Second Wave Goes Gold!!

The final departure on Second Wave out of Dog River Marina headed for Orange Beach, AL. Its hard to believe that this is the last leg of our Great Loop. What an adventure!


Nice flat water to start the day but our journey wouldn't have been complete without a little early morning fog. It looks like its going to be thick below.


Once through the fog (which lasted about an hour) we couldn't have asked for a calmer morning to cruise down Mobile Bay.


An amazing sunrise coming out of the fog.


Of course we weren't alone out on the Bay. Shrimpers, dolphins and pelicans kept us company.



Dolphins guided us to our destination.


After crossing marker G125 near the mouth of Mobile Bay we could claim GOLD!!


Here we are above celebrating the milestone and below is a photo of our Chartplotter as we crossed over the same travel path we covered in January.


Well, I guess the celebrating is below.


Smooth sailing now!


Back in the ICW, what a great feeling!


Manatee signs again in the picture above (at left). Haven't seen those in a looong time!



As you enter into the ICW on the east side of Mobile Bay heading east, you will come upon LuLu's on the port side. LuLu is Jimmy Buffet's sister and the owner of the restaurant and marina. But our destination today was The Wharf (one of the best marina facilities anywhere on the Loop - and we should know!).


So we continued on eastward in the ICW.


Finally The Wharf was in sight.


Here we are about to make our turn into the marina. Very excited at this point!



Coming into our slip for the 100th + time. I think we got this!




Wow, what a feeling!


The proud Captain!!


Time to change out the white for the gold flag!



This is the culmination of the adventure of a lifetime. Hard to express the feelings of accomplishment, pride, relief, gratitude and excitement all at the same time.



Second Wave looks good in Gold!


Celebratory meal with other Loopers afterward. A tradition we will dearly miss.







Celebrating with other Loopers in Orange Beach. All of whom will also cross their wakes in the coming weeks (one tomorrow at Pensacola, FL!).


As described previously, The Wharf is a great facility. So much so that they also have a wedding venue among other amenities. We couldn't help but notice the next evening that a wedding photographer escorted the bride and groom down on the docks for photos. Make your own joke below.


After spending several days packing, cleaning and completing some routine maintenance, we're finally leaving Orange Beach to travel back to Texas.  Taking one last pic with Doug and Dana.  We loved our travels with Misty Pearl!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making our lists and checking them twice

Image
As Brent and I pondered retirement, we wanted to be active and do something together.  We considered moving to a smaller house in a smaller city but that didn't spur any ideas of how we would fill our time. (For those of you who know me well, you know that I need to be busy most of the time.) We had always enjoyed being on the water and had owned boats for almost 20 years. So we decided that maybe living on a boat would be different yet, enjoyable.  We spent more than a year looking for the perfect live aboard boat with the idea of spending 6-12 months in one marina and then cruising on to another location. As we searched, we revisited an idea Brent had many years back.  He wanted to do the Great Loop.  In a weak moment, I agreed and then the type of boat we needed for The Loop changed drastically.  We needed something that was economical, had a long range, wasn't too large and wasn't too tall. (Lots of bridges to pass under).  In April 2017 we finally found her in Aran
Read more

Fort Myers Beach and Downtown Fort Myers

Image
Fort Myers Beach proved to be yet another popular destination as you can see from the pics.  You would think that the temperature was in the high 80s with all the people on the beach but on this day it was barely over 70 but that didn't seem to hinder the population.  Downtown Fort Myers, which is walkable from the marina, always seems to have something going on. On Friday they had a Music Walk and as we went from one performance to another we weren't sure if the performers just picked their own spot to set up or if it was organized.  They offered a wide variety that ranged from a 10 year old country singer to 65-75 year olds band with horns.  There was something for everyone!   
Read more

NYC - Day #2

Image
Although we covered a lot of ground on Day #1 we went back into the city for another day.  We started back at Times Square and decided the way to get to Ground Zero was to get on the Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley (upper and lower deck busses) so we could learn more about the city (via earbud narration) as we were transported to our destination. The photo above was taken as we entered the Garment District. Notice all of the wooded structures at the tops of many of the buildings. I believe they are for water storage (like water towers for each building). Entrances to Madison Square Garden above and Macy's on Fifth Ave. below. Beneath the Empire State Building below. The building below is referred to as the Iron Wedge Building because of its unique shape. Quick view of a small section of Greenwich Village as we drove by below. Below is the Freedom Tower; built on the sight of the former Twin Towers. The new tower is 1776 f
Read more