Saturday, Nov 15 - Laying low in Mobile

All Friday night the winds were howling from the northwest at 25-30 mph and didn't let up at all on Saturday. So, since we couldn't go cruising, we toured the east side of Mobile Bay with Bob and Peg Olsen as Jeff mentioned in his blog. We visited Fairhope, a quaint little town that reminded me of Venice Fl, with the streets lined with shops, lunch spots, etc. We also went to the Eastern Shore Marina to deliver some West Marine purchases to some other traveling friends of ours, Dan and Sarah Vegter from Illinois. With the wind out of the northwest, Mobile Bay was really churning as you can see in this picture. As the wind blows across this very shallow body of water which has an average depth around 9 feet, this is reduced to an average of about 7, and then the low tide drops it even further. Needless to say there were NO boats out on the bay that day.

Jeff and I took this opportunity to get caught up on some boat projects that had been languishing. The AC seawater pump failed us a couple of weeks ago, but since we haven't really needed AC, getting the replacement installed hasn't been a high priority. (Ron - we finally can do without the space heaters on the bridge). Krista from the great West Marine store in Stillwater had the new pump sent ahead to meet us at Demopolis, so we have had it for a few days. Our burgee staff also bit the dust after getting whipped back and forth for several days in the winds that beat us up on the way down. We are also still working on an improved method of hauling the dinghy up on the weaver davits.

Other than these minor things, the boat has been performing really well. Boating is a never ending job................