Weather forecast for February 28, 2018:
Barber Marina, ICW, Elberta, Alabama,
Partly cloudy, low 67 high 77.
Southeast Winds, 10 to 18 knots
Captain’s Log: February 28, 2018
We finally slipped the dock lines, pulled out of Turner Marine and crossed Mobile Bay today; the first leg of our journey south. It was a clear, windy day with gusts up to 20 mph, ideal for Perfect Love, but the wind was on our nose the entire crossing. We wanted to get to Barber Marina on Bay La Launch before dark, so we were under power the entire trip. Entering the ICW at Bon Secour, the scenery transition from the bay is dramatic. Heading east we soon passed LuLu's, Tacky Jack's and The Warf in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Even with the engine running all day we arrived at Barber at 4:30pm, after the marina office had closed. Our assigned slip was exposed to winds out of the southeast. As luck would have it, the winds were blowing 18 to 25mph from the southeast, which made our docking very difficult.
I had a terrible time trying to control the boat under these windy conditions; the bow thruster was useless. I struggled to keep the boat from hitting the dock and the other boat, a steel-hulled Bruce Roberts design, that shared our double slip. At one point we actually rubbed against the steel hull but, fortunately, it was a gentle nudge and no damage to either boat occurred. Shirley, with her trusty boat hook, put all of her strength into keeping the two boats from hitting harder.
Three gentlemen came rushing off of their respective boats to lend assistance and, with quite a bit of effort on everyone’s part, we finally got Perfect Love tied up safe and secure without a single scratch.
To decompress, the XO and I enjoyed strong cocktails and a nice walk.
After dinner we reviewed our Lessons Learned:
Blow horn when needing docking assistance
Have a free fender readily available in case of an emergency
Tie a 15ft string to a tennis ball, attach the other end of the string to the dock line and then throw the tennis ball
Tie fenders to both sides of the boat to protect against the unexpected
Seek a slip that is sheltered from wind and/or current
When a sheltered slip is not available, seek to tie up on the leeward side if the wind is moderate to strong
Shortly after arriving at Barber things began to deteriorate at Shirley's Kellogg plant in Zanesville, Ohio. So, with trouble brewing in Zanesville and my father's health issues growing, we decided that another trip north was in order. On March 3rd we rented a Nissan Armada (a huge SUV with a middle row the size of a love seat) and headed for Cincinnati. We spent seven days in the frozen north, returning to Barber on March 11th.
Barber Marina is beautiful, and a bit strange. It sits on the northern shore of the ICW between Wolf Bay and Ingram Bayou. The facilities are top notch, sporting concrete floating piers, very nice, very clean bathrooms and showers and a nice ship store.
The owner, Mr. Barber, is evidently a rich and rather eccentric individual. The marina is surrounded by approximately 3,000 acres of undeveloped land; it feels like a state park. It appears that sometime in the past much of the acreage was clear cut. Now, loblolly pines, some as high as 80ft tall, stand in perfectly straight rows. Between the rows are alluring, needle-covered corridors that repeat and repeat as you drive past. Scattered throughout this verdant landscape the casual hiker will find sculptures of dinosaurs, a very large, steel spider, an ornate fountain, statues of medieval Indian foot soldiers, a sundial and a life-size replica of Stone Henge.
On the morning of the 14th we pulled around to the fuel dock, topped off the tank, and bid farewell to Barber Marina. The place is beautiful, and very quiet, but we found the staff to be rather indifferent, even unfriendly, to transients; time to move on. We are headed for Big Lagoon.
Until next time, may your tomorrow bring fair winds and following seas!