We arrived at Mobile Bay at 12 am  Tuesday, November 4, although we had a time change from Eastern Time to Central Time and also a time change on Sunday from Daylight Savings Time, so we really weren’t quite sure if that was the exact time.   We arrived at a marina, across the bay and under a bridge at 5:53 Central Time.

The first photo above is a sunrise Monday morning somewhere on the Gulf.  The second is the 73 foot Dog River Bridge.  We crept under the bridge and had perhaps a foot of clearance.  The photo shows that it is a dreary cold day in Mobile.

Overall, we made excellent time.  We left Naples at 7:15 am on Saturday and arrived in Mobile at less than three days later.  For the last few hours, we were only going a little over 4 kts with very little wind, but for the majority of the trip, we averaged 8 kts.  That was with the motor running, although without it we still would have made good time.  The wind was consistently from the northeast, although the forecast was for it to be out of the north.  It was usually in the 20 kt range, although at one point the second night, there were gusts up to 30 kts. 

It was not a trip we would like to take again, but we are thankful we are now out of Florida and we can send them a fuel receipt to prove it.   

We could not have taken this route without Mark’s son Eric’s help.  We would have felt more comfortable staying close to the shore, but with Eric aboard we were able to go far off shore and in very deep water in order to take the most direct route to Mobile.  Apparently our depth finder only goes to 350 feet, and it was much deeper than that at one point.  We were fortunate that there were no storms, although we all wore winter clothes and were still cold.

Now, we’ll regroup and see where we want to go next or if we want to stay in Mobile for awhile.  We’ll stay at the Grand Mariner Marina for a few days and then will find a place to anchor out.  It does feel great to finally be on our way wherever that may be.