Days 176-178

Mobile Convention Center AL, - Home Port Marina, Gulf Shores AL

• Start 6:50 AM
• End 11:30 AM
• Underway 4:44 Hours
• Distance 35 miles
• Total Miles on Trip 3724
• Av Speed 7.5 knots
• Weather Sunny , 60 Degrees, Wind 16 Knts N

Today we travelled Mobile Bay, it is nice to be out of the rivers and back into open water. It would have been even nicer if the open water had been deeper water. Most of Mobile Bar is not even 10 feet deep. We could have stayed in the deep channel and had over 30 feet of water, but it would have made the trip much longer, and rougher. With the wind coming out of the North the closer we stayed to the shore the better the conditions were. Had we stayed in the channel, when we got to the bottom of the bay, we would have had to travel an extra 15 miles with the wind and the waves coming at us from our side, making it a long uncomfortable trip.

When enter the canal from the bay we were greeted by several dolphins. While they were very cool to watch, they were also VERY camera shy. Hopefully we will get better photos as the trip goes on.

We spent three days at Homeport Marina, in Gulf Shores AL. The first thing we did was re-provision the boat. The easiest way was to use Instacart. We love Instacart it makes getting groceries pretty easy. The hardest part is getting a good address for them to deliver to. Our slip in this marina was at least ½ a mile from the office (and address). Most of the drivers are great about finding us, and this driver was one of the best.

We later found out that Paul & Beverly (Loop Princess) were staying here long term and had their truck with them. They were very kind and lent us their truck for some more shopping.

Homeport Marina is also the home of LuLu's Restaurant. LuLu (Lucy Buffet) is the Crazy Sista of Jimmy Buffet. For those of you who do not know, Nothing To Plunder is named after Jimmy Buffet's A Pirates Look At Forty. Saturday we had dinner at LuLu's, and it was cool when the musician play A Pirates Look At Forty. We only had to boat 3700 miles to hear it live!

On Sunday we took the bikes and rode to West Marine. We did not really need anything but wanted to get out. We were told that the roads to West Marine were not really bike friendly, but away we went. I am not sure how we did it, but we ended up riding most of the way through a state park. It turned out to be a great ride. It did turn what was supposed to be a 8 mile round trip into almost a 12 mile round trip but it was worth it.

Sunday night we had docktails on Blue Phoenix (Ken & Nancy) with Mark & Karen (Kay Dee), Rick & Carol (Lucky Lucky) and Paul (Loop Princess). Rick & Carol have only been looping for four weeks. I can't even remember what it felt like when we were four weeks into the loop. We are currently in our 25th week of the loop.

Monday we are heading to Pensacola Yacht club, where will staying until Friday morning. We originally were going to rent a car from Enterprise, but the only place we could find a car was the airport. A friend of mine told me about Turo, which is a car share app, where you rent cars from individuals rather than a company. We are now scheduled to have a car dropped off to us at Pensacola Yacht Club, and picked up when we are done with it. The cost is the same as renting from Enterprise. (it would have been half the cost, but having it delivered and picked up increased the price) We will see how it works out.