Florida...Almost!

After checking 3 weather sites before turning in on Monday night we thought we'd be at Dog River Marina for at least a few more days. It rained all night...but, at 7 am my captain had the coffee going and was checking "wunderground" and all at once I heard him say, "Let's go for it"! ~Now, for those of you who know my captain, you know he is a cautious captain...So, when he says it's clear to go I do not question his judgement. In less than 15 minutes we were underway! We followed the channel markers (which seemed to be a lot further apart than they actually are) and stayed just outside the shipping channel hugging the reds...at marker 58 we set our course to bearing 145, our speed to 8 knots and headed through the fog into the direction of Bon Secour Bay...It was foggier out in the bay than it was inside the river. I sat outside (in the rain) on the bow with my radio and kept an eye out for floating trees and such....there's a lot of debris in the delta. Chip had the radar going and spotted several large freighters and barges before they were visible by sight. We could hear fog horns all around us. We got glimpses of ol' Mr. Sunshine throughout the 2 hour trip across the bay. The radar also assured us that we were in the weather window as heavy rain was on our tail, but we were confidant we'd beat out the nastiest and get to our destination with time to spare. ~As we backed into our slip in Homeport Marina it started to pour! What timing!

Safely snuggled in at Homeport Marina in Orange Beach Alabama, we walked over to Jimmy's crazy sista's place for dinner last night...Lulu Buffet makes a great margarita! Rumor has it big brother makes a surprise appearance every now and then, but no such luck for us last night. Today the sun is shining...in fact, when Chip went out to do some exterior housekeeping on Ithaka he couldn't find his sunglasses...they were buried under the rain gear and goulashes (is that how you spell that?)! Anyway, the wind is really blowing for now so we're going to sit tight and hopefully head out tomorrow when we will find ourselves back in our homestate of Florida...at last!

"Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been before, perhaps even more homesick than for familiar ground." ~ Judith Thurman