We woke up early in Mobile and need to get to Turner Marina. Our mast was schedule to go up at 1:30 and we had a lot of prep work to do. We left around 6:30 am and the view was priceless. This is the Convection Center in Mobile where we tied up. The morning sunshine cast  itself on the conference center.

What a great place to come back to. We didn’t get the opportunity to explore the city of Mobile Alabama, but it sure does look interesting. The shoreline was full of Military & industrial sites. The photo below is of a freighter in a dry dock getting work done on it.

WOW.. LOOK AT THIS CRANE; IT”S HUGE…..there are about 4 of these cranes at the mouth of the Mobile Bay. The Mobile River runs through the middle of town. You can tell how big it is compared the dry dock for the freighter are next to it from the previous picture.

This is a pelican right?  Blue heron appears to have a shorter beak. I am not sure but he/she is really neat. They flew over us as the fisherman passed by us. I sure hope they don’t drop their poop on my deck.  It’s funny I looked up the word poop and it says it’s also enclosed superstructure at the stern of a ship above the main deck. LOL 😂 I learn something new everyday.

The fishermen really know how to attract the birds.

The first pick is a boat of guy’s who apparently work on an oil rig. I can tell we are away from the rivers; we saw our first freighter upper right corner. It was also the coolest thing watching all the boats come in surrounded  by birds.

 

I cannot stop smiling. This was the coolest thing to see. Although it was a bit choppy in the bay it felt good to be off the river. We have no regrets for doing this route. For all the rumors about the water depth let us put them to rest. We had no real issues with the depth on the rivers.  Typically at least 10 feet and mostly much more. Tows require 10 feet. We did have a few marina’s that had low water depth but we just dinghy in to get what we needed. We are headed to Turner Marina to get our mast stepped. We will look like a real sailboat again. The marina is right past this bridge. we have to follow the channel in and it’s only 100 feet wide and about 9 feet deep there is no room for errors. On each side of the channel is quite shallow water.

I have to remember we are in open water now; this causes wave action. I have to batten down everything. I left my creamer on the counter and it ended up on the floor an into the battery compartment; cereal on the floor! I know better then that…lol

BEAUTY… IS LOOKING LIKE A SAILBOAT AGAIN

We made it to Turner Marina around 10:30 am Bryce hailed them on the VHF and they instructed us where to tie along the seawall. We were greeted by a young-man name Scott who was a big help in getting docked up with 2 mile-an-hour current with falling tide.   THANK YOU Scott.

After we were docked we were joined with another sail boat coming in. We also saw this vessel anchored along the banks of the shoreline on the river before Mobile.   

Two of our new friends Chandra; what a great jewel Turner Marina has. She has to be one of the most pleasant people around. Need a boat…and a great deal Call Andre Veal he is the Yacht Broker here at Turners (251) 476- 1444 very nice person. OH… They sell Catalina’s too 👍🏼 A Big Thank you to Sherry too who worked behind the scenes. I didn’t get her beautiful picture.

On my way back to the boat, I noticed my first palm tree nestled behind these boats.

Meanwhile back at the boat, Bryce was doing prep-work on the mast. He was getting the radar, wind indicators and TV antenna up before they put the mast up. So I don’t have to lift him in the bossins chair.

Then we received our call to bring the boat up to the work area. What a great team to work with. A BIG THANK YOU TO: Roger, Corey, Scott and Rickey.

Now to unveil our Beauty again….She is a sailboat again her true form.