M/V Nearly Perfect: November 2015

Sunday, November 8, 2015

November 6-7, 2015 - The Parties

After catching our breath a little after Wednesday, we got around to popping the cork on the champagne Friday night. Jack and Jane drove down from Guntersville to celebrate with us and it was great to see them again. The Friday night party was at Vicki and Chuck's house (Patriot). It was great to see them again and it was a great gathering -- Richard and Nicole (Coeur de Lion), Donadee and Wayne (Always Home), Jonathan and Rosa (Salty). It was a great evening of celebration with friends. Saturday we met at the Grand Mariner Restaurant for a Looper luncheon. That group included Jack and Jane, Donadee and Wayne, Chuck and Vicki, and Connie and Marv (Sadie Too - they had just come into Dog River the day before). Jennifer and Katie also joined the celebration as we were in our red Loop Cruise 2015 shirts (Kayla was out of town on a church trip). We had a great lunch and a great time talking and sharing stories. Even though our Loop Cruise 2015 has ended, the friendships and parties will continue for a long time.

Sadly this will be our last blog entry. This blog was done as a labor of love to share our adventure with family and friends (and to help us remember all the amazing places we visited and people we met). We thank everyone who followed along on our great journey.

Jonathan, Richard, Nicole, Donadee, Jane, Jack, Rosa, Chuck, me, Jack, Wayne and Vicki

Jonathan, Nicole, Richard, Jack

Vicki, Chuck, Jack and Wayne

Jane and Donadee

Our Saturday lunch group - Jennifer, Chuck, Vicki, Connie, Marv, Jack, me, Jack,

Jane, Donadee, Wayne and Katie

November 4, 2015 - WE DID IT!!!!

At 10:12 am on November 4, Nearly Perfect crossed her wake at the entrance to Dog River!! We stopped the boat long enough to put up our gold flag and then passed under the Dauphin Island Bridge and docked at Dog River Marina, where we began our journey January 9, 2015. We traveled 299 days, 6,376.4 miles, and too many locks to count! As we look back at the pictures, we are amazed at the places we visited, the wonderful people we met, and the life long friendships we have made. People have asked us what the best part of the trip was, and we say all of it. It was definitely an adventure of a lifetime! Of course, one of the highlights was traveling with our girls during the month of July. They were excellent crew by the time they left us and are already wondering how we're going to top this next summer!

Our GPS showing where we crossed our wake

We did it!!

Proudly displaying our gold flag

Heading under the Dauphin Island Bridge flying our gold flag

Gold Loopers!!

Friday, November 6, 2015

November 1-4, 2015 - South to Mobile

We left Demopolis at 6:40 (CST) and ran 98 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp. We tried an anchorage, but it didn’t look good so we kept going to Bobby’s and had a good catfish dinner with Brian and Allen (Radiant). It rained most of the day. On Monday, we left Bobby’s around 6:00 am and headed to the Coffeyville lock (our last lock of the Loop). By 7:00 we were leaving the lock. It was cloudy and misting most of the day as we traveled through the lower Tombigbee River. We spent two more nights anchoring out on our way to Mobile (mainly because we didn't want our journey to end). Monday we anchored at the Alabama River Cutoff and Tuesday night we anchored at the Tensas River cutoff (our last anchorage on the loop). Both anchorages were beautiful and we enjoyed peaceful afternoons watching the fish, birds, and pelicans diving for food. We left our anchorage Wednesday morning at 7:45 in a dense fog and used our radar to get down the river. By the time we reached downtown Mobile, the fog had burned off and we were able to enjoy the busy port city and downtown area. About 9:30 we entered Mobile Bay, our last body of water. We were back in the land of shrimp boats, crab traps, and dolphins. It was the first time we had seen dolphins since South Carolina.