Tues, Oct. 30 (Halloween Eve! ooooohhhhhh scarey!)

Sittin’ on the sundeck watchin’ all the boats go by…

while we are still at Aqua Yacht Harbor in Iuka, MS. We are in a slip in the aisle that leads to the haul-out stations at the boatyard so we see many boats going by, in both directions. Some have had props removed and are being pushed back to their slip (by the marina’s “pusher boat” – see pictures) which also happened to us on Saturday morning. The boatyard is extremely busy with all the Loopers coming through so they are working ½ days on Saturday mornings. That was lucky for us since they were able to remove our props and we could take them (and an extra set that came with the boat) to the local prop-guru first thing Monday morning. The good news is that our cutlass bearings and propeller shafts look good, fingers crossed.

While here, we have met with other Loopers for docktails a couple of times. There is a covered gazebo about midway down our dock open for use by anyone, which is very handy for docktail gatherings. The first was arranged by Terry (Capt. Crusty) and his Admiral, Dorothy, who are Gold Loopers, completed the loop once, and are on their second loop now. They know many of the Loppers here and it was a fairly large gathering with about 40 people!  Last night’s impromptu gathering started with about 8 of us and midway through there were about 18 people. Loopers are very friendly and happy to share drinks, snacks and stories.

We’ve received 30 boat cards from fellow Loopers and have personally met 72 people from 37 Looper boats. During our travels, we’ve spotted an additional 62 boats displaying the AGLCA (looper) burgee, plus a few more that we don’t know if they are looping or just traveling between summer (north) and winter (mostly Florida) homes.

It is getting very pretty here with the cooler weather and trees changing colors. Yesterday we drove about 20 minutes to the Shiloh National Military Park in Shiloh, TN. It is a magnificently documented site among open fields and colorful forested areas. There was a very good 32-minute film about the Civil War’s Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862. After that we drove along a path with 20 stops describing battle fields with dates and times of the enemy encounters. There are numerous monuments and markers throughout the park and fields honoring particular battles and participants on both sides. The Shiloh National Cemetery is also on the grounds and is where many of the remains of the Union soldiers were buried, located by numbered markers and sometimes names, if they were known. There are also WWI, WWII and some more modern gravestones in one section of the cemetery. The remaining Confederate dead were buried by Union soldiers en masses in trenches, which are also indicated along the driving route. The numbers are astonishing…150+ years ago the total troops in this 2-day battle: 111,511 (22,113 more on the Union-side). Killed, wounded and missing: 23,746. (K: 3482, similar numbers on both sides; W: 16,420, similar numbers on both sides, many died later of their wounds; M: 3844, with the Union numbers more than double the Confederate). The site also houses the Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark where you can still see some of the historic mounds. There is a section of the driving route that runs next to the TN River. We passed it while on the river and wondered why there were cars stopping along the road, not knowing at the time what it was. Now, we were one of those cars!

Mechanical update – Brian went to the propeller shop today after lunch. Three of our four propellers were done. The propeller guru (Hoyt Peden) let Brian hang around as he worked on the forth propeller. He has created a propeller repair system that he sells to other shops around the country. The process is very interesting. Hoyt selects the blade on the propeller that best matches the pitch the propeller is supposed to have. He then “forms” the other blades to match. Forming sometimes involves a large mallet, but is mostly done with a machine he designed (see photos). He measures various points on each blade, then uses two hydraulic rams to reshape the blades to match the target blade. He can move upper and lower hydraulic rams to multiple locations along the axis of the blade, bend each blade to whatever shape he desires. He repeats the process multiple times until he has the right measurements at each testing point. He then gives the propeller to an assistant to sandblast. Once that is done, he takes the propeller and does a final polishing. These propellers will be the shiniest items on the boat. We hope to have them installed 10/31 depending on how things go with the boats ahead of us on the travel lift list.

Assuming we get the repaired props installed on 10/31, we will likely delay our departure until 11/2 due to nasty thunderstorms predicted to move through our area 11/1.  BTW – is was 80F on Monday and 77F and sunny here today, so things are not too desperate yet.   

We have one very exciting item to report – exciting for us at least! Bo finally used the grass mat in the fish cockpit this morning! By the end of today he hit the mat three times! So we know he can do it, and he'll have to do so when we reach those alligator infested waters south of here!

Looper-lingo:  9 pm = Looper midnight