AGLCA Final Day

The AGLCA Fall Rendezvous wraps up today,  as did the chilly, overcast weather. It's good to have warm sunshine again. We are meeting lots of Loopers, past, present and future. The seminars have been very informative, although there are not as many to choose from as there were 4 years ago. What we are learning is helping us plan our itinerary from here to Florida and then on to Norfolk in the spring. We have been lucky to win 5 free nights at different marinas along the way!

Tuesday Mara Beel was one of the Looper Crawl boats, and we had quite a few people come aboard to take a look. We put some effort into cleaning inside and out, and our boat looked quite presentable. It was fun! 

Last night we attended the Global Impact Conference with our local friend Rhonda at Lindsay Lane Baptist Church. Missionaries from near and far are spending the week at this church teaching, sharing, and re-energizing. In was thrilled to talk to a couple from Quito, Ecuador (in Spanish!) which is where I spent a summer way back when. Of course these people were not even born then, but we had a good talk. The main event was the parade of flags into the sanctuary. It was inspiring- the flags were from nations that have religious freedom. The last few flags were solid black, representing closed countries. The 50- member choir was amazing, as was the message from Dr. Johnny Hunt. Wow!!

Today did not begin well. Mark's 94 year-old mother was hospitalized yesterday with congestive heart failure. She was unresponsive this morning, but then popped back and seems much better. We are holding tight here at Joe Wheerler at least until Saturday until we have a better idea of how she is. Mark's sister will let us know if/when we need to rent a car and drive back to Iowa. This was not expected, but is not surprising.

Mark was checking out lot of systems on Mara Beel preparing to leave her if necessary when he decided to pull up the floor in the lazerette. (This is what I refer to as the basement-the access hatch is on the cockpit, or back deck, and you descend via its ladder.) That particular bilge had water in it and the pump was not working. Guess we forgot to winterize that valve when we left the boat in the fall. Oops! Water evidently froze in the hose and popped of the 1-way valve cap and broke it. With some advice from Al on Teri Ann, Mark attached the broken piece with a hose clamp and rescue tape until we can get a replacement. He then cleaned out the bilge and all is well. Fyi , we have 3 bilge pumps, forward, engine, and aft, which activate automatically. All are clean and working perfectly now. Whew! Mark's fixit skills continue to amaze me, and I am honing my gopher talent. 

Obviously we did not attend the morning seminars.

Problem solved!

20+ boats plan to leave here tomorrow morning and head back toward Florence, Grand Harbor and the Tenn-Tom Waterway. When we leave on Saturday (?) the current plan is to head the opposite direction. Chattanooga is a 4- day trip, and that's where we intend to cruise. Several Loopers plan to head out on this highly recommended side trip, but we will not necessarily travel together.