AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Grand Harbour Marina MS to Joe Wheeler State Park AL

Oct 13^th – It was a warm day with a mix of sun and clouds. We got the boat ready in the morning and then headed out from Grand Harbour Marina to an anchorage about 15 miles away on Pickwick Lake called First Class Harbor or Rock Piles. On the way I checked my shaft log that I tightened on the side the motor mount was replaced since it was leaking more than it should. The shaft log was hot and I noticed there were brass filings from the shaft rubbing on the shaft log thus I assume the shaft alignment is still out, which Green Turtle Bay should have identified when they installed the new motor mount. I loosened the shaft log to the spot that was previously warn down when we first identified the motor mount issue and it’s OK for now, however it leaks water into the bilge. I’m going to have to address this issue once I get to a good marina that has good technicians before we get to saltwater. We rafted together and turned on some tunes while we enjoyed the scenery. Brian and I went diaper diving (ie. You put your legs into your lifejacket and float in the water) which made it easy to float around the boats to clean the waterline. We BBQed dinner and had a great meal and afterwards we watched the movie “Captain Ron” which Brian and Judy never saw before. We are slowly heading to the AGLCA Rendezvous which takes place next week for 4 days in Rogersville Alabama.

Oct 14^th – We had heavy rain this morning. I can’t remember the last time it rained and I bet I can count the number of times it rained on our trip on one hand. We just relaxed this morning until the rain slowed down, which was about 11am, and then we pulled our anchor and traveled 29 miles to the Wilson lock. Unfortunately the lock was under construction thus they told us we would have a 2+ hour wait. The lockmaster allowed us to tie to the wall at the entrance and we rafted Valentine to our boat. We called Green Turtle Bay about our shaft alignment issue and they responded that the shaft is aligned and believed that I was overtightening the shaft log, which I’m not. I monitored the issue today and the shaft log is cool to the touch, there are no more brass filings and it doesn’t leak much underway, however it continues to leak when the boat is motionless. I’ve decided to live with this for now and continue to monitor the issue. Once we got through the lock we went to the Carter Branch anchorage on Wilson Lake. We had Judy’s chicken chili for dinner with fresh pumpkin corn bread which was great and just chatted the evening away.

Oct 15^th – It was a hot and sunny day. We left the Wilson Lake anchorage to head for the Wheeler Lock which was only 8 miles away. We arrived with 6 boats and immediately entered the lock. During the lockage we saw at least 20 catfish feeding on thousands of baitfish at the surface of the water. Our friend Brian from Valentine tried to catch some for dinner however they were too smart and avoided both a net and a fishing rod. We arrived at our destination for the AGLCA Rendezvous which is Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama however we decided to anchor for now and pull into our slip either Sunday morning or Monday morning since the Rendezvous starts Monday afternoon. We dropped the dingy and went for a dingy run with the others to the marina which was loaded with other Loopers. We ended up having early docktails with a large crowd of people, however Maria and I left early since we had planned to cook a pork roast on the BBQ. While the BBQ was doing its thing Maria and I went swimming … the water was 76 degrees F which feels great! Later we had 10 people on our boat for dinner and tunes.