It took us 3 days to make this 311 mile crossing.  From anchor to St Petersburg Municipal dock (where we are) was 387 miles total.  A number of boats were anchored in the bay next to the Pensacola inlet waiting for the weather to break as we left.

We left on Saturday. It started rough as small craft warnings had lifted the night before. And the seas and winds had not yet calmed. We left the inlet on an outgoing tide of about 3 mph. This was against a somewhat offshore breeze of about 10 knots. It created a mess just outside the inlet of 10 foot chop. And me Bitting my nails. After getting past these, the swells and waves created peak waves of about 10 feet due to the 15 knot southeast wind. We put the sails up and the boat settled down. Since we needed to go south east, we spent the day tacking in the rollers. The seas were the same as we experienced in Lake Michigan just a few months back in similar winds. I suppose once you get to one to two hundred feed depth and 200 miles of fetch, it matters little if its Lake Michigan or the Ocean.

Bryce had forgotten to remove the heavy diesel and water tanks from the outside storage, so he got drenched from the waves breaking over the boat moving them onto the deck.  Here he is waiting for the next wave to break before continuing.  I think he was just having fun LOL.

Later in the day, the waves reduced to 5 or 6 feet, so I went on deck to gain a few rays from the fleeting sun.

Bryce created shadow puppets on the headsail. He really hasn’t grownup yet. LOL

The end of the first day is behind us.. We took shifts staying awake while the other one slept for a few hours. After a long night of night sailing.. The dawn of the second day finally arrived.

Winds and waves were similar the second day.  About 10-15 knots winds and 4-5 foot average waves.  Peak waves about 10 feet.  A pod of dolphins greeted us on the second day, racing our boat just off the bow.  Amazing how fast they swam.  We were grinning ear-to-ear.

The third day brought stronger winds, 15-20 knots.  We put the genoa on the storm track and reefed it quite a bit.  Since our course from Pensacola to Tampa Bay takes us 100 miles off shore (closest distance), we saw winds and waves considerably higher than what NOAA on the WX channel was saying near shore.  This is a consideration if one choses this route.  No internet or cell out here. This is why I am behind my blogging 😔

We spent most of the 300 miles tacking as the winds were a bit too close to our bow.  So it took a bit longer than we expected.  During the 3rd night, we saw peak boat speeds of about 9 knots running a close haul with full sails.  Morning greeted us near the entrance to the Tampa Bay still far out at the first buoys.  This ship was anchored out, presumably waiting to come in.

Finally after 72 hours of continuously sailing, the sails come down.  Bryce had to manually flake the sails as we had lost two Dutchmen lines on the first day. He is so amazing on what he can do.

We passed a couple of freighters and a Tow!! coming into Tampa Bay.

Hallelujah..  The Bay Bridge.. Even George, in a rare moment, realizes the 3 days of terror are over.  He barely ate for three days.

Bryce in a typical pose with the bridge..  Perfect ending.. Of our voyage across the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all our amazing family & friends. 

We have had an interesting past few days. We left Orange Beach on Tuesday after Ryan the young man from West Marine delivered our new main anchor to us. We needed an anchor to replace Bruce; but without a car we would of had to hail a taxi to take us back to the park where we docked the dinghy. Ryan delivered the anchor to us at the park the next day. Thank you Ryan. It is a Danforth 35 lb Hi-tensile.  Our 25 pound Danforth Super Hooker held us in 35 knot winds.  The new bigger Danforth  should give us a bit more.

The winds have been nothing but a nightmare. We haven’t been able to sail yet. Small craft warnings up for the Gulf. Looks like we might have a window opening up on Saturday so we will do our first 300 mile pass down to Tampa Florida. This will be our first sail straight through.  We are going to get a boat slip for a few days when we arrive there.

This is a picture of one of several dead fish found on the be beach. The birds must not like them; they are not eating them. I think George might like to eat them; but I will leave that thought alone. I think they might be called Chad?  Not sure what kind of fish they are.

This is a close up view of the crab pot. It looks like a bobber on the end of a fishing line too.

Although it was a late start, after we arrived back to the boat we pulled up anchor and headed to our new anchorage. We headed towards Pensacola.

Very colorful houses with white sand. The sand is so white that it looks like snow.

Just past the houses was this bridge we had to go under. There was a Welcome to Florida sign. We are finally out of Alabama.

 

It seemed like within seconds we had a sunset after we past into Florida.

 

What a great day. It was a bit chilly on the ride over to the Orange Beach Park dock; but well worth it. I forgot to tell you; neither the water nor the beach is orange. LOL  As we motored up to the shoreline there were dead fish all over shoreline. I was surprise that the birds were not having a feast. We walked to the park entrance. It was very pretty. They already had a display of Christmas lights up.

Look closely and you can see the tiny fish dead on the beach.

I took a stroll on the pier when we arrived at the park. I like the palms trees; they are so tropical looking to me. We walked 5 miles round trip to West Marine what a great walk. We ordered our new anchor it should arrive today around 1 pm.

Here’s some great info on Orange Beach Alabama

Orange Beach was named for the oranges that were once grown here but in  1916 they had a hard freeze that wiped out their orange groves. However, sadly the only thing left was their name. The town survived with the sport fishing becoming their main industry. The ICW was completed in 1932 this brought more development into Orange Beach. Now something bad turned something good. Orange Beach was struck by a hurricane (Frederic) in 1979.  With all the media coverage this brought the attention of this town to developers who rediscovered Orange Beach.

Haircut Time for Bryce

During our walk we found a place for Bryce to finally get himself a hair cut. Beleive to or not it’s been 4 months since his last cut.

Cayman Grill

We stopped on our way back and had dinner at Cayman Grill. The food was awesome but they were over priced on Grey Goose Vodka. I had two Vodka & Tonics and didn’t know i was paying 9 dollars a drink. We saw our first sighting of a shark today along with a brown ray and a few other tropical fish in the fish pool inside the restaurant. The little girl in pink was giving Bryce quite the education on the fish in the tank

Crab pots

Whether we are on our boat or dinghy we have to watch out for crab pots under the water. If we see a row of these pots we know to be careful. They look like little bombs to me. They have a fuse looking tail that hangs out of them for the fisherman to grab and pull them up.

Time Traveled

I thought this would be a great time to update our travel map with everyone. As most of you know we started from our home on  Lake St. Clair North Channel. We have traveled 2,300 miles We are taking the ICW to Pensacola Florida then back out to the Gulf when the winds drop a bit.

Bay La Launch

Just across from Orange Beach is where we anchored for the last two nights. Barber Marina is up a bit on our port side. Great anchorage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving Turner Marina, we were so excited to see Beauty Spread her sails into the winds. Of course by the time we made it out into the bay, the winds were light and coming from the wrong direction. But we had fun. We saw our first dauphins on this trip. I didn’t have time to grab my camera. We decided to anchor near Dauphins Island in the Mississippi Sound and then Sunday sail the gulf to Pensacola Florida. Silly cat; George decided to play in the misty rain after we anchored for the night.

It is a tad bit scary when the mast is up and going under bridges even when 5 feet taller the you.  I was holding my breath.

I am not sure why but but when I am out in the open waters I just get this odd feeling. I am not sure if I can explain it. But It is so peaceful and I feel like I am in another world away from the hustle and bustle of life. Some people like a cabin in the woods and I like a boat on the water. The fisherman work hard trawling these rivers, lakes and ocean for food; so I can go to Red Lobster. 🍤 You can hardly see that they are pulling a net.

Look at this house in the middle of mobile bay.. crazy….but cool at the same time..

I went downstairs for a few and when I came up Bryce had set the head sail. I was so happy, over 1000 miles with a stinky motor. I was so looking forward to seeing her sails up and the winds blowing her like an angel with her wings spread.

Passing in front of us a freighter carrying containers that are as big as a semi-truck. Wonder what’s in them?

Night has fallen and the anchor is out 🌕

The sun had set and the night had become dark with the cast of the moonlight over the bay. The winds began to howl like a pack of wolfs screaming in the night. Beauty tossed and turned in the waves throughout night and into the next day. We couldn’t sleep. We tried to let each other sleep for a few hours but we just could’t sleep. This was our first time anchored in salt water and just a hop skip and jump to the ocean.

Bryce threw out the new anchor. It let lose within a few hours.  Not enough line out. I got upset there was no back up plans except that we were sailing the gulf in the morning. Bryce was able to reset the anchor by letting out more line. Winds gusted up to 35 knots according to our wind speed indicator. It was gong to be a long night. The question is; will this anchor hold????? The winds pounded us strong. I had a lot of what if’s….I needed to clear my mind and throw out the what ifs..

I put my faith into gods hands for our safety.🙏🏽 We had to keep our eyes on the GPS screen to make sure the anchor didn’t drag. I miss Bruce⚓️ it held us tight and didn’t let us down. But I must remember that Bruce never had to hold us in winds like we are seeing here. I stayed in the cockpit most of the night watching that screen on the GPS to make sure the anchor didn’t drag. Believe me it wasn’t a good movie.

It was a long night. We looked at our wind apps, weather guide and radar. We decided to head back up to the ( ICW) Inter Costal Waterway it was going to be our safest  but a miserable few hours going back up across Mobile bay with the 30 some knots we were seeing. The winds are going to come out of the East most of the next week, so it’s not the best time to be out on the ocean for us.

Morning came; Sunshine & 28 knots breeze from the North. The Danforth held us through the worst.  Bryce headed up on deck to pull up the anchor. I drove while he came back and yelled at me for not holding the boat into the wind. I stuck my tongue out behind his back of course. LOL.. The winds were kicking my butt at the helm. I gave it a bit of power and that helped. I know you cannot tell but we had between 3-4 footers in addition to 25 knot winds while pulling in the anchor.

Yes, even with the horrible weather I still enjoy the boating. But I would rather be in a safe place during wind storms & bad weather. The waves pounded us on the port-side beam going back across mobile bay to the ICW. We were blessed with sunshine. That really does help. Neither one of us was worried; just cold and damp. The waves broke on the side of the boat and came pouring in through the small openings in the enclosure. Bryce’s feet were cold. I left his foul weather boots at home; but remembered mine…Sorry honey.   The waves were similar to Lake Erie in a 30 knot wind.  About 10 feet and breaking.  Small craft warnings on Mobile Bay and the Gulf.  As usual, we were the only ones out.

Even the inside of Beauty took a beaten.  I guess I got out of practice battening things down.

I see 👀 the ICW 

Look it’s the gap between the houses and the trees. The entrance was a favorite place for the birds to hang-out The waves settles down dramatically when we were protected by two points of land.

I love this sign it says Sailboat bay but the majority of boats are power boats. LOL Can you tell we made the right decision by coming back up to the ICW? It’s still a bit windy (10 knots) but very much protected by land.

See the bridge it says 73.5 feet tall. You’re going to laugh at this. I stood on the bow my heart sank to my toes… I screamed Bryce we are going to hit the bridge. He put her in reverse to stop her came out and looked. Jane the bridge 73.5 feet tall we only need 60 feet we are not going to hit! It was an optical illusion. Well better safe then not.  LOL.. The view was awesome with all the different scenery

 

Does this person know what a No Wake means? He did slow down for us but not for the homes on the water front.

Where are we going to have dinner? The Acme is an Oyster place.

The views here are spectacular

Our second sightings of dauphins

 

Well, we anchored at Orange Beach. Not sure if it is orange or not but will keep you posted. To be continued .

 

 

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.

 

On our way to Mobile we stayed in a place called Tenasaw River for two nights thinking it would be a great place to hide from the winds that were coming in. We did accomplish getting a few things done on the boat. I did some good cleaning done. According to the books that we are using, Waterway Guide this is a good area to see alligators George and I kept our eyes out looking for one but we never did see any.

Tenasaw Bay where we anchored

We pulled up anchor around 6:30 am to head towards Mobile Alabama, I must say has really has been an adventure between anchoring in 28-30 miles an hour winds and watching for alligators  that we never saw along with thunderstorms & tornados watches and just plain heavy down pour.

It was raining so hard & weather report: Tornado watch or water spout. My heart pumped so fast I yelled over to Bryce after looking through the side of the in-closer OMG! look I see water spots 4 or 5 of them!!! He look and looked then he started to laugh at me. He said he had always wondered what the rain would look like coming off the bridge. I went and decided it was Bud-light time🍺

 

The rain and tide brought trees and limbs off shore and flooded the river once again!

 

I first sign of tropical tress or shrubs. I think this poor bird was tired of flying in the rain. he/she found a resting post.

We made it! This is the view coming into Mobile Alabama from the river. I cannot believe after 2.5 months one week shy of three months we are here in Alabama.

These are some of the neat vessel we past coming into Mobile.

our first say in Mobile wasn’t the best stay. We stayed along the wall dockage at the convection center. It was free dockage.

We had logs/trees  floating between us & the seawall and some where the size of a telephone pole. Bryce had to keep them flowing past us because we didn’t need a log dam under Beauty.

What a phenomenal view over looking the plant where they build the Navy Ships LCS Independent class ship (tri-hull).  There were about 6 of these in various states of construction. This thing zips along at over 50 mph.

We had a some what relaxing time for the night. Tomorrow promises to be a better day weather wise.  Off to the right (above) is an aft view of a brand new Navy Catamaran supply vessel.  Kind of cool looking.  Below is a view of the bow.. next day as we left.

We pulled up anchor with 20 miles to our last lock on the Tenn-Tom. But it was another foggy morning here and we wanted to get the anchor up and be on our way due to a tow headed our way and we were tucked behind a red buoy. We decided not to go around the turn ahead of us the fog was very thick. Bryce and the captain were in contact with each other. The captain on the tow was so helpful he gave a rundown on the where abouts of other vessels. We could just see his barges coming out of the fog on the outer side of the curve. we waited for him to pass and put Beauty back into gear.

As we made our turn around the corner we saw two power boats anchored in the receding fog.

The fog did eventally burn off and the view became beautiful once again.

I really don’t know if you can see, but this is the first home we have seen with Christmas wreaths on their front doors (deck).

This poor boat by the name of (Grace) looks like it was ran over by something.

Time to Celebrate to the last lock on the Tenn-Tom. We are very happy as I stated in our last blog we are getting our mast back up on Thursday.👏🏽 Bryce noticed some other boaters were so happy that this was their last lock, they autograft the bollard. No, I did not, LOL

 

we could see the water flowing over the dam as we motored out of the lock.  Apparently the heavy rain we had the past week was still tricking down.

Prior to searching for our nightly anchorage we passed by some sandy beaches. Apparently some of these are used by locals during the summer.

The cliffs are pretty too.

Bryce thought it was time to take the knot out of the loop and make it once again a dock line now that the locks are done till the Erie Canal.

I can tell we are getting more southernly the trees are still green. Now if only the temperatures would warm up a bit more. I feel like we are still in Michigan; at night it often drops to the thirties and forties.

Papper mills must be in the area we saw several areas of cut trees. This must be the industrial area on the river. Apparently this is a power plant on one side and lumber on the other side. I thought the tire around the poles was a great bumper for the tows when they dock up. We could see the sprinkler system spraying the lumber, presumably so it wouldn’t start a spontaneous combustion fire.

We found this anchorage for the night protected by a buoy. As we prepared for a spaghetti dinner we were passed by this tow & barge.  After we anchor on the river, we like to see a tow go by just to see how it is going to affect us during the night.

 

After settling in near a sandy beach, we toasted with a shot of Goldschlager to our success of making it through the 28 locks. We watched the sunset; what a great night.

Waking up on Friday morning the 13th to a bit of fog in the air. It was chilly; only 47 degrees.  I was joking with Bryce and reminded him that it was Friday the 13th. He responded by telling me not to remind him. LOL My day seem to fly-by. I had a list of things to accomplish and completed all. Our mast goes up this Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Turners Marina. We are so excited; Beauty is once again going to look like a sailboat.  Chanda, the lady who works at the marina even contacted the owner of the Turner Marina and set me up with an hair appointment on Friday.💇🏼 and scheduled me with the courtesy car.  What service! Looking forward to next Thursday 19th of Nov.

We have noticed an increase in tow traffic; not much, but enough.

A bit of History:  At Mile marker 165 is Eureka Lodge. in Choctaw County. There seems to be some shadows of the past along the riverfront. Perhaps many years go the Captains of Tows (Tugboats) would stop their vessels at these lodges to sleep for the night. Navigation back then was nothing like today.

It seems like it took all day to warm up. Here we are in the south I am dressing like a snow-women

Pulling into anchorage at dust can be tricky. Even though the depth gage says 15 feet we need swinging room. Bryce took the dinghy out to check the depth with his 10 foot paddle.

This is a photo of our anchorage once daylight approached before we pulled up anchor for the day on Saturday morning. We anchored behind the red buoy at mile 146.5 for protection from the barges traveling at night.

Another day goes by as we putt along the river. Before we left Demopolis, we hailed the lock master to let him know we were on our way. He said he had a southbound tow coming through so it would be an hour before he could get us through the lock. We headed to the lock. It was only three miles away; so we just putted at three miles an hour.  As we approached the lock, a northbound power boat was coming out and we were instructed to enter the lock after the pleasure craft passed us.

We connected to the third bollard on the wall

The lock master came over to chat during our 40 feet descent. He was full of information. He suggested a few stops to us and a good place for dinner so we will check them out today.  I thanked him for his kindness and he said its always ways nice when they get good people through the locks. I smiled up at him and said “aren’t all people nice?” He replied back and said that their are a number of rude people that are incredibly impatient. In fact we are regulated by government rules that determine when we can let pleasure boats through. “Why are people anyways in a hurry?” he asked.

As we were pulling out of the lock the man hailed us on the VHF and said he noticed we like to take pictures…LOL Check out the view as you leave the lock behind you. It’s pretty spectacular. I had to reach-back out to him and thank him.

You can see the lock, dam and waterfall are right next to each other.  The dam has no gates, so the water pours over it, then rushes over this small waterfall. The lock looks so small when I looked behind us.

As we headed down river we passed several tows & barges I still think they are pretty to look at.

More industrial along the waterfront

What a tall bridge.. this is US Highway 80.

We could see two piles of what looked like wood chips coming off the elevators. At some point in time a barge will stop here and fill up with the chips.

This is the first time we actually see waves where the Sucarnochee River met this river.  It would have been fun to kayak this.

We anchored well within the green buoys on a shallow inside corner (8 feet) just off a beach near mile 192.  Tows tend to move slowly in this area as it is so twisty.  So we did not get any wave action from them.

Our evening skies cast a nice reflection on the shoreline across from where we are anchored.  We watched a beaver swim across the river in front of us.  It was only a small speck in the water.

We arrived in Demopolis on Monday night but decided to anchor in Rattlesnake River for the night. It was a very peaceful night. After a tiring day of losing Bruce.  We anchored in about 20 feet of water.

You are not going to believe this. Twenty seven locks and only one more to go and we will be in Mobile Alabama where we will getting our mast put back up. 213 more miles! Demopolis Locks makes our 27th lock.

We we spent two nights in KingFisher Marina. It was great.  We were the talk of the marina the night prior as four cruisers had passed us and noticed the tree hanging off our bow… when we lost Bruce.  An entourage from the previous night was here at the dock below to great us when we pulled up.  We all had a great laugh.

We put our name on the list to use the courtesy car on Wednesday. When I woke up, I took our bedspread to the laundry room and did a few loads. I didn’t realize anyone was in the restroom and I wore my headphone and started dancing around the room when a lady walked in. I was so embarrassed she said not to be and did a few dace moves herself. 💃🏼 I did continue to dance because I love to dance when I clean.

We used the courtesy car to go into town.  Demopolis has pretty much every store and restaurant you could imagine.  One of the best towns we have come to for supplies. Although we will have to wait till Mobile to get an anchor. Bryce took me into Pizza Hut for lunch; it was really good.  We didn’t have a lot of supplies to pick up.

It seems to rain every morning without the weather man knowing because the last two mornings it has rain with a 0% chance. ☔️

KingFisher Bay Marina is a great marina and still being developed. You can see the dredger sand (orange) Pile behind the boats. Oh my..we ran into Steve & Judy again. A couple we met earlier along with a bunch of new people who we hope to see again. We had a peaceful stay here.

We asked for the end docking because it is much easier with the mast stretching across the boat.  Plus we got to gab with all the other Transients.

This huge dock is another transit dockage when the main fingers get full. Or if you are not nice this is where they put you LOL!!

This is me by the rose garden.  They also had a pool that I did not use as the weather was a bit cool.

Me & Terry. This is Terry he is your guy if you need anything while staying in the marina and Matt is the guy you want at the fuel dock. Terry and his wife live here at the marina on their 60 foot house boat.  Call him on channel 11.  He responds instantly.

Dale & Joy are live aboard (transit boaters) they are staying here until they decide it is time to move on. we enjoyed talking with them.