We left Homeport Marina around 8:45.  The channel really narrows down again,

Inter Coastal, very narrow

we are on the Inter-Coastal.  We passed two barges.  They are traveling slow which was good because we passed by them pretty closely.  We even recognized one of the tugs from the Tenn-Tom.  Those guys get around.

We passed by The Warf Marina.

Nordhauven at The Warf Marina

This is one of the places we visited last March to see if we might like to stay there.  They have Condo’s on site

Condo Building at the Warf Marina

Plus a shopping mall, movie theater and a small amusement park.  It did have a few drawbacks though.  You couldn’t grill on your boat and where they wanted to put us was too far away from their one and only grill.  Plus, I don’t like to shop and they are not conducive to bike riding or walking.  Nice boats there though 🙂

As we continued to follow the markers back to the marina, we were surprised at how close to shore they went

Close to Shore

Tight Channel

Of course we were coming in at low tide again so we really had to watch where we were going.  We finally made it to Orange Beach marina.  The marina people had us tie up to M dock because we arrived on Sunday and they are closed.  Here are some pictures from that view

Tied up to M dock

View from the dock

See the palm trees?  You can see that M dock is right along the channel coming into the marina.  Apparently during the summer, this is like a super high-way.  This channel feeds other channels that lead to personal homes so there are a lot of jet skies, fishing boats etc going in and out of that channel.

We feel like we are at a resort.  There is a large ship’s store with many things to offer.

Ship’s Store

You can sit under that roof, they have 3 tables and a TV.  That fish on the wall is a 345 lb marlin.  Wow!

The restaurant they have on site is really nice.  The downstairs is more casual dining and the upstairs is more formal.  The prices on the downstairs dining are not bad.  The marina also offers 2 courtesy cars.  Right now there is no limit on them but we try to get them back within a couple of hours if we borrow them.  We’ll have to go get our van pretty soon.  The marina is filled with about 80% deep sea fishing boats like this one.  Gary wouldn’t be caught dead in that tuna tower :), that is that top thing.  They can drive from up there!

Deep Sea Fishing Boat

I will post some more pictures on the more pictures page and in other blog posts.  Needless to say, Gary is enjoying the maria and so am I.

Gary, enjoying himself