Friday, January 10: Back on the Water Again! Cruising from Dog River to Orange Beach, AL.

Date:                           January 10, 2014

Day on the Cruise:      203

From:                          Dog River Marina, Mobile, AL

To:                               The Wharf Marina, Orange Beach, AL

Statute Miles:              38.9 SM

Time:                           4.0 Hrs

Cumulative Miles:        5,222.4 SM

On Board:                   Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut

Tonight we are in Orange Beach, Al at The Wharf Marina on the Gulf ICW.

Orange Beach is between Mobile and Pensacola, FL

This is our first cruising day of 2014 and marks the start of our trek to cross our wake at Captiva Island just North of Ft. Meyers, FL to finish our Great Loop Trip! We are anxious to " finish this thing"!

This morning we woke to the Dog River gel coat man knocking on our door to finish last minute gel coat repairs from yesterday. He came aboard and did his thing and was finished by about 9:15. Good to go!

It was much warmer this morning than it has been this week. We are traveling with Rick and Leila aboard "Sun Gypsy" and Meredith and Steve aboard "Free at Last". Because we saw some fog coming across Mobile Bay, we moved up our departure for Orange Beach, AL to 10:15. We only had 40 miles to travel today, but we wanted to get to a marina before thunderstorms hit later this afternoon.

Getting ready to go this morning was nerve racking. We have been off the boat for almost 2 months. Our actions were like molasses. We were rusty in remembering our departure routine and getting our acts together.

I figured out our waypoints and loaded them into my chart plotters. I waited too late to do the engine room checks, and sure enough, I found an anomaly with the transmission oil level. The transmission oil has just been changed, so it should not be low! I figured that the mechanic had positioned the dip stick incorrectly to read the fluid level. A quick call to the engine manager at Dog River Marina had a man on my boat to fill the oil level. Good to go!

At 10:40 this morning we cast off and moved in front of Sun Gypsy and Free at Last to lead the way to Orange Beach. Finally, we are back to cruising and it feels great! The weather was heavy overcast and some fog, but vis was OK.

Under the Dog River Bridge and into the channel to Mobile Bay. Good bye Dog River Marina and Thank You!

The bay was calm and flat. The temps were OK and comfortable. I engaged the autopilot and steered to headings to get to the ship channel. The autopilot worked much better than it had prior to the work that I had done on it by Dog River Marina. I am very pleased!

We turned South in the ship channel and I engaged the autopilot to run to my first waypoint at the North end of Gaillyard Island. The autopilot engaged and immediately hit a course to the waypoint without the extreme deviation that was the norm prior to the Dog River adjustments. So, autopilot steering on a heading and steering to a waypoint is working like it should now! Fantastic!

At the first waypoint, we left the channel and set a course for 18 miles and 145 degrees to marker 124 on the Gulf ICW. We had to tweak the autopilot a little, but it set in and took us to the mark. We traveled this "shortcut" in 8 to 12 foot depths of Mobile Bay. Captain Glen at Dog River told me about this route. The shortcut allowed me to go Southeast to the ICW instead of having to go South in the ship channel to the mouth of Mobile Bay, then East in the ICW. It saved a lot of time. Our only complication on the leg was a shrimp boat that was pulling a net across our route. We missed him and the nets by a wide margin. We also picked up another boat named "Fun House" that came in behind us and traveled in our flotilla to Orange Beach.

View out the front window this morning

Once into the ICW, we headed East past Bon Secour and Gulf Shores. We passed Lulu's restaurant right on the ICW. Lulu is Jimmy Buffet's sister, and this restaurant is a hot spot for food, drink, and fun.

Turning into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GICW) from Mobile Bay

Heading East on the GICW

Lulu's on the ICW. 

Continuing on, we arrived at The Wharf Marina at about 2:30. This is a great, relatively new marina with nice floating docks. We had met the marina manager, Beverly, at several AGLCA Rendezvous' at Joe Wheeler State Park. We also checked this marina out by car in November when we were at Dog River. There are three or four restaurants at the complex and a big movie theater and a ferris wheel.

The Wharf Marina at Orange Beach, AL

This evening we were invited over to "Free at Last" for docktails inside the boat because it was raining. We enjoyed catching up with Meredith and Steve since we last saw them in Kingston, NY last Summer. They had their son Rick aboard. The family is from Southern California and they are enjoying this Eastern US trip.

So, our first day back on the water for 2014 is in the books. It is great to be underway again. It is wonderful to be back on the water! Our course from here will take us to Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City, Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, then Carrabelle, FL for the Gulf Crossing.

Thanks for Reading!