Scott here. November 3, 2023 Rita and I (with Jazzy of course) traveled from Tensaw anchorage to Mobile, AL. We are finally in salt water!! The night on anchor was relaxing and just beautiful. We hardly moved at all, I mean I was so NOT worried I didn’t even record our movement on anchor.

We were up fairly early, but no to early. I was able to get Jazzy out for a walk in the morning around 7 am and we left the anchorage at 7:45 am.

I learned a very valuable lesson today. NEVER EVER trust Navionics auto-route! Admittedly I didn’t pay a ton of attention to where we were going. I just looked at it and made some minor changes. Well, it took us off the route most traveled and sent us to the Tensaw River. It had some very shallow areas, we had to go under a fairly thin bridge that was shallow as well. Then to get into the shipping channel we had less than 1.5′ of water under the keel. Getting there was super stressful, but some extra prayers to our Lord and he guided us safely through the area. Because I know we certainly didn’t!

Then, once we were in the shipping channel it took Rita about 5 minutes to see her first dolphin! Then I had a minor meltdown as I let the stress hit finally hit me. Worth it though. We did it together and we are stronger for it. This happened for a reason, someday we may know what the reason was.

Well, how was my planning today?

Start at: 8:30 am ACTUAL 7:45 am
End at: 2:00 pm ACTUAL 2:15 pm
Total Time: 6:16 hours ACTUAL 6:39 hours
Distance: 56.5 miles 57.4 miles

The total miles makes sense as the route is what we did. The total time surprises me a little. We were going slow for what seemed like a long time during our back woods detour.

Here is something a little crazy for those that are interested in our fuel burn. To get from Demopolis to Bobby’s Fish Camp it took the first line below. Under that is what it took to go from Bobby’s Fish Camp to an anchorage then to Mobile, AL with an estimated 5 hours of generator time. “GPH” is gallons per hour.

75.900 gallons to go 96.6 miles in 21.6 engine hours (3.5 gph & 1.27 mph)
71.523 gallons to go141.1 miles in 31.8 engine hours (2.2 gph & 1.97 mpg)

We ran 1800-2000 RPM to get to Bobby’s going 11-12 mph.
We ran 1500-1600 RPM for the next two days going 9-10.5 mph.

That is a huge difference I still have a hard time wrapping my head around. But, the gallons used, miles, and engine hours I know are correct. Less fuel to go what I would consider a significant distance farther.

Of course, both are better than the 70′ yacht docked at Bobby’s that burns 130 gallons per hour! Of course, he is going 20-25 mph and is the captain who works for the family out of Chicago moving the boat for them. He doesn’t care about the fuel burn.

Nov. 4 is a well-earned day off. We will be moving again on Sunday.