Day 96, November 5th, 2009
Happy Guy Fawkes Day all you Limeys!!!
We brought the anchors up at 7:00 and hoped to get all the way to Mobile, 64 miles downstream and another 10 miles to the marina, in the northwestern corner of the bay. We tuned into the weather forecast after we'd set off: Class 1 Hurricane IDA over Nicaragua, expected to travel east to the Mobile area on Tuesday but by then they expected it to downgrade to a tropical storm. Diane phoned the marina and heard they were well protected up the Dog River and they didn't expect the weather to be bad. We decided to continue.
Pretty quiet day just tootling along. Arrived in Mobile around 2:45. We were surprised to find the port of Mobile is enormous. We felt tiny as we came through huge container ships, tugs and saw navy ships being repaired!!! Had an anxious moment when we passed by the stern of a container ship being turned 360 degrees with tugs, and had to push through the prop. wash of a tug as we snuck passed. Not a wise decision. We should have waited until they were finished the manoeuvre!!! Never do that again! One very interesting thing - we saw a stealth, trimaran, battleship in the water outside the Austal boatyard where it was being built. John reckoned they would frown on anyone taking photos but we took this photo anyway and are still alive to tell the tale!
Once out on the Bay we had to keep to a buoyed channel to reach the marina. The bay is enormous but very shallow. We lost the advantage of the current in the river and it took longer to travel the 10 miles than we had hoped but we were glad to reach the marina before dark.
Another true sign of the south - pelican poles in the marina. They seem extremely tricky to tie up to!!! Perhaps we'll improve with practice. Too tired to cook we dinghied over to a restaurant for supper. Grilled catfish is as good as fried!!!! Deeelicious!! With a pina colada to wash it down. Hard life! Sorry you guys in the north!!
Happy Guy Fawkes Day all you Limeys!!!
We brought the anchors up at 7:00 and hoped to get all the way to Mobile, 64 miles downstream and another 10 miles to the marina, in the northwestern corner of the bay. We tuned into the weather forecast after we'd set off: Class 1 Hurricane IDA over Nicaragua, expected to travel east to the Mobile area on Tuesday but by then they expected it to downgrade to a tropical storm. Diane phoned the marina and heard they were well protected up the Dog River and they didn't expect the weather to be bad. We decided to continue.
Pretty quiet day just tootling along. Arrived in Mobile around 2:45. We were surprised to find the port of Mobile is enormous. We felt tiny as we came through huge container ships, tugs and saw navy ships being repaired!!! Had an anxious moment when we passed by the stern of a container ship being turned 360 degrees with tugs, and had to push through the prop. wash of a tug as we snuck passed. Not a wise decision. We should have waited until they were finished the manoeuvre!!! Never do that again! One very interesting thing - we saw a stealth, trimaran, battleship in the water outside the Austal boatyard where it was being built. John reckoned they would frown on anyone taking photos but we took this photo anyway and are still alive to tell the tale!
Once out on the Bay we had to keep to a buoyed channel to reach the marina. The bay is enormous but very shallow. We lost the advantage of the current in the river and it took longer to travel the 10 miles than we had hoped but we were glad to reach the marina before dark.
Another true sign of the south - pelican poles in the marina. They seem extremely tricky to tie up to!!! Perhaps we'll improve with practice. Too tired to cook we dinghied over to a restaurant for supper. Grilled catfish is as good as fried!!!! Deeelicious!! With a pina colada to wash it down. Hard life! Sorry you guys in the north!!
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