The Boat's Trail To Mobile

The boat's trail to Mobile was much different than ours. After starting in La Conner the trucker with his wife in the chase car went east to eastern Washington crossing Sherman Pass into Idaho and then south to Boise. The truck driver's wife took these photos and sent them to us at the end on the trip. Thank you, Jeanne!

They thought they had a weather window that they could stay ahead of the snow and the cold but  were delayed in Provo, Utah so the weather caught up with them there. The snow storm left them there for an extra day until the highway department was able to get the roads cleared enough for passage.

Next the boat passed through a portion of Wyoming where they spent the night in the town of Rawlings.

This was followed by a journey through a portion of Colorado skirting the Denver area.

 In each state the truck was preceded by a pilot car in front and back. The truck driver's wife drives the chase car. The front pilot cars are hired for each separate state and have poles extending up in the air in the front of the pilot car just above the height of our boat on the truck. That height was 15'7". In Texas they were re-routed from the original state generated plan which added 200 miles to their trip.

After they passed through Mississippi they too ended up at our destination, Dog River Marina in Mobile, AL. They showed up at 4:00PM on Thursday, January 17.

The boat was in good shape but mighty dirty as you might expect.

The next day the boat was unloaded with a lift similar to the one that loaded it in La Conner earlier in the month. These guys at Dog River have a well orchestrated operation as it was off the boat and positioned on "the hard" [or hard surface] in short order.

They set it on its keel on wooden blocks with support stands in all four "corners". By three in the afternoon the boat was washed and starting to look like our boat again.

Over the next week or so the boat will be recommissioned including washing and waxing the whole thing, putting the top back on, the radar mast back on, and a number of other things to get it ready to cruise. Our next job will be to move our things onto the boat and organize ourselves for our boating life to come.

Nautical Word For The Day:

Purchase:

1. A grip achieved by attaching a mechanical device such as a windlass or block and tackle.

2. An advantage applied to the lifting of a heavy load.

From Great Loop Jargon:

3. What one constantly does when one acquires a boat. This includes the boat itself, fuel, supplies, charts, provisions, and all sorts of gadgets. This has given rise to the acronym for B-O-A-T which is:                                
Bring On Another Thousand.