Meandering Magees: Mobile Bay to Florida

Day 56 - Tuesday, November 1
1627 miles

When we left our anchorage on Friday morning, we had 40 miles to downtown Mobile. The last 5 miles were a no wake zone, which extended into the entire trip through downtown to Mobile Bay. I had thought that the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Mississippi River were industrial, but Mobile steps it up a notch. Large international ocean going vessels were moored to docks where they were either being loaded or unloaded.

True North entered Mobile Bay at 3:00, where we were greeted by pelicans, shrimp boats, sea gulls and dolphins. We were as excited as little kids. We had to keep our speed down due to all the shrimp boats and small pleasure craft so it took us a while to go the 7 miles to Dog River Marina on the west side of Mobile Bay.
We tied up on a corner dock right by the marina office which gave us a front-row seat to the busy basin. Shrimp boats and small fishing boats were coming and going, but our most enjoyable activity was watching the fish jump and pelicans literally nose-dive in the water to grab one.
How many pelicans can fit atop a pole? In the case of the pole near our boat, only one, as we saw a tussle over that turf with no winner. Both pelicans fell off. While traveling in the Bay, we rarely saw a post that didn't have one or more birds perched on it.
Dinner was at the Mobile Yacht Club, a short walk from the boat. Very good food and a personable chef who came out to check on our food and answered all our questions on how he prepares certain dishes. The big questions for us from up north - just what are grits? I order them every chance I get but never really knew what they are. (ground corn).

There was a West Marine store at Dog River Marina so Mike was able to get the charts we need for the Gulf/Florida portion of our trip. The dock master was very knowledgeable of the panhandle area and spent time with Mike going over the charts and even gave us a helpful one for free.

With the Michigan/Michigan State game on Saturday, we waited as long as we could to leave
the marina so we could watch it. For the first time, we left the TV and satellite on while traveling, and crossed Mobile Bay at our slow pace. Karen watched in the salon area while Mike and Greg listened to the game on Sirius radio on the flybridge.

Fairhope, Alabama had been suggested to us as a stop so we went less than 20 miles to the east side of Mobile Bay to Eastern Shore Marina. We went through our shallowest entrance channel (under 5 ft) which always makes Mike nervous, but made it to a tight fuel dock for fuel and a pump-out, which was do-it-yourself, but they still charged $10. But under the "thankful for the little things" category, we received a free night of dockage because we purchased more than 100 gallons of fuel. It was our first time under a roof at a dock, but we had plenty of clearance for our antennas.
One person described Fairhope as a "touristy town". After staying in marinas all along the rivers that were more "boatyards" and being on anchor, Karen and I were perfectly fine with touristy. We live in a tourist town, so that was not a negative to us.

Downtown Fairhope is a little gem. I could have stayed a week to explore every nook and cranny. Much of the architecture was New Orleans flavored. There was even a small section called the French Quarter that was very reminiscent of our visit to NOLA in 2013. It would take a week just to eat at all the cafes, and browse all the upscale clothing stores and art galleries.
And we didn't find a single tacky t-shirt shop!
We used the marina courtesy car 4 times in 2 days. Saturday night we had pizza at Cousin Vinny's in Daphne, an equally cute town (much smaller) that is less than 7 miles from Fairhope. On Sunday Mike and I went in town for an early breakfast. That afternoon we walked around Fairhope, picked up more groceries, (we eat really well when traveling on the boat!) and celebrated making it to salt water by cooking steaks on the community grill at the marina. The grill was also being used by other boaters for hot dogs and a shrimp boil. We found out the guy cooking the hot dogs owned the restaurant where we had breakfast!

Monday morning True North got an oil change by the staff of Eastern Shore. The process took most of the day, so Karen and I made a last trip into town to purchase post cards from a store that was closed on Sunday and walked around town some more. We learned a piece of trivia in the coffee shop. William Groom, who authored the book Forrest Gump is from Fairhope and the character was loosely based on a local citizen. (can you imagine the guessing game that ignited!)

We wanted to leave Eastern Shore Marina at high tide due to the shallow channel and the oil change was taking longer than anticipated. We were within a half hour of not being able to get out but the crew finished up and we took off for The Wharf Marina at Orange Beach, Alabama at 3:30. The workers put a smile on Mike and Greg's faces that lasted the rest of the day when they mentioned how clean the engine room on the boat was. (it's a guy thing).

"Hello speed. Good-bye good fuel mileage." Out of the channel, True North flexed her muscles as she was finally able to run at her normal speed. And we used the auto pilot for the first time since we left Lake Michigan. We had to rein her back in when we entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at 5:15. We were back to our 10 mph until we reached The Wharf.

The marina was in front of an entertainment complex with the same name and the complex was jammed packed with trick or treaters enjoying "Trunk or Treat". It was fun to see all the the costumes as we walked to dinner. When you are retired and on a boat, it is easy to forget that it was Halloween. Although we could have been Gilligan, the Skipper, Mary Ann and Ginger!

Mornings are very peaceful and today (Tuesday) was no exception. We left Orange Beach at 10:15 local time. Did you hear the big hooray all the way back home when we crossed over into Florida at 11:15? WE DID IT. WE MADE IT TO FLORIDA ON A BOAT!

Our destination today was Pensacola. The city must have heard of the welcome we got in Mobile Bay, and was determined not to be outdone. Not only did we have dolphins playing in our wake, we were treated to an air show by the Blue Angels who were practicing for a weekend performance.
So cool! By the time we got docked and fixed lunch, we didn't have enough time for an Uber ride to the National Naval Aviation Museum. We walked a few block to downtown Pensacola which is filled with historic buildings and trying hard to repurpose them with shops and restaurants to be a desired destination spot. The elements are there to work with: a green space plaza, a minor league baseball park (Blue Wahoos Stadium), and an amphitheater all within walking distance. A guy walking past the boat just said Donald Trump is going to be at the amphitheater on Wednesday night. They are expecting over 5,000 people and there will be fireworks. We can see the venue perfectly from the flybridge.

Weather is starting to play an important part in our travel decisions so I'm not sure where the next update will come from. We plan to go to Panama City on Wednesday, but a wavy Gulf may prevent that. Stay tuned . . .