Tuesday 12 December 2021
Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, AL
We were snug in our sheltered
slip last night and knowing the winds were not to die down until around lunch, we
slept in and made breakfast late.
Underway at 1150, our run down
the long, narrow channel leading from Dog River down to the ship channel was
calm. Power setting was about 2500 RPM
to achieve 10 MPH or a bit more in the shallow channel. When we got to the deeper ship channel, the “squat”
we had experienced in the boat channel ceased and we picked up speed to almost
12 MPH. The throttle was eased back to
about 2400 to keep us on the ten-MPH goal for the 35-mile run.
The seas picked up a bit as the
fetch astern increased, and we comfortably sailed directly down sea all the way
across the Bay. With no auto-pilot and
no really good steering compass, aside from the small car compass I stuck on
the consoles before we left Wheeler Park, maintaining the route I had laid down
in my Coastal Explorer chart plotting software was an observational exercise in
which I corrected any off-track errors by steering to a general area of the
small compass. At times we could steer
by just maintaining a slightly left of straight down sea course. Once objects on the land area ahead became
visible in the last third of the run across the Bay, we were able to steer for
whichever object kept us near the route line.
Halfway across the 25-mile route
angling southeasterly, Frank called to ask if we could get the boat as far as
some place east of Escambia Bay (Pensacola).
His reason was that he had been studying the weather and had found
Saturday to be a seriously windy day with predictions of thirty-plus MPH
gusts. I immediately began a search for
a slip anywhere in Santa Rosa Sound or the Fort Walton or Destin area as
someplace we could go to tomorrow after leaving this marina. The results were dismal as no marina had a
spare slip due in large part to all available slips in the area from Orange
Beach to Panama City being occupied by local as a result of being displaced by
hurricane damage to marinas over the last two years. The main reason we needed a slip was to transfer
us off and Frank and his guest onto the boat on Friday afternoon. We have a good anchorage we like 62 miles
east of here called Spectre Island, but that would not suit for a vessel
turnover.
In the end it was decided that we
would just take the boat all the way to Panama City, another 130 miles for a
total of about 690 miles for this delivery.
At least we will be getting home a day early as our ETA is now Thursday.
We arrived here at 1430 and
refueled having used 52 gallons of gasoline in 35 miles, or 1.48 gallons to the
mile. Dinner at Lulu’s was a disappointment
for our last meal on Frank. Stick with
their sandwich menu.
Brother Jim and wife Jackie came
to visit and exchange Xmas gifts with us, all socially distanced on the pier.
So tomorrow, Spectre Island anchorage, and the next day home.
