A Three-State Day

Hello faithful readers!  On Thursday we sailed (well, actually motored) thru three states, starting with Florida. 

boat maintenance

Wednesday began with some boat projects.  In case you haven’t heard, all boats require lots of maintenance in order to keep working.

inside the Naval Air Museum

We spent the rest of the day at leisure in Pensacola, checking out the local attractions.  We dinghied to a nearby marina, then caught a Uber to the Naval Air Museum.  This was as amazing and spectacular as a museum could possibly be.  The inside of that humongous building was crammed floor to ceiling with more airplanes and parts of aircraft and parts of ships than you could possibly conceive.

One exhibit that blew our minds was a huge video screen on the wall that was about an acre in area.  On it was footage taken from the deck of an aircraft carrier of jets coming in for a landing, right toward the camera.  It was SO friggin realistic that you find yourself ducking so the plane would not hit you!  The museum is the kind of place to go when you have several days to kill, and leisurely read all the info about everything, and watch some of the films.

military airplane

The locals told us that the Blue Angels practice there about once a week, which always draws lots of attention.  Unfortunately, we missed it by a day.  But our boat was anchored in the bay just adjacent to the naval air station, so we did see military aircraft flying around.  Also, we could hear bugle calls and the National Anthem playing from their impressive PA system. 

Our first bridge.  Will we clear it?

Leaving Pensacola, the most logical route westward was via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  All of the bridges from there on have 73 feet or more of clearance.  We checked and re-checked the numbers, but as we approached our first bridge with our tall mast, it was still a major nail-biter.  But after clearing with barely a foot to spare, we could all breathe again. 

the ICW, narrow in spots

Otherwise, the scenery was gorgeous!  Zillion-dollar waterfront homes lined the rather narrow, winding waterway.  Every home on the bank had a boat house and dock out back.  There were no barges or commercial vessels of any kind - but there were lots of powerboats, fishing boats, jet skis, and pontoon boats, most loaded down with happy people in swimsuits.  In our big 42-foot sailing catamaran, we probably stuck out conspicuously. 

Mobile Bay scenery

The map told us we were now in Alabama, and a couple of small bays later, we were crossing Mobile Bay.  It’s a big, shallow, wide open bay surrounded with majestic waterfront homes.  It’s pretty - if you ignore the muddy water.  And all the oil rigs.  For us, it would have been sailable - IF the @#$%& winds would cooperate. 

Dauphin Island bridge

At the west side of the bay, we passed under the massive, 90-foot-high Dauphin Island bridge, and entered Mississippi.  We were in the ten-mile-wide body of water known as Mississippi Sound, bordered by the mainland to the north and a row of barrier islands to the south.  The anchor came down for the night at a little island called Petit Bois, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  It was now Happy Hour.  Sundowners all around! 

Thus far in this journey, Just One More Day has had barely a drop of rain fall upon her deck, despite the abundance of thunderous squalls all over the horizon.  Well, that all changed at 4 am Friday morning, when a hellacious storm pounded us.  Anchor alarms went off - we were dragging anchor!  In blinding rain and wind, our three-man crew successfully reset it. 

Now what?  How shall we traverse 300-mile-wide Louisiana and get home?  Various options are being debated.  The forecast shows a drift to more southerly winds later in the week, so sailing home (with SAILS, not engines) out in the Gulf, for at least part of the journey, is one option.  Stay tuned! 

Capt. David