Day on the Cruise: 204
From: The Wharf Marina, Orange Beach, AL
To: The Wharf Marina, Orange Beach, AL
Statute Miles: 0.0 SM
Time: 0.0 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 5,222.4 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Tonight we are still in Orange Beach, Al at The Wharf Marina on the Gulf ICW.
It rained overnight and we had thunderstorms this morning when we awoke. The forecast was for thunderstorms and heavy rain until late morning and it did not disappoint. It was a good morning to hunker down and stay inside drinking coffee and catching up on trip planning. We all decided to stay here one more night.
The Wharf complex is a very nice marina with predominantly large sport fishing boats. Surrounding the marina is a complex of shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and a ferris wheel. The entire place is very upscale and beautiful. It is located right on the ICW at the toll bridge on the road from Orange Beach to Foley, AL. We are several miles from the actual Gulf Beaches that are brilliant white sand beaches. Business is a little slow here right now, but in the Spring, Sumer, and Fall, this place is jumping!
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| The Wharf Marina is on the water side of a huge Condo Complex |
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| Open air mall type stores at the Wharf |
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| A very nice Sport Fisherman docked at the Wharf |
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| Sunset over the Wharf Marina |
The Wharf is right across the ICW from an abandoned Condo project that was never finished. It s a hulking, rusty dinasaur of a complex that is weathered and overgrown with weeds. This reeks of an owner who ran out of money. Several years before I retired, our Atlanta office was chasing a condo project on this same site. As senior operations, I participated in a review of the risks associated with doing the job. The risks were numerous, and it doesn't surprise me to see the derelict site across the way here. Too bad, but better someone else than us!
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| Abandoned Condo project |
Since my autopilot seems to be working more or less normally now, I plotted waypoints from Orange Beach to Pensacola and Ft.Walton and to Destin, FL, then loaded them into my chartplotter. I set up routes to Pensacola from Orange Beach and then to Destin from Pensacola. Now I can try to let the autopilot do the steering on our next two legs.
At 1:30 we joined "Free at Last" and "Sun Gypsy" and cabbed over to Lulu's Restaurant. The weather had turned into a perfect day. It became clear with abundant sunshine and temps in the low 70's. I changed into a short sleeve shirt and enjoyed the afternoon. Shorts? Not quite yet.
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| Our group waiting for the cab to get to Lulu's |
The big Lulu's is closed for the month of January. I guess Lucy Buffet is in Key West hanging out with brother Jimmy Buffet in Margaritaville or something. So, we were able to eat at her smaller, beachy boutique restaurant called "Lucy B. Good's". It was very good, and we were introduced to a local specialty drink around here called the "Bushwacker". Wow!
After eating we enticed our cab driver to take us along the beach so "Free at Last" could see the white sand and the condo's along the beach. Much different than the Cali beaches, for sure! Passing the Pink Pony pub was a highlight of the trip, and we got back to the boat about 4:30.
Tomorrow we head East about 30 miles to Pensacola, Florida.
Thank's for Reading!
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