Last summer, when my 7-year-old grandson, Will, was down from Birmingham for his annual two-week visit with me, he saw a bunch of sailboats out on the bay and asked what was going on. When I explained it was a sailing camp held at the Fairhope Yacht Club, he said, “ I want to do that next summer!”

Boat building has a rich history around Mobile Bay. As in most communities that rely on the water, boats were built to serve practical purposes. They were tools. Lawrence Stauter, whose Stauter Built Boats are synonymous with Mobile Bay and the Delta, designed and built his boats to be optimal fishing boats for our local waters. Nothing more, nothing less. 

I thought I would open this article by poking fun at the peculiar fish that is the Atlantic tripletail, with its ugly disposition and curious habits. But after speaking with Lance Slater and Sam Glass in Spanish Fort about the Tripletail Classic, I took the causeway back to Mobile. 

The Mobile-Tensaw River Delta is a 260,000-acre maze of rivers, creeks, marshes, and bayous. The Mobile, the Tensaw, the Apalachee, and the Spanish rivers all converge to create the second largest river delta, and one of the most biologically diverse regions in the US. 

I first met Bobby Switzer at a menu tasting at Jackson’s Steak House a couple of years ago. Maria Goldberg introduced him to the guests as the event was wrapping up. He was the point person for an upcoming new event in Pensacola called Foiling Week. Anything happening on the water captures my interest and Foiling was beginning to appear as a recreational sport more and more often. And it’s a different kind of sport.

If the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is America’s Amazon, then the Causeway is its gateway. If the Causeway is the gateway, then the 5 River Delta Center is the gatekeeper. It is one of those places that you may not know what goes on there, but you are glad it exists, hopefully working to protect and support the place for which it is tasked with overseeing.

You may or may not know what the Great Loop is all about, but it’s a voyage reserved for those with a keen sense of adventure, patience, and fortitude. It’s funny how some things just align for lifelong dreams to come together. Bryan and Carol Megginson have the 2020 pandemic to thank for their recent adventure.

This Saturday, October 25, the Bluegill Restaurant on the Mobile Causeway, will host the second annual Causeway Classic Wooden Boat show. Saturday’s show will feature several wooden boats, but mostly Stauter-Built Boats. The idea to host a wooden boat show was conceived last year by Channing Flowers to raise funds for his father, Chan, who was recovering from a debilitating disease called Guillain Barre syndrome. A wooded boat enthusiast himself, Chan is doing much better and has made this year’s show his calling.