Day 57: Thursday, November 1, 2012
Underway: 7:30 am Motor Off: 3:30 pm Miles Traveled: 38 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: Saw our first dolphins – very cool.
Mile 19 to Mile 163 ICW: The weather was perfect for navigating the rest of Mobile Bay and entering the ICW for the first time. We even were able to motorsail for part of the day. The scenery is very different than we are used to with lots of condos, big houses on both sides of the ICW. Occasionally a state park has preserved some woods or swamp or sand dunes but a lot of the area is highly developed.
We were welcomed to the ICW by several schools of dolphins swimming right at us in their own amazing way. What a great welcome. What a special treat to have these incredible creatures swimming right next to your boat – a definite highlight of the trip so far.
We had to stop at Lulu’s for lunch. Lulu is the sister of Jimmy Buffet of Margaritaville fame so we had to check it out. We had a big serving of nachos and, of course, shared a strawberry margarita while looking out over the ICW. We didn’t stay long though because we were antsy to get to Barber Marina to reunite with Rumpshaker.
We made fast passage the rest of the way to Barber Marina and were able to park right next to Rumpshaker. Barber is a huge marina but is fairly remote and hasn’t been able to attract a large crowd of boats yet – to our definite advantage. We had a great reunion with Ann – Rob, her other half is back in Minnesota finishing up some business, packing up some things and heading back down here permanently in a week or so. Sorry we missed you Rob but we will try to have fun without you.
After getting settled and doing a few boat projects, we brought dinner and drinks over to Rumpshaker for a BBQ – steaks, salads, fruit and strawberry margaritas as the sun was going down. We ate, laughed, and chatted until our day caught up with us and we decided to call it a day. We made plans to go to the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow tomorrow in Pensacola. Perfect timing. We can’t wait.