Conky Tonkin' with The Pfeifers: Geez! We Survive our First Week (Barely)

Well kids, we are 10 days out, about $5,000 poorer, and we've made all of 236 miles to Gulf Shores, AL. Can only wonder what the next 6000+ miles will do to us and our bank account. Turns out that the overheating problem with the engines resolved itself and we were left bewildered and stupidly staring at the mechanic when the problem would not reproduce itself. But, being the good mechanic that he was, he found another serious problem that needed to be fixed. So, there goes $3,800 and we are about 60 miles from home port. There is a silver lining though, the marina felt so sorry for use that they gave us the weekly rate instead of the daily rate when we hit the limit. And there are still issues that we are trying to resolve. We really wish that we had had the time for a shake-down cruise.

Jane navigates GIWW with sign painted by granddaugher Madison

We left Slidell, LA, after frying our super deluxe DC/AC inverter, and started to head for the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Jane voted that we go into Biloxi, MS and the admiral vote counts the most. Got to Biloxi and into a slip next to the Hard Rock Casino. Biloxi Small Yacht Harbor is a nice and accommodating facility.

Fogbound in Biloxi

We decided that since we pissed so much money away on the boat already, that a few more dollars lost to the casino couldn't possibly make make us feel any worse. However, mother nature fulfilled that feeling by socking us in with fog the entire next day, causing us to spend an additional night in Biloxi. Biloxi is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina that hit 5 years ago, so near the water the options are limited. The upside is that Jane could not find places to shop and spend more money.

Oil Rig in Mobile Bay

Motoring on the Intracoastal

Bridge to Dauphin Islan

Today the weather cleared and we decided to hightail it across the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay before we got a predicted nasty change in the weather. We are feeling confident. Nothing major happened and the gulf was calm and a pleasure to cross. And, the boat didn't break! That was the longest run we've had at higher speed and we only hope that we have those conditions when we make the run from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs. At 12:23 p.m. we entered the Mobile Bay ship channel and officially started the Great Loop. We arrived in Gulf Shores, AL at Homeport Marina, and since we hadn't spent any money on the boat in the last 48 hours, we decided to top off the tanks with diesel fuel. Well, 200 gallons at $3.55 a gallon made up for that hollow feeling to the tune of $676. And that was with the Boat U.S. discount. Thank god for Boat U.S.

A meeting place fort Parrotheads

Homeport Marina is really very fine, and of course is known for Lucy Buffet's (Jimmy's sister) restaurant LuLu's. We went there tonight and gorged ourselves on green fried tomatoes, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and the biggest fried seafood platter you can imagine. And they had a gift shop that called Jane's name. You can't imagine what this one stop cost us, but we are on a roll!