One shiney new spur - Day 53 - Mobile to Fairhope, Al

We awoke early and discussed whether we should have the boat hauled to replace the broken spur that we damaged on the Illinois River.  Being in the Gulf now makes spurs more important as there are numerous crab traps with floating buoys that are easy to snag.  Since Dog River Marina is a full service facility we decided to call and see if they could fit us it.

So, at 6:50 AM left a message on their answering machine.  Ten minutes later came a knock at our door (actually the port side of our hardtop).   A gentleman named Byron intoroduced himself as the shop foreman and asked if we were ready to be pulled.

The boat being ready for lifting

Another 15 minutes and she was out of the water and the team went to work.

45 minutes later, the new spur was installed.  Before and after photos.

During the process they power washed the hull and replaced the plastic pads on the port spur which were starting to wear.  So in little more than an hour the running gear was fully operational and the bottom was spic and span.

Meanwhile, as this was all going on, a gentlemen named Sonny came up and thanked me for the business.  I said, "sounds like you are the owner" to which he replied "I think the place owns me."  As Diana and I chatted with Sonny, we learned that he had built the Columbus Marina, found out why the lovely restaurant, called Woody's, was no longer in business, learned that the Columbus Marina was hit by two tornados and that the Dog River Marina was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and with regard to the latter three events, got to see the photos.

Sonny and Diana with a slighly distracted Kodi

The charge for all these services was a very reasonable $569 and they gave us a $50 gift certificate to the West Marine store located right on the premises.

Shopping at West Marine actually took more time than the repair job.  We used the gift certificate to upgrade the dingy's GPS with a Garmin model that has marine charts for the entire US.

Side Story: Why do we have a GPS on the dingy in the first place and why did it need to be upgraded?  The dingy, as you may recall, is a 11 foot Caribe with a 30HP Tohatsu outboard.  It moves through the water pretty good. It came with one of those totally inaccurate speedometer that work on water pressure from a pitot tube.  It said 20 MPH and I knew we were going faster than that.  So, for $100 I bought a very basic Garmin GPS that essentially provided speed, heading and elevation.  Turns out the dingy's top speed was 33 miles an hour.  The upgrade allows us to see water depths and buoys, which will be helpful oparating on the intercoast where there is LOTs of shallow water.

The day was beautiful and at 11:00 AM we departed Dog River bound for Fairhope Alabama, 12 miles across Mobile Bay.  Traveling at trawler speed, we arrived at 12:20 to paradise. 

View of Mobile Bay from where we are docked

Eastern Shore Marina put us on their face dock with a spectacular view of Mobile Bay and then proceeded to give us a free night and BoatUS and AGLCA discounts.  Total cost for 4 nights was an unbelievable $143.   We immediately signed up for the courtesy car and explored downtown Fairhope.  I'll let the photos do the talking.

Everybody's happy

What a difference from the towns on the Western Rivers

Dinner was at Tamara's in downtown Fairhope, an upscale restaurant decorated with modern art (even on the ceiling).  The setting and food was equal to the best of anything in Chicago.
Written by Les.