Power boating down the Chattahoochee River to the Ocean

Panama City

2009-06-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Safley in Panama City

2009-06-30T08:13:00.001-07:00

As promised here is the last part of our journey. I know it's taken a while but I've been busy latley.

We came into Panama City in the morning and docked the boats at the house that we rented for the weekend. We met up with our friends and after the greetings we sat around the pool and had breakfast.

The house that we rented was better than I had expected. It was very nice and clean. It was also larger than I had expected it to be with a huge kitchen and bar that we could all get around together and still have moving room between us.

After breakfast we had a few early afternoon drinks to celebrate the trip. We rested a while and Randy and a few of the guys went out fishing in the bay and the ocean. I decided to stay behind and took a much needed nap.

Randy and the guys got back with a few Jack fish and a Bonita in the cooler. I went down to the dock and watched Dana start cleaning them. A few seagulls started flying around and you know how Dana is around seagulls from the pics in Apalachicola. He had to start feeding them the entrails of the fish. All of this action caught the attention of a lagre white crane. It flew over and landed on the dock between us and the bank. This bird was only about 5 feet away from us. Evidently, it was used to people feeding it and had done this before because it wouldn't leave until it was fed it's share too. I managed to grab the camera to get a few shots because I thought it was going to fly off. Notttt...we had to shoo it out of the way to get off the dock.

The rest of the trip involved fishing in which we caught spanish mackrels, one large king mackrel, and a lot of jacks.

We motored over to St Andrews park and tied up to the dock and walked around for a while. We got some great pictures of a flock of pelicans and another white crane on the dock here, wanting to be fed.

We ended up having a great trip.

The morning we left, I called a couple of local trailer companies to inquire about new springs for my trailer since the ones that were on there took quite a beating when the axle dropped on the way down and were looking questionable about making the trip back. I finally got in touch with a couple of places and one gave me a very good quote to do the work so we headed there as it was on the way home anyway. I had all 4 springs replaced along with all new u bolts and shackle and mounting plates.

After that we headed home with fond memories of a trip that I'm sure we will do again soon.

Thanks for reading,
Eddie

Pictures from the ICW to Panama City

2009-06-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Cruising the ICW from Apalachicola to Panama City

2009-06-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

I left off the story when we were leaving Apalachicola heading for the Inter Coastal Waterway.

We turned and went back up river with our newly acquired gas in the boats, heading for the ICW and Panama City. To do this, go back through the swinging railroad bridge and keep going to where the T in the river is. Instead of turning right to go back up the river, keep going straight and the ICW will hook around to a more west, north westerly course.

In just a short time on the ICW you will come into Lake Wimico. This is a large lake that is shallow except through the channel so make sure to follow the channel markers.

My boat started acting up again, sputtering and sounding like I was running out of gas. We changed the gas filter again thinking that there might still be some water in the bottom of the tanks. It helped for a few miles but started doing it again. If I let the boat sit for a few minutes it would crank right back up and go as if nothing was wrong with it for a few miles before it would start starving for gas again. We figured that it was the fuel pump going bad and decided to go on to Panama City for repairs. I could get about 10 miles before it would start acting up and would have to let it sit for a few minutes.

Since I've been back I've had a chance to look at it. The problem was a small screen in the pickup tube in the tank was clogged up. When it sat, the debris in the tank would settle back down the tube into the tank until it sucked it back up clogging the screen again. I removed the screen and it runs fine again. My screw off gas filter catches any trash sucked up before it reaches the fuel pump and if it misses it, there is a screen in the carburetor, so the screen in the pickup tube was just redundant anyway.

Anyway, we were sitting in the middle of Lake Wimico on one of these times when the sun was just starting to set in front of us. I got some of the most beautiful sunset pictures that I have ever taken in Florida. They were so impressive that I have one as the wallpaper on my computer now.

It started getting dark but there was a pretty good bit of moon shining so we decided to go on. We turned on our running lights as we headed off across Lake Wimico. About three quarters of the way across the lake we started coming up on a large tug pushing a very large barge. It was lit up so much that we could clearly see the barge in front of it in the dark. Everything I've read about this part of the ICW said to stay in the channel in Lake Wimico because it is a very shallow lake. Knowing this, I squeezed over as far as I could to the channel marker to give him room. The tug operator shined his large spotlight over at me. Did I mention that it was a LARGE SPOTLIGHT. So I eased out past the side of the maker to give him more room. He shined the light at me again and I eased over still further. I'm getting worried about the depth of the water at this point and he still has that huge spotlight trained on me. At this point I am losing my night vision and getting pretty ticked off because the light is very bright and is starting to hurt my eyes. I heard Randy call over on the VHF for the tug boat operator. He told him to turn his light as he was blinding us. The tug operator was gruff and only replied that "he wanted to make sure we saw him" before he turned his light. In the words my son would use Duhhhh...How could we miss seeing him.

We made it around the tug and could see the end of the lake with the tree line closing in on us. I was just starting to get over being ticked at the tug guy when we entered the canal.

This part of the ICW is a canal about 25-50 yards across and is lined with cypress, palm, and pine trees. With it back dark again and our night vision returned to us, we set the boats on a slow cruise and headed down the canal. It was easy to see the channel in the dark because the trees were right on either side of the bank. Just point the boat between the trees and go.

We past a couple of small boats on the ICW that were fishing. When you get to the T on this canal keep going straight for Panama City or turn left for Port St Joe. It wasn't much farther past the cut for Port St Joe that my boat started acting up again. So I did the same routine and shut the boat off for a few minutes and waited. Randy wanted to go ahead and park under the 98 bridge to fish with the bait that he acquired from some guys in Apalachicola, so I told him to go ahead and I would catch up.

I had been sitting for about 15 minutes when Robin called me on my cell phone. She was obviously nervous and asked me to hurry up and find them because they had run aground. She said they were just past a bridge. I new she was serious and not just joking around because of the tone of her voice. I started the motor and started heading their way. They were a good 10-12 miles ahead of me. I was surprised that my boat did fine all the way to them.

When I got to the bridge Randy called me back and told me to stay close to the treeline on the left. There were a few houses with docks that I past right before I got to Randy. What had happened was that when we were going down the canal the trees were right on either side of the bank. right past the bridge the tree line to the right opened way up looking like we were coming into East Bay. It wasn't. There was a long stretch of saw grass and mud before the tree line to the right. Randy thought he was in the middle when he ran up on the mud and saw grass. He and Dana had tried to pull it off the mud but they were stuck hard. By the time I pulled up, they had gotten over the shock and were ready for me to pull them off. We got out a large rope (that we brought just for this kind of mishap) and tied it from the front of his boat to the back of mine. I hammered down and pulled for a few seconds and his boat started moving and pulled him back into the water. He started his boat and everything seemed fine until he put it in gear and found that it had a bad vibration. He figured that he had bent his prop. There was nothing we could do about it, so we went slow, hobbling along, still heading for Panama City.

Now we had two malfunctioning boats, but they were still running and still making headway, albeit slowly, so we kept moving forward.

We came into East Bay and started seeing the lights on the shore. The water really opens up here and you need to stay in the channel because it gets shallow really fast. On one occasion we veered off the channel a little bit looking at a huge shipyard where they were welding on a very large ship. We weren't off the channel much, but started feeling the sandy bottom. We lifted the lower units a little to get them out of the sand and eased it back over into the channel. When Randy lifted the foot on his boat and backed up a little a huge hunk of saw grass fell off. The vibration that he had been having immediately stopped. We felt better then, knowing that we had one good running boat if mine decided to quit and not go any further.

We were heading across the large part of the bay, following the lighted buoy markers. I was following Randy and veered off to the right a bit and ran onto a sand bar. I was stuck hard. Randy eased his boat as close to me as he could and I threw him a rope. He tried it to the front of his boat because that was the only way he could get close to me without ending up on the sandbar himself. He pulled and pulled and we almost gave up and thought about waiting for the tide to come back up when we decided to try one more time. It finally broke free and we were back on the way again.

After all of the getting stuck and pulling both boats out and because it was already about 4:00 am in the morning, we decided to tie off to the bridge and get a couple of hours sleep because we were exhausted.

The moral of this part of the story is that it is better to probably wait until daylight to navigate this part of the trip. If it had been daylight and we had not been so tired, none of this would have happened.

Randy woke me up when the sun had just started rising on the horizon. We untied the boats and headed out. We were only 5 miles or so away from the beach house that we rented. We had only gotten about 100 yds from the bridge when a wicked heavy fog rolled in over us. It was so foggy that I could just barely make out Randy's boat, only 50 foot in front of me. I tried to call him on the VHF but his batteries were dead. Same for the cell phone. So I just followed him hoping that he knew where we were going. We rode for a few minutes and turned a little, we rode some more and turned a little again, all the time not being able to see anything in front of us except the back of Randy's boat and an extremly thick fog. We rode like this for about 20 minutes and I was determined that he was lost in the fog and leading us blind..... until suddenly a buoy marker appeared to my right out of the fog. I was absolutely amazed that we were in the channel and that he actually knew where we were going. At this point I think that he is the best boat captain alive. Later on I found out that he was following a handheld GPS and staying in the middle of the bay on the tiny screen. Doesn't matter how he did it, it worked.

The fog started lifting about the time the sun came fully up and we were in sight of Shell Island. A short hop across the waterway, we went by St Andrews Park and past the Treasure Ship and Marina and Captain Anderson's Marina was to our right.

We went under the bridge going into Grand Lagoon and not too far up the lagoon, the friends of ours, that drove our trucks and trailers to the beach house, went out and stood on the dock to greet us and also to show us which dock was ours for the weekend.

I can't express in words what a great feeling it was pulling up to that dock.

We had successfully navigated over 300 miles down a river and an Inter Coastal Waterway, made it through two grounding, made it through boat problems, and we were actually there. It was almost like a dream come true at that point. Seeing the fog lifting over the bay and seeing the white sandy beach of Shell Island and seeing ourselves coming across the bay at Panama City Beach on MY boat is a memory that I will have and will cherish for the rest of my life.

Thank you my friends for helping me do this and for sharing it with me. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

You might ask me if it was worth it....it was worth every minute of it.

Pictures coming up and a little more to the story about Panama City

Pictures of Seminole to Apalachicola

2009-06-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Seminole to Aplalachicola

2009-06-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

This is another long stretch of river, vegetation, and wildlife.

I believe this is the first part of the river that we past any small boats in. We past quite a few boats on this stretch of river. More than any so far. Some john boats, some ski boats, some bass boats, tug boats, and one large cabin cruiser. The cabin cruiser was by far larger than mine or Randy's boat. It was probably 35-38' with a large glassed in cockpit and an upper fly bridge. It was very nice. I will say one thing, no matter how big or how small the boat, everyone waves when you go by on this part of the river. That's cool.

There were more floating houses too. It made me wonder...If your house is anchored on the river do you have to pay property taxes? Something to make you go Hmmmm.

The banks change from dirt and clay to sand here. Also the pine trees look different than what we are used to in Georgia. They are more short and stocky with larger limbs. This is where you start seeing Cyprus trees too. The shrubs tend to be smaller and flatter to the ground and the blooming shrubs were beautiful.

We past an older, but very well taken care of tugboat that I got a couple of pictures of.

The day was filled with more riding shenanigans, listening to the radio, and watching the scenery go by. We stopped around lunch time and tied the boats together and just let them drift down stream while we fixed sandwiches and chips. After we ate it was back to cruising.

We found a large stretch of sand bank that someone had written "I love you Dan Dan" into in large letters. Randy pulled his boat over and Dana got out and added the A's on the end of Dan Dan, making it Dana, Dana. We took a picture and had a laugh.

We cruised and cruised what seemed like forever and then came to a T in the river. The only one that we had come to so far. Everything else so far had been a straight shot with no other way to go but down river. Turnings left here will take you to Apalachicola, turning right will carry you west on the Inter Coastal Waterway towards Port St Joe and Panama City. If you go through the swinging railroad bridge you are heading towards Apalachicola. We turned left at the T to go to Apalachicola to pick up some fuel as Randy was on about a half a tank with about 90 more miles to go on the ICW to Panama City. We could have made it but felt it was better to go ahead and stop and get gas while we could.

When we got in sight of Apalachicola we started seeing the big boats and the commercial fishing boats tied up on the docks. My boat used to seem big to me. I mean it's not the biggest boat around but at 28 foot it's one of the larger ones on West Point Lake where I usually boat at. After this trip I realize that it is not much more than a row boat compared to some/most of the boats in Florida.

After you go past the swinging railroad bridge you start to see seagulls and you know that the ocean is not far away. About this point you will start to smell the salt in the water too. A couple of miles past the railroad bridge, you will come around a curve and see a long arching highway bridge with nothing but water as far as you can see on the other side of it.

Coming into Apalachicola is an awesome sight after coming this far down the river. Knowing that you have made it all the way to the ocean at last.

On the right side of the waterway here is Apalachicola. Make sure to go down a bit before turning right to cross the waterway past the point. It's very shallow here and the sand point goes out a pretty good piece. If you want to see what I'm talking about go to maps.google.com and put in Apalachicola, Fl and you will be able to see the swinging railroad bridge and the sand point in the satellite view. When you cross ythe sand point you can go back up the water way that all the buildings are on. This is a beautiful old town that looks like it came out of another time, like it should be back in the 50's or 60's but all of the buildings are in good repair with fresh paint. The town just has an old time, nostalgic feel about it. There are old and new boats alike lining the docks. Large and small.

We got here at about 5:05 pm and all of the marinas had closed for the day. Randy needed the gas to go on so we started asking around as to what marina was open. We were sent to a few marinas only to be turned back as the owners were locking up the doors. We found one guy at a commercial dock that was locking up, it was used mostly for filling up commercial boats with diesel fuel. He only had deisel pumps on the dock, but he had a gas truck in the yard that he sold gas to the local gas staions with. He said that we were lucky because he had just gotten in a load of gas as he usually doesn't keep it around. He pulled a hose from the truck and pumped it straight into our boats. The hose was so huge that it pumped 40 gallons of gas in my boat in about 3 minutes. Randy took on about 50 gallons. The guy was very friendly and we talked while he pumped. We thanked him and pointed the boats back up the river heading for the Inter Coastal Waterway

Next are some pictures to this point and I'll pick up the story with the ICW part of the trip

Andrews to Seminole Pictures

2009-06-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

George Andrews to Seminole

2009-06-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

This was the third leg of the trip.

This is the part of the river where you get comfortable, pick a nice cruising speed, and enjoy the scenery. It's a pretty good stretch from Andrews to Seminole so relax and have fun.

The girls went below and started mixing drinks while Randy and I drove. Needless to say they were feeling pretty good by the time we arrived in Lake Seminole.

There was a lot to see on this leg of the trip. This is the part of the river that shows signs of life. There was the occasional house on the river with stretches of a few houses together in a subdivision. There were floating houses also. You couldn't really call them houseboats because they didn't have a motor on them. They were attached to pilings or anchored to the bottom of the river on cables. They ranged from very nice looking little houses to floating shacks that looked like they would be tool sheds on land.

We saw a couple of tug boats pushing barges up the river, one barge had a crane on it. There are also areas on the side of the river that barges can be parked in that are marked off on either end with piling drove into river bottom.

There was a factory on the side of the river of some kind, with a lot of train cars full of what ever it was that they were making. Debbie spotted an old train engine that was being used to push the box cars around and she made me circle back to get a picture, but unfortunately it went behind the box cars so we couldn't get a picture of it. I wish we could have as she is crazy about trains. We actually took a trip last Christmas and rode a train through the Smoky Mountains but that is a story of a different trip.

Anyway, after we had been riding for a while Randy got Dana to drive the boat while he started climbing out on the front. I was wondering what in the world he could be doing on the front while we were cruising down the river. That is when he walked out on the bow of the boat and stuck his arms out like the scene in Titanic. He just looked over at me and grinned so I got the camera and took a picture.

We rode a little more and my boat started sputtering. We decided that it had a little water in the tank so we stopped and tied off together and replaced the fuel filter. With the fuel filter replaced, it started running better and we were back underway again.

The girls being, shall I say, slightly intoxicated were not going to let Randy get away with being the only one on the front of the boat. They both had to get up there. They were having so much fun and were laughing so much that we started laughing too.

This was the first part of the river that we saw an alligator in. We were boating along and Debbie told me to look out for the log floating on the left. I looked and told her it wasn't a log but an alligator. She didn't believe me until we got up to it and it splashed and swam underwater. It was really a huge alligator. I would say about 12' long. I wouldn't want to be around if it was hungry.

We drove for a while and the river started widening again as we came into Lake Seminole. We were crossing Lake Seminole heading for Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, the last dam on the Chattahoochee River. We called the lock operator at about 3:30 pm and he said that the lock was closed down for the day. We had wanted to go a little farther and anchor somewhere on the Inter Coastal Waterway(ICW) but since that wasn't the case we found a nice little island in Lake Seminole to anchor off at.

After we got anchored and tied the boats together, Randy and I started partaking in the celebrating that had been going on all day. We kicked back and relaxed and started blowing up floats for the girls because they wanted to swim. After the floats were blown up and the girls were in the water, we broke out the grills and started heating them up. It was about that time when Randy said "Let me see your binoculars" He looked through them and said "Yep, look over there" I looked at what appeared to be a stump in the water about 50-60 ft away from us. He handed me the binoculars and then I saw the eyes. There was an alligator, just floating right there. It was a smaller one, I'd say about 5-6 foot long. Needless to say the girls were in a hurry to get back on the boat when we pointed out that they were swimming with an alligator.

We turned up the stereos while I cooked marinated tuna steaks on the grill. I fixed seasoned rice and steamed green beans to go with it. After we ate, we lit the lanterns and turned on the anchor and cockpit lights and had a few drinks to celebrate our trip so far.

After a while of cocktails and music we turned off all the lights except the anchor lights and went below to get some sleep. The wind started picking up on this night of the trip. I was almost asleep when Randy said that we were moving because of the wind rocking the boat making it uncomfortable for the girls to sleep. I was sleeping like a baby being rocked, but I got up none the less and put on clothes. We fired up the boats and went to find somewhere a little more sheltered. We drove to the marina on the right side of the dam and tied off to the fuel docks. The marina was sheltered from the wind and the boats settled down. We went back down below and went back to sleep.

I woke up at daylight to take care of natures call. Randy and Robin were up right after me. We fixed breakfast and ate on the picninc table while we waited for the marina to open. Seminole is the point where you would need to fill up because there is no more gas avalible until Apalachicola. I would reccomend this marina. The man that owns it is vey friendly and even let us tie up to the fuel dock overnight for free. His isn't the mega marina so he could use the business. Stop by and say hi. At this point my boat held $126.50 of gas at $2.89 a gallon, so I burnt about 44 gallons to get from where we put in to Seminole

After breakfast we went through the lock, next stop the Gulf of Mexico

More pictures coming, keep following

Pictures of Eufaula to George Andrews lock

2009-05-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Walter F George lock to George Andrews lock

2009-05-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

This was the second leg of the journey.

After leaving the lock at Lake Eufaula the river narrows and gently twists and turns. The day we were on the river was absoutley beautiful. The temps were upper 70's to lower 80's with scattered clouds, just enough to keep the air cool but the sun warm. We couldn't have ordered better weather for the trip. We cruised the river at about 3200 rpms. Not in any hurry, but enough to be on plane.

The trees were mostly like the ones we have around here. Large oaks and hickorys that hang over the banks and shade the water in spots. The pines were still like the the upper Georgia pines if you know what these look like. Tall and skinny with few limbs that are grown mostly for lumber and pulp wood. The wildflowers on the banks were blooming too. Debbie tried to take some pictures of the blooming shrubs but she was unfamiliar with my camera and all we got were fuzzy pictures. On one small stretch of river the shubs were blooming on both sides making for beautiful scenery.

We passed a few old railroad bridges and an old manufacturing plant that looked to be closed for many years. We were the only ones on this stretch of river, left alone to peacefully cruise the gently twisting narrow river channel for miles and miles.

Soon we rounded a curve and the river started to widen a bit. Then we saw the George Andrews lock and dam. This was a short run taking only about an hour or a little more. We followed the same procedure as before, hailing the lock operator, and went through the second of three locks on our quest for the ocean.

I'll follow with a few more pics and pick up the story after that

Eddie

Pictures from Lake Eufaula to the first Lock

2009-05-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Here we go

2009-05-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

As you've read we were first timers on this trip.... so I hope this info will help others. Here's how our trip went.

The couple that was going with us backed out at the last minute so my girlfriend and I had my boat to ourselves. It would have been nice if they had went with us to share the expenses but it was OK. If you plan to take someone with you make sure you get the money for the trip up front when you are making plans, that way if they back out they are only hurting themselves.

We all got excited on the 28th and decided to leave around 11:00 pm to be at Eufaula at first light instead of waiting until the next morning. We loaded the clothes and personals in the boats hooked up and pulled out. We stopped by the local Walmart on the way to get the rest of the provisions (food, beer, and ice) packed the coolers down and hit the road.

You know...it's weird the people you run into going through life. While I was loading the coolers in the boat in the Walmart parking lot, a fellow came over and starting talking. At first I thought he was some kind of weirdo approaching someone at midnight in a Walmart parking lot. I was close to my gun and I admit I did look over at it for a second wondering, but the more he talked, the more he seemed harmless, so I just talked with him. He was talking about how he liked my boat and asked where we were heading so late at night. I told him about our trip and he said that he had done the exact same trip a couple of years back in a smaller ski boat with a tent to camp in. It's amazing what a small world it is. His advice was to follow the buoys, and not to anchor close to the bank as they had a run in with an alligator smelling their food and being nosey. I thanked him for his advice and we left out for the Interstate and Eufaula.

We were going along just fine and were only about 25 miles away from Eufaula when I felt the trailer drop on the left side and saw an explosion of sparks behind the boat. I eased on the breaks and pulled over on the shoulder. When I went back to inspect the trailer, both tires were missing on the drivers side!! Apparently the forward tire had blown out and had came off the rim and wrapped around the rear tire and ripped it and the wheel off breaking the studs and the U bolts holding the axle on. We searched and searched at least a mile back up the road but never found the other wheel and tire. At this point the friends with the other boat came back and helped us get our boat off the road a little better and to trace down a broken wire to get the lights on the trailer back working. A local sheriffs deputy stopped in a patrol car and asked if we needed any assistance. We told him of our plan to fix it the next morning and he said that it would be alright. With no way to fix it we decided to just crawl in the boats and spend the night until we could get some parts to repair it the next day.

The next morning we inspected the damage and got a parts list to take to town. We were going to unhook one of the trucks, but one of the other couples that were going to drive one of the trucks came up and took us to town to get the parts to repair the trailer. We repaired the trailer and were back on the road by 10:00 am.

When we came into Eufaula we stopped at a local gas station to fill up the boats. I already had around 40 gallons in mine so it took 99.5 gallons to fill it up It cost $208 dollars to fill up at $2.09 a gallon. That much gas is heavy weighing 845 lbs, so it is best to wait to fill up the boat in the last few miles to go. We got some snacks and cigg's and refilled the beer stock as we had depleted some of it on the side of the road. It was just a couple of miles to Highland Park where we put in at. We put the boats in, loaded the crew, and waved at the people driving the trucks and headed out for the dam and lock.

We could just barely see the lock on the other side of the lake from the boat ramp so it was just a short 15 minute run to get there. Randy called the lock operator on the VHF and let him know that we were coming and at that point the lock operator said "Roger Captain Randy" and from that point on through the trip when we talked to each other on the VHF, I hailed his as "Captain Randy" and he hailed me as "Captain Eddie". We got a kick out of it as we are just a couple of good ol' boys with boats.

The locks are amazing things. I have been through one as a child but this was the first time I had piloted a boat through one. This is the way you go through a lock. When you pull up call the lock operator on your cell phone, you can find the number online before you leave, or hail them on the VHF. They monitor channel 16. There is also a rope with a big sign over it to "Pull for the Lock Operator" if all else fails. It blows a huge horn that I'm sure can be heard from miles away as it sounds like the horn on a freighter ship. That will defiantly get someones attention! Then you wait till they open the front doors of the lock and you drive in. There are light grey floating can like things built into the wall on a track that lower and raise with the water level. These are what you tie off to. Then the close the doors behind you. They blow a horn to let the people downstream know that they are releasing water and the water level will slowly start going down. I've read that the lock at Walter F George is one of the deepest locks in the US with a drop of over 90 feet. While the water is going down it helps to have fenders deployed and to help push the boat off the wall from time to time as the boat will move around some when the water is dropping. When you get to the bottom the large doors on the other side of the lock will open and you drive out into the river and you are on your way.

Pictures and a continuation of the trip to follow.

Eddie

Wow What A Trip!!!

2009-05-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, We've been back for a while now and I'm just getting around to posting how the trip went. Sorry it's taken so long if your following this. In the next few post I will try to tell you about our trip and post pictures. More to come shortly.

2009-04-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

Hi, My name is Eddie Jones and I live in Franklin, Ga. with my girlfriend. We have a trip coming up that we would like to share with you. We like to take little adventures and this will be one to remember. First a little background.

While we have been preparing for this trip, I have been searching the Internet for information on doing this very same thing... probably like your doing now, without much luck. With all the great natural beauty of the Chattahoochee river, I'm surprised there isn't any more info out there about doing a trip like this than there is. Hopefully this blog will help others thinking about or wanting to take this trip.

We plan to go down the Chattahoochee river all the way to the ocean in Apalachacola, Florida and connect with the Intercostsal Waterway. From there we will ride the ICW west to Panama City Beach, Florida where we have rented a beach house with a dock. We will be going on our boat which is a 1986 28' Chaparral X278 cruiser. Onboard our boat will be Debbie and me and two other friends. We have friends Randy and Robin Haynes with another boat going with us. Their boat is a 26' Renken and they will be taking two of our other friends with them also. So that is a total of four couples going on this trip. Randy and the people on his boat have done this trip before. Me and the people on my boat have not. It should be a blast.

We only have 4 days to go and we are excited. We plan to leave on 4/29/09 at around 6:00 am to head to Lake Eufaula as it's called around here. It's real name is Lake Walter F George. It's a 45,000 acre lake on the Chattahoochee river system on the border of Georgia and Alabama that was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1963. If you've never been there you shoud go. It's a beautiful large lake with 640 miles of shoreline and excellent bass fishing. The bass population had a disease that killed off the larger fish a few years back, but I hear that the size of the larger ones are starting to return. Anyway... we are trailering the boats to Eufaula and putting in about an hours ride from the dam and lock. We have more friends coming through and picking up our trucks and trailers and driving them on down to Panama City and meeting us at the beach house.

You might be thinking, "Man these guys must be rich or something, two big cabin cruisers and renting a large beach house with a dock".......Nottttt. We both have very little (comparitivly speaking in our boats, and with all the people going, the beach house is only costing us $126 a couple for 5 days and 4 nights and we expect burn around $300 of fuel each in the boats. We are leaving out on Wednesday 4/29 and returning on Sunday 5/3. So it's really very reasonable. Trust me..... we're not the Yatch club white shoes, white slacks, and captian hats drinking champaign type of people. We are more the Redneck Riviera type with cut off jeans and tank tops with a beer coozy in hand. Our boats aren't brand new and they don't sparkle but they look nice, run good, and are paid for.

We'll be taking pictures and video on the way down and I will post them with other information that I think will be helpful to a first timer like us or just stuff that we find interesting.

Check back and follow along on our trip.