Mobile or bust!

Tomorrow at 7:00 am we hope to leave Demopolis and head to Mobile.  A group of eleven boats is leaving then.  We will have four long days of travel.  We may not have any internet or phone coverage in our anchorages.  There are no real marinas for the next 200 miles.  Isn't that surprising?  The world is about to become more quiet and isolated.  If we have coverage, I will post a note.

We are all fixed up and eager to go:  We've done 4 loads of laundry, mailed odd packages at the PO, gotten more quarters at the bank, stocked up on groceries, and visited with lots of loopers.  There are many boats here that we know.  We tend to know the boat names, then first names, and no last names.

We have two dirty chores for this afternoon:  getting water out of the aft bilge and the rear anchor lock.  We have a handy dry vac for this.  (We ran into some issues with the bilge cleaning which almost derailed our plans.  Mike, the mechanic, came over and reassured us, so we are back on track.
However, this kept me from giving George a haircut, which was going to be today's photo op.  Oh, well, he'll be shaggy until Fairhope.)

And so we bid good-bye to Demopolis.  See you in Fairhope, Alabama, on Sunday!

News Flash - Worms make 1000 mile round trip to Demopolis!

Here is a movie of the worms George bought here in August, drove to Chattanooga and back.  They are survivors, except for the few who gave their all to George's fishing dreams.
(Movie had to be removed in order to print this.)

We are in Demopolis, AL, after five nights of anchoring out.  I enjoyed anchoring:  the stars, the quiet, the ease, our happiness when the anchor comes up clean in the morning.

This is the sunset last night at Rattlesnake Bend anchorage.

The white cliffs of Demopolis

Healthy cypress trees line the river.

However, here we are in a marina with a laundry, vegetable garden, pool, showers, and easy internet.  Lots of boaters we know are here too.  People are gathering for the last push into Mobile on November 1.  So this marina is pretty full.  We hope to leave on Wednesday if the weather cooperates.

Scenes from the River

Today my captain is 64.  We are in the middle of nowhere, and I don't have any cupcakes or candles.
We do have spotty internet coverage, so he is trying to listen to the GA Tech football game against Pittsburgh.  We hear a sentence and then a pause.  I think we should play fill in the blank.

Today we started at 8:15 am in a quiet anchorage.  There was floating vegetation around us.  Then in the river there was lots of foam for miles.

As we were cruising, we were passed by a gorgeous yacht, Mimi.  They were friendly, and we chatted as they passed.  The captain complimented our boat, which was funny. They are on the way to Ft. Lauderdale with stops at Demopolis and Bobby's Fish Camp, the same places we will be in a couple of days.  There is democracy on the river.

We passed bright yellow wildflowers growing in a cove.  The flowers are along the back edge.

This photo doesn't capture the beauty that surprised us.

Sunny day!

The sun is out, and we are able to open our bedroom windows for the first time this week.  We are all settled in Pickensville anchorage off the Tombigbee River, mile 308.  We are having a lazy day.  We're trying to anchor out five nights in a row, which will be a new record.  This is night three.  We are also trying to enjoy just moving 30 - 40 miles each day instead of doing really long days.  Today is the easiest yet:  22 miles and no locks.  So we left Columbus at 10:00 am.  We cruised three hours, went to Pirates' Cove Marina for a pump out, and here we are at 2:00 pm.  All set for a wild Friday night - fishing, reading, eating chili, watching Mad Men, season 5.  We do have cell coverage, so we can use the phone too.  

I missed one great photo of turtles piled on logs beside the channel.  They were sunning too.

Here's our spot:

We have a neighbor, a sailboat who was in here first.  There are also lots of fishermen nearby.
Happy Friday to all!

Columbus, Mississippi

Columbus, the first home of Tennessee Williams, is a charming town.  The storefronts are cheerful.  Tonight there is a blues and jazz concert at the cultural center downtown and a book festival out at the university.

 We anchored in the river and walked up through their Riverwalk Park and into town with the folks from Bama Dream. George and I had three errands: Buy postcard stamps; get quarters for doing laundry; buy beer.  Yahoo!  We accomplished all three.  Life on a boat gets down to essentials.  We met back at Harvey's restaurant for supper.  Then we walked back to our dinghies - still there, thank goodness.  We rowed back to the boats at sunset.

Here is a photo from earlier in the day, as we waited with Bama Dream outside Stennis Lock for a tow with 8 barges to exit.

Fog

We wake up to fog most mornings now.  When it is cold, as it will be tonight (39 degrees predicted) the fog is both in the coves and out on the river.  Sometimes we think it has lifted, and we start out, and then it flows around us again.  Boaters like to be on our way in the morning.  We generally go to bed early and wake up ready to go.  Then we wait and watch.  We turn on our VHF radio and listen to boaters gathering and moving.  Three days ago we heard several boats leave their marina and then a few minutes later return to it.

Groups of boats go through locks together, which makes life easier on the captains and the lock masters.  Yesterday our group had a plan to meet at the lock at 7:00 am.  George and I picked up our anchor and headed out on time. We had on our green and red navigation lights.  "Bama Dream", who was with us at East Cotton Springs, also came out.  As we approached the lock and dam, it disappeared.  There was huge billowing fog, completely blocking the lock.  We had our AIS on, so we knew no other boats were near us.  When the lock master told us to enter, "Bama Dream" said we could follow them.  Then George called the lock master and asked if any boats were exiting.  He said no.  Nine boats entered without incident.

Tonight we are at Canal Cut-Off, mile 366.3 on Tombigbee River.  We are with two other boats, Serenity and When I'm 64.  Later we'll paddle over for a visit.

Two photos from today:  

George is keeping Aunt Aggie off the wall of the lock.

What is this?  Looks like a log, but it's lots of birds.

East Cotton Springs, Mississippi

We stayed in another beautiful cove last night.  After dropping anchor, we paddled in the dinghy over to the Bay Springs Visitor Center. We stepped in major sucking mud and had to clean our shoes and the dinghy later.

  These are the clean Keens drying today.

All visitor centers seem to be alike:  Here are the fox, raccoon, owl; here is the history of the Native Americans and their terrible losses; here is the white man's history of towns and industry.  In Mississippi they added the Corps of Engineers' story of building the waterway.

Because the cove was isolated, we had no cell phone or internet coverage.  It made for a quiet night.  This morning we joined a line of boats entering a lock in fog.  Nine boats traveled through three locks with no problems, and some of us are now at Midway Marina.  Happily, we are moving south!  The sun is out today, and I have on flip flops.

I'm reading River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon.  I can identify with many of his ideas.  He writes about the tedium of river travel, how the moments of excitement and fear are connected by long periods of boredom as you watch miles go by.  Sometimes we see something new:  Yesterday it was riders on horseback beside the Tenn-Tom ditch section.

Zippy Branch

Today we left Florence Harbor Marina and went 41 miles, finishing our trek on the Tennessee River.  I remember the first day we entered at Pickwick Lake:  It was a cloudy day, and the river looked huge and rough.  I was quite anxious and wanted to stay close to the shore.  We have lived on the Tennessee for about two months now, and I am comfortable.  It is beautiful and full of life.

We saw lots of looper boats today and recognized new friends and boat names.  Several people are staying near our anchorage, Zippy Branch.  Zippy Branch comes off the Tombigbee River.  I'm so happy to be back here.  It feels as if we are making progress now.  We are anchored in 14 feet and there is a 6 mph north wind.  There's just one fishing boat in here with us.

All day we were cold even though the sun was out.  The sun could not compete with the 60 degrees and wind coming across the river. When we first anchored, George did a bit of fishing.  I read outside.  But the boat is swinging around on the anchor, so it doesn't stay in the sun.  Now we are snug, closed up inside Aunt Aggie.  Of course, George is napping.  Here's Zippy Branch:

Dragon Boat Race

We walked into Florence, AL, today.  The downtown area is clean and vibrant.  Renovated buildings kept the original storefronts and facades with old store names.  Very cool.  Then we came back to the marina to watch the Shoals Dragon Boat Festival.

There are 50 teams competing.  We saw a couple of heats.  Here are the Valley Vikings:

Here's the first heat they were in: (Movie had to be removed in order to print this.)

Leaving Joe Wheeler

We left Joe Wheeler State Park Marina this morning with 19 other looper boats.  We all went through two locks together, a new experience for Aunt Aggie.  Usually we've been the solo boat in a lock.  One boater made a plan for how we could fit in, with some boats tied on bollards, and others rafted.  His plan worked!

We were second in line, so we saw all the others coming out of Joe Wheeler.

Here's a movie taken from Aunt Aggie in the lock as boats are coming in and tying up.

(Movies have been removed from this since it is now edited as a book.)

Wilson Lock is 100 feet tall.  We were up front, so we were right behind the giant gates.

Fall Rendezvous News

Hello from the Fall Rendezvous!  Today we went to two seminars about crossing the Gulf.  There are two ways to do this:
1.  Cross from Carrabelle, FL, to Tarpon Springs (170 miles).  This requires an overnight passage in the gulf.
2.  Go in and out of different anchorages along the gulf shore:  Carrabelle to Steinhatchee to Cedar Key to Tarpon Springs.  (This is more miles, but you do it in 3 days.)

There are issues/problems with each plan.  #1 means someone is driving the boat for 18 hours at least.  #2  means going in and out of shallow anchorages, avoiding crab pots, and needing more good weather days.  We have lots to consider.

We are meeting lots of people who are doing the loop, have already completed it, or are planning their trip.  Today we toured some gorgeous boats.  You can see Aunt Aggie in the center below.  She is feeling a bit out of her league.

Arriving at Joe Wheeler State Park

We have had a lot of rain this week. We've been studying weather radar and forecasts and just going about 28 miles a day to try to avoid heavy rains.  We moved along and were lucky not to be in any high winds.  Yesterday for the first time we drove the boat from the lower helm.  It was cozy, and we stayed warm and dry.  We listened to "Wait, Wait" and "Car Talk" and Georgia Tech football on the radio.  We stayed at Riverwalk Marina in Decatur, AL.  Strangely, there was no real walk along the river or to the town.  So we just went to the bar on site, The Hard Dock Cafe,  and watched the Auburn loss to Mississippi State.

Today we continued to Joe Wheeler State Park Marina for the Fall Rendezvous.  We passed a group of white ibis sitting on the water.  They scattered when we passed.  See the black wing tips?

We are so glad to be here.  The two boats beside us are from Vermont and Nevada.  There are several Canadian boats here too.  I am surprised to see boats from so far away.  We'll be here all week, learning boating tips and meeting people who are also doing the loop.

Guntersville Lock

We left Guntersville Marina and just went 25 miles to Ditto Landing Marina.  It's windy and looks like rain, so we were happy to arrive around 1:00 pm.  As we went through the Guntersville Lock, I took 4 short movies.  My niece requested more humor in these, but it's hard to find the humor in it:  It's more like work.  Calling lockmaster, hoping lock will be in right position, waiting for lock to fill, entering lock and avoiding trash, tying to the wall, hoping the bollard is working correctly, exiting once the giant gates open.  The deep clanging noises sound like ancient factories.  It might be funny to watch someone else struggle to lasso the bollard or not to crash into the wall, but when you are in the middle of the action, it's more just a sense of relief once you are in place. And pride.  We do feel proud.

Guntersville, AL

We are at Guntersville Marina tonight.  We arrived around 2:15 and then washed down the boat.  After pulling up an anchor chain loaded with mud, the boat was yucky.  Plus we seem to be an amusement park for spiders.  I can't knock them down with the hose.  It takes shoe to leg combat.  Here are three I encountered today:

I added a tiny movie and a couple of photos to those pages too.  Hope you are all well. Martha

On the Tennessee River

Today we came around a bend in the Tennessee River and saw movement in the water.  Was it fish?  No, it was a man and a woman swimming outside the channel markers.  Surprise!  These are some healthy folks.  (Notice the green can in the water:  That is the channel marker.)

I often think that anchoring is too much trouble: mostly when I'm trying to haul in the anchor, and it's heavy with hydrilla or the windlass won't work for me.  But here we are in Raccoon Creek, mile 396 off the Tennessee River, and it is a lovely, quiet night.  Two of the sailboats from Chattanooga just entered too.

Starting our Loop

We did it!  We finally started our Great Loop.  We left Island Cove Marina, north of Chattanooga, went through the Chicamauga Lock, and motored for two hours to reach downtown Chattanooga.  Now we are tied up at the Bluff Landing floating dock with five sailboats.

Our day started with light rain and cloudy skies.  Now the skies are blue, and we are on our way.  We're right by the Tennessee Aquarium, and we took a nice walk and found Sugar's, a barbecue place for delicious lunch.

After George gets up from his nap, I hope we can walk to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream.  We're so happy to be here:  Chattanooga has a vibrant downtown right at the river.