Monday, October 11, 2021 Temp: 81/70, Humidity: 69/92%, Top Wind: SE8 mph, Precip: bright & sunny, Miles Traveled: 33
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It was a short, late start kind of day today, so we got to sleep in! Ha! Like that’ll happen. We were awake with the sun again, but at least we didn’t HAVE to get up. It was already toasty outside, and looking like a normal Gulf of Mexico Autumn kind of day. What a difference from November 2018 when it was raining and cold and so much humidity that we couldn’t keep the INSIDE of the windows dry when we were underway. This shows just a glimpse of why Lulu’s is such a popular destination for families. Check out that ropes course!
Sunday, October 10, 2021 Temp: 84/65, Humidity: 54/94%, Top Wind: SE10 mph, Precip: bright & sunny, Miles Traveled: 42
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It is so strange and I cannot even begin to explain it. Today feels like we’re home. Or at least almost. Both of us feel a huge psychological difference being on the salt water. We saw dolphins, seagulls, and Island Girl sits higher in the water and lifts better when we go fast. She likes it. We like it. And we are seriously only like ONE WEEK of travel days away from really being HOME! That is crazy!! And we’re ready.
Neither of us slept very well last night. It was really warm and humid, and we were right on the port shipping channel, so we were rocked a lot!. But it was worth it to be here in Mobile and be done with the rivers, and have those miles behind us. You can barely tell in this picture, but just below the red pointer indicating where we were docked, Interstate 10 goes right under the river! So we were docked almost on top of the freeway. That’s weird.
Saturday, October 9, 2021 Temp: 85/64, Humidity: 47/95%, Top Wind: Ne6 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 122!!, Number of Locks: 1, – THE LAST ONE!!
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It was another early morning get up. We slept really good here on the dock at Bobby’s. No logs bonking our hull, we had air conditioning, it was very peaceful and dark outside. I should have gone out to look at the stars, but I’m always afraid of letting in too many skeeters that will consume all of Kenny’s blood. We had a beautiful morning pre-sunrise. There wasn’t any fog on the water. David had called the lock around 6:00, requesting a 7:00 lock through. The lockmaster didn’t answer the phone. Finally after several tries, he called on the radio. The lockmaster told him to call back at 6:30. Huh?🤔. That was weird. But, OK.
Friday, October 8, 2021 Temp: 84/61, Humidity: 48/100%, Top Wind: N6 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 97, Number of Locks: 1, which should have been a 40’ drop, but was really only about 25?!
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The most exciting thing that happened today was that we were the only two boats that stopped at Bobby’s Fish Camp, so we both got to be plugged in to power. YAY! But first, we we had a lock and some fog to go through. I was up at 5:45 to look outside. There was a bit of fog, but it didn’t look terrible. David texted at 6:00 to let us know that the lock was good for us to proceed for a 7:00 transit through. Alrighty then – let’s get with it! We untied and cast off at 6:40 to tootle our way the 2.5 miles down to the lock.
Thursday, October 7, 2021 Temp: 82/65, Humidity: 57/100%, Top Wind: NE4 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 50, Number of Locks: none
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I actually slept pretty good last night. I woke up several times with bonks against the hull, but I didn’t stay awake long. Captain didn’t sleep quite as well, worrying about his ship and all. We were both awake at daybreak to see that there was plenty of fog outside. Grrr 😠 That’s not good because we won’t travel in fog unless we absolutely have to. The good thing was that we only had fifty miles to go today and no locks, so we didn’t have to. David called to see what we were thinking, and was relieved to hear that we were thinking about just sitting here awhile until it cleared up. We anticipated that it would get thicker as the sun came up, and then it would burn off, and that is exactly what it did.
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 Temp: 81/67, Humidity: 67/100%, Top Wind: E4 mph, Precip: cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 70, Number of Locks: One more than planned! 3 total with a total drop of 91’ (27,27,36)
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The alarm was set for 5:45. I was up before 5:30 and checked the weather and the Lock Queue report. Things looked pretty good! As planned, David on She’s The One telephoned the lock. then he came over to tell me what he found out. Everything was cleared for take-off, so we got ourselves ready for a 7:00 departure. We were over achievers. Ha! Go figure! We left the dock at 6:42. 🤭 STO followed us out. They are going to follow us today, after a big long discussion about how to get better fuel economy. Plus, they’d like to follow us into what ever anchorage we go to today.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 Temp: 80/65, Humidity: 70/100%, Top Wind: NE9 mph, Precip: clouds, mostly sun! THEN ⚡️⛈ after dark, Miles Traveled: just a few to town in a loaner car
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When I got up this morning, I was surprised that I had not heard any rain yet. Today was forecasted to be 100% chance of rain for most of the day, and that’s why we planned to stay here today. It was quite pleasant looking outside. WHAT?! I checked the forecast, and it was way better than when we went to bed last night. Great. Did we just waste one whole perfectly good travel day? Geeze.
Monday, October 4, 2021 Temp: 80/69, Humidity: 77/100%, Top Wind: S2 mph, Precip: foggy, cloudy, some sun, Miles Traveled: 60, Number of locks: 4, down 107 feet (25,25,30,27)
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Our first of four locks today, the Fulton Lock, was only three miles from the marina, so I planned to get up and call the lock on the phone to check traffic. The wifi and cell service here has been slow, plus the USACE Lock Queue website has been really slow to non-responsive. So, I was awake at 5:00. 🙄Really?! That’s what I thought too! Oh brother! So I got up and checked the weather first, and naturally as things go, it was predicting FOG until 9:00. 😩 Well that isn’t good! I waited until about 5:45 to break the news to the Captain. However, I could see the lights in the darkness from the lock down the river, so the fog wasn’t terrible yet. I finally got the lock queue report to pull up, and it showed two tows were upbound that had come through the Wilkins Lock, which is fifteen miles farther downriver. That means they could be arriving at our lock and delaying progress. What to do, what to do? Captain says ‘we’re not going in fog again!’ I agree – it is way too stressful on the rivers with barges. As it started to get light out, it didn’t look bad. But that’s what happened to us at Cuba Landing: everything looked fine until we got out on the river and the sun came up, then it socked in really bad. What to do, what do? We were thinking that we should get ready to go anyway, just in case the other boats peeled out, we’d be ready to go with them. Then, at about 6:50, Tom on Maggie Jo called on the phone and said that one of the boats on the fuel dock had talked with the lockmaster, and there were tows coming down, and tows going up, so if we wanted to get through, we needed to come right away, otherwise we’d be here all day. That sealed the deal – we were outta this joint at 6:59.
Saturday, October 2, 2021 Temp: 78/70, Humidity: 77/93%, Top Wind: S5 mph, Precip: cloudy, some rain, Miles Traveled: 56, Number of locks: 3, down 144 feet (84,30,30) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
It was a muggy warm day, with rain while in a lock. Yup. I got wet. But first, let’s go back to the most beautious sunrise start for today! This is the for-real colors. I didn’t do anything to this picture, it’s 100% God’s gift of art. Good morning Saturday!
Friday, October 1, 2021 🍂🍁 Temp: 80/68, Humidity: 67/100%, Top Wind: S6 mph, Precip: partly cloudy, some sprinkles, Miles Traveled: ~40 in a courtesy car
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Just like at home when we have a stay home day, we have a list of things to do. But reality says that some of those things can wait a day or two until the next stay home day, right? 😁 We did borrow the marina’s courtesy car to go to Corinth for grocery shopping and stocked up on some fresh stuff. But a couple other things got delayed, like laundry and the engine thermostat. Here’s the deal. It’s a long walk to the laundry room here, because this is a huge marina. We are the blue dot on the right. Laundry is at the green dot on the left. I know, I know…. why am I wimping out on that!? I dunno. 🤷♀️. But we had some important contractual stuff we were trying to get done since tomorrow is the weekend.
