Goodbye Mobile
Tomorrow we are leaving the Grand Mariner Marina. The sign above is on the side of the marina office. This is not a safe place to be during hurricane but has been very comfortable for us. For the last few days, there has been very heavy fog in Mobile, and it is in the forecast for tomorrow. Therefore, we’ll wait until it lifts and then leave, probably around noon. The second photo is the restaurant at the marina which serves excellent homemade food, specializing in seafood. We’ve eaten there many times as it’s very convenient. Besides watching the weather tomorrow, we also have to be careful about the tide. The bridge in the third photo is at the entrance to Mobile Bay. We came the 23 miles in from the Gulf when we arrived and this marina is just under the bridge on Dog River. The bridge has a 73 foot clearance and our mast height is 68 feet. We should have plenty of room to spare, but a lot depends on the tide, which varies widely here, depending on the current and wind. Finally, we really won’t miss the one rural road we have been able to walk down. It looks kind of pretty in the photo above, but there are dogs in almost every yard. The dogs above are all bark and no bite, even though they don’t look very friendly. They used to bark at us, but now they basically ignore us, and if they do bark, we just say, “You know us. No barking!” and they stop.
Mark has planned our stops from here to Corpus Christi and they are all entered on our chart plotter. We’ve poured over several cruising guides, and tonight we bought several more paper charts we’ll need along the route. We’ll anchor out most nights, but will need to stay at a marina near New Orleans, as there is no anchorage we can use there. Originally, we were going to stop in New Orleans for awhile, but they actually had snow last week, so we think we’ll wait until we come back in the spring. We’ve talked with the dockmaster at the City Marina in Corpus Christi. They have “plenty of room” for us. Their website indicates they recently added more docks and have 600 slips. We hope to be there by January 1, which just happens to be my birthday.
Other than the fog tomorrow, the weather looks good for the next five or six days. Hopefully the wind will be strong enough so we can sail and not motor sail. We plan on traveling about 40-50 miles per day.