Mobile Bay and Bust!

The last few miles of the Tenn-Tom were a bit bitter sweet.  There had become some familiarity with the river and we knew things would be changing abruptly.  The Tenn-Tom river passes through the heart of downtown Mobile and its port before opening up into Mobile Bay.  Passing through the port, our AIS had 35 targets all around us as.  Thankfully, only about a half a dozen or so were active, but there was a lot to keep track of, for a couple of lazy river rats.  There are a few of the Navy's new LCS's in port and being built, which are crazy looking ships - they look like they belong on an episode of Star Trek more than in the swamps of lower Alabama.

Downtown Mobile, with the cruise ship terminal, new visitor center, and skyline

Once through the gauntlet of Mobile harbor, the bay opens up.  It's incredible, and all of a sudden, we need to recall our piloting skills, and quick!  Thankfully, there was minimal traffic, and our electronics were agreeing nicely with our charts, so all was good.

We made our way to Turner Marine, about 1/3 of the way down the bay, to step our  mast and decided it would be a good place to finally identify and fix that annoying squeal in our running gear.  I was suspicious that it was time for a new cutlass bearing.  I was right, and that was just the beginning.  Apparently, our cutlass bearing was not being sufficiently cooled.  It had overheated enough to melt and stick to the shaft!   Even with this damage, the cutlass bearing showed no external signs of wear.  The swell in the cutlass bearing also caused the shaft to become unacceptably worn, so we are going to replace the whole kit and caboodle.   Unfortunately, we are trying to order parts at year end when the bean counters don't want any new business, so we can't even order our parts until 2016.  So, we have now found another new temporary home in Mobile, Al.   We are now enjoying the good life "on-the-hard" - I'm not sure it can get much better than this!

We are hoping to have our parts next week sometime, and be back in the water and underway shortly after that.  In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!