Are We Cruising Yet?

5/10/13
Pensacola, FL
overcast and windy


To all our friends and family, we are well and having a wonderful time so far.  Getting away from the dock in Kemah was a hard 3 days.  My parents came down along with our daughter, Haley, and our son, Sean. Haley, thanks for organizing our new home and Sean for taking the Ford back to Cat Spring, we love you more than you will ever know!  Saying farewell 3 different times was tough and when the lines were slipped a small sigh of relief was released.  So, has the adventure begun then?  We sailed to Galveston where all of our "tanks" were topped off and then Charlie said, "take those docking lines off and store them".  That's when it hit me...no more docking lines??? so I guess we are now cruising.

We left Sunday and it took us 3 days to get to Mobile Bay, Alabama.  We were blessed with great weather and calm seas, but we motored sailed the whole way.  As those of you who know Charlie, we ate quite well during those 3 days.  Night on the Gulf of Mexico is very lite up with rigs as you can imagine, but when we got into Louisiana waters the number of rigs seemed to double as well as shrimp boats and crew boats.  We arrived at the sea buoys to Mobile Bay and were met with a bank of FOG!  Never sailed in fog before...our radar worked wonderfully and I also got a quick lesson on the VHF radio.  At our intersection to the channel to the ICW going east, we pulled out of the channel and dropped the hook and sat that fog out.

As the sun burned off the fog, we got back underway and made it to the ICW.  We Texans were amazed at seeing trees on the ICW as that does not exist in Texas.  We later learned this was the "Redneck Rivera".  It was just beautiful.  We arrived at "Lulu's at Gulfshores Marina"....Jimmy Buffet's little sister Lucy Buffets place. We had to walk a long way to reach the restaurant due to the way the marina was laid out, but as I told these guys I am sailing with...we need to walk.  What an operation!  After a long deserved rest we refueled and headed on up the ICW towards Pensacola, FL.  The geography changes again and now we are in white sand dune beaches and large bays.  We called ahead to  Palafox Marina and reserved a slip were we sit at this post.  Very nice marina, floating docks and there is a Texas boat from Kemah, TX.  John, our 2nd mate, first class will be leaving for home tomorrow, what a great crew member!  Hopefully, John will rejoin this adventure somewhere else along the way.