Veterans Day

Day 77

Miles today: 40       Total miles: 2,068

Hours today: 4.5

Locks today: 0.    Total locks: 34

Our plans change abruptly some days, and this was one of them. We woke up at 0430 in our New Orleans hotel. Mark immediately checked the weather forecast, as he always does first thing in the morning. The nasty winds and cold front that dumped snow up north were predicted to arrive in Mobile around midnight tonight. Mobile Bay is shallow, except for the shipping lane. It's a very large bay, but 9-10 feet deep at best.  Many spots are 2-3 feet.  A strong, sustained north wind will blow a lot of water right out of the bay! It's not like the Red Sea parting, but it does make a shallow, turbulent body of water for several days. Since we did not want to spend more time in Mobile, we decided to head back right way. We were on I-10 by 0545, returned our rental car, and were underway by 0915. Whew!

Glenda and Carl helped us untie.

The Bay was as smooth as could be today. We have now entered the Gulf Coast Intra Coastal Waterway. (GCICW). This is narrow and sheltered from weather. We will follow it along the Florida Panhandle. We are now docked at The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach, AL. it's a great place, but we haven't found any other Loopers here.

We did have company on our ride today:

These Dolphins put on quite a show as they jumped along our starboard side again and again!

As I finished this post we received the phone call telling us that Mark's mother just passed away. We are making arrangements to go home for the services.