Day 154 Demopolis Marina 2nd day Saturday October 20, 2018

Day 154 Demopolis Marina 2nd day Saturday October 20, 2018

Cloudy with a few showers. High was mid 60s.

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The day was perfect to be in a marina. The temperature high was in the upper 60s but it felt cool during the day and chilly this evening. There were showers around at times but no heavy rain.

It is amazing how fast time can go when you are doing things on the boat. It is never as quick as being at home. Laundry is back and forth to the laundry room. Shopping, which we did today, is sign up for the courtesy car - work other things around when you can get it and head off to get your loot. Work on planning for the next day takes time. We even had a meeting of the Loopers who would be leaving tomorrow to coordinate passing through the lock together.  The marina manager advised that the lockmaster doesn't want to talk to multiple boats all trying to get locking information and going at multiple times over the early morning. But it was a great day to do that and is all part of the looping adventure.

Included in my day was a trip around the boatyard and marina. There is a golf cart on the property and I took it to the marina work yard. "What is that in the corner?" Oh my - a burned out Bayliner 38. And it turns out that it was an 1989 the same year as ours. It was painful to see but fascinating at the same time.

And here is a question to my "I Spy" sleuths, what do you think caused the fire? I will add a few clues. The boat had gas engines (unlike most that had diesels like mine).

The engines have been removed and you are looking into the engine compartment. The generator is to the left and largely intact with no or minimal fire damage.

Looking over the stern. Notice where the fire seems to have been concentrated.

This is the port side. The flybridge has been removed along with all the salon windows. The side window in the port side guest room is still intact.

Now here is the final clue as to what I think caused the fire. The electric shore power plug-in is located on the starboard side right about where the round hole is in the cabin side.

I am quite sure that the fire started from loose or corroded electric plug-in connectors of the shore power. The standard long used plug design has been famous for developing poor connections that overheat to the point of starting a fire. The fire was not started in the engine room contrary to my first expectation. And the fire pattern clearly seems to have originated in the area of the electric plug so that is my theory on the fire. This is the result that lead me to change our plug- in adapters to a new design that minimizes the chance of a fire.

Here are some more shots of the very nice marina.

And it even has a courtesy car. But it is not quite as nice as the rest of the marina. And here it is - a Buick Skylark - age? Think it would qualify for antique plates.

But it ran. Jim and Justine went with us to Walmart - a Super-Center no less. And here is Faye and Justine in the back framed by the lovely hanging headliner.

And here is a picture of the dash. And no this is not the lights that come on when you turn on the ignition before starting the car - the engine is already running. Looks like a Halloween display. eh? But it got us there and back nicely and we were able fill the larders before the final push to the Gulf of Mexico - some 216 miles away.

We decided that dinner out again would be nice as there would be no dining options until reaching Mobile on the coast. The Red Barn was good and local - it really was a barn - and it is red - so as good a name as I could come up with.

As you can see it is night time and I am back at the boat so it is definitely time to say .............

Good Night and May God Bless