Twelve Mile Island to Dog River

It's Thursday Morning.....

When we awoke on Thursday morning and we were fogged in. The anchor held us well all night long and we had a slight current to keep this from swinging.

We decided to continue exploring by making a big loop back to Mobile Bay. From our big picture view of the map, it appeared we could do a loop back to Mobile. Well...we where almost back to the Mobile bay and we zoomed-in on the map for the name of our next bridge, to our surprise the bridge  was a FIXED bridge. Having just navagated many many miles on the intercoastal waterway we had come to expect that every bridge would open if we called them on the radio. The two bridges that blocked our path to Mobile would not be opening, they were fixed bridges. So we did a 180 and headed back down the return path.  

 

As you can see this area is quite remote. This little fishing camp can only be accessed by water. The water color is indicative of the amount of rain that has occurred in the south the spring. As we were making our crossing from Tarpon Springs we heard the news that Pensacola Florida have had 24 inches of rain dumped on the city. It caused major flooding and even some building collapses. Their jail had a major issue because of the flooding with a wall collapsing and killing two inmates.

This towboat is heading south towards mobile day. The mobile river is the southern most part of the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway. We will take the TennTom north as we take QC home.

With Viv at the helm I decide to relax on the foredeck as we head back towards Dog River. The river was as rough as we ever see it at home and QC was as soomth as glass. Wow, what a difference weight and a good hull design makes!!

Through the busy commercial area.

With tugs and tows going about their workday.

With all the congestion Viv wants me to again take the helm. You will notice no wheel in use. QC is controlled by wire via the Simrad AP-20 Follow-up/Auto Pilot system. 

Serious material handling....

Ships are here from far away!

Coal is being loaded here for export.

Once we are back in the mobile ships channel we were hailed on the radio by this large ocean going vessel. The captain noticed our name "Quiet Company". He asked if we had a connection to Northwestern Mutual which we obviously do. Most people that don't know us personally don't know the connection between the name "Quiet Company" and my 40 year career with Northwestern Mutual. Northwestern in the past was know as the Quiet Company since the company did so little advertising (we work by referral from client to client). But this ships captain suspected the connection. He told us his father is a 35 year Northwestern Mutual Advisor in New Orleans and his brother is in process of taking over his father's practice.  It's certainly a small world.

From here it's straight back to the dock at Dog River Marina. Tomorrow is Friday and we will spend the day getting QC ready to stay at the dock until we can return. We have several items on the boat that need attention before we can leave as well as it being cleaned up readied, fueled and secured.

 Unfortunately from here to the end on this leg I did not shoot any more pictures...just kind of spaced it with all there was to do before we flew out at 6:30am Saturday Morning. I will shoot pictures of the marina and QC at the dock when we return......

Dog River To Mobile

It's Wednesday and we decided to leave the dock and go north to Mobile. Before we got out of Dog River I practiced close quarters maneuvering with QC. To date we have mostly done Cruising but very little maneuvering in close quarters. Maneuvering any boat in close quarters can be quite challenging with many forces acting on the boat to move it off course. You not only have the wind trying to move the boat in a given direction but you also have the water moving (because of the current) . So as they say you need to practice, practice, practice.

After an hour or so of practice we decide to move north.

As we exited mobile bay north into the Mobile River the area gets quite busy. The ocean going ships that carry containers and other goods load and offload in this area.

It's fascinating to watch the container ships load and unload their cargo. The crane operators obviously have much skill.

There were also several shipyards performing maintenance and repairs on large ships.

Mobile has a convention center right in the middle of all this Commercial Maritime activity.

This particular boat was really interesting.

It is obviously built for speed! Our tax dollars at work....

With all the rain that has been experienced in the area the dredge operators are quite busy maintaining the water depth needed for navigation.

As soon as we made it through the commercial ship area moving north, it was time to anchor for the night and relax. We selected Anchorage using Active Captain that was off the main commercial channel. We hailed a tow boat captain on the radio and he indicated this spot by Twelve Mile Island would be good since the tow boats cant come through here because its to shallow for they but not for us, we only need 3 feet of water. This would be a good place to rest for the night.

It's time to unwind and watch the sun go down from the Flybridge.

The sun is .....Going...

Going...

..........Gone!

The colors can be stunning and always unique. It's one of our favorite parts of the day and reminds us to:

                                                              (Thanks Carrie!!)

Tarpon Springs FL. to Dog River Marina

We have now been running the boat continuously since Sunday morning.

Viv and Ken Fickett are at the helm as we go offshore. Dave and I are standing by for our shift at the helm. Dave is a friend of Ken's that volunteered to come and help us pilot the boat.

As darkness sets and we have all the electronics up and running including the radar navigation system AIS etc.

We are now running 24/7 and will continue to do so until we get to Dog River Marina in Mobile Alabama.

I'm at the helm early in the morning witnessing a beautiful sunrise. Everyone else is asleep.

The motion of the boat moving forward against the low light conditions creates a captivating view.

And suddenly the sun pops up on the horizon, its the start a new day.

And the day is beautiful with not to much traffic in the Gulf.

QC continues to make way at a solid 7 1/2 to 8 kn.

When Ken walked out into the cockpit, he found we had picked up a stowaway  overnight.

Unfortunately for this flying fish (see his wings) flying aboard QC turned out to be the end for him.

Water as far as you can see!

One of the coolest things that occurred during the trip was the frequent interaction we had with porpoises. They continued to frolic and play around the boat.  When they surface they turn their heads and look up at you from the water; you can't help but feel a connection with them as they pass.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/dolphin_porpoise.html

There were a few fishing trawlers working the gulf.

These two were anchored stern to stern with no one on deck leading us to believe they were taking a break.

Another overnight and another sunrise.

Each day as it worked out, I had the sunrise shift at the helm. It was a struggle to fight off the urge to sleep. But as soon as the sun would rise and start a new day, the urge to sleep went away.

It's Tuesday morning and we have arrived at the Pensacola Inlet. Our fair weather window is disappearing so we decided to go into the Intercostal as we continue to make her way to Mobile Bay.

Suddenly out of the blue we heard the roar of jet engines. Being in the right place at the right time we pay front row seat for our own private showing of the Blue Angels. The team is based in Pensacola Florida and were out in the morning practicing their flight maneuvers.

http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/

Treetop flying FAST  

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                          >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.......

Flying Information..

Continued evidence of past hurricanes.

The Inter-coastal here provides just a slim strip of land between us and the ocean occupied by numerous resort developments.

Cruisers and speedboats share our space. This speed boat has an Arenson Drive like I had on my Baha boat.

If you zoom in you can see a guy tearing it up on a kite ski!

There are Inter-coastal starts to widen.

The Great Harbor N37 is Young American owned by Fred and Linda who anchored waiting another day (for the smoothest water) before they make their crossing to Mobile Bay.

More beautiful homes.

And boats...

On this strip of the Inter-coastal we are between Pensacola and Mobile Bay many beautiful marinas  with high dollar boats are are stationed here. This is the backside of Gulf Shores Alabama.

This old boat has seen its better days...

Artificial reefs being made and transported. 

http://www.wmbb.com/story/19242048/artificial-reefs-deployed-into-the-gulf-of-mexico

Several very nice marinas dot this area.

This one with lots of dry dock storage.

This is LuLu Buffett's. It's a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister. It looks like it would be a fun place on a Friday night.

http://lulubuffett.com/

The pelicans are thriving in this area.

We are excited to enter Mobile Bay. From here we know dog River Marina is only a few hours away.

Big ships occupy the space.

Suddenly we are engulfed with Seagulls (we thought we were in the sequel to the movie, "The Birds. They must have thought we were a fishing trawler, and they are looking for scraps.

I think Viv was feeding them!

Staying safe means staying out of the way of these big boys.

And our crossing is complete as we arrive at Don River Marina. We are tired but it was a successful crossing!
http://www.dogrivermarina.com/home/