Sailing Kathryn

1450 miles, 29 locks and 8 rivers….We made it!

Yes indeed, we made it to Mobile, AL and we are all alive and well! As the heading indicates, it was quite a fete, but memorable! Let me start with a quick backtrack to the final three days.

Anchorages on the river past Demopolis:

Yes, STEVE spotted the first alligator, in fact, the only two we saw he was the “spotter”. They were sitting on logs along the bank sunning themselves, and they quickly slid into the water once they heard the boat. The only picture I got was of its tail (: At another anchorage, Bill was watching the shore with the binoculars and spotted a young bobcat. They, too, blend into their environment so well, they are hard to see. This was it for wildlife!

Anchoring can be a bit unnerving due to the barge traffic. Steve became a bit creative with the camera and captured the lights of the barge coming around the curve where we were for the night. Imagine how dark it is on the river and then to see these sweeping bright lights….rather eerie!

Sunset at anchor

Barge passing in the night

October 18, 2012

With much anticipation, we started to see the skyline of Mobile. This is the day we had been waiting for. Mobile is a large port and quite industrial along the river. We sailed through and into Mobile Bay. It, of course, is a big body of water, but it quite shallow. You must stay in the channel and watch your depths. We followed our maps/GPS and “turned right” and headed for Turner Boatyard and Marina. These are the folks who will be servicing our boat to make it ready for the Gulf crossing to Corpus. As we tied up Kathryn, it was fun to have our feet on the ground and at the final destination of the river trip. (No, I did not kiss the dock!!!) We celebrated with dinner at the nearby Mobile Yacht Club! Job well done, Steve and Bill!

Ship docked in Mobile

Celebrating our arrival to Mobile Bay at Mobile Yacht Club

Downtown Mobile

Friday morning at 8 o’clock, Steve drove the boat to the marina’s power lift to get Kathryn on to dry dock. This went without a “hitch” and she is now ready for a “bottom” job and to have the mast put back up! After cleaning out the fridge, packing our bags and a bit of cleaning, we were out of there! Bill left for Illinois and our destination was Corpus Christi via New Orleans.

Kathryn being hauled at Turner Mainre in Mobile

New Orleans:

Our Hotel

Another bucket list item for me was to visit New Orleans! I had written a report in sixth grade about the city and it had fascinated me ever since. It lived up to the pictures in my mind. We got a hotel in the French Quarter in a beautifully renovated building. (I won’t go into how LONG you had to wait for the hot water to get to our room for a shower! There are some good things to say about modern plumbing!) Then we took a long walking tour from one end of Bourbon Street to the other and various other locations. We had dinner overlooking Jackson Square in a lovely old home with a 140 ft. balcony. Once again, if you love to people watch, this is the place to be! What you don’t see….yikers! You could party all night, but the Janetts weren’t that wild and crazy. After breakfast the next morning, we were on the road to Corpus Christi, TX. (Took one stop over at the Costco in Houston…we are having withdrawal symptoms after not making our weekly trips to Costco.) We arrived on North Padre Island around six o’clock! Home at last! We plan to be here until the second week in November and then back to Mobile to sail Kathryn home. I will pick up our blog journey at that time. Once again, dear readers, thanks for sharing this adventure with us. Fondly, Nancy, Steve and Bill