Mobile to Tampa Bay

It took eight days to reassemble the boat to the point where it could be put back in the water. During that time I put a coat of bottom paint on the boat and spent evenings reconnecting electronics and instruments while we lived at the top of a ladder. On day 5, the microwave stopped working. The microwave is a brand that is very expensive, yet smaller than any replacement microwave available on the market.  The cabinet that holds the microwave is too small for any other microwave. Bummer. On November seventh, the boat was put in the water and the mast was installed. The engine would not start so we were pulled by our dock lines to a side-tie position just beyond the lift pit and plugged into shore power so we could stay warm in the 32 degree temperatures forecasted. On November ninth, the engine started and the next day we move to a slip, free to continue preparations. On the 12th, I enlisted a couple of dockmates to help us carry the arch from the work area to the dock and we were able to hoist the arch into place and bolt it down. During the week, while driving doing errands I noticed an electronics shop and decided to see if our microwave might be repaired instead of thrown out. I could hardly get in the door due to the TVs, stereos and other electronics all over the place. What a mess! The Vietnamese man with a very thick accent got across to me that he would need $20 to look at the microwave. The next day he called and Barbie figured out that the microwave was repaired and that I would need to pay $40 more. Fabulous! On the 15th, our microwave was back and I didn't need to cut up the cabinet. The rest of the preparations were completed by the 21st.

We motored away from Turner's on Thursday the 22nd and anchored on the Alabama/Florida border for the night. The next night saw us in Destin, the next in Panama City Beach and then anchored in Ingram Creek off Saul Creek off Jackson Creek near Apalachicola on Christmas. We put in at Scipio Marina to spend a day in Apalachicola, enjoying a most decadent oyster stew at Boss Oyster. We shall return!

Before dawn on the 27th we slipped the dock lines and set out into the channel towards Government Cut and the Gulf of Mexico. I was confident that, with the chart to guide us and the RADAR running we could follow the straight channel through the shallows to the cut in the dark. Wrong! A buoy was way off station so the RADAR image it returned only served to confuse me and it guided me hard aground on the right side of the channel. We could not extricate ourselves and the tide was running out. We called for a tow using our BoatUS privileges, activated not quite a week earlier. Then the fog set in. We could hear small boats zooming by in the channel, very near to us and I'm certain that the could NOT hear my horn blasts warning them of our location since their engines were so loud. A call from Captain Mike on the responding towboat informed us that he was taking on water and that he had to return to base, but another boat would arrive in a few hours. Captain Tim arrived on scene at 11:30. I suggested he circle our boat to sound for deep water, but he said we were only about 75 feet from the channel and that he could pull us straight there. So he tied to the bridle I had made up and he pulled hard as I ran our engine hard as well. We eased ever so slowly and with some crunching sounds, moved toward and into the channel. He advised we follow him through the fog back to the harbor to wait for the fog to lift. We dropped anchor at 12:30. So much for the early start towards Tampa Bay.

Ten minutes later the fog lifted and so did our anchor. Even with clear visibility, I still skirted the right side of the channel near where we had run aground before, but did not touch bottom this time. We arrived at and transited Government Cut and were in the Gulf without incident. About a half hour later, we ran into more fog which persisted on and off until sundown. By then our RADAR had quit working. We do have our AIS unit working so I could see any vessels that transmitted and any vessel that had a receiver could see me. Since it was both dark and foggy there was nothing to see, so I motored through the night watching only the chartplotter and listening. By morning the fog was still thick and the forecast gave little encouragement for clearing until we had neared Tampa Bay. We had, however, survived the night. I was headed into South Channel to Gulfport and we anchored that evening off the Gulfport beach just before dark. The next morning I called the Gulfport Municipal Marina to see about slip availability. We had stayed there in 2012 getting our water maker installed so they had us in their computer. They said that they had no space for a transient vessel, but to call back in three hours. In two hours they called me and said that we could take the slip of an owner who was out cruising for at least another month. That will give Jupiter's Smile a home while we travel to France to visit Christina & Larry and the kids in Renne and then Candy Witt in the Southwestern part of France.

Now we need to get back to Mobile and get our van ... and Happy New Year.