Saturday, November 12 - Beginning the GICW (Gulf Intracoatal Waterway)

Both Danny and I have had some "duh" moments of this trip.  I will let him tell his own, but here iss my latest. We still had not been able to pump out (we found out after we pulled into the marina that theirs was broken), so didn't want to use the boat showers and add more water to the holding tank. So I go up the shower room, get all my stuff out of the bag, undress, and started to grab my towel before stepping in the shower.  No towel or washcloth!  I used my dirty t-shirt to dry my hair and my towel-turban to dry off.  I wasn't about to walk all the way to the boat and back again!

We set out from Fly Creek and entered Mobile Bay once again.  It wa a gorgeous day, bright sunshine, sparkling water.  There were SO many homes along the beautiful shore, but because of the shallow bay, we have to stay out too far from shore to get much detail.  We celebrated the completion of "Repair Week" and departure from Fairhope with Bloody Mary's.  Not as good as the ones Charles makes, but we enjoyed them immensely!

Toward the southern end of Mobile Bay, we headed east and looked for our first GICW markers.

There is a cut above Bob Secour Peninsula that connects with Oyster Bay and the waterway, so we didn't actually go out into the Gulf.  We will later, but at a point where the cut throughs are closer together.

The first section of the Waterway was pretty much what I had anticipated.  Older cabins, big new homes, condos, lush foliage, and fishing boats. I was so excited that I tried to see everything on both sides!  People had told us about Pirate's Cove Marina which has great hamburgers.  We called to see if we could pump out and maybe stay overnight, they didn't have room even for us to pull up for lunch.  We went on to Lulu's Restaurant and marina in Gulf Shores.

Since we had still not been able to pump out, we were delighted they offered that service.  We had been quoted a cost of $5.50, the bill was $11.00 - we have two holding tanks.  Still a bargain!  We had eaten at Lulu's last year with David and Linda, so decided to move on in search of a good hamburger!

After a few miles, we came to The Wharf Marina, a complex including condos, retail, dining, movie theaters, ND a marina.  Our Looper friends Carol and Jim had stayed and liked it. We pulled in,thinking surely they had a good hamburger place.  We checked in, found a hamburger place, and watched the Georgia - Auburn football game with 4 other Georgia fans, and lots of Alabama fans pulling for Georgia.  The fried pork skins were awesome, and Danny's chili burger was good.

Mondy - Friday, November 7 - 11 - A WEEK in Fairhope

We had chosen Eastern Shore Marina because Danny wanted to have someone check out the gas smell we had noticed.  Ed, who had checked our boat noise in Demopolis, also owns Eastern Shore, so we thought we would give him some more business.

We needed to fill the boat with gas to find the problem, since that's when the smell was most noticeable.   Well, due to the gas line explosion in Birmingham last week, the marina didn't have gas. So we waited.  Then Tuesday they decided they had enough gas to fill the rear tank, which we thought was causing the problem.  Turns out it was the hoses to the gas tanks.  Then while Dewel, the mechanic (pronounced "duel") was checking on those, he found a leak in the water pump, and in a transmission seal.  Parts had to be ordered, delay in delivery, blah, blah, blah.  They finally finished this afternoon - FRIDAY!

During the week, we did eat at some good local restaurants, found a Winn-Dixie to buy some pimiento cheese, got pedicures, rode down to Point Clear, took a nice long walk, and watched some beautiful sunsets.  A couple of days were grey and dreary, one was rainy, but we were on the water and had an awesome view from the bow of our boat.

Sunday, November 6 - Fairhope, AL

Sunday breakfast!  We reserved the marina car, and followed the suggestion of Justin, the marina guy,  to eat at The Warehouse.  The food was wonderful and unique.  I have never had fried okra for breakfast, but it was on my Bayou Breakfast Benedict and it was wonderful.  Danny had Shrimp Creole Benedict, a stretch for him since it had no bacon.  I was so impressed that I posted a picture of our plates to Facebook, realizing later that I was now one of THOSE people that everyone complains about on Facebook.  No more meal photos for me.

I spent the afternoon in the laundry room and playing with this blog while Danny played with the chart plotter.  Some time in the afternoon we heard a very loud noise.  The guy in the sailboat next to us said it was a pelican hitting the top of our boat. Fun Sunday afternoon.

My cousin, Jim Smith, lives in Mobile so we had contacted him.  He and his wife, Denise, came by for a visit, and we had a great time.  Jim is an avid Auburn fan, so we had some interesting football discussions and caught up on family news.  They are a delightful couple and we enjoyed their visit so much.

Remember the lady from Demopolis that had the great rope knot?  She was here visiting friends on CJ and come by to show me the knot.  It's called a "Cow Hitch" and it works great.  The Great Loop connection at work!

Saturday, November 5. - Part 2

 Tonight was our first Gulf Coast sunset, and it was spectacular!  I took about 100 pictures, of course! We are looking forward to lots more beautiful sunsets these next couple of months.

Saturday, November 5 - Mobile

Danny used two anchors last night to keep us from swinging in the very narrow river.  The smaller one on the stern came up just fine, the larger bow anchor wouldn't budge.  It had caught on a HUGE submerged limb, maybe a tree.   After a lot of maneuvering, Danny was able to break the limb, thank goodness.  I thought we might have to leave the anchor in Big Bayou Canot.

You can see Mobile long before you get there. The area is flat, of course, and there are no buildings or big trees to block the view.  We knew that we would go through a large industrial area as we entered the city, but were not prepared for the immensity.  Refineries, manufacturing facilities, boatyards, monstrous cargo wharves, downtown Mobile right in the middle of it, then more and more and more cargo container facilities. Mobile is the 10th  largest port in the country and it shows!  Since it was a Saturday, there wasn't a lot of activity and we were grateful!

One interesting thing we saw was the Navy shipyard that makes the "stealth" ships.  That's not the right name, but it describes them pretty well.  They are right on the shipping channel, so there isn't much stealth about their construction.  Check our Facebook pages for pictures.

We headed due South in the shipping channel and finally had a wide open view of the Gulf of Mexico.  We were headed for Eastern Shore Marine in Fairhope AL.  The directions said go to a certain channel marker, then turn due east for so many miles, then 165 degrees for so many more miles.  Well, there are no mile markers in Mobile Bay!  Thanks to Skipper Bob's guide book and Danny's sharp eye, we found the cliff, then the gazebo roof to guide us in.  It was exciting and just a little scary.  Did I mention that the wind was really whipping, too?

Our first "visitor" was a cat!  He jumped on board and ran down into the cabin.  We heard later that Charlie the Cat runs the marina.  As long as he runs it from somewhere besides my boat!

 Jan and Kent aboard Follow that Dream were docked right in front of us and asked if we wanted to ride into town with them in the courtesy car..  Publix was our first stop, then ACE Hardware for a saw  in case we anchor another log, then downtown Fairhope, then the pier where we watched young guys throw nets along the sea wall to catch shrimp.  They offered to sell us some,  but we didn't have cocktail sauce and horseradish on the boat.

Julie and Curt from CJ were walking by and we invited them on board for a drink. I poured myself a glass of what was called "White."  When we were all seated I turned up the glass and choked.  It was white RUM.  We all had a good laugh, and I drank straight rum.  It was pretty good.

The day ended with a Bulldawg victory!!!

November 4 - Last Day on the Waterway

Danny got up first, as always, and saw an alligator from the back of the boat.  Two for him, none for me.  Maybe I should start getting up earlier!

The views today were more interesting.  The two banks were very different and we still had curves. Seagulls continued to follow us, but no wildlife.  The chart plotter showed only swamp all around us for Many miles.

We were close enough to Mobile that we could have made it before dark, but we decided to enjoy the peace and quiet for one more night.  The only anchorage recommended was Big Bayou Canot, which was a small river that made a loop in the swamp.  It was beautiful and so peaceful.  Two sailboats pulled in and rafted together but they were very quiet neighbors.

November 3 - 1st Alligator Sighting

Boats started leaving Bobby's Fish Camp about 7:00 in order to make it through the Coffeeville Lock in the first group.  We needed gas, so we let them all take off and hung back with Way 2 Much, Carol and Jim's boat.  They had some engine trouble yesterday and thought it was from gas that came from the bottom of the tank at the last marina.  The pumps were REALLY slow (we are at a fish camp, remember?) so it took a while to gas up our two boats.

We locked through Coffeeville Lock and continued down the Tombigbee.  Carol and Jim took off at their usual 25 mph, we kept at 10 mph!  The scenery and vegetation has changed, making this stretch more interesting.  We saw huge sand bars, and there were lots of curves.  The only birds we saw for a long time were white herons sitting on the shore at intervals.  Then all of a sudden we had a flock of seagulls following our boat.  They must have thought we had food!  I took some great videos for the grandkids.  Danny saw the first alligator but I missed it.

Our anchorage for the night was an indentation on the river bank.  I was a little anxious, but Danny assured me we were out of the way of the tows and barges.  It was peaceful and lovely, but he didn't catch any fish.