Woke up in Mobile in the middle of the shipping harbor of Mobile AL. It was about 6am when we woke up to the sounds of barges and ships going by. Our boat rocked and rolled all night to the wake of barges tugs, and huge ships. I couldn’t fall asleep until about 1 AM, due to the fact that i had some good caffeinated tea with my BLT. We shoved off about 8:00 out into Mobile Bay/ The Gulf with no idea what we were doing. There were different markers in the channel and weird little balls in the water (found out in just a few they were crab pots). Luckily we had the number to our new found friends and they helped us right out. We also called the Marina to get directions and was told to go to channel marker 62 turn East and stay at 90 degrees until we reached the marina. The marina personnel did not realize that marker 62 was no longer there(something about a hurricane). We just turned east between channel markers 64 and 60 stayed at 90 degrees and went right into marina, but not after dragging our keel over soft bottom several times, WHEW! Our first experience with channel markers and no landmarks. We put up the mainsail and motorsailed straight to the marina. We stayed heeled over some to our port side until we got there. It was a wonderful ride! Loving the warm weather too. Unlike other marinas no one was there to help us get into our slip and only poles to tie to, no cleats (which is great practice for the bahamas). Two really nice sailors assisted us with our tying up and gave us some great advice on sailing open water.  Once we were secured we checked out the marina. They have a really friendly staff, a courtesy car, clean showers and restrooms, internet access, cable tv,  and one washer and dryer. The marinas here are so close together you can hardly tell where one ends and one begins, except for the fact we are next to a fine yacht club you would think it was all one marina. The yacht club has tons of sailboats! We met our boating friend Pete from Midway Marina at the dock, Linda was running errands. Steve and I decided to go into town and get something to eat. We went to get the courtesy car, where you have to leave a 10 dollar deposit to get key.” Stylin” in our ford caravan we went to the town of Fairhope and found a neat place called Bucks Diner. They had some wonderful food, it was GREAT! Sweet potato casserole, potato salad, mac and cheese and baked chicken all homemade no frozen crap here! This was our pre thanksgiving dinner. The only thing i wished we had tried was the homemade banana pudding, we probably couldn’t have walked if we did hehe. If you are ever in Fairhope which is so close to Orange beach try out Bucks Diner and if you have more expensive taste try Tamaras. After lunch we settled down for a rest when Pete and  Linda called and asked if we needed anything from West Marine. We said yes and went with them to get some life jackets that inflate when you fall in water and some charts. We have several more things to acquire before hitting the Gulf stream. Oh and try out the Mega Walmart in Fairhope, it is at least 300000 square feet and looks like a resort. This was one of our most enjoyable days cant wait for more.

CAPTANS LOG: Saw some dolphins following the crab boats, they came up behind us once. We logged 14 miles today and got to read our first open water/ bay markers.