Alabama: Crossing Mobile Bay in Choppy Seas

Day 146
NM Today: 69
NM Total: 3091
Locks Total: 102

We returned to Dog River in Alabama late Sunday night from our Texas / Louisiana side trip and turned our focus to the upcoming weather system and our travel plans for the next few days.  Weather reports called for a severe storm system to hit the Mobile area sometime on Tuesday into Wednesday. We needed to provision the boat and return the rental car on Monday, so it looked like we would be destined to remain at Turner Marine on Dog River until at least Thursday.

Turner Marine served its purpose well - a place to leave the boat on the west side of Mobile Bay while we visited Texas.  Now, however, staying at Turner Marine did not appeal to either of us.  We even toyed with the idea of trying to get out Monday after grocery shopping and fueling up, but with the shortened daylight hours, we failed to have enough time to reach a safe harbor before dark.  We resigned ourselves to a few more days without forward movement in our travels.

Monday we defrosted the fridge in preparation for buying food then took care of the shopping, and after we were done, returned the rental car and threw in a couple of loads of wash.  On Tuesday Clark planned on changing the zincs on his engines and perhaps changing a fuel filter.  I planned on laying back and reading a romance novel.

After returning to our boat from our morning showers, we stopped to assist a sailboat that was just pulling out from the dock.  Clark made a passing comment about them leaving and they said, "Yeah, we're trying to get across the bay ahead of this coming weather".  Hmmm!  I immediately knew what was clicking in Clark's head ... maybe we should do the same.  Clark asked what reports the sailor had heard on wave heights and received a favorable response regarding the weather and wave heights being okay until late in the day.

In that brief moment of time our plans changed drastically.  Suddenly we were both prepping the boat to cast off for the east side of Mobile Bay.  After all we had nothing holding us back except the weather forecast.  We decided that if conditions proved to be unacceptable, we could always turn around and come back until Thursday.  The folks on LeeLoo, docked in front of us, came and helped us with our lines and saw us on our way.

I knew the water would be a little rough, or at least I planned on it being a little rough.  Until you get out there you really do not know what conditions will be presented, so I assumed the worst.  For example, we latched the doors to stop them from banging around, closed the windows (to ward off splash from waves),  lowered the dinette table to prevent it from falling over and getting chipped (again), securely tied up the bicycles to prevent them from "walking around" the cabin, placed any small, loose objects either onto non-skid surfaces, into the sink, or onto the floor. Because I expected salt-water splash I pulled all the fenders to the inside of the boat and brought all the lines in under cover to keep them as dry as possible.  I checked and checked again to be sure I had not forgotten anything before heading up to the upper helm to enjoy the trip.

We definitely got rocky waters and splash.  Before I even got up top I saw and heard the water spraying up over the starboard side and hitting the windows.  I peaked into the front berth and discovered that water was coming in through our covered portholes where we do not usually get any water, so even they had to be closed down.  I securely fastened the portholes on the port side as well since I did not know if the route would at some point cause the splash to be coming from the opposite direction.

Finally, I called up to Clark on the boat's intercom system to find out if he needed anything before I came up.  He asked for his hat and his cellphone, so I added those items to my carry bags to bring up top with me.  I knew that once I got up there I would not be in a hurry to return below decks.

Wave forecasts in Mobile Bay do not come in wave heights; they come in as "slightly choppy", "choppy", "choppy-to-rough".  Those of us used to "two-foot seas" have no idea what "choppy" means.  As I held on tight to the railing next to my bench seat I asked Captain Clark, "So, what was today's wave forecast?"  The answer - "Choppy to rough!"  So now I knew what 'choppy to rough' meant.  It meant no one else was out there on the water with us (yet again).  Just like when we were crazy enough to go out on the North Channel when no other boaters were out there, and here we were on Mobile Bay without another boat in sight.  Oh, but wait, there was another boat out there.

Using the AIS system, Clark identified the sailboat that had left the marina before us.  He said, "I see the boat that left Turner Marine an hour or so before we did.  They are coming towards us."  Towards us???  That was definitely interesting.  We can only assume, because we did not call them on VHF and ask them, that they found the seas too rough and decided to head back to the west coast of the bay to try again another day.  Clark and I puzzled over this decision since it seemed that it was no less rough going back than going forward, and by the time we saw them, it was close enough to halfway across the bay to wonder "why not keep going".

With the rough waters and wind blowing into the fully-enclosed upper helm, it was hard to keep items on the seat including myself.  I normally sit on a cushion for a little extra height and comfort, but I could not keep my seat that way and had to sit directly on the bench seat.  I lashed down my spare life jacket and my bag of towels and treats to keep them from wandering and held on tight to keep my own seat.  I asked Clark if he thought we should be wearing our life jackets and he said, "It is never a bad idea to where a PFD", and so, we put on our life jackets to be safe and keep the wind from whistling through our coats.

I knew I had not done too much walking around and thought it might be fun to check out my Fitbit stats for the day to see what it had to say about the day's exercise.  It would seem that my arm "walked" about two miles by being pulled back and forth while trying to hold onto my seat since the number of steps recorded far exceeded what I had actually walked using my feet!

We followed the 'big ship channel' until the cut off pointing us to the Gulf's intra-coastal waterway. At that point we no longer had buoys / markers pointing the way, so  I programmed our destination into the chart plotter for Clark to follow.  With a bearing of 132 degrees, we had just over 5 nautical miles to go.  We had hoped for calmer waters once we got behind a tip of land that we thought would offer protection from the wind, but truly we saw no significant difference in "chop" until we got onto the intra-coastal waterway itself.

Once we reached the Gulf ICW the buoys showed the way inland like a green picket fence.

Line of Green Buoys Point the Way to the Gulf ICW

 Finally, about 2:00, we reached the safety of the ICW.

Off the Bay!

We had heard that a "must see" stop was LuLu's Restaurant owned by Lucy Buffet who is related to the famous musician - Jimmy Buffet.  We were told that when it first opened it was a small place to grab a bite to eat, but over the years it has become famous and more elaborate in its decor.  We tied up to the fixed dock alongside without any assistance from the numerous gawkers who watched us arrive.

LuLu's

By the time we docked and found a table, the time was getting on for 3:00, so this was a very late lunch for us.  After eating far too much food (I had nachos with guacamole, and Clark had a very large fish sandwich), we decided to walk around the grounds before departing.

LuLu's Courtyard

Besides shopping boutiques, we saw a sandy playground for kids and a closed-for-the-season ice cream shop.  Like many of our other Looper experiences, it was worthwhile stopping just to say we had been there.  We needed to arrive at our marina before dark so we dared not dawdle too long.  We cast off and continued on our way.  Along the way we passed a marina that had some interesting boats up out of the water.

Interesting Assortment of Boats "on the hard"

 Since our planned marina stop was only 3 miles from LuLu's, we reached there before dark as hoped.  After staying at Turner Marine which is a boat repair marina, we found ourselves amazed at the appearance of The Wharf.  In addition to the docks at the marina, The Wharf complex offers a large variety of stores for shopping and restaurants for dining as well as a covered ice skating rink for entertainment.  When we checked in, the marina representative took us to the Boater's Lounge to show us around.  The washroom facilities were more spa-like than any we have seen recently.

The Wharf Complex at Night

 I did not get to see it, but another boater showed me a video of the light show done to music on the grounds of the Wharf complex.

The Wharf Palm Trees

 Besides a wonderful venue for relaxing, we found the unexpected treat of several Looper friends who arrived here before us.  Even as we entered the marina trying to find our hard-to-locate slip, we saw Eady and Mark from Sailvation waving to us.  Clark had played guitar with Mark back in Demopolis.  Later we discovered our friends from Jammin Jane, Knot Sew Easy, Third Degree, No Zip Code, Red Eagle, and Nuclear Fishin' were also here.

We had no specific plans for the evening other than just relaxing after the hard work of crossing the bay.  Mark and Eady convinced us to join them for a walk over to one of the restaurants / pubs to listen to their nightly entertainment which turned out to be a top-notch guitar player.  Over the course of the evening, all the folks from the boats listed above came in and joined our group for some amount of time.

At 8:50 Clark remembered that neither of us had eaten dinner.  I had thought about it about an hour earlier but was still so full of nachos that I decided to forget about it.  However, if Clark remembered then he must have been hungry, so we had two choices - leave and cook on the boat (boo!) or buy something in the pub.  The reason I know it was 8:50 was because when Clark talked to the waitress, she said the kitchen closed in ten minutes so "decide in a hurry".  I grabbed a salad and Clark selected a burger with fries.  I really had no desire to cook at 9:00 at night!

The decor of The Hot Spot Music & Grub restaurant was interesting.  Clark always seems to see picture-worthy items before I do like the guitar wall display over a fountain which is made from beer taps.  When Ben saw the display, he said, "What an awful waste of beer".  Jane pointed out to him that no beer was coming from the taps - only water.

Water Fountain at The Hot Spot Music & Grub

We stayed at the pub until quite late - some time after 10:00 which is late for loopers.  That predicted bad weather had not yet arrived in Orange Beach.  When we walked back to the boat, the air was balmy - warm and humid. We made the right decision to venture across the bay.  We would have missed the time spent with a great group of friends had we been more timid.  Besides one of the joys of being slightly crazy boaters is having everyone gawk in disbelieve and say "you actually crossed today??"  It definitely is a conversation opener.

The rains came sometime during the night but gave us a reprieve in the morning so that we could go enjoy the spa-like luxury of the showers.  We heard and saw weather warnings that included high winds and a potential for tornadoes.  Clark added a couple extra lines to the boat to hold it in case of stronger winds.  Eventually the winds and the rain came back again.  At the peak the rain was coming down so hard that visibility was severely restricted.  I think the rain was sideways for a while.  

Clark and I spent the rainy day in the boat with him working on the engines - replacing a fuel filter (again) and updating his engine zincs.  I planned to work on my blog but sadly found my laptop had received a saltwater bath during our crossing.  Apparently one of our hatches - the one over the laptop - has developed a leak.  I have to find a new place for my laptop or a better means of protecting it from water damage.  Clark suggested I wait several hours with a fan blowing on the laptop to dry it out before starting it up.  I did and so far things look normal with the laptop.  I can only hope nothing weird shows up at some later point in time.

I still have not ventured out now that the storm has passed, but the temperature is predicted to be a chilly 60 degrees now that the front has gone through.  Being from New Jersey, I love a "chilly" 60 degrees in November which is so much warmer than a chilly day in New Jersey in November.