several hours floating in the warm waters, scrubbing the muck off the waterline, and generally enjoying being out of the marina.

This tug went past while we were there.  It's a small one, as river barges go, but still big enough to create a reasonable swell as it went.  You can see a patch of green, weedy stuff growing up to the surface between us and the main channel.  This is milfoil, a non-native plant that is taking over in parts of the river.  It grows in the shallower areas, and is very difficult to control, creating some real navigation challenges.  The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) sprays and chops on a regular basis, but we need to be very cautious when moving out of the main channel to anchor.  There are natural paths which follow old creek beds, and the locals are very generous in sharing their knowledge of safe areas.  

My crew (Michael) was keeping an eye on the weather, and noticed a darkening of the sky in the distance, so we decided to head home, knowing that storms can spring up very quickly in the heat of summer.  Michael hauled the anchor up by hand, and we were on our way.

I must point out that, while I have driven the boat a number of times on the river, this was to be my first attempt at docking.  As you may have noticed from some of the photos in my earlier posts, each boat has its own slip, with fingers down both sides of the slip.  To make it even more complicated, we keep the boat backed in.  The boarding steps, power cables, docking lines, etc are all set in this position, so I didn't have much choice in the matter.

It being Saturday afternoon, the dock was crowded with all the weekenders, who scrambled to 'help' as I made my approach.  With my personal coach (Michael, again) providing direction as needed, I worked the throttles to control the boat - port engine forward makes the bow swing to the right, port engine reverse makes the aft swing to the right, with equal and opposite reactions if using the starboard engine - and don't ever touch the steering wheel!  We slipped into position as if I'd been doing this forever, much to my own and everyone else's surprise!  Word spread quickly that "Mundy brought Done Dreamin' in!" and I have now been accused of making the other ladies look bad.  Oh well.

Yesterday was Michael's birthday, and our original plan had been to visit the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, followed by a bit of shopping and a nice dinner out.  We cancelled the Space Center visit, however, after a stormy night of little sleep and opted for a late start, a little shopping, and then dinner.  This restaurant was recommended by the folks next door, and did not disappoint. We had a great meal of mostly local and sustainable foods - gulf shrimp stuffed with cheese grits, Georgia clams and more gulf shrimp, local greens, and house made black bean tamales with smoked tomato salsa.  Yumm.

Notice the flag on this historical marker.  One day a few weeks ago, Michael and I saw a pontoon boat flying a massive flag like this.  It took us a while to figure out that they were not Irish at all - and that this is the Alabama state flag, taken from the early Irish settlers.

Now, today's chores beckon...who knew retirement would be so busy??

  

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I have begun my apprenticeship in diesel mechanics and maintenance!  Now that all of the unexpected repairs are complete, we have turned our attention to making sure the motors are in good shape and functioning properly.  This has involved draining various fluids, adding more fluids, flushing those fluids through, draining some more, then rinse and repeat.

Michael is perfectly at home doing all of this, but he can't do it all on his own.  My job started out as run and fetch - tools, buckets, hoses, shop towels, shop vac, more buckets.  Things got a little more complicated though, when we needed hands at both ends of the engine - one pair controlling the hose that was putting water in, and the other controlling the hose that was draining the water out and into the buckets.  So, I was promoted to mechanic's assistant, and am learning about diesel engines, and the science of heating and cooling them.  I suppose this shouldn't be unexpected, as I have been pulling hoses from one end of this boat to the other while we installed the new toilets.  This should just be the next logical step.

These engines have not been used for years.  We have only had the boat out a couple of times since we bought it, and the previous owners hadn't used it for a while before that.  First thing we needed to do was drain the old coolant and put in a cleaning agent.  I was amazed at the crud that came out with that first drain.  But the upside was that we had to take the boat for a run on the river to make sure the detergent got through the entire engine.

So we have finally cast off the lines and hit the open water.  With our neighbours Kim and Theresa on board, we headed out for about half an hour.  Great fun to be out there in the big boat!  And yes - that is me at the controls!!

But then we had to come back and complete the job...drain the detergent, flush with water, run the engines, drain the water, and repeat until it ran clear.  One engine took 3 cycles until we could put the final glycol coolant in, but the other needed one or two more cycles - I lost track.  We were at it until very late last night, but finally got it done.

Poor Edee manages all of the noise and holes in the floor extremely well.  She delicately picks her way across the floors strewn with the necessary tools when she needs to eat or drink, and sits in her bed watching us or sleeping the rest of the time.  She truly is a boat cat!

We're good to go now, and planning our first overnight trip to Chattanooga soon!  The weather is unsettled right now, so we will look for a window without storms in the forecast.  It's pouring down as I write this, and we have had some damaging winds spring up a few times in the last week, so we all keep one eye on the sky.

Southern Cooking 101

One of the boaters here has been sharing his homemade spicy crackers with everyone on the dock -  and he and his wife dropped by the other evening to deliver a small sample with the recipe.  It's amazing what you can do with saltine crackers, canola oil and some spices.  Combined in the right quantities, the saltines turn into a snack cracker that is almost impossible to resist!!

While we were visiting, Rick was sharing other cooking hints with us.  He told us that one of his favourite recipes was to use whop biscuits, and mix some salsa and mozzarella cheese into them before you bake them.  Being Canadian, we had no idea what whop biscuits were, and asked (meanwhile Michael was thinking 'Italian's have biscuits?').  Rick replied "You know...whop biscuits.  They come in a roll, and you whop 'em on the counter to get it open!"

So there you have it - saltines and whop biscuits!

Happy Independence Day

These folks know how to celebrate!  For some, Independence Day is bigger than Christmas, and they decorate accordingly.  We began a tour of the dock this morning to check it all out, and the party was under way by about 10 AM.  Here is just a sampling of some of the decorations.

We spent the day visiting and chatting with folks up and down the dock, and had a BBQ lunch with   our friend Doris and a few others.  We then waited for the evening celebrations.  There's a park just down the road, with an amphitheater built into the side of a hill, where the city of Scottsboro puts on a big show.  They had a couple of bands keeping the crowd entertained with some southern rock and some country music, and a number of vendors selling more BBQ, home made ice cream, corn dogs, and hamburgers.  We wandered down to have some supper, and take in a little music, then came back to watch the fireworks with a number of neighbours.  It was timed to a selection of patriotic music - and I do mean patriotic!  Nevertheless, it was a pretty good show.

Happy Independence Day to all of our American friends!!