by Sallie Satterthwaite
Staff Writer

Dear Mary and Rainer,

Gosh it has been a long time since I have written. Your Mom and I just completed our first cruise in our new (secondhand) boat. It went well.

This was more or less a check-out of all the systems and how well we could adapt to living on the boat.

No major problems. My big worry was launching and retrieving the boat from the trailer. We picked a state park on the Chattahoochee that has a good not-too-steep launch ramp with a coarse surface for good traction. I backed down until the trailer was completely underwater and the Jeep's rear wheels and exhaust were in the water and the boat floated off and your Mom pulled it over to the dock as I drove the Jeep up to the parking area.

We then started the engine and motored over to another dock to take on water. Twenty-four gallons in the tank and ten in the rooftop solar shower bag. Bought ice and we were off.

Went south to the wildlife preserve at Eufaula and under a low bridge and up the small river that comes in there. What a difference from the sailboat. Even with its shoal keel, we couldn't take it in shallow water like this boat, and that 35-foot mast kept us from going under most bridges.

We went three or four miles up this creek and found a place to anchor for the night. Spotted an alligator right off which didn't make your Mom want to go in the water to wash up, but I went in first and didn't get eaten so she finally went in.

That was our drill for the next week. Wash in the river and then rinse off with fresh water from the solar bag. This bag has a built-in thermometer and it got up to 120 degrees F. Nice to rinse off in hot water after being in 70-degree river water.

Mom did a great job of cooking meals; we ate well and it was cozy inside the cabin at night. We didn't have a TV but we did have a radio that picks up the TV audio, so we could listen to the local and world news and keep up with things.

Slept well too, I was surprised. It got cooler than we expected along about dawn. I got up and put on a sweatshirt one night it was so cool. I was sleeping with a fleece sleeping bag with sheets inside and your Mom had a regular bed made up.

We spent time birdwatching around the various dikes and ponds — lots of birds, especially water birds. Also saw ospreys in the air and feeding their young on the nest. Saw a mature bald eagle in flight over the river, and Mississippi kites which we couldn't identify at first but figured out when we got home.

We proceeded north up the Chattahoochee for the next three days doing much the same as I have described. We did get blasted by a very strong storm front that roared through. The radio had been warning about it all afternoon so we had gone up a small creek and anchored in the lee of a bluff but when it finally hit we still dragged a well-set anchor about 150 yards.

Two nights we just ran the boat up on a sandy beach and threw out the stern anchor to stabilize us for the night.

We arrived in Columbus the third afternoon and tied up behind a fake paddle wheel tourist boat for the night. Walked in to the historic district and found a nice (but pricey) restaurant and had a good meal, the only meal we ate out.

Spent the night with people all around us fishing off the dock we were tied to. People are certainly attracted to this boat; any number came down and stared at it and asked questions. They've never seen a river trawler I guess.

Then we slowly started back down the river. On the way back we spotted a bobcat that came down to drink at the water's edge. The crows were just having fits — that's what got our attention.

We got back to Florence Marina the following day. This was the big test — I figured we could get the boat in the water OK but I was concerned over pulling it out.

I backed the trailer into the water and your Mom powered the boat straight as an arrow onto the trailer. I winched it forward about a foot, dropped the Jeep into low and took my foot off the brake, and the car just pulled the boat and trailer right out without any trouble whatsoever. No wheel spin or anything.

That's all for now. I'm sure Mom will add some.

Dad

Hi guys!

Of course I will. Daddy's right — we had a wonderful week and I can hardly wait to do it again. The little boat just does everything we want it to do. And it's fun to have a boat people turn to stare at everywhere we go.

That canopy was worth every cent; shades the whole back of the cabin, and provides a cool place to sit when at anchor. The modifications we made — some cosmetic, most to take advantage of hard-to-reach storage space, curtains, door screens — worked out well too.

We did find out we're going to have to add another water tank. Seemed like I washed dishes in mere spoonsful of water, yet we had to refill every two or three days.

(Beats having to refill the other tank. Spent a week on the river, traveled about 150 miles in all, and used only about half a tank of gasoline.)

Next time I'll tell you about the boat's log and my communication with the National Weather Service.....

Lots of love, Mom

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