Wharf to Ingram Bay Anchorage 10/29/17

One apart and one to sit on for now.

After breakfast we loaded up the bike.  As I was coming down the ramp to the docks a young lady came and told me that she couldn't allow me to ride my motorcycle on the docks.  I guess she thought I was just going for a ride...... Once loaded we cleaned up the boat and headed out around 11:00.  After a short cruise along the GCICW we turned into Ingram's bay anchorage and found a nice protected bay from the north (cold) winds to spend the afternoon and night.  Debbie's next project is to recover these outdoor deck chairs we bought off of some guy in Georgian Bay with the upholstery deteriorating. If I see that guy I might ask him for my money back!

He look's like this.  Doesn't look guilty at all!!

There is no shore to take Abby to that probably doesn't have an alligator somewhere nearby so she will just have to do her business on the fake grass pad.  We watched a movie after dinner and headed for bed.  It's pretty cold out tonight so we will have to snuggle up!

The Wharf Marina Day 2 10/28/17

We unloaded the BMW after breakfast and headed out to see the towns and beaches.  It was not an ideal day cold and windy with a light drizzle.  First stop was West Marine for some ON/OFF to remove the mustache on the bow of the boat when we get to some clean waters. Next we rode along the shore line into Florida which is only about 10 miles from the boat and then back to Gulf Shores to have lunch at Bills at the Beach.  My Chiropractor had recommended this place too and it turned out great.  We were greeted at the door by Bill the owner who gave us some recommendations and even brought us samples of the Gouda Grits after I said I wasn't a fan of grits and he told me he didn't used to be either.

We didn't order one but it looks amazing

We both had a bowl of the smoked shrimp bisque the soup special of the day and then I ordered the shrimp and grits, a first for me.  Bill's prides itself on only serving USA sourced fresh fish and shrimp and has nothing farm raised on the menu.  The shrimp and grits had a 1/2 pound of jumbo shrimp and was delicious.

The Shrimp and Grits

Tacky Jack's

It was raining harder so we headed back to the wharf and hung out on the boat for the afternoon.  Around 6:45 the lights and music started up on Main street so we headed up to have a look.  We had planned to have dinner at the Villagio restaurant and were seated at the bar upon arrival.  Nice vibrant atmosphere and we had seats over looking the open kitchen and pizza oven.  We had decided that since we had a pretty big lunch we would have a couple of their small handcrafted pizzas and a salad.

It was prepared right in front of us and put into the oven which is 618 degrees.  A Chicken Pesto pizza and a Villagio pizza (basically an all dressed). along with two Caesar salads and a nice bottle of wine. Our waiter was great and told us who everyone was from owners to chefs and made our experience a very pleasant evening.  The light and smoke show outside ramped up a couple of times during dinner and we enjoyed the view from our seats. Debbie asked me if what we were seeing in the kitchen was normal and I said yup looks pretty normal to me, organized confusion with lots of people running around like crazy

The pizza chef took our picture.  Thanks

Lots of lights and sounds

Fairhope Docks to The Wharf Marina 10/27/17

Lulu's

I had a third appointment this morning at the Chiropractor at 9:00AM and headed off on the BMW after breakfast.  Another great appointment my back feels much better.  Some small errands and then loaded the bike back onto the boat for our departure.  We headed out in calm conditions with rain in the forecast and cruised southbound through Mobile Bay to intersect the GCICW towards Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.  We passed the iconic Lulu's which is owned by Jimmy Buffets sister Lulu.  The smells wafting out of the place made me hungry. It rained a little but we stayed dry and the wind never really picked up so we had a smooth ride.

Lulu's bar, restaurant and gas dock

We arrived at the Wharf around 4:00 PM and checked into our slip for the night.  This is a huge marina with an equally huge condo/resort shopping area attached to it.  They have a main street with all kinds of shops and restaurants lining both sides and they also have a light show that lights up the whole street with brilliant colors and music.

The main street at the Wharf

The colors all change and they even have a smoke show

We will be here for two days so decided to stay onboard for dinner tonight and go out tomorrow.

Fairhope Docks Day 2 10/26/17

We have a busy day planned today.  Chiropractor at 1:00 and we both have appointments with a dentist at 2:30 to have our teeth cleaned.  We left around 11:30 to head to downtown Fairhope to walk around downtown.  It's a small town but with a very vibrant central area with lots of shops and restaurants to see and enjoy.  We picked a sandwich shop and had the daily special chicken pot pie and a small salad followed with a piece of carrot cake. Not bad!

Enjoying lunch with Debbie in Fairhope

After lunch I left Debbie in the downtown area to walk around and mail some stuff at the post office.  The visit with the Chiropractor was very good and they have one of those massage chairs that I was in for about 40 minutes.  It was great and a real work out for the back, legs and feet.  I picked Debbie up on the bike and we made it to the dentist in time for our appointments at Sweet Water Dentistry.

Dr Phillip Greer took good care of us.

Sweet Water has an additional outside waiting room.

Complete with hammock and a babbling brook.

 After the dentist we went back to town to have a cocktail at a bar the Chiropractor had recommended. The place is called Tongue and Groove Drinkery and they make all of there own sodas and special martinis.  I had an old fashioned and Debbie had a gin and something lemony.  We enjoyed our cocktails but since we were riding the motorcycle figured one would be enough.  When we headed back out to the street there were all kinds of people in Halloween costumes and lots of ladies on bikes dressed as witches.  Turns out this is an annual fund raising event where witches on bicycles dress up and ride through bthe streets giving out candy to the kids and raising money for FurrPaws.  There were over 500 witches and the parade lasted 45 minutes with tons of candy given out.  So much so that there was candy all over the streets but we were near the beginning of the route and we had some really loud kids yelling nonstop which seemed to make the witches throw more candy than normal.  The kids were scrambling on the street trying to stuff as much of the candy as possible in their bags.  What a great idea and fun event.

The kid with the green shirt was the loudest yeller

We headed back to the boat after the parade and had a light dinner of smoked salmon and salad.  A pretty good day.

Dog River to Fairhope Docks 10/25/17

Debbie took Abby for her morning walk and we had breakfast early so we could get away before the tide dropped too much.  We made it out from Dog River to the Mobile shipping channel and passed a freighter and 4 tows transiting the ship channel.  There is no one clear channel to the other side of Mobile Bay where we were headed to Fairhope.  The shipping channel was dredged to a depth of about 45 feet and all of the spoil was deposited on either side of the main channel.  There are breaks in the spoil areas that you pass through to get to the main parts of Mobile Bay but most depths are 6-7  once you reach the main parts of the Bay.  We passed through one of the larger breaks hoping that it would also be one of the deeper cuts but we soon started to see less than 1 foot under the props.  We proceeded slowly and finally got to a point where we had 3-4 feet for the rest of the passage across to Fairhope.  This is very nerve wracking and I hate being in shallow water.  But at least the bottom is mud and usually won't do any damage. Entering the channel into the Fairhope Docks and Fairhope Yacht Club the depth again dropped to less than one foot under the props and readings were either none or 0.  I coasted most of the way through the entrance in neutral and then we docked in a covered slip that had again no depth reading as we backed in.  The Fairhope Docks were recently taken back over by the town and there is a lot of work going on here and a lot that needs to be done.  Drew the dockmaster helped us with a plank that we were able to lower the motorcycle onto and get the bike off of the boat.

It's usually much easier than this but the finger docks are super narrow here and there was not enough room to get around the post at the end without the plank. I'm not looking forward to putting it back on!

I called and found a Chiropractor in Fairhope and made an appointment for 12:30.  So after a quick lunch I headed off and was pleasantly surprised with a great Chiropractor who went to McMaster U in Hamilton Ontario and he was very knowledgeable and gave me a good workover.  I will go back for two more appointments Thursday and Friday morning before we leave for Orange Beach.

I toured around Fairhope and found a place to get a haircut and also scouted out a place for dinner.

Debbie took Abby for a walk and we had a couple of cocktails before we got on the bike to go to dinner.  After dinner we dropped in at CVS to get Flu shots and then back to the boat for another Episode of Downton Abbey and then to bed. It feels good to get some of these small issues resolved.

Only one large Margarita

From last summer.  More than half of the pitcher of Margaritas!!

Dog River Marina Day 2 10/24/17

Dog River Marina was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Nate recently and they were flooded as well as had a lot of wind.  This is more of a working yard than a resort type of marina.  The long time owner recently passed away and left the marina and business to the employees.  I don't know the details but the place could use a major infusion of capital as almost everything is pretty run down.  Their fuel prices are the best around and the docks are older fixed wood docks with pilings.  Everything worked fine and we enjoyed our neighbor Rico who is travelling solo on a 27 foot sailboat and wants to ship the boat to California this winter.  Quite the character.
Debbie spent the day cleaning and I spent the day in the engine room tending batteries, fixing hose clamps, checking and filling fluids and ordering parts for the watermaker. I made another bicycle ride over to West Marine for some more engine zincs and dielectric grease.  Its nice to have a West so close when you forget something you needed.  Cocktails on the aft deck to watch the sun set and then dinner aboard.  We even have very good TV reception here so we watched some network TV for the first time in months. We need to get underway fairly early in the morning to cross Mobile Bay as it is not deep and the tide is at 6:00 AM.  The tide is not much here 2-3 feet and only two tides a day instead of the typical 4 in most locations.  The channel coming off of the shipping channel is only about 6 feet deep and may have been affected by the recent hurricane but I don't like seeing 1 foot on the depth sounder very often.

This is the transient dock and fuel dock at Dog River where we stayed for two days

 One of our boat neighbors was an 85 foot Palmer Johnson with crew of three aboard moving the vessel from the Great Lakes to the Bahamas for the winter.  You can rent her for $25-30K a week PLUS EXPENSES. Below is a pic from their website.

Bet ya she took on more fuel than us.  The captain said she was thirsty!

I-65 Bridge to Dog River Marina 10/23/17

WE woke up to clear skies and sunshine again.  I actually didn't mind the rainy day yesterday as it had been so long without rain it was nice to hunker down and relax.  We headed down the last stretch of the Tenn-Tom towards Mobile.  The channel goes right through all of the docks and ship building yards.  Quite the sight to see and very busy with traffic on the water.

Our first glimpse of Mobile

Loading docks coming into sight and downtown

A dredge working the ship basin

These are another version of the Littoral Combat Ship built here for the navy.  Word is they easily do 40 MPH and more.  They are a trimaran hull and low radar signature

There is a huge cargo door in the rear that is almost as wide as the ship to load cargo into or whatever else you might need, and a place to land your chopper.

 Independence, delivered to the Navy at the end of 2009, is a high speed, small crew corvette (although the U.S. Navy does not use the term) intended for operation in the littoral zone. She can swap out various systems to take on various missions, including finding and destroying mines, hunting submarines in and near shallow water, and fighting small boats (she is not intended to fight warships). The ship is a trimaran design with a wide beam above the waterline that supports a larger flight deck than those of the Navy's much larger destroyers and cruisers, as well as a large hangar and a similarly large mission bay below. The trimaran hull also exhibits low hydrodynamic drag, allowing efficient operation on two diesel powered water jets at speeds up to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), and high speed operation on two gas turbine powered water jets at a sustainable 44 knots (81 km/h; 51 mph) and even faster for short periods.

This must be (maybe) a drill rig service ship with a helicopter landing pad

Container port cranes

I have no idea what this old girl is but she is sitting on the bottom and looks to have been there a long time

Out of the harbor and back to more open waters with active fishing just off of the main shipping channel

We pulled into Dog River and took on about 650 gallons of diesel before moving to our slip for the next two days.  Buy fuel and get a night's stay free.  Nice! We took the courtesy car/van and went to the West Marine store on the property to buy some boat goodies and then to the grocery store for provisions. Later after cocktails we lowered the dingy and crossed the river over to the Grand Mariner for dinner at their waterfront restaurant.  Life is good.

Alabama River Cutoff to I-65 Bridge (Mobile) 10/22/17

Another not very early start but we weren't going far so we left around 9:00 this morning. The big bonus on the Tenn-Tom is that the anchor has come up clean everyday with no mud or snags attached to it.  We are on our 4th day out and wasting water to clean up everytime you pull the anchor would have made it less likely we could have showers everynight. Showers are a good thing and so is washing dishes and cleaning up.  We passed a bunch of tows today and saw some Looper boats pass us earlier before we left.  The Rendezvous in Rogersville is over so we are all heading for the same places now and we expect to see many more in the next few days. Some Loopers are taking a side trip up the Tennessee to Chattanooga and Knoxville.  We have done the Tennessee from Knoxville to Chattanooga twice before and didn't feel an urge to do it again.  It is beautiful through there and the leaves should be turning colors soon.  You wouldn't know it with temperatures though. We had to run the air-conditioning last night until we went to bed and it was still warm out this morning when we woke up.
We stopped for lunch at the I-65 bridge and since it started to rain we decided to stay put for the day.  It rained hard for the rest of the day but we had great weather for the last few weeks so we were due for  some rain.
We are excited about our stop in Mobile and look forward to seeing a big city again.  It's been a lot of wilderness for about a month or more.  Also it will be nice to see the ocean and we look forward to seeing clear blue water again as we make our way towards Florida.

The view of the bridge.  It finally stopped raining

The beach beside us

Leroy Anchorage to Alabama River Cutoff 10/21/17

Today will be our second to last on the Tenn-Tom.  Our reservations in Mobile are only starting on Monday so we had a short day today and a shorter day coming tomorrow.  Yes we could have changed the reservations but what's the rush?  We stopped around 2:00 and anchored for the evening on the side of the river. We originally had intended to anchor in the Alabama River cutoff but once we entered the narrow river it was deep enough but not very wide and all I had was visions of some guy in a bass boat doing about 60 mph coming around the corner and crashing into us.  We had seen many bass boats going up and down the river and this looked like a spot they would like.  So we turned around with the bow almost touching the shore and headed back out into the river.

Again we feel having the AIS makes us visible to the tows and that is really where the danger is.  We were not close to the sailing line and the tows all passed around a 100 yards off of our side. It amazes me that when they navigate at night they do not use a spotlight or any means of seeing the shoreline or marks except radar and their chart plotters. Tonight was a moonless night, clear but no moon which makes it very dark in the middle of nowhere.  None of the marks are lite here and they are not numbered, nor very well painted so that they stand out.  I guess thats why these guys are the professionals.  

Then it was time to go to work. We have been working part time on this upholstery project for about three weeks now and today was the day we were going to finish.  Debbie sewed the last pieces of material together and we stapled all of the pieces in place.  Then it was time to reassemble all of the components.  Also while everything was out we vacuumed under all of the area where the pieces go and put all of the screws back in holding the tops onto the bases.  We are very pleased with the outcome and had a nice steak dinner to celebrate the completion of our project.

2:00 O'clock hard at work

3:00 O'clock everything still upside down

5:00 O'clock All done and on to the next project.  Looks great Debbie

Abby was saddened when she was told there would be no shore visit and she would have to do her business on the fake grass mat.  She did and all was well but she will be full of beans (and more) when we do get her to shore.  We probably could have found a place to take her but without an open area to see whats in the woods we don't want to risk her getting eaten by an alligator. Actually I'm sure she can outrun Debbie and I so we would be the ones getting eaten!!