Oct 15-16, Mobile, AL

We left our anchorage at first light and headed south (downstream) on the Tenn-Tom for our last 100 mile day. No more locks today as we are nearing sea level.

A bit of fog as we leave early in the morning.

The river is still up (about 15 feet above normal) and there is still some flooding. We think the worst of the flooding is still upstream and will work it's way south later in the week. There is a lot of trash in the water again today but not as much as yesterday, as we have moved south ahead of the trash. It will move downstream during the next several days and we will be out of the river by then and not impacted.

Logs being harvested and kept wet for processing by Boise Cascade.

We dodge the trash all morning.

The most interesting tow of our trip.
Three tugs being taken to New Orleans for finishing.
This tug Captain was from Ft Walton and we had a long conversation on the radio this morning.
Nice guy.

Cypress trees with spanish moss.
We are getting back to the deep south.

Again we are traveling faster than normal because of the current going our way. We over travel 100 miles today to Mobile, Alabama, which is at sea level and the end of the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Highway bridge over the lower Tenn-Tom.

Another modern bridge as we near Mobile.
Interstate I-10 runs under Mobile Bay in a tunnel just south of this bridge.

Mobile is pretty as we travel through town. The ship channel runs right through downtown Mobile and there are several large shipyards here.

Downtown Mobile.

Cruise ship HOLIDAY defended by local police boat.

Modern stealth warship in drydock.

We follow the CATHERINE KNUTSEN from Haugesund, a petroleum carrier, out of Mobile Bay.

There are no marinas in downtown Mobile, so we head eight miles further south and find Dog River on the west side of Mobile Bay. There are still lots of floating debris in the water as we pass through Mobile and even large logs which have been washed down the river. We watched the CATHERINE KNUTSEN leaving Mobile just power right over some of the large logs. We go around them.

Grand Mariner Marina in Dog River.

Our choice tonight is Grand Mariner Marina in Dog River and we are glad to be off the waterway after two long days. We are greeted at our marina by an 80 year old gal who helps us with our dock lines and then checks us in. We are back in the salt water and into the open waters of Mobile Bay. We see banana trees and dolphin (porpoise) playing in the bay. We have now logged 7000 miles on our great loop trip. So far, so good!

We check the tide information with the 'old salts' at our marina because we are concerned about the shallow river and bay conditions and want to time our departure so we are not at low tide. We are amazed to find that the Dog River and Mobile Bay area only has one tide in and out every 24 hours and not two tides in and out as we have at home in Stuart and have had everywhere else on the saltwater portion of our trip. Interesting. I will have to do more research and find out why that condition exists here.

Today (16th) the wind is blowing 15-20 out of the NW and the bay is rough with small craft warning posted. So we stay in port in Mobile and go exploring in a rental car. Our first stop is to check out the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and the town of Fairhope, Alabama.

Yardarm Restaurant on the Fairhope Pier.
The pier was severly damaged by Hurricanes Ivan on 2004 and Katrina in 2005 and rebuilt in 2006. The pier is exposed to the west and north and probably will be damaged in any future hurricane.

Our boating destination in Fairhope was to be the marina at the Fairhope Pier next to the Yardarm Restaurant. So that was the first place we went to visit. The wind was blowing every bit of 20 mph when we got to the Yardarm Restaurant for lunch and we decided we are glad we made the choice not to come here in the boat today. Waves look rough and the boats in the marina are bouncing around.

Downtown Fairhope.

Interesting shops. Few vacancy's in town.

The town of Fairhope is a very nice place with upscale homes and shops throughout the area. We compare Fairhope to Winter Park, Florida with the nice downtown, the homes that are attractive and well cared for and the large numbers of oak trees with the spanish moss.

Pelican in carpenters clothes.

Pelican with a newspaper theme. Must be another program where artists decorate an object which is then auctioned for charity.
Pelicans are a great idea for this area.

There are art shops and an interesting map and coin store where the owner wanted to talk about gold coins washing up on the beach in Ft Pierce after a hurricane.

Lulu's does a big business.

We ended our day with a trip to Lulu's Restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and enjoyed Lulu's good cajin food. Lulu calls herself Jimmy Buffet's 'crazy sister'. She really is Jimmy Buffet's sister and she may be crazy but she's got a big restaurant on the water with good food and live entertainment, sells t-shirts and hats and even has a cookbook. Her restaurant is a landmark in Gulfport, Alabama. Doesn't sound too crazy to me. While we were there, Lulu's photographer was shooting some photo's of Lulu for her future ad program/brochure and asked us to be in the background. We agreed and she bought us a drink to go with our dinner. Very exciting!