Mobile

Leaving Biloxi at daybreak was amazing.  We all filed out and headed further east.  The Wallachs and we headed up the Mobile Bay to Dog River and stayed at Turner Marine.  The other two boats went on to Gulf Shores and to stay at the Wharf.

The trip from Biloxi was another wonderful weather window.  Calm and clear. 

A Coast Guard plane that passed by a few times flying really low, and then it actually "buzzed" us.

There was a shrimp boat that absolutely was covered in birds... and dolphins were everywhere.

                       
                      Turner Marine is a boat yard and marina just up the Dog River out of Mobile bay.  

                               We tied up the a bulkhead in the midst of boats that were there for repairs.  

We had a beautiful moon and the morning setting moon was just beautiful. You can see it's reflection in the water.

There was a fellow there who had some kind of "antennae".  Not sure how it was used but it was very interesting.

We had noticed that our A/C in the saloon was not cooling so we called ahead and Turner Marine set us up for a fellow(Mike) to check it out when we got there that afternoon and he determined we just needed freon. 

The Muffler

As our good friend, John Allison, always says "Everything on your boat is already broken, you just don't know it". Well, he is right, of course. We get into Mobile and made arrangements for the fellow who had done work on our boat previously to check it over and make sure everything was good before we headed up the Tenn Tom... and, he discovers that our muffler had a crack in it... 

He pulled it to re-glass it and found that it was in really bad shape and that we needed to replace it.. But of course there were none of these mufflers in the area. We got online and found one, but it would take until next week to get it shipped to us... and we really want to leave tomorrow. So, like any sailor knows... we improvise. We contacted the manufacturer and they had one on the shelf.... In Thomasville, GA. So we used the courtesy car to go pick up a rent car, and with Josh and Barb N Josh Wallach along for the ride, drove 4 hours to pick it up. Here is Al at Centek with our new muffler. 

                                                                                                   






 And Josh suggesting a place he may want to put it. 




We then drove the 4 hours back.The mechanic installed it the next morning and we were all set to go.

 But we are all cool now and our new muffler is working just fine.  

While we were then set to take off up the Tenn Tom the weather had other ideas for us.  There was heavy rains headed up river and we had to postpone our trip because the rains would make the down stream currents to much for our boats to handle.

So we decided to head over the Gulf Shores for a few days.  The next morning we headed for Orange Beach to stay
at The Wharf.