Day 22 - Mobile to Gulf Shores, AL

The big challenge for today, and a major one for our entire trip, was to get across Mobile Bay and into the Intercoastal waterway. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Mobile last night and this morning we had to wait for the motel shuttle to take us back to the marina. When I arose the first thing I did was look out our 4th floor window to check the weather conditions and I took note of the partly cloudy skies but the thing that really caught my attention was the flag on the pole in the front courtyard. It was dancing slightly in the wind and this was a bad omen. My thought was, if it's moving at all at this early hour of 6:30 AM then we must get moving or the wind will get too bad to cross. The shuttle got us back OK but the delays were driving me crazy and Mary could tell it. This just added to her worry and I felt bad that this was turning into pure stress for her. We were finally delivered to the marina which was quiet and we methodically moved through our routine of repacking everything and then heading out.

A little description of Mobile Bay might be in order so you understand what we faced. Picture the bay as a big upside down U. We were about midway down the left hand side and we needed to get to all the way down to the bottom of the right hand side. The upside down U is about 15 miles wide and 25 miles long and I had decided to run pretty much straight across and then hug the east shore to the bottom where we'll find the entrance to the Intercoastal waterway. The wind was blowing out of the northwest at about 12 mph and increasing so it had the full sweep of the bay from the top left to the bottom right. I didn't like this but if there was anything positive it was that the wind would tend to push us toward our destination and once I got across it would be more at our rear which, if you could choose, would be the best choice.  The estimated time to get across was about one and a half hours to the inlet.

Grand Mariner Marina in the Dog River near Mobile.
We pushed off from here this morning at 7:45 AM and nobody was around to see us off.
It's not foggy. The camera lens had condensation on it from the high humidity.

Outside the Dog River and looking east across Mobile Bay. I could see a barge, a marker platform and a sliver of land on the other side. The water gradually became rougher the further we advanced toward the other side until we were about one mile offshore when it calmed slightly.  The biggest waves were about 2/3 of the way across and they were aggravatingly irregular in that I could run OK for say a 15 seconds and then I'd be in a patch of nasty criss-crossing waves and on a good number of occasions the Blue Fin plunged deep into a coming wave and the water surged up and away from the bow spraying us with the brackish salt water. Fortunately the irregular shape of the eastern shoreline made an obstacle to the wind and slightly broke the waves improving the surface conditions greatly. We rode the eastern shoreline down to the inlet and made it across successfully and into the Intercoastal.  

Riding the eastern shoreline and in much calmer waters. The inlet we're looking for is still 15 miles south of our position. Mobile bay is a shallow body of water and in this picture the water was about 2-3 feet deep. It remained that way for most of the run down the eastern shoreline. I didn't observe anyplace in the bay where we had traveled where the depth was greater than 14 feet. It might however be slightly deeper than what I was reading on the LCD chart because I still hadn't set the calibration for saltwater rather than freshwater. The speed of sound in saltwater is slightly faster than freshwater resulting in less transit time for the sound impulse to hit the bottom and return. This would cause the depth readings being displayed to be lower than actual. 

And finally at 9:30 we had a visual on the entry to the intercoastal waterway making the crossing closer to two hours rather than the 1.5 hours that I had thought. If you are unfamiliar with the Intercoastal Waterway, it's a narrow channel of water that is maintained in coastal areas to create a passage protected from the open seas for commercial and small watercraft. People in coastal areas know it for what it is in the same manner that people in the Midwest know the Mississippi for what it is, a place where they can go boating.  

The first establishment that we came upon on the Intercoastal.  We needed a break and Lulu's would do. We docked and went in but only the gift shop was open. The restaurant would be another hour. We begged for some coffee and a nice lady who earned a $3 tip got us two big cups full and we sat in the outdoor seating area and made our plans for the rest of the day.

Chilling out after crossing Mobile Bay. 

Mary said she's sure she prayed the whole rosary during the bay crossing.
Now she's just happy to hang out and be cool at Lulu's.

Take a peek at this. The Blue Fin meets one of its relatives, a porpoise fin!

Tied up for a lunch break at the Cobalt Restaurant. A nice place with a nice price. Our lunch was free thanks to work buddy Todd who sometimes stops here when he visits his parents who retired nearby. He had prearranged to pay via phone before we even arrived.

Look at this cheesy tour boat.  Up close it looks like it's made of plastic and do they really think the tourist can be convinced they're pirates.  It floats around getting in the way of other boaters, shooting off a fake cannon, and generally being obnoxious. I'm glad I don't have to ride on it.

Holding the Blue Fin in shallow water. Those folks near the boats behind me are standing on the bottom too. The bridge in the background spans the Perdido pass that goes out into the gulf.  I cruised out that way but Mary made me turn back. I figured it couldn't be any worse than Mobile Bay was this morning.

Tied up at the Homeport Marina for the night. While at the beach today I gave the Blue Fin a good wash down so it looks presentable in it's more affluent surroundings.  That polyurethane paint job we gave it is really tough. There are hardly and chips in 1700 miles and the scum just wipes off without any remaining stains. Two little kids were standing around pointing at the boats and dreaming about the one they'd like to someday own. I asked them which boat they thought was mine. They couldn't believe I had the smallest boat in the whole marina.

Tomorrow morning we'll be joined by Matt and girlfriend Erin at the Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores. We'll work our way east to Pensacola Beach where we have reservations at an ocean front hotel for the weekend. (This is the high-star place I promised Mary) We'll make this our outpost for some further boating expeditions in the area.