Dolphins and ?Sunshine?

Not one bit of sunshine the whole time we enjoyed the Marriott vacation and even as we left, the gray sky persisted.  Back on the boat, we took care of unpacking and boat prep and untied just after noon on Tuesday to head out of Mobile Bay. One of my jobs as 1st Mate is to stow the lines neatly!

Note how effectively I wind the line into a perfect set of loops.  That has taken weeks of practice! Now that my PT license is retired, I am aiming for a 1st mate license so I've got to add to my skillset!

The green marker is the beginning of our jog over to the Intercoastal waterway (ICW) which we will follow for months ahead all along Florida.

The view has changed to waterway honky tonks!  This is a more famous one, LuLu's, owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister.  We chose to pass by since Jimmy was not there to greet us. We also had a plan to raft up with our buddies on California Lady and needed to keep moving to beat the sunset. (What sun?)

Ahh there it is, low in the sky on our stern getting ready to set amidst the heavy cloud cover but at least it made an appearance just before we turned off the ICW into Ingram Bayou along with Sandrobber, to raft and dine with California Lady.  Nothing nicer after a chilly cruise than to meet up with boat friends who have dinner waiting and an anchor already set!
So Wednesday we all left the Bayou with the sun shining and proceeded on to the dolphin part of this story!!

These 3 dolphins ran on our bow for a long time as I hollered and clapped to get them to do their tricks.  They kept bumping each other to take center stage to entertain me.  Captain Al could only hear my cheering and could not see the dolphins so I took plenty of pictures to prove they were there.

 Leaving Alabama and entering our 4th state and last state for 2015, good ol' Florida!

  Now we can drop anchor near sand dunes and walk across to the Santa Rosa island beach to put our feet into the Gulf waters.  Had a great beach walk Wednesday evening and decided to stay 2 nights.

Inspeyered 2 with Victory Lap soaking up the sunset, taken by Rob on Sandrobber as they dingyed over to us for drinks on the bridge.  Note this was taken Wednesday night, such decadence for Al and I to be socializing on week nights, our lives have really changed!