There were thunderstorms during the night with heavy rain, lightning and some wind. We woke to find the boat covered with splotches of a slimy clear gelatinous-like substance containing tiny black spots – eggs, we presumed. When Gale tried to clean it up, he likened it to trying to pick up a jellyfish. There were also green blobs of dead bug carcasses and smaller black spots - assumed to be bug waste matter. Even though the forecast called for a 100% chance of rain, Gale washed as much of the goo off as possible before pulling anchor at 8 am. Glad we didn’t have any bugs left inside the boat. What a mess!
We set off into a light patchy fog which later became an overcast sky with a few breaks in the clouds. We saw a peek or two of sunshine before the clouds filled in and closed up again to become completely overcast. At 11 am, we stopped for diesel fuel at Pebble Isle Marina. When we went inside to pay the bill, we found their nice ship’s store and the Grey Heron Restaurant. Maureen spied two cinnamon rolls at the counter and asked if they were spoken for yet. We were told the rolls were ours and on the house. Awesome! As it turned out, the marina serves complimentary fresh cinnamon rolls every weekday morning at 8:30 am for its transient boating guests. We talked to one of the gals at the marina who provided us with some good information about the area and gave us the weekly and monthly rates for our boat – quite reasonable at $119 per week or $187 per month.
At the marina, we met Roy and Elvie Short of Roy El’, a 44 foot Gulfstar motor vessel. Roy and Elvie are volunteer “Looper greeters.” They completed “The Loop” some time ago and enjoy meeting people as they come through the marina. They invited us aboard their boat and gave us a list of anchorages between Pebble Isle Marina and Mobile. Roy said if we stayed at the marina tonight, they would be hosting the cocktail hour later in the day. We were tempted to stay but went with our original plan to keep on moving. Pebble Isle Marina will be a definite return destination when we pass this way again!
As we continued upriver, we passed Pilot Knob park and the Cerro Gordo daymarker. Both of these names are familiar to us as local landmarks around our home in Clear Lake. Pilot Knob is a state park a few miles away from our residence in Cerro Gordo County. At 5:30 pm we dropped the anchor for the night at Lick Creek, mile marker 127.8, just outside the main channel and inside the creek entrance. Fortunately for us, the 100% chance of rain for the day must have been including the rain we had during the night and into the early morning hours since we did not see any more precipitation as we traveled. It was still chilly; however, and Maureen made up another batch of the tuna casserole at Gale’s request – to warm up the cabin, of course! As we were preparing dinner, a group came in on a nearby bank and set up two tents and a covered picnic area. We enjoyed their campfire from afar and could hear them talking and enjoying themselves until 2:30 in the morning.
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