INTERCOASTAL WATERWAY November 25, 2008

After a full day Monday, the courtesy car at East Shore become available for a trip to town. After a quick shower, we headed for the Market on the Bay Restaurant, which we discovered closes at 2 p.m. on Monday. We found a restaurant that was open for dinner and then headed home. As we drove into the Marina, it started to rain. By the time we got inside Catrina, it was pouring. A half bucket of water came in the back door probably because the battens were so long we had to stick the ends outside. We did not get the main sail on yesterday as planned and used the darkness and rain as an excuse. When we hopped in bed, we found that a porthole had been cracked, not tightly closed, and the bottom of our bed was very moist. It was a very hard downpour!
This morning we had the main sail on by 7:30 a.m. and headed out into Mobile Bay. The Intercoastal Waterway leaves the East side Mobile Bay 18 miles below the Marina. We decided to sail just to get the kinks out of everything we may be put together backwards. Four hours later we reached the ICW and clocked our morning travel at 4.5 mph. Slow but peaceful!


The ICW connects lakes, rivers and canals so that boaters can travel inland but close to the Gulf. Along the passage are openings to the Gulf. We found the ICW to be very picturesque.




We saw white sand and beach houses and lots of docks and Marinas. We passed as many sailboats as barges. One sailboat reached Debbie on the radio and chatted about our trip. Since much of the inland lakes and rivers are very shallow, we had to be careful to stay in the marked ICW. When the markers are far apart, we know the channel is deeper or wider but when they are close together, we know we must stay right in the center!










We saw unsettled land and a variety of houses along the shores.



We covered about 50 miles to Pensacola FL in 10 ½ hours. We could see the buildings of Pensacola but chose to moor in the shallows at English Navy Cove beside the 292 bridge in Pensacola Bay.

Note: The sunset is behind us. We are at last headed EAST! and we are back in Verizon territory -we again have internet and phone!