Kingfisher Marina: Demopolis, Alabama

Days on cruise:  222

Do you think doing the Great Loop is all play and no work? If so, we’ve not done a good job of blogging the realities of Looping. Undertaking this adventure, is, in fact, HUGE fun! But it’s also a lot of work. Most days you have to check things on the boat before running it , prepare meals in small spaces, manage energy (batteries), deal with limited  garbage capacity (no backyard or garage to store it, very small space under the kitchen sink, and no disposal at anchorages), food (shopping opportunities are further between and harder than at home where you have a car), and arrive at new towns daily where you don’t know anyone or where to find anything. And then there are boat break-downs at places where you don’t know the local mechanic or how to get things fixed. EVERY day you have to figure out where you’re going, if you have enough fuel to get there, and whether you can arrive before dark with a margin for error. Oh, and there’s that pesky weather thing! Go? No go?

So, based on the above, today was an easy day. All we had to do was four loads of laundry, grocery shopping (sign up in advance for the marina’s courtesy car, find the grocery store and hope it had everything we wanted) and begin to clean the boat, inside and out. Just another day in the life of Loopers. Ok, now that’s off our chest.

We got an email from blog reader Rob (we don’t use last names except for people in various marine businesses), someone we’ve never met. We learned he’s a regular blog reader who knew the answer to a question posed in yesterday’s blog post. Those sort of pretty, but actually pesky, floating rafts of vegetation in the waterway? Rob tells us they’re Water Hyacinth, an invasive species causing all kinds of trouble here. We stopped seeing Kudzu a while ago, so shouldn’t be surprised there’s a new pest down the river. Rob and his wife plan to begin the Loop in a couple years, and we’re glad to make his acquaintance (sort of, inasmuch as email allows that).

At 6:00 there was a knock on our hull, and Jay and Lori said hello, reminding us they met us briefly in North Carolina last April. They came aboard to visit and share Loop stories. They’re still working at their business, so are doing the Loop two months at a time, over a five year period! We heard the story of their rescue of four people in the water nearby in 2011 when another boat capsized after getting caught in the prop wash of a tow. Yikes!