Real Time Update and Back to Pensacola

We made it! I am so excited to report we made it safely to Demopolis, Alabama. That was our planned destination when we started this trip 6 months ago and on April 1, we arrived. The trip up the river was not without significant challenges, but I will cover all of that in future entries. For now, we will go back to Pensacola, Florida...

We arrived in Pensacola on March 11 after our overnight sail from Port St. Joe. I did a video update while I was watching some dolphins around the boat. You can watch that video by clicking here:
Video Update from Pensacola

I will warn you I rambled on a bit, I guess I was tired.

After a good nights sleep, we waited for the fog to lift and then headed out along the ICW. We expected it to be a motor only trip, but as it turned out we were able to sail for part of it. We only had about 20 miles to go to Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores.

It was at about this time that the news of the Corona Virus was changing every few hours. Our daughter, Shannon and her husband, Brian and three of their children were scheduled to take a cruise out of Mobile and were going to rent a beach house for two days before they left. We were hoping to join them there. They were struggling with the decision to go or not.

We also had plans to meet up with our friends Bob and Rox that live in Gulf Shores and Bill and Lisa who were returning from the winter months in the Cape Canaveral area. We had no idea how quickly our world would change.

As we motored along the ICW, we saw some old chips approaching going East. As it turns out they were replica ships of Christopher Columbus' voyage the Nina and The Pinta.

The Nina

The Pinta. We have no idea where the Santa Marina was...

I guess I should do some research about these ships. Overall, the day went well. We chose Homeport Marina because it is centrally located in Gulf Shores and it is right next to the famous LuLu's Restaurant. LuLu is Jimmy Buffet's sister. It is a very nice marina, but it is also expensive, by our standards, at about $400 for a week.

SHIFT in her slip at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shore, Alabama

A shot looking down the fairway at Homeport Marina. LuLu's Restaurant at the far end.

We were now ready to meet up with friends and family, but would it happen? I will write about our time in Gulf Shores in my next entry.