Boat in harbor

Boat in harbor

Monday, November 30, 2015

Orange Beach AL- The Wharf

Our Ferris wheel selfie
We had a 4 hour run to Orange Beach, AL from mobile. It was lovely with minimal waves but most important...dolphins were traveling with us!! I took photos but was more excited and did not catch any great ones today! We met up with our buddy boat Knot Sew Easy at the Wharf Marina. What a great marina, complete with restaurants, bars, high-end shopping, live music and a ferris wheeel! Liz and I went into town to pick up some fresh seafood and to find some knitting supplies. Success!
We spent 3 nights here due to weather...no complaints from me!

Pretty morning run! 

shrimp boat
My best dolphin photo for the day 

This is Jimmy Buffet's sisters restaurant

Cute boy Crocket!
Us arriving at The Wharf...thanks to Sum Escape for the photo

Palm Trees! This is the cute town
The lights danced to the music 
Some ice cream before our Ferris wheel ride!



Live music, always a favorite!
Trouble...Ben and Bob
More trouble! T-Liz  
Ev and Clark from SeaMoss

Pretty cool to purchase fresh seafood right from the boats!


These shrimp taste more like lobster! Yummy!
the marina 
Ben cooking some ribs with help from Crocket
Blue crab
It's a dogs life!

Sunday, November 29, 2015

We made it to The Gulf!!!

We can not get enough fresh seafood!!
After Bobby's Fish Camp we traveled 80 miles to an anchorage on the Tensaw River in the cold and rain. This put us only 39 miles from the Gulf (Mobile, Alabama specifically). We had some weather coming and had to watch the wind for our trip to Mobile. It looked like we were going to have to wait a day but the weather system seemed to slow down a bit giving us just enough time to finally make it to the Gulf!! We did it!! It rained the majority of our trip. I learned that brackish water is both salt and fresh water combined, something we were encountering upon our journey to the salt water.
As we were approaching Mobile's harbor (Thankfully on a Sunday) it became very industrial with a lot of commercial traffic. Had it not been a Sunday I bet it would have been a lot busier. Each year more than 40 million tons move through this port. It was once ranked 8th in the U.S in exports, 16th in imports and it is the nations leading port in the movement of forest products. Wow! Glad it wasn't that busy!!
It was a bumpy ride once we turned into the channel to our stopping point at Dog River Marina. Thankfully it was only about 30minutes and thankfully I seem to have finally gotten my sea legs! It was actually nice to have the boat in some waves, as the rivers have been very calm these past months.
We arrived at Dog River with a lovely welcome from friends, Chuck and Vicky, who we met along the way and have finished the Loop. They call Mobile their home and recommended the marina for our boat work. We are going to have our boat pulled out of the water, have the props looked at and the hull cleaned.

We had a great night with our friends celebrating our arrival to salt water!!! woot woot! We did it!!






Cattle on the way to Mobile...Ben moo'd and they all starting running to the shore line!








Mobile


Our boat getting cleaned and props looked at...thankfully only one of the three blades on our port prop had a rolled tip!
The Girls...Dawn, Liz, Me and Vicky
Chuck, Ben, Colin and Bob
The wonderful Chuck and Vicky

Lots of Loopers...
Even more Loopers
My buddies! Dawn and Vicky...This was Dawns last night in the states until they arrive back in March.
We can not get enough fresh seafood!!