We pulled our anchor at 8:30 and very soon we were back into the waterway on our way to Mobile. Almost immediately we passed 1 tow and met 2 others. Both of the northbound tows were hauling coal.
Very soon we saw the Mobile skyline. YES!!! As we got closer to Mobile Bay the river traffic really picked up. There were many tows and also many barges tied to shore waiting for a tug. The number of tows indicated how close we were getting to a major commercial center.
The scenery had been slowly changing for the past few days. We have been seeing cypress trees, tall grasses and more marshy looking areas.
As we cruised through Mobile’s harbor, we passed what Darrell believes was a Prototype of a Navy stealth ship. It was a catamaran and did not appear to be commissioned since the hull number was painted over. We found a picture of it (on the web) of it being launched. Rumored to be commissioned the USS Indianapolis.
We passed the cruise ship terminal where Norwegian cruise ship “Spirit” was docked. Beth mentioned she would be up for a cruise and would like to be “pampered” for a while. We passed a working dredge and an old Coast Guard ship that was aground and abandoned.
We got to downtown Mobile, mile 0 of the Tenn-Tom waterway. We are glad to be out of the river system. We were now in Mobile Bay. On our way to our marina on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay we saw fishermen dragging nets to catch fish. The gulls were all over the boat, hoping for some food.
We arrived at our marina at 11:30, put on 128 gallons of diesel and docked. We took the courtesy car and went into town. It was good to get off the boat for a time.
We came back to the boat for a while, then took the car again and went to dinner. After driving around checking out places to eat we decided on the Fly Creek Café, just across the creek by boat, but about 3 miles away by car. It’s a boaters hangout with lots of character and local color. Local artwork (Fairhope is a artists community) hangs on the walls along with retro posters and black & white photos. It has a resident cat, pool table, Pac-man and great early 60’s music playing in the background.
The wine choices were chardonnay, merlot and white zinfandel. Beth ordered chardonnay and it was delivered in a small bottle with a plastic glass. When we asked what food they are known for our server told us it was the hamburgers and their fish, shrimp, and clam poor-boys. Darrell had a Fly Burger (regular, plain hamburger) and Beth ordered a Surge Burger. That was a Fly Burger with BBQ sauce, grilled pineapple, bacon and cheese. They were the largest hamburgers we had every seen and they were both extremely good. We were very happy with our choice of restaurants.
