Day 116-117- Fairhope, Alabama

We left Mobile and were greeted with a large military ship coming up the channel, as well as dolphins jumping around in and out of the water! The waters are very shallow once outside the channels, so we have to be very careful not to run aground. The approaching ship was huge, and I was very nervous, trying to stay out of its way. We were following a tug boat, and I soon heard over the radio a ship calling us. It was the massive Navy ship coming at us, and he wanted to know if we were going to pass on to their right? “Yes, Captain- I am following this tug to get around you.” “Roger that- sounds good, but that tug is coming for me”. Crap. The channel isn’t that wide, and the tug now started to turn toward the Navy ship, leaving me very little room to get around them. We made it past, and I could breathe a little easier. Fairhope is on the east coats of Mobile Bay, so we had to follow the channel down until it was safe to turn east. Once we turned out of the channel, we were in about nine feet of water. This also makes me nervous, as I like to be at least in double digit depths when we can. At this point I wasn’t sure if we could just go across the bay, so I called the marina we’re heading to. She told me to follow the channel past the red buoy marked #72, then turn on a course of 120 degrees for about a mile, then turn to 150 degrees for about 6 miles. We followed her directions and came to the harbor entrance. There are actually three marinas in this harbor. We pulled to the fuel dock as we wanted to get a pump out before going to our dock. Once the waste tanks were emptied, we moved to a covered slip just next to the fuel dock.

When we made the reservation, we weren’t sure how long we would be staying due to some rainy weather that was expected to arrive. During check in, I told him we would be staying for two nights due to the rain. Since we had arrived in the early afternoon, we had time to go explore the town on our bikes. We got a map from the office, and when I asked about biking to town, they seemed to discourage it as it is almost three miles, and a lot of it is uphill. I relayed this to Lauren, and she was up for the challenge and we set out toward town. The ride was a lot of uphill, but we made it. Once we got to town, we rode around a bit, then locked up the bikes so we could walk around. Lauren wanted to walk around the shops, and she let me hang out at Dragonfly while she did this. After awhile, Lauren returned and it was now happy hour where we were. We shared some appetizers and had some cocktails, while thinking of where to go next. It was getting to be dusk soon, so we had to decide whether to ride back to the marina now, or our other option was to leave the bikes in town and Uber back. We chose to head to another area of town on the bikes and stop at a brewery: District Hall. When we walked in, it wasn’t too busy, and the bartender noticed my Cleveland hat and asked if we were from there? She apparently used to live in the Chagrin Falls area, and we chatted about the area for bit. We got our beverages and found a table out on the patio where everyone brought their kids and they were all running wild. We ordered a pizza and were enjoying that when a DJ set up for rock and roll bingo night. This is how it works: you get a bingo card and it has song titles on it. The DJ plays a snippet of a song, and if you have it, you mark it off. There were different categories for different games, and it was fun playing along. We actually won on the last game, and received a coupon for a free medium pizza on our next visit! Now it was dark, and we biked back to a hotel in the downtown area and locked up the bikes. We were going to call an Uber, but heard some live music down the street, so we thought we’d check that out first. The Bone and Barrel had the music on their patio. We found two seats at the outside bar and were enjoying a beer, when two large palmetto bugs (cockroaches to us from up north) came scurrying across the bar- the few people next to us jumped, and everyone moved back as they fell off the bar and ran across the ground! I don’t care what you call them, I don’t want to see them or be around them! We finished our beers and decided it was time to head back. We called an Uber and got a ride back to the marina so we could settle in for the night.

Day 2: Today we woke up to an overcast day and rain expected. It did rain in the morning, and Lauren did some laundry while I washed down the boat and prepared for leaving tomorrow. Once the rain stopped, we took an Uber back to our bikes. We then stopped at a grocery store for some provisions and biked back to the marina. Our Uber driver had asked us if we had taken the dinghy down the creek yet? We had not, but it sounded interesting, so once we returned to Klondike, we took a dinghy ride. The creek was cool, with houses and their manicured grounds lining the water and everyone seemed to have their own clubhouses and docks all decked out with large TV’s, bars and quite elaborate lounging areas. We continued on as far as we could until it got to be too shallow, then turned around and came back. At this point the sun was setting, but it was getting windy, so when we tried to go into the bay to watch the sunset we were getting tossed about, so we turned around and came back due to the waves. Lauren prepared dinner and we relaxed and ate while planning tomorrows destination. We plan on going to an anchorage at Ingram Bayou, with a stop at Lulu’s on the Gulf Shores….