Dauphin Island, AL Anchorage to Pensacola Shipyard in Bayou Chico 74 SM April 7, 2013

Sunrise

We had the anchor up at 6:33am and followed a tow boat through the Dauphin Island Bridge until he walked away from us. 

Heading back to the ICW to follow a tow under the Dauphin Island Bridge

It was a bouncy ride across Mobile Bay and Bon Secour Bay but the wind was right on our nose so it wasn’t worth putting a sail up to balance us out.

We got a little wet

You will never guess which way the wind was blowing

We were looking forward to getting back “inside” for protection on the other side of the bay.  WOW were we WRONG!  When we came through it was a ZOO!  When we traveled through this area in 2003 there was no Lulu’s at Homeport or The Wharf Marina or Barber Marine in Wolf Bay.  It seemed like a busy 8th street in Meridian, MS where you drive down the street to College Park and back up the street to turn around at Sonic… just cruising to see who you can see and be SEEN.  These boats did the same thing… some at a safe speed and others as fast as they could possibly go. … even under bridges and around the two barges we met coming westbound.  One young man lost his hat on the boat in front of us and decided that they would circle back to retrieve it out of the water.  This was at a super unsafe distance of less than 10 feet off of our bow!  While all of this was going on other boats were stopping in front of us to pick up water skiers or wake boarders.  I was saying prayers the whole time that we would not get waked up onto the road next to the ditch!

Woooooo Hooooooo!

When we entered Big Lagoon it was getting close to 4:00pm and we could see rain showers up ahead.  We were listening to NOAA weather radio and there was NO RAIN forecast for this area at all.  We contemplated anchoring in the lagoon since we really didn’t want to go all the way up Pensacola Bay in a storm and really did not want to enter Bayou Chico after dark.

Rain

Rain... Go AWAY!

A little rain never hurt anybody... we WILL go to shore tonight

We pressed on through the rain as the rain clouds just followed along overhead.  I know La Strada loved every minute of this.  She was built for all kinds of conditions… her crew on the other hand are chicken sometimes and are just now getting their sea legs back.  We arrived at the entrance to Bayou Chico and followed the markers back into the shipyard passing by several marinas and the Pensacola Yacht Club just as they were setting their cannons off for sunset (and to scare the nesting birds).  We pulled into our slip A-10 at 6:15pm.  Levi was so excited to see the shore and grass and smell new smells!