Local men Jeremiah Griffin and Eric Wood set out Sunday morning on a trip from Wetumpka to Mobile on Griffin’s sailboat named the s/v (sailing vessel) Eva Jean. Wood estimates the 382-mile trip will take five days to Dauphin Island Marina in Mobile. On the way, the pair will pass through three lock-and-dams.
“This is something that I have always wanted to do since I was a little boy,” said Griffin, who works as a logistician for the Alabama Natonal Guard and readily admits to being a sailing novice. “My grandmother, Eva Jean Reeves, told me stories about when she was a little girl living downtown Montgomery, boys would build rafts and float down to Selma. This idea of adventure has been instilled in me ever since, so I decided to put this dream into play.
“Last year, I bought a 1981 Catalina 25 sailboat and started the restoration process from the bottom up, working every spare minute I had to have her ready for the trip this fall. And finally she is finished and ready for the trip. Or so my inexperienced mind tells me.”
Griffin, who said he’s never attempted to sail, is married to Tori and they have a young daughter named Lexi. Wood, who works for ITS here in Wetumpka, is married to Tiffany.
The pair was at work Sunday morning loading some final items on the Eva Jean, which is equipped with both and inverter and solar panels.
“I’ll be able to watch Netflix on my computer and make calls on my cell phone on the trip,” Griffin said.
Reeves, the inspiration for the trip, said that she remembers well the boys in her Montgomery neighborhood taking to the river on rafts and other homemade crafts.
“They did it all the time and, as Jeremy was growing up, I told him stories about that,” Reeves said. “Obviously, he was listening.”
Reeves said that she is honored to have her grandson’s boat bear her name.
“They had a little christening ceremony last week with a bottle of champagne and everything,” Reeves said. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the name. It was such an honor for me.”
Griffin says he hopes this is just the first of many sailing trips.
“I plan on pulling the boat out in Mobile and returning home to Lake Jordan where I will continue to improve the boat over the next year,” he said. “In the fall of 2018, I plan on returning to the same marina and then try to cross the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Keys. Then maybe the Bahamas!”
Griffin said on this trip the pair will likely motor all the way to Mobile and begin to sail when they reach the bay.
“There’s really not the wind you need on the river to sail,” Griffin said. “So we’ll probably use the outboard all the way down and then look to sail when we reach Mobile.”
Several family members and others turned out on Sunday morning to watch the pair get underway. Within just a few minutes of their leaving, the craft had disappeared from view, headed south for Mobile Bay.
