UNDERWAY

After several days of heavy rains followed by several more days of high winds, King Neptune finally quit fussing & let the seas die down.  We saw our escape window from Seabrook boatyard in New Orleans & on Wednesday April 20 we turned in our landlubber ways in favor of our sea legs and a taste of salt air.

In the narrow ICW east of New Orleans, we
recognize this tow boat

We had Lady Luck on our side when the recalcitrant L & N Railroad Bridge rose up for our passage on our first call to the bridge tender.  That allowed us to travel the ICW to the Rigolets, which was several miles shorter that going out through Lake Pontchartrain. 

As we’re passing the tow boats along the narrow canal of the ICW, we recognize one of the tows boats as one we followed for several days down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in years past.  You know you’ve been on the water a spell when you recognize the tows.  

A gaggle of pelicans waiting for their next meal

And then, as we entered Mississippi Sound, we passed a nice big Hatteras yacht that started to look familiar.  It turned out to be “Critical Mass” and some good friends from New Orleans Power Squadron, who were returning from a weather delay in Gulfport MS.  It started to seem like we knew most everyone we passed!

Crossing Mobile Bay, we meet one of the Navy's new
Littoral Combat Ships.  Using our radar, we tried to get
a bearing line (EBL), but our radar couldn't pick up a target
(can we all say "radar cloaking device"?)

We had planned to go to a Biloxi marina for the night, since our best friends from Chattanooga Power Squadron were at Keesler AFB tending to some medical issues, but we couldn’t make connections with them.  So instead, we continued on for over 100 miles total that day (and over 10 hours of travel) to anchor on the north side of Petit Bois Island, one of the barrier islands along the MS/AL coastline.

We crossed Mobile Bay the next day, and King Neptune kept things very calm for us.  We enjoyed the nice travel weather & anchored at a new cove which we hadn’t tried before (this is our 2^nd time passing through these waters, so we are looking for some new places).  We’ve been using our new anchoring bridle, a high-class, expensive addition which we thought would allow us to sleep better at night.

And, or course, we had to pass Lulu's near Gulf Shores
(Lucy Buffet, Jimmy's sister).  We didn't stop this time
for a cheeseburger in paradise.

We found some dolphins near Perdido Pass
(or did they find us?)

At the Pensacola Palafox Pier marina

On Day 3 we made Pensacola Palafox Pier marina, where we had stayed in April 2013.  We had the restaurants and beer pubs and farmers’ market all scoped out for our 2-day visit.  A serendipitous treat was the front-row fireworks show on Saturday night after the minor league baseball game (the Pensacola Wahoos) right next to the marina.

Weekends in Pensacola bring out some strange folks

At Ft Walton Beach, the locals are enjoying a
sunny Sunday afternoon

From Pensacola to Panama City was a 2-day trip through familiar territory.  When we were stationed in Pensacola in the military, Sue’s brother was stationed in Panama City, so we made this trek by car several times.  The powder white sand beaches were still gorgeous, but the Sounds were not as clear blue as 3 years ago.  Maybe the high winds had stirred up too much mud & silt.

Of note, when I refer to our travel notes from 3 years ago, we were buying diesel fuel for $4.00-$4.50/gallon, and happy to do so.  Today in Panama City, we paid only $1.96/gal (however, we took on about 200 gallons!)

After Panama City, we’ll head east to Apalachicola to eat some oysters (OK, maybe a lot of oysters) as we plan our big 20-hour overnight open water crossing of Florida’s Big Bend area.  When we did this crossing 3 years ago, we had a terrible trip.  This time, we have many more miles under our keel & the hopes of a fantastic weather window.