We departed LuLu’s about 9:30 this morning. It was cold but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We immediately encountered a bit of a problem upon entering the ICW. It’s a blind entry in both directions and LuLu has even posted a big sign that says to yield right-of-way to ICW traffic. Before entering the channel Michael pushed the the horn button to alert other vessels but no horn sounded. He checked the breaker, turned it on and off, and then a couple of seconds later it sounded on it’s own without the button being pushed. Go figure! We VERY slowly poked our bow back out to continue our journey. A few miles later we came to a bend in the canal where we met a tug pushing four loads. We had been monitoring him on our AIS but he had not hailed us. When he came into view we could see we were in a precarious spot to meet and at the same time he hailed us on channel 13 which we monitor on our handheld. He sounded pretty stressed and said he had tried to contact us several times. He immediately told us that on the ICW we monitor channel 16. We actually monitor both channels (13 and 16) but when Michael looked at our main radio which was set to 16 and it was displaying a “low battery” alarm and wasn’t working, and it is powered from our ship’s battery. Yikes!  Anyway, the tug captain asked us to hide behind some tugs and barges tied up on the bank to our “one whistle” side and we were very happy to comply and for his forethought on where to keep us out of his way. Michael thanked the captain for his patience with us and for letting us know we had a radio problem. FYI: This is why it’s really good to have two radios. Michael re-booted the radio and it seemed to resume working so we made it through the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be spent checking the electrical systems. We actually have lots of minor projects in need of attention we had planned to address once we could stop, IN WARM WEATHER, for awhile. One on the list just happens to be a non-working battery voltage meter. Guess this project won’t wait.

We continued on but took a detour to Orange Beach for fuel.  We ran aground. – the first time since Texas. Got caught by surprise while negotiating a bunch of channel turns in a 2 plus knot tide that pushed us on to a shoal. It wasn’t  a hard grounding and we backed off quickly and resumed our trip to get fuel in Orange Beach Alabama for $3.35 per gallon. The dock attendant told us the shoal was new and scheduled to be dredged. We back to the ICW, careful to avoid the shoal. It did add about an hour and a half to our trip but we saw some beautiful scenery.

Back on track we continued toward Pensacola. The water started changing colors. It’s not blue yet but it’s not brown either. Yeah!  We entered Florida about 1:30 this afternoon and arrived at Pensacola Yacht Club about 3:30 this afternoon. This is a beautiful old facility that was chartered in 1908. I walked inside to find the dock master and found a cozy front room with comfy chairs and a  burning fireplace. The dining room/bar area lead to an outside patio, overlooking a rolling lawn and a view to the water. Extremely charming! We plan to be here a couple of nights.

We hopped off the boat, took the doggies for a walk and found a local grocery. This grocery had lots and lots of olive oil ,olives, cheeses and all kinds of wine, even their own label. Again, interesting what local stores cater to.