On the Way to Mobile Part II

Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores turned out to be a great pick for staying the night. The marina is in excellent condition and the rate is pretty reasonable for this stretch of the Gulf Coast. After spending a peaceful night at the Homeport Marina, we cooked a great breakfast on the boat and left about 8:20 AM.

There was a 51% of rain in the forecast for Mobile Bay, again 49% chance it won’t. Well Steve Stahl’s theory held up again and barely got a sprinkle. The first two hours were smooth. We were commenting on what a great day it is, especially with some rain in the forecast.

We could see the clouds that formed the frontal boundary in front of us. It was a massive cloud system, but the radar was not showing a lot of rain. I looked at the Storm app, there is no lightening in the squall line so how bad can it get. It can get to gust of about 39 MPH wind. And wind like that churns up 5’ waves on Mobile Bay.

Otto (de Pilot) was having a tough time reacting quick enough to the confused seas (waves coming from more than one direction), so I took over for him and steered the boat. We were rocking like a rocking horse, and somebody just kept feeding the quarters in. We crashed through a few waves that splashed onto the top of the Bimini (we were thankful to have the fully enclosed cockpit).

I was worried that the uncomfortable ride would take away from Carol and Steve’s experience. They were both taking pictures and videos and generally seemed to be having a great time. At one-point, Steve said I am glad we paid for the full experience, because we are getting it. They were also getting a test of any tendency to get sea sick. They passed with flying colors, looking down reading (or at your phone) is the worst thing you can do in rough seas (if you are prone to sea sickness). Here is a link to one of the videos Carol recorded. And as you can tell from this video, we did not follow the advice on the radio.

Steve took over steering after about 2 hours and got some experience steering through the waves pounding on Lesson Plans bow. About 45 minutes into Steve’s shift at the helm, the winds started to subside and about 30 minutes after that the waves had calmed enough that he was able to re-engage the services of Otto. Even though Otto had the helm, Steve had to keep out a sharp watch, we were now in the shipping channel and there were a several ships showing on the AIS. We stayed on our side of the channel and kept our eye on them as we passed.

One of the big ships we passed in the Mobile Ship Channel

By the time we reached the Dog River Bridge, we were again commenting on what a beautiful day it turned out to be. We got to the marina with just a light breeze (less than 8 knots) to contend with during our docking maneuvers. Lesson Plan was soon snugged up in her slip and had all the salt water spray washed off her windows and deck. We prepared her for her long stay in Mobile, she will be resting here for at least six weeks.

Thank you Steve and Carol, it was a fun trip. I guess you don't have bad weather Juju after all.

Lesson Learned: Sometimes those narrow little squall lines can pack strong winds.