Three States in Three Days

Pura Vida at Tacky Jack's

On Friday, April 10, knowing we would travel a short distance we weren’t in a hurry to get moving; thus, we pulled up anchor at 0800.  By 1130 we were saying goodbye to Florida.  What a great state! Knowing of the impending strong blow from the south on Sunday, we decided we would stay out of Mobile Bay until it passed.  Having previously stayed at Tacky Jack’s restaurant dock in Gulf Shores Alabama, we made several unsuccessful attempts to contact them. Tacky Jack’s has dockage for maybe two large boats (40 ft.) and a couple small power boats and is tucked perfectly off the ICW.  We first attempted to gain fuel at Lulu’s fuel dock on the north side immediately across from Tacky Jack’s but they were not open so we looped around into Tacky Jack’s at 1230.  There were no boats docked there and once we entered we noticed a sign that read “Temporarily Closed.”  With few options, except heading to Dauphin Island, we tied up hoping we wouldn’t be asked to leave.  After waiting an hour, we grabbed the jerry cans and headed to the Chevron, .3 miles away.  Ruth made a great offer to carry the jugs ½ the time.  She chose to carry them to the station.  She never needed to rest as I did on the return trip.  What a girl! Once we returned, Ruth informed me we were walking to Walmart, 1 mile away.  She made the same deal to carry the grocery bags to the store.  I slept well Saturday night.

Yay Bryce and Veronica

Happy Easter! We weren’t asked to move during the night so that was a good start to our Easter. Since we were sitting still I figured it was a good day to take care of boat projects so I changed the oil, impeller and air filter and fiddled with a few other miscellaneous boat projects.  Ruth walked to a nearby diner offering take out.  “The Diner,” turned out to be a real score of a traditional Easter dinner for only $10 each.  The southern blow, expected Easter, seemed to be delayed so we did a little walking in the PM.  We waited and waited all day and finally turned in with nothing.  Around 2300 the wind picked up and the rain got serious.  I believe we even had some hail, but we were tucked in nicely at Tacky Jack’s and road it out like Ty Murray.

Sailing into the sunset in Mississippi Sound

The next morning, Monday, all was calm so we pushed off the dock at 0745 and went on our merry way.  Oyster Bay was dead calm.  Mobile Bay was as smooth as bath water so we decided to keep our plans to anchor on the north shore of Dauphin Island, dingy to Circle K and pick up 10 gallons of diesel in jerry cans, then head offshore on Tuesday or Wednesday.  As we were nearing the Mobile Channel, the Coast Guard announced a small craft warning.  What?  You could spit into the wind and stay dry.  So we went back to our weather forecasting apps and still no small craft warning.  Well, not being foolish, we took the alert serious.  We decided that instead of stopping at Dauphin Island, we would continue, in case we needed to transit through New Orleans.  We continued to sail west through the Mississippi Sound and still couldn’t believe there was a small craft warning.  We did notice, as we approached areas without a barrier island to the south, there were large swells up to 5 feet.  But the south winds kept us sailing swiftly on a beam reach.  By mid afternoon our target changed to Cat Island, south of Biloxi.  We felt this would be an accomplishment as it would be approximately 80 miles for the day.  Pura Vida was purring and pushing hull speed again under sail alone.   I have been experimenting with routes and during a 40 mile stretch through the Mississippi Sound, I set a route with 6 or 7 waypoints and let the Raymarine steer to each, never touching an instrument or the wheel.  Thus, there was a sense of accomplishment.  Near 1830 about 8 miles short of Cat Island I noticed a swift wind shift.  Over a period of about 10 minutes I watched the main sail go limp then gain winds as the winds shifted clockwise from a beam reach on the port to a beam reach on the starboard side.  It also started increasing from 12 to 16 knots.  We chose to anchor on the north side of Cat Island, unlike Art and I anchoring on the south side in December, because we heard boaters discussing the swells offshore and the winds were from the south all day.  Just before turning south from the channel towards our anchorage we noticed the wind increasing to near 18 knots.  At this point it was getting dark and we were committed to Little Bend, the NE corner of Cat Island.  At 2000 we dropped the anchor and noticed the winds had increased to a steady 20 knots.  Of course we’ve experienced such winds many times but this time we were without protection from a lee shore.  Ruth slept like, well, Baby Ruth.  I slept like an overweight hog with a sinus infection knowing the next day I would be turned into pork chops.

Back to Seabrook Marina in NOLA

At 0600, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, I was banging pans and hollering “rise and shine” as if I was at church camp.  Before Sleepy Ruth waddled out of bed the coffee was made and the motor was running.  We pulled up anchor at 0630 and made our way west through the final few miles of the Mississippi Sound, into the Rigolets toward New Orleans.  My Tuesday Mom call was made during this section of the journey.  I’m glad to hear your cats are doing well, Mom.  LOL.  All went smooth until our discussion of ‘which way to turn when we hit the industrial canal’?  Ruth won this one and we pulled into Seabrook Marina in New Orleans at 0400.  We secured 18.8 gallons of diesel and topped off our water supply.  Happy Ruth made a delicious dinner and we tucked away with plans to rise early enough to pass through 80 bridges and 20 locks tomorrow.  Please God, give me the patience to gracefully endure the upcoming torture of transiting New Orleans, tomorrow.  More about that….. next time.