We were sloging along in 3+ foot waves so there was no "format" ceremony taking pictures of the newly unfurled America's Great Loop Crusing Association burgee on the bowsprit. Instead we chose to remain safe on the fly bridge.
The smiles say it all! At this point we had travelled about 585 miles, and we can now call ourselves "Loopers". After 2 weather days due to high winds, we left the marina in Biloxi, Mississippi, at 6:00 am in 7 knot winds. The forecast had been for the winds to build only to 10 mph. However, by the time we had rejoined the waterway about 2 hours later the winds were already at 15 mph with gusts over 20 mph. The seas were (only?) 1-2 feet at this time. As we continued to head east across the Missippi Sound we reached a 10 mile stretch where there is no barrier island on the south side to cut down winds and waves. For that portion the waves were more like 3 to occassionally 4 feet. Not unsafe for us, but we did stay seated and firmly holding on during this time...
After crossing Mobile Bay, the waterway is once again a man made ditch so our last 12 miles to the Wharf Marina at Orange Beach, Alabama were pretty "quiet" by comparison to the rest of today's trip. We arrived at the marina at 4:20 pm.
This photo was taken from the fly bridge looking back at the marina, condominiums, bridge (far right) and shopping mall (just barely visible, far left). This is quite the place with a 20,000 seat outdoor amphitheater for concerts, 10 screen movie theater, ferrris wheel, 50+ shops and restaurants galore. We went to see an early evening showing of "Now You See Me". We are staying here for two nights, and tomorrow we plan to see "After Earth". Gotta feed that movie addiction...
This is a partial view of the shopping mall (left), ferris wheel and movie theaters (right).
So far, we have travelled 602 miles, and now we have "officially" started the Great Loop. Let the adventure continue...
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