May 26 through 29, 2014

Monday the 26th:

After a day of rest we were on our way by 06:30 Eastern Time Zone.  We traveled 106 miles today in 10 hours.  It was a long day but beautiful day on the water.  Very warm and hazy with a little breeze in the mid 90's.  We must have seen 50 dolphins following our boat today.  It never ceases to amaze me how fast they can swim; 10 mph jumping the boats wake.  Even the young ones can keep up but they do not jump as high as the older ones.  East Bay and West Bay by Panama City both were calm and Choctawatchee Bay had a light chop.  We got to our anchorage by 15:40 Central Time.  We anchored in about 8 feet of water and  put out 50 feet of anchor rode out.

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5-25-2014: Abandon sail boat by Port St. Joe, one of many we have seen on our trip.

5-25-2014: Restaurant at Port St. Joe Marina.

5-25-2014: Kim Jo IV on face dock at Port St. Joe Marina.

5-25-2014: Sun Set at Port St. Joe Marina.

5-26-2014: Shrimp boat on the canal to Port St. Joe Marina

5-26-2014: Sun Rise while starting up the 5 miles of canal to the GIWW from Port St. Joe..


Tuesday the 27th:

Our anchorage last night was nice after sun down but before that it was a very busy bayou with a lot of boaters and jet skier.  Everyone stayed as long as they could to make the most of the last day of the holiday weekend.  We got going again by 06:30 and had a beautiful day on the water with partly sunny skies and a nice breeze.  The rest of Choctawatchee Bay was very calm and so were the Narrows.  Santa Rosa Sound just had a light ripple and Pensacola Bay, the Big Lagoon, and Perdido Bay all had a light chop and this all made for a very pleasant day.  We got to our anchorage at Ingram Bayou by Orange Beach, AL, by 13:30 and had a quiet afternoon and evening.  While driving through the Pensacola area we got to watch the Blue Angles practice.  I got some pictures but they do not do them justice; they were awesome.  This is one of our favorite anchorages; always so peaceful and beautiful sun sets and sun rises.

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5-27-2014: Blue Angles practicing by Pensacola, FL.



Wednesday and Thursday the 28th and 29th:

There was rain and thunder storms in the forecast for about 10:00 this morning so we were on our way by 05:50 to try and beat the storm.  To cut a little time off our day we changed our way point to R50 on the Mobile Shipping Channel which is just south of Gaillard Island.  We usually set way points just west of Mullet Point and then another one on R60 just north of Gaillard Island on the shipping channel.  It would have cut off ½ hour or so from our trip.  As we got closer to our point Keith noticed a lot of Tow traffic in the shipping channel in the area where we would have entered so we reset our point back to R60.  This route we had less time in the actual channel.  It took us 2 ½ hours to travel from the GIWW, R120, at about 10 mph to the fuel dock at Dog River Marina.  Mobile Bay started out with 2 foot waves with some white caps and about 2/3's the way through we ended up with 3 to 4 foot waves on our port side and we got rocked some.  It seems that has been our MO this whole season; we rocked and rolled across the Gulf of Mexico twice and the Gulf Stream twice.  This should be the end of rough water.  From now on we will be on the river system and it should go much smoother.  When we got to Dog River Marina we got fuel and a pump-out.  They have flooding here from the east wind blowing the water into the bay at high tide.  The parking lot is full of water.  The area to the laundry and shower building,  West Marine, and the marina offices all have a good 6 inches of water in the parking lots and you have to walk through to get inside.  Usually when we are here, all I need is a small single step, if anything, to get on or off the boat but today we have the 5 step ladder out.  The good news is, we made it here before the storm.  It did not start raining until 14:00.  We will be here for a few days and have some work done on the boat before heading north to Demopolis, AL

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CO's comments:  Again, the weather forecast was incorrect as far as when the bad weather was going to arrive.  After looking at the forecast and radar we determined we could make it to Dog River Marina and we did.  I think the weather forecasters should open their doors and look outside and communicate with each other across the country like the use to.