Fairhope, Alabama

We arrived in Fairhope's Eastern Shore Marina around noon yesterday just as heavy rain hit us. We're staying put today due to high winds and overcast skies, the weather has not been very pleasant for the last week or so. My last entry had us at Bashi Creek where we rafted with Kharma, they have been very gracious in providing a power cord and sharing an anchor line with us; as I've explained previously, we only have a small gas powered generator which is plenty but since they run their generator anyway it's nice to not run out of gas at night. Bashi Creek is at mile 145 on the waterway and our next destination was mile 119, Bobby's Fish Camp (31.764188, -88.157801). Bobby's has a dock which holds about three and one-half large boats... yachts, more than that and we have to raft (tied side by side) up with each other. There are only four power outlets so there has to be some cooperation there as well, but cooperation and helpfulness seems to be what all these boat people are about. We wound up having five boats all total before the nights end, one of which pulled in after dark. A bunch of us enjoyed a catfish dinner at the restaurant where the waitress and new friends sang Happy Birthday to me as apple pie was placed on the table, very nice. The next morning it appeared several of our five boats had run aground without ever moving. There's a lot of floating clumps-of-grass and hyacinth in the river and it had collected at the bow of two rafted boats, we all got a kick out of it. All five boats traveled together for several days to mile 52.8, an anchorage at the Alabama River Cutoff (31.190126, -87.935490) and mile 12, Big Brier Creek (30.811756, -87.935508), the following night. We weren't in any hurry because of foul weather due to hit Mobile Bay, so we just enjoyed the anchorages and scenery. The five boats were Overtime, Kharma, Monterey, Kristine (53' Defever) and Carter's Cove (48' Bayliner). You've already meet the good folks on Kharma and Monterey, Kristine's crew was Rusty & Kris Bliss and Carter's Cove's crew was David & Bonnie. After leaving Big Brier we traveled in a light fog which hid all of Mobile except the shoreline structures; cranes, a tall bridge, and anything above 50 feet was shrouded in a haze. The five boats crept along at our usual slow pace in awe of the ominous looking landscape, or should I say riverscape? The path along the Mobile River eventually lead us to Mobile Bay where the fleet of five broke apart with two heading south for the GICW and three heading east for Easternshore Marina (30.542662, -87.903660) at Fairhope where we hope to do a little sight seeing and wait for better weather to arrive.

Kim's Korner

Talk about feeling small! Going thru the Mobile Bay shipyard in our little trawler made me feel like an ant next to those huge container ships – what a different perspective! The pelicans and seagulls gave us a nice escort across Mobile Bay which averages about 10' feet deep. Soon after we arrived in Fairhope, storms came in full force with lightening and rain galore. Overtime was rocking and rolling for quite some time but thank goodness, things calmed down some by bedtime. When the rocking picked up again during the night, David got up to adjust the fenders for reassurance. Surprisingly, we both fell back asleep and woke up to fairly calm waters :)