Mobile Bay

By 6am and within about 10 minutes Sunday morning, all 9 boats were untied and lined up for the run to the lock-the LAST lock for us until the East coast.  32 locks have been quite enough for now, thank you. Some local birds have learned to take advantage of the fact that small fish sometimes get caught on the doors as the water is lowered.

It's another pretty day on the river, but it will be a long one.  We have 134 miles to travel today before our planned stop in Fairhope, AL.

These guys sure like whatever it is we're churning up!  Of course, we'll suffer the consequences of having hundreds of birds flying around our boat.  John will be washing more than salt off the deck tonight.

We passed the Appledore for the second time, heading south from its summer port of Bay City, Michigan.  It looks a lot different with its mast down.

The 14 mile railroad swing bridge has been replaced with a new lift bridge, but there's still only 4 feet of vertical clearance, so we have to wait for it to open.  Here the old span rests on a barge.

A pelican!  I know, we'll be tired of them before the trip is done, but the first one is exciting.

We've traveled from 400 feet above sea level to arrive at Mobile Bay, a very busy commercial port:

Guess who's here?!

Yup, it's Kathy and Mike, our friends from Midland, Michigan.  They visited us on our boat in Chicago when they were there to celebrate their son's birthday and they brought their 5th wheel to Gulf Shores, Alabama, a week ago.  We went into Fairhope, a delightful city, and had lunch together at Panini Pete's in the "French Quarter."  We hope to connect again before they go home.

Wayne and Francine had their boat hauled out to see why one engine was burning 5 gallons of diesel more an hour than the other.  "My Way" needs a new supercharger, so they are sleeping on their boat in the parking lot instead of a slip.  John helps Wayne replace a couple of screws in his trim tab:

At last, a real bike trail!  From the marina, it's an easy ride on a little-traveled residential road to the Eastern Shore Trail.  It's 37 miles long and goes through Daphne one way and through Fairhope the other. We haven't ridden for almost a month, but make 11 and 1/4 miles to Daphne and back.  This part of the trail is named for a couple who loved to bike, but were both killed while riding along the road-at the same place but a few years apart.  We passed an historical marker for Ecor Rouge-the highest elevation on any eastern coastline from Maine to Mexico.

How can we resist having lunch here?  (By the way, if there's anyone who hasn't seen the movie "My Cousin Vinny" we recommend you locate it and prepare to laugh.)

The marina we are in is a working boatyard.  We watched a sailboat have both its masts stepped this morning.  We woke to banging and hammering yesterday.  The dock construction is interesting:

This is the first time we've docked where there is a tide. There is about a foot between high and low tides.  This dock doesn't float-our lines ride up and down the poles.  During low tide, we step off the side of the boat down to that skinny, short piece of dock.  When tide is high, we step off the swim platform up to the dock. Our dinghy is having a Weaver Davit reglued, that's why it's not in the picture.

There is a small fleet of shrimp boats in this harbor.  We've watched a couple of them go out.

It's raining here and the wind is trying to push all of Mobile Bay into Fly Creek, where our marina is located.  The boat is rocking like it does when we're on Mackinac Island and the ferries come in too fast, except there's no reprieve.  It's a good thing we don't get seasick.