Turf to Surf

  We had Red Rover hauled out today for some quick maintenance. Change of sacrificial metals compatible for salt water, power wash the slime off the bottom and replace and tighten the packaging on the rudder. Saunders boat yard was right next door and they were great.  The operation is pretty slick, they had us back in the water in just over an hour. Richard was even able to get a replacement raw water pump for our generator which he later replaced with great success…..he’s a keeper. 

  During our stay in Mobile, Richard did an oil change on the engine and the generator….the marina was able to sell us the oil and had a disposal site for the used oil.  Good job captain 👨‍✈️. We celebrated American Thanksgiving with fellow Loopers and Canadians, Janet and Glen from Grand Cru 🇨🇦, pot luck style.  On our last day we Ubered into Mobile to visit the USS Alabama Memorial Park.  We started at the aircraft hanger,  inside and out…….mostly WWII era.  Next we toured the WWII submarine, named Drum. We went down the forward hatch and walk through to the back.  Sleeping quarters, torpedo bays, kitchen/eating areas, control/navigation area….all on one level, then up the aft hatch. Tight quarters, not for the claustrophobic 😬 Last but not least we toured the battleship USS Alabama, who last fired her guns on Tokyo and was part of the landing party when the Japanese signed the peace treaty. It was very cool from the bridge and the top cannons to the mess hall, sick bay, barbersh

 Coming into Mobile Bay, big water and a very busy commercial Harbour.  Huge ships here, some being loaded with goods, some in dry dock being built or refurbished. Oil rigs in for repairs. Once out of the harbour we are into much bigger water out in Mobile Bay. Our destination is Dog River Marina. We pulled into the marina behind 3 other looper boats and we all lined up at the fuel dock to take on diesel and get pumped out. It ended up taking quite a long time as the pump out broke down just before our group. Situation is 💩.   This is a working boat yard and we chose it because we will have the boat hauled out to prepare the bottom for salt water. We will probably be here for a couple of weeks as everyone is so busy and this is a 3 day week because of 🇺🇸  Thanksgiving holiday. 

 ~~Day 1~~ We got an early start, frost on the decks but once the anchor is pulled and we are on the way, we are cozy inside our Pilothouse      Lot’s of commercial traffic in this area.  We only have one lock today and it is 30 miles (3 hours) away. This is Bobby’s Fish camp, the only place to get fuel until Mobile.  We have a large fuel capacity but some of the smaller boats don’t and they need this fuel dock in order to make this long run.  They are located just north of the lock, so when we saw all the commercial traffic at the lock we asked if we could tie up to their dock for a few hours. It ended up being a 4 hour wait and by that time there were 9 boats assembled to lock through.  Coffeeville lock is 34 feet down and is the last lock of the river system.  🥳 Autopilot is great, allows the captain to relax a little. We had to go to plan B for our anchorage for the night as daylight was running out.  I also downloaded a Tides App as we are now in tidal waters…..something new to f