Wednesday, Dog River Marina, Mobile Bay, AL

Wednesday: Very foggy morning. We got a ½ hour later start than planned. It started to clear in our anchorage but as soon as we got to the channel it was dense fog again; it was very slow going, thank goodness for radar. By 08:45 the fog lifted for a while. We left Roy El at Orange Beach and headed for Dog River Marina on Mobile Bay. About 09:30 it got real foggy again just as we were entering Mobile Bay and it did not clear up again until 11:00. Mobile Bay was pretty shallow at first but once we got going we had depths any where from 5 to 8 feet. Our wake stirred up a lot of little fish which brought out the birds to feed behind our boat. We also saw several dolphins with young ones. Once we started down the Dog River channel it got pretty shallow again with depths from 2 to 4 feet but we made it OK. The Shipping Channel was very busy today with several ocean going ships.

Once we got to the marina we filled up with fuel and Keith had to change our oil which took the rest of the day. We were told to keep our windows and doors closed at dusk as the "No-see-ums" are really bad here. We had a quiet night just the two of us and we will hook up with Roy El again tomorrow.

5-8-2013 Leaving Ingram Bayou in the fog

5-8-2013 Roy El about 1/16th of mile ahead of us in the dense fog

5-8-2013 Birds following our boat on Mobile Bay

CO's comments:  When we arrived at Dog River a big Sport Fish was just going out to check their engines.  An hour later they were back and all tied up and they left the boat.  I looked out 1/2 hour later and their radar was on and it is still going.  There are an awful lot of people who call themselves professional captains but in my opinion they are just weekend boaters.