Mobile Area Adventures - Day 55-59 - Fairhope, AL

We have been in Fairhope since Tuesday, November 23, a total of 8 days.  This is such a spectacular area that we could easily stay here much longer but the calendar reminds us that we have to keep moving.

Friday after Thanksgiving, while everybody in the US went shopping, we rented a car from Enterprise and drove a short 20 minutes to downtown Mobile where we had lunch at Wintzell's Oyster House.

Wintzell's is located on Dauphin street, which is Mobile's equivalent of New Orleans' Bourbon Street.  Very colorful even in the rain.

Wintzell's has been in business since 1938 and the atmosphere is unique.  The walls, to quote Wintzell's, is covered with "wit and wisdom."  You could spend a week reading the walls.  The food was also good as was the service.

Wit and wisdom cover the walls.  Particularly helpful for me

Saturday's activity was a visit to Battleship Memorial Park to tour the USS Alabama , a WWII battleship.  The photo below was taken from about a 1/2 mile from the ship.  At 680 feet, it is difficult to get a photo close up.

USS Alabama

The tour, actually three different tours, are self guided and the very easy to follow.  The ship is in amazingly good condition and the exhibits contain relevant artifacts.  Click here for a virtual tour.

Communications room

One very special feature is the ability to explore the barbette where the 2700 pound projectiles are stored and readied for loading.  According to the exhibit, this is the only ship where you can view the barbette's technology.  Absolutely fascinating.

Large naval guns are of particular interest to me as I served as a field artillery officer in the National Guard in a battalion that had an 8 inch howitzers.  An 8 inch howitzer fires a 200 pound round as compared to a 16 inch gun that fires a 2,700 pound projectile.  That's the equivalent of firing a Chevrolet Cobalt (curb weight 2721 lbs) at the enemy.  The process of firing such a projectile is shown in this link.  Short and well worth watching.

Located high in the superstructure is the bridge.  I expected to see a sophisticated array of electronics (at least for its day) and controls and was surprised at its simplicity.  Turns out the radar and navigation equipment is located well below decks in the operations room and is supervised by the ship's executive officer.

Wheel, compass and engine communication device (to the left)

On the Battleship Memorial site is a WWII submarine, indoor aircraft museum, outdoor display of aircraft and weapons.  The propeller in the foreground is one of the ship's four propellers.  You get of a sense of its size next to the aircraft, which I believe is a B25.

Sunday, we took the dingy and ventured south about 5 miles to the Grand Hotel, which is a "grand" hotel managed today by Marriott.  It has its own marina.  We pulled in but could not figure out how to get Kodi off the dingy as there were no floating docks.  The harbormaster seeing our predicament allowed us to tie off on a floating platform used be the Alabama State's Police's patrol boat.  This allowed us to walk up a set of steps.

The grounds are spacious and well manicured.  These photos only begin to give you a sense of the site's beauty.

 
As usual, thanks to Kodi, we got to chat with some of the guests, one of whom was a newly married Marine Major (soon to be Lt Colonel) headed to Afghanistan in January.  We got to talk with him, his new wife and his parents.

On Friday, we turned on the bridge/cockpit heater and were surprised by the fact that although it appeared to be working it would not blow heat.  After several tries, we immediately scheduled a visit with the marina's technician for Monday morning.  Sunday morning we turned it on to verify that it was still broken and sure enough, heat.  So, Monday morning I reported to the marina that the problem went away and suggested that I now had an intermittent problem, which is difficult to diagnose.  Ed, the owner asked me a few questions and then declared that I had an air blockage and that the AC water pump re-primed itself.  Smart guy.  I had not told him that we had pulled the boat two days earlier, which was the cause of the air blockage.  Problem solved and at no charge.

Monday evening Diana captured a beautiful late afternoon cloud formation by the harbor.

Late afternoon clouds on Monday

Speaking of clouds, today was a stormy day although we awoke to 72 degrees and overcast skys.  At around 9:00 AM, just after a lovely walk with Kodi, Ed, the marina owner, advised us that winds up to 40 knots were possible and suggested we move the boat to the fuel dock which is located further into the harbor.  We did so and by 10:00 AM we felt the first gust of the approaching thunderstorm.  It then proceeded to rain cats and dogs for the next 7 hours with the temperature dropping 20 degrees.

We used the time to get haircuts and chase down Innova dog food.  Kodi has been on Innova since we got her at 8 weeks.

You can see the storm clouds approaching Guided Discovery at the west end of the harbor

At the fuel dock 15 minutes before the storm

We expect to be moving tommorow.  Our goals is Orange Beach.

Written by Les.