Friday December 4, 2015
It was another beautiful day. Winds were 15 knots from the north. We left Turner’s at 9:30am, and flew down Mobile Bay! Glorious to be sailing again. Our mast has been off the boat since Chicago.
Mike and Marylin on board Sweet Pea were about two hours ahead of us. We texted back and forth. Where were they? How was it going? They were spending the night at the Wharf marina in Orange Beach, Alabama. I looked the place up on Active Captain, and it had great reviews. I made a slip reservation, then texted Wayne and Vicki. They were on Cocomo at a military marina in Pensacola. They’d drive down to the Wharf and we’d go out to dinner!
From the ship channel in Mobile Bay we turned east onto the Gulf inter coastal waterway. We were hoping we were finished with barges and tow boats, but no, we weren’t. At 4:30pm, after 56 nautical miles in 7 hours, we pulled into the Wharf marina. Vicki and Wayne were there to catch our lines.
The Wharf is a wonderful place! The transient rate for Loopers is only $1 per foot. It was like a Disneyworld marina. There were condominiums, several restaurants and bars, lots of shops, a little grocery store, a Ferris wheel, and a huge movie theatre in the marina complex. We walked to the steak and oyster restaurant with Wayne and Vicki. More oysters. They were good, but not as good as Mobile. We ran into Mike and Marylin. They said they had walked by an ice skating rink as well as camel rides. At about 7:45pm, they had a light show on the palm trees. Very cool. We said goodbye to Wayne and Vicki, then went to see the movie Brooklyn. We loved it!
What a great marina!