After the long wet ride home from New Orleans, it was time to see if we could get all the service folks working on Salty so that we could soon make headway down south to warmer temperatures. Every night the temperatures were dipping into the 30s and 40s - and we thought we were down south! So it was great that on the Monday morning after Thanksgiving that we got someone from the service department to investigate the water leak into the foreword berth - and it appeared to be coming from the junction of the windshield and the foredeck on the starboard side and running to the midline. The plastic molding on the side of the windshield was in places separated and the caulking all cracked.
Next day we got the Zeus service department to send someone to do the periodic pod drive maintenance and he discovered that our coupling with the engine was problematic (out of alignment and spoiled its housing) and needed to be replaced - and what was supposed to be maintenance, ended up being a three-day repair; and several thousand dollars of replacement parts. We tried to get the ice maker fixed, but were told the ice making mechanism was shot and that it was cheaper to get a whole new ice maker than the replacement mechanism which cost nearly as much as a whole new appliance, which we duly ordered. The re-caulking of the windshield ended up being a four-day job - with careful removal of both moldings on the windshield and all the old caulking removed and replaced; and allowed to set for two days. We also had to remove the water-soaked panel (luckily only a small panel in the ceiling) in the forward berth and arrange to have it replicated and replaced.
Up to this point, we hadn't gotten to see much of downtown Mobile. All that we had seen was through the foggy gray rain as we cruised down the Mobile river two weeks before. Most Loopers and even on-line guides, etc. seemed to indicated that it was nothing special and not worth exploring. Were they ever wrong. Mobile is definitely worth the visit - not only does it have a complex history (French, Spanish, British and Confederate occupations and wars), but the city has taken great steps to preserve historical architecture and traditions. The trolley tour that can be caught at the Mobile Visitor Center brings you through the historic Dauphin Street area and its lively downtown full of bars and restaurants, the Oakleigh neighborhood of elegant antebellum homes and the USS Alabama.
Mobile Visitor Center - History Museum
Dauphin Street view
Dauphin Street view
USS Alabama
Mobile also has a long history of Mardi Gras celebrations - allegedly pre-dating that of New Orleans. We took in lunch at Dauphin's on the 34th Floor of the Trustmark Building for a fantastic view of the downtown, the harbor and the Gulf.
Mobile Harbor view
Mobile Harbor going out to Mobile Bay and the Gulf
We came back a couple of days later to have a great dinner at NoJa downtown (North Jackson St off Dauphin) - there seem to be many opportunities to eat great food here. Unfortunately, we'd been eating great food at a record clip!
On our last day in the Mobile area, we took the car to Fairhope on the other side of the Mobile Bay to see the very decorous town, which has a very interesting history as an egalitarian communal town - a system that had strange property ownership structures that persist today. It was pretty rainy this day and we walked the downtown, the waterfront and its marinas.
Fairhope Alabama
Fairhope Municipal Pier
A new friend on the Fairhope Pier