Wow. It's been an amazing two days! We left Mobile in rain and light fog and traveled 60-odd miles to Biloxi. The weather had cleared up some by the time we arrived, giving us a chance to walk around a bit. There were quite a few casinos, which we skipped, but not much more within walking distance. One notable exception was a memorial to the victims of Katrina. The monument was beautiful. An oak tree destroyed by the storm had been turned into an amazing sculpture. Some of the buildings we saw were still bearing the signs of the storm, while others had been restored or built new. One block over from the casinos there were huge parking lots - no doubt from missing buildings.
The next morning we left early (0630) and headed out into the intracoastal waterway. The Gulf version of the ICW is not like ours... it is quite wide and is bordered on the south by thin barrier islands. We were less than an hour out before a fog descended. At times we could see maybe half a mile; at other times no more than 300ft. Steve said it was like flying IFR for eight hours. We had to rely on our radar and AIS to tell us where markers, buoys and other boats might be. There were shrimp boats nearby that we never saw. There were barges from time to time that we saw only when we were very close (we are very thankful for our instruments!). We had our fog horn set to sound automatically every few minutes - and we heard others as well. Not a fun day on the water! Around 2:30 the fog lifted and we arrived at our marina around 3:00.
Today we rented a car and will tend to errands and preparations for Becca and Chris. She comes in early Wednesday and he comes in very late. So excited!
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| A night heron visiting Gemini |
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| A beautiful sunset at Mobile |
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| Cocktails with Lacy and Dick, Betty and Rusty |
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| Leaving Mobile in the rain |
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| Low visibility, but at least it is visible |
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| We've missed shrimp boats! |
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| Lots of pelicans hoping for handouts |
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| Not sure exactly what this is... |
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| A closer view |
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| This looked and acted like a ferry |
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| Oil rigs? |
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| The water was a little rough. This is the front of a barge going against the wind. |
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| Coming into Biloxi |
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| Lots of big casinos |
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| Pelicans at our marina |
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| Trees damaged by the storms |
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| An old theater. Not sure if it's still open |
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| A beautiful building that hasn't been renovated yet |
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| Very cool art deco building |
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| City Hall |
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| Tree that is now a sculpture |
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| Part of the Katrina memorial |
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| Items found after the storm |
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| Leaving the marina for New Orleans |
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| It's overcast, but visibility not bad |
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| This guy sat on the rail for a pretty long time |
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| He let me get really close before he flew away |
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| The visibility suddenly got worse |
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| Our little friends showed up to play - they don't mind fog |
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| There's a railroad bridge over there |
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| I'm showing you photos of things we could see. Mostly we saw fog. |
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| We came up behind this tow - this photo is from when I first saw him. |
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| We talked to the tow captain to ask when we could pass. He directed us between his tow (ahead of us) and the stationary tow off to the right. |
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| This was the tow on our right |
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| Looking backwards between them |
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| This is a levee wall being built along the canal. There will be a huge gate in the opening that can be closed if needed. |
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| For some reason Ryder thought she needed to get on the table. |
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| The fog finally lifted! We are in the canal leading to our marina |
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| Seabrook Marina, New Orleans, LA |
We just returned from "the charter form hell" in the BVIs. Make sure you go to Nola's and do a "trip around the kitchen" or multi plate sampler. S
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