Challenges for the day

I know there is an overall plan or scheme of things when we decide to stop somewhere for a couple of days and rent a car to re-provision and do some sight seeing.  The agenda for this stop in Pensacola includes a visit to the Naval Air Station to see the Museum which includes much about the Blue Angels stationed here.  This is a Navy town to be sure but it has an extensive history dating back to the sixteenth century.  We have chosen a marina based to the guide books which indicated that it would be a good stop.  Little did we know that it is a quaint marina and shipyard.  Pictures later.  The price of a slip is $1.00 per foot unless you are a member of Boat US which we are.  That makes it $0.75 per foot.  Tell you something?  The others in this area are $2.00 or more per foot.  Pictures at eleven.

Back to the agenda; so much for the museum, at least for today.  I decided to replace the house battery bank since we have a car and they are over five years old.  I might mention that they are not the largest batteries available but they are still heavy.  I am guessing they weigh at least 90 pounds each.  Take them off the boat an she heels to starboard due the the generator on that side.  Ok, so I hired a bit of help to remove them and replace them.  Then I connected the new charger we added just before leaving Port A.  It won't work due to an electrical  fault at the marina.  I then decide to start the generator to put some "clean" power to the charger.  No water from it's exhaust means I get to change the pump impeller in the genset.   I then go to plan "C" which is to kick on the solar panels and work on solutions to plans "A" and "B".  Thank goodness they are cooking for now.  Then just when I am ready to start drinking heavily, the charger comes on.  Now, plans "A" and "C" are somewhat working and I get to work on plan "B".  Simple, huh?  Did I mention my volt meter is about to jump ship?  The saving grace to all this is that we are in a slip, a cheap slip, we have a car and West Marine is only three blocks away.  More later.

Fog

My first thoughts of consciousness today were hearing the irregular drops of water hitting the deck.  Then came the soft, subdued light that greeted me as I looked out the overhead hatch partially covered by the dinghy on the deck.  As always, I wonder if we have moved in the night at anchor.  To check that, I decide to go topside and turn on the chart plotter.  It was then that I knew the reason we were not hearing sounds of marine traffic or shore vehicles; fog.  Not just any fog but true, thick sea fog.  There is no wind so the fog has settled around us like a translucent container lid.  The visibility is only twenty yards or so and we cannot see the mast head.  Wow, what a treat.  There are no other inhabitants of this place that we can see or hear.  We are alone in the universe right now.  The water is without ripples and there is no current thus we are not moving.  Just now, I heard the sound of some bone head ashore throttling his motorcycle up on the highway.  I am guessing he cannot see any better that we can.  That is a death wish in the making. 

This is our first time to experience such fog at anchor since the start of our adventure.  In such conditions, if possible one should find an anchorage well off the waterway and wait.  Underway, there are rules for sound signals that must be used while proceeding at “dead slow”.   I hear no such signals so all mariners are doing what we are doing; sitting tight.  At sea, one can imagine dragons stalking the boat.  I liken this to an old TV show: Twilight Zone where the host Rod Serling (I think) would say “Do not attempt to adjust your set”.  Pilots refer to this as zero, zero. With the chart plotter and radar, we can navigate in this but why?   Greater forces are at work and we can do nothing but wait. 

Jack Daniels, Diet Pepsi and Cracker Jacks

Right Proper Yacht to Which We Dipped Our Signals

Ok, so the title may seem weird but it fits the situation. We are now at anchor just beyond Naval Air Station, Pensacola in an area just one thousand yards west of Fort McRee, a Third System fort built in the mid 1800's. One cannot help but be influenced by this place. We have been at anchor for almost seven hours now and have watched the locals doing their thing in boats of all kinds most of which are larger than ours. Between this place and the Gulf of Mexico is only about four hundred yards of sand. We will have to go off shore for our next segment of this venture but for now, we plan to see what Pensacola has to offer.

The afternoon has been emotional to say the least. This is a place we have dreamed about for so long and now we are here. In essence, this is the true start of our cruise. I cannot discount the fact that my father was in the Navy during WWII and that he once came to this place on active duty. Then there is the old fort to our east where seventeen year old Confederate troops gave all for their cause. So did the Union troops that opposed them. This place is so historic that we will spend a few days here before we rig Why Knot for sea. Out comes the jack lines, man overboard pole and life jackets for several off shore days to get around the bridges that keep us from using the GIWW. That is fine with us since we prefer sea to canals.

Bear did another fine job of filling the crew with good grub tonight. Just as I was thinking hitting the rack she requested a Jack Daniels and Diet Pepsi and look around for the Cracker Jacks. You have it, she actually laid in Cracker Jacks whilst provisioning. It took a bit to find them but they are in large industrial bags in one of our lockers. She got the prize but neither of us can decide what it means. To heck with the prize. It was soul food.

We have a weather front coming later on this week. We will grab a marina tomorrow and rent a car to see the town. Our friends aboard Lagniappe have moved on. They have a schedule to see the Great Circle in two hundred days. We have no plan except to hook up with Safari in the Miami area sometime soon. What soon means is still up in the air.

Pensacola and absent gnats

 Typical marina near Pensacola

4/1/2010

We left Biloxi yesterday after a wonderful time in that historic place.  The day was clear with a light wind out of the south which allowed us to actually raise our sails and actually do that which we have not yet done on the entire cruise:  sail with both the main and headsail with the engine off.  Having been underway for a few hours we kept noticing that our ETA to Dauphin Island kept changing.  The winds were so light that we were making only 4.5 knots.  We enjoyed the quiet but wanted to get to the anchorage in time to enjoy the afternoon at anchor.  It was a good decision to motor sail and we arrived one half mile off shore with the winds blowing from the island.  What an afternoon we had, watching tows and other sail boats moving along the eastern portion of Mississippi Sound.  At sunset we decided to be lazy and had a dinner of chicken pot pie and bean dip.  The wine made the meal nearly gourmet.   The only reason it was not absolutely perfect is a small critter that has declared war on me (not Bear, just me).  Since arriving in Biloxi, I have been collecting small insect bites that don’t want to go away.  The locals said they come from gnats.  They are hard to see but they leave a small, itchy bump.  I have been thinking that by the time we get out of the zone, I will look like the Michelin Tire dude.  Insect repellent does not seem to work and it is warm enough that socks and long sleeve shirts are out of the question.  So the feeding frenzy continues.

Bear woke up from her pre dinner nap yesterday and with a start said “did we move?” meaning has our anchor come loose.  That is obviously a concern when one is asleep.  In this case, we were right where we needed to be and had not moved at all.  

 Finally in Florida

4/2/2010

This morning, we are still there.  The two boats anchored west of us are in the same place so this is a good spot.  Our destination for the day is Ingram Bayou.  Hopefully, we will be able to get in some sailing before we get into the restricted GIWW on the other side of Mobile Bay.  Hopefully, those gnats are not wanting to head east with us.

4/3/2010

We had a very good sail across Mobile Bay and into the GIWW to the east.  We decided rather than stopping at Ingram Bayou to anchor out for the night, we would stop at one of the marinas just before getting to the Bayou. We chose Marina at the Warf in Orange Beach, Alabama. Of the over two hundred slips at the marina, we are one of two sail boats. The other is for sale.  The marina is almost full of very large sport fishing boats and trawlers.  We are also one of the smallest boats here.  Gee, it apparent that the farther east we go, the bigger the boats are.  There is a very pretty parrot on the boat astern of us that woke me up this morning saying something I did not recognize but I think it was English with poor grammar and enunciation.   I will see later in the day if he (or she) wants to continue the conversation.   Later: the bird is a gray Parrot.  She has a very good vocabulary but still a bit weak on the grammar part.  When she bites, she says “I bet that hurt” or something like it. 

We still twitch a bit when we approach a bridge.  I have circled everyone on the charts with a red marker and double check the clearance several times before approaching them.  It may take some time for this tendency to leave us.  Or we can just trust the charts.

Most likely we will spend another night here then head over to Pensacola tomorrow.  We will anchor out tomorrow night somewhere.  Since that will be in Florida, I am in hopes the Mississippi gnats will find that too far away from their home trash cans and go home. 

 An unusual condo but look at the beach

4/4//2010  (Happy Easter)

Due to the fact that I am unable to get a good data link, this posting covers several days.  It is Easter Sunday and a very quiet time at this marina.  Just before dark the count of sail boats went from two to five.  That is five total sailing vessels in a two hundred plus slip marina.  One vessel, Judith, a beautiful fifty feet Pacific Seacraft tied off and not fifteen minutes later, the owner learned his partner just passed away.  This boat along with CatsPaw, a thirty feet Catalina are part of a group taking their boats to Pensacola for two months.  Their purpose is to sail Pensacola Bay for two months.  That gave us the idea that maybe we need to spend some time there before heading south.   

We departed Orange Beach at 0845 and motored in zero wind.  The GIWW is very pretty here and it is apparent that civilization has found this part of the world.  After only three and a half hours underway, we decided that we would stop for the day near Fort McRee.  It was part of the Third System and guarded the western part of Pensacola approach from sea.  Fort Pickens guards the eastern side. 

During our transit to this anchorage, we met Dennis of Touchet.  He is from this area but is with the party taking boats to this place for a few months.  Ah ha!  Local knowledge, says I.  He gave us many ideas as to why this place should have a long stopover.  By the way, the gnats went back to Mississippi.

 At Anchor in Big Lagoon, Pensacola Area