Bob and Marie Austin Home, Bayou Marcus, Pensacola

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 196 - October 13,. 2017

Our goal was to leave the Dog River Marina by 7:30 a.m. to be on our way to our friends' home in Pensacola. We were uncertain how far it was, because usually between Skipper Bob and Garmin Blue Chart we can look at mile markers and do the math! Not so today. 

We first had to come out the channel from Dog River to the Mobile Bay Ship Channel, then go south in the Ship Channel, then go east in the Bon Secour River, then east on the ICW, then quite a ways on Perdido Bay, and finally into the Canal on Bayou Marcus.  Bob came out in his little Caracal cat to guide us in. We turned on track recording to make sure we could find our way back out! Our longest day yet, 10 hours running and 70 miles.

But I have gotten a little ahead of myself! Rico was up to see us off. We may or may not ever see Rico again, and I hope we do. We enjoyed his company a lot. We exchanged contact information, and he will be living in Oregon, so we shall see!

Pat, Rico and Patty at Dog River Marina

There was a lot of commercial traffic  down the Mobile Ship Channel, and we took a few wakes even though we were well off to the side of the channel. There we also saw a lot of shrimp boats just outside the channel!

Shrimp boat in Mobile Bay

Off and on along the way, we have encountered Jonathan Arthur and Rosa Cross on Salty in various places along our Loop. Early on, we had stayed three days at Jonathan's business, Honest John's Fish Camp, in Melbourne Beach, Florida. They started their Loop, Jonathan's third Loop, a week after we left Honest John's, and caught up to us in Beaufort, S.C.,  again on the Chesapeake, and probably one or two other places. Jonathan's Loop was completely different from ours, and included the entire Mississippi from Wisconsin to Louisiana! We last talked to Jonathan when he was north of New Orleans during Hurricane Nate. So we were more than a little surprised to see Jonathan pull up beside us in Bon Secour Bay!

Salty on Bon Secour Bay.

Back to where we left off at the start of this post! We followed Bob into their canal on Bayou Marcus, got tied up at their dock, and enjoyed a wonderful Basque Chicken dinner courtesy of Marie!

Our bed awaits, and showers in the morning!