Day 18 Gulfport, MS to Dog River Marina

     We pulled out from our slip at 6:25 am and we headed for the fuel dock. The Small Craft Warning flag at the entrance to the Small Boat Harbor had ben taken down over night, and the winds were reported as 6 mph as predicted. There were even patches of blue sky (photo at right). They have a 24 hour fuel service, but you have to call during off hours so that the security man can be there. I have been moving fuel from the forward fuel tank on each side to the rear tanks during the past several days. In order to try to run on the cleanest fuel possible, we run off the rear fuel tanks only. When we buy fuel we fill the forward tanks only, and then as we use fuel in the aft tanks, we move fuel from the forward tanks through a special filter to remove any water and particles 2 microns and larger. The filtering/dewatering process is called "fuel polishing" in boat jargon. As far as we know, we have never bought "bad fuel" with lots of dirt and/or water, but it never hurts to take a little extra care... Each of the main engines has three fuel filters that repeat this process so we are hopefully well protected.

    

       We filled the forward tanks with 246.0 gallons of diesel fuel, and we left the fuel dock at about 7:15 am. Today our destination is 85.6 miles to Mobile, AL.  Specifically, we have a reservation at the Dog River Marina. Speaking of dogs, we have drugged Lucky with half a Dramamine (there are two kinds, and we had to get the one that the vet recommended).  We are crossing our fingers... 

     In honor of our early departure, here is a photo (at left) from Day 16 of an actual sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico at our marina as the actual sunrise was hidden by clouds today.. Those of you who know me at all will know that I was not up and walking the dog at 6:30 am on a non-boating day. The kudos for the picture go to the Admiral.

    The next photo shows just a hazy view of Mobile Bay in Alabama. At this point we have travelled 555.1 miles from League City, and upon entering the Mobile Ship Channel we are now "officially" travelling our second Great Loop adventure... From this point we will go about 10 miles north in the ship channel and then head west about 4 miles to Dog River Marina.

     As you know, we had several extra days in Gulfport waiting for the strong SE wind to die down on the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay. We had started in 6 mph breeze, and the wind did slowly go up to (maybe) 10 mph, but our cruise was pretty enjoyable.  It turns out that we had to do a second dosing of seasick medicine for the dog and that seemed to make all the difference in the world.

     Dog River Marina is just off Mobile Bay on the (very far) south side of Mobile. There are virtually no amenities either on site or in the general area. Also, we had only an intermittent cell phone service and no internet. Thank goodness for the satellite TV system. In terms of civilization we were so near and yet so far...

     Here is a photo of Lucky Us all set for the night with an early departure scheduled in the morning while the winds on Mobile Bay are still favorable.