Fairhope to Fairhope

Originally, we were going on Friday (today). But the weather system looked like it was taking its time, so we moved our go-day to Saturday. When we woke this morning, though, things were quite calm (both sea and wind), and two boats left around 7 am. So, we ate our breakfast, did our usually prep, and headed out around 8:30 am.

...and apparently missed the window. The winds came up and the bay was turbulent. Not the worst we'd been in, but enough to not be fun. 

We turned around and came back.

Keeping an eye on the water we didn't get another break all day long. We'll make an early day of things tomorrow, so if the morning is calm, we're going.

Waitin' out the weather in Fairhope

We've had a number of dramatic, ominous, and stunning skies the last few days.

Spooky sunset

See the calm water?

When they say, "Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning,"
they mean THIS!

Now check out the water. There are significant waves on the bay

Dog River to Fairhope

The little bump in the middle was us avoiding a tanker.

Just a jog across the Mobile Bay.

We woke this morning in New Orleans. We packed and headed out right around 8 am, got to Mobile around 10:30, where we took the rental back to the airport with the aid of a courtesy van. By the time we got to the boat is was just about noon. We had some sandwiches, started the engines, and dashed our way across Mobile Bay to Fairhope, a 90 minute ride. Nice easy way to start back into the whole boating thing.

Mobile is in the distance on the other side of the bay

We'd been to Fairhope before, back when we RV'd. Cute little town, lots of restaurants. We're docked the boat at the Fairhope Yacht Club, which is just off the bay. 

Someone had recommended to us about a month ago that we join the Marsh Harbor Yacht club. It's in the Bahamas, but there isn't an actual marina or building. It's all on paper, which makes it pretty cheap as yacht clubs go. No real maintenance. And a nifty burgee (flag) to boot.

The real benefit is that some yacht clubs honor other yacht club memberships, so you get a discount. FYC it one such place. With our discount it was cheaper than Dog River. 

Gonna start seeking these places out, now!

The Marsh Harbor Yacht Club burgee.

Dog River

We've parked the boat for a week at the Dog River Marina while we rent a car and take some time to visit New Orleans. Our Nebo decided we were on a voyage. It lasted about 15 minutes. And was flawless, by the way.

When I walked through the door I laughed. The place is enormous, and with the vaulted 15 foot ceilings it looks overwhelming, especially since we live in roughly 1/5 the square footage. We have two bathrooms that, when I lived here, I felt were too small. Now they look huge, compared to the facilities on the boat.

We came home like college students. 3 bags of laundry.

Driving here was very weird. I told Russ I was likely to cry pitifully not to get back on the boat. This is really a nifty city -- bizarre, cacophonous, and occasionally dangerous, but truly unique. Was a time when we'd visit for weeks at a time, just to be sure we could do all the things we loved to do here. 

I confess, the election threw us for a loop. We felt we needed to go someplace where folks had a shared political ideology. Almost immediately I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and we couldn't flee New Orleans fast enough. It wasn't so much that the medical selection here lacked (although it did) but we knew it would be world class in San Francisco. Serendipitously, our condo in SF lost its tenant. So we left NOLA.

Aftermath of the Hard Rock collapse.
Only in New Orleans...

The song goes, "You don't know what it means to miss New Orleans." It's unlike any other city in the US. That said, there's always another condo. So after walking through our front door, and ogling the spaciousness and incredible presentation of the place, I'm still in favor of selling it.

Alabama River to Mobile

Our anchor(s) held all night with no issues. The predicted storms turned out to be only some rain. We heard one distant rumble, and nothing more. 

We didn't sleep great though since our anchor monitor alarm woke us around 11 pm (if the boat moved more than 20 feet or so an alarm goes off -- and it's loud!). It thought we were in Paducah. Needless to say, we've switched alarm monitoring systems.

Up somewhat early but not in a massive hurry. We had 60 miles or so to get to Dog River Marina, where we'll park the boat for a week and drive to New Orleans. Not for fun, I'm afraid. Teeth cleaning, vet appointments, termite inspectors, you know, chores.

The trip down river was speedy. We had a current pull us along the way. Without trying we reached 10 knots on occasion.

While on the river I can see Mobile through the trees

Once on the bay the winds picked up -- the cold front started to move in in earnest. Small craft advisories were issued for the gulf, which we weren't traveling to thankfully. Most of the wind was on our stern (for a change) until we had to make a hard right to the marina. Note to any loopers going to Dog River, the channel is crazy small and crazy shallow. Laughable, even. And with the wind pushing us around, it made for a challenging run. And a challenging docking attempt to boot. I got it done, but it was ... stressful.

We're back in the Gulf. Well, Mobile Bay. Pelicans, terns, and even some dolphin sightings already. We haven't been on open waters since Lake Michigan. And we haven't had to deal with tides since the Hudson River. Lots of things to remember and relearn.

The top part of Mobile Bay is very industrial.
We are so tiny compared to the big shipping vessels.

At docktails tonight we also thought of all the things we have to unlearn. Like one or two whistles, or the term PCs. Now we're motor vessels. And no one in the gulf or on the ICW knows what the heck a one whistle is.

Once clear of the ship yards, open waters.

Coffeeville to Alabama River Anchorage

First thing this morning was the last lock on the loop. Gotta say, I won't miss those, at least not the ones on the TennTom. On one hand, after 98 locks (or so I've been told, since I was too lazy to count) I've acquired the skill of sidling up to a wall, right at some bollard or pin, and right before the boat touches the wall. Kinda proud of that. 

On the other hand, lockmasters are just bothers. This morning, for example, we had 7 boats wanting to lock through. One of us hailed the lockmaster and were told to come on down, the lock would be ready. We came down. The lock was not ready. In fact we waiting 30 minutes for the lock to get ready. We called you! You said to come! We could have hung out at Bobby's a little longer! 🙄 We realized this on the last lock, but next time, don't call for a 7 am lockthrough. We suspect the shift changes, and so what the first guy says isn't what the 2nd guy does.

Crazy S turn

Mostly today was a bit of a race. Weather was coming, with possible thunderstorms. With no marinas between Bobby's and Mobile, we had to pick out an anchorage protected enough should the weather turn ugly. The good news is there are several on this stretch, little tributary rivers surrounded by trees. We picked the Alabama River and tucked ourselves in for the night. Three other boats joined us.

We are a little nervous, though. Not because of the weather. But of the 4 boats here, we were the only ones facing the river, the other 3 are facing us. 

Goodbye locks and freshwater.

When anchoring you want to park down current or down wind. We admit we aren't doing that at the moment. We dropped a stern anchor as well as the bow, and we're largely hanging off the stern. However, we're back in tidal waters, and for most of the night we will (or should) be in the right direction once the tide changes. But still being newbs in all this we wonder if we're missing something. We set an anchor alarm, which will go off if we moved too far (meaning we're dragging our anchor since the stern isn't near are robust as the bow anchor). We'll see how it goes.

Demopolis to Coffeeville

Longer day today. The goal was to get to Coffeeville, and specifically Bobby's Fish Camp, which is a restaurant/RV park/boat dock. 

Only one lock needed to be traversed today, and it was right at the start. We called them first thing in the morning, around 6:30. They gave us a green light to proceed, and five boats left immediately. (I did bump a piling pretty hard on leaving, which was the first time in a LONG time -- daggumit!) 

While largely heading south,
the river winds like this.
Mother Nature, WTH?

A quick note about Demopolis: We had a number of run-ins with the dockmaster there, enough that we nicknamed her "Il Duce". But the lockmaster was equally, how to put it... authoritarian. We had to give him our names, our registration numbers, we were called into the lock one at a time, we were warned not to wake, and told to notify him when we were secured. Maybe there's something in the water, here.

Trip was long but uneventful. The day started quite gloomy, on the verge of being foggy, but cleared into a lovely day.

Upon reaching Bobby's we knew our options were tie up at the fuel dock or raft onto a 45 Carver called Hey Coach. We wanted to do the former, but a boat hailed from behind us (we thought he'd anchored earlier but changed his mind). He was a 60+ foot boat, and that would be tough to raft to a smaller vessel. So we gave him the dock, and we sidled nice and slow next to the Carver.

A damn fine parking job if I do say so myself.

Also, I got to take a nap on the way. Good day!

PS: We have exactly one more lock to get through tomorrow. And THAT IS IT for the loop. It's the last one until we get a gold looper flag. WOW!!!!

One tool we use is AquaMaps, which shows us depth
information in the channel. But this was from the Spring
after floods. We seriously need to update the data,
because that is just terrifying.

Some fall colors here in the south

Eating fried catfish at Bobby's. The boats are behind the trees.
Also, we're back in the land of Spanish Moss.