Charging Well Aboard Crossroads

Day 191 |  Mobile   

The Beneteau sailboat which was docked in front of us departed at 6:30 this morning and I emerged from the warm covers to watch their trek out of this tight fairway. Tomorrow morning we'll have to back out between the pilings to port and the line of yachts on starboard. Who needs caffeine with an energy rush like this? We're definitely hoping this wind dies down a bit. Being up a few minutes earlier than normal gave me the opportunity to catch up with happenings in the Eastern Time Zone. Spending the last three months in the Central Time Zone has been the most frustrating part of daily life on the Loop. We're still more than a week away from the Port St. Joe (FL) area where we'll finally reenter the Eastern Time Zone and be in sync with everyone back home.

My mission this morning was to stay inside and stay warm. I was, however, called upon to venture outside to switch over water tanks when Barry ran out of water mid-shower. Three loads of laundry yesterday and my earlybird shower this morning had drained our aft tank. I crawled into the cockpit locker and flipped the valve to the forward tank. I then pulled out the hose and filled the empty aft tank. I began working on some bills, our expense log, and then on my computer project as Barry made one more (that I know of) trip to West Marine to get a few lightbulbs. We have wanted to change our exterior lights to LEDs to be more energy efficient. Now that it gets dark so early, it is becoming more important. Today, that project rose to the top of the list. Our new alternator was delivered around 1:30 and Barry had it installed and tested within 30 minutes. We're now charging well with the needle perfectly centered in the green zone and the batteries are at 100%. All is good.

I enjoyed hanging out in the pilothouse where the sun shining through the windows created a nice warm area. I conferred with Santa and managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done. I, too, was charging well. At 3:00 we picked up the courtesy car and ran into town to pick up our usual week's worth of perishables. We took 10 West towards Pascagoula, but our destination was in-town. Before our alternator issues, we had planned to make a quick run over to New Orleans and visit the French Quarter and aquarium. That's an additional destination that we'll have to catch another time. We passed Hank Aaron Stadium, what appeared to be a nice-looking home for the Mobile BayBears (Double A, Los Angeles Angels). Aaron is a Mobile native and the stadium opened in 1997 with a seating capacity of 6,000. Unfortunately, the team will depart Mobile after next season and relocate to a newly constructed $46 million stadium in Huntsville as the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Suddenly the Richmond Flying Squirrels and Nutzy don't seem to be such weird names.

Below is a rendering of the Trash Panda's new 7,500-seat park and entertainment complex. Yes, Richmond, this is what is expected to attract and keep a AA team. The Squirrels won't wait forever. So, we made it to Walmart and loaded up the cart with the normal milk, bread, turkey, cheese, and Cheerios. Of course we left without our usual six heads of Romaine. We will learn to love spinach salads for the next week. These Alligator Nuggets were spotted in the freezer section, but at $13.44 a bag deemed them too expensive to try only to find that they taste just like cheap chicken. The sun set over the marshland as we returned to the marina.

We will leave here tomorrow morning along with Miss Utah, but will wait until about 8:00 do so. Hopefully the frost will have melted by then. Our plans have us stopping for lunch (and probably a shirt) at Lulu's before finishing up on anchor for the evening at Wolf Bay. We are flexible (and have several alternative plans if required), but don't necessarily like being so. We'll see how it goes.