10 Nov Day 58 Nautoncalls first tast of the Salt

The 10th of November, 2019. Our last day on the River system started out with fog.

It seemed patchy in the Tensas River so we pulled anchor at 0700 and headed for the Tombigbee River. When we tried to enter the river it was Pea soup so we turned back and waited another hour for it to clear.

It cleared quickly after that and we had a clear calm run on the latst 36 miles of river. The river wound its way toward Mobile Bay, slowly passing through Alabama Bayou country.

Until all of a sudden the skyline of Mobile Alabama appeared.

Mobile is a busy Seaport. We passed our first ocean going ships and saw container ships being unloaded.

I had a little chuckle thinking about my days hauling those sea cans over the rails. Not missing it yet!

We passed the Austal Shipyard where they were building ships for the US Navy.

Some huge Oil rigs.

And ships in drydock.

I think if you were a welder you could get a job in Mobile.

As we entered Mobile Bay we passed our first working Shrimp Trawler.

All I could think about was Forrest Gump and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

We also had our first Dolphin encounter. It turns out that they are hard to photograph and don’t pose nearly as well as they did at the Shedd Aquarium!

Nautoncall is finally in the Salt water. It only took 58 days and 1700 Nautical miles, but we made it.

That night we stayed at Dog River Marina. We took on 60 gallons of Diesel because you got a free dock with 50 gallons.

We also caught up to our friends Paul and Jacqui on Outta the Loop and had “docktails” with a large group of Loopers that were also celebrating their arrival in the Gulf of Mexico.

Another milestone on the Loop completed. Now on to new adventures and challenges dealing with salt water, tides and currents…