Fairhope, AL

Good morning!
We are in Fairhope, Alabama.  We arrived yesterday, Sunday, at 2:00 pm, by going across Mobile Bay.  There was a lot of wind, but the waves were only 1-2 feet. I don't love the rocking surf, but I need to get used to it.  We are so happy to be here.  Although we enjoyed our river adventure, we are ready for a change - the gulf!  We completed 1500 miles on the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, going about 8 mph.  Tomorrow we are headed to the ICW and east toward Carrabelle, Florida.
But before we leave the river section, I want to share some photos and memories of the past week.

We spent three nights at anchor after leaving Demopolis.  It is hard to find a safe anchorage off the Tombigbee.  In August we traveled north on this section going 60, 80, and 100 miles in three days.  However, then we had 14 hours of sunshine.  The heat was oppressive, but we moved in daylight.  Now our days begin with fog, so we wait to start our travel until at least 8:00 am.  Sundown was at 6:15 pm, so we only had 10 hours.  We really want to drop our anchor by 4:00 pm, so we have time to watch it, and be sure it is set.  Therefore, we broke the trip into 4 days of 60 miles each.

On the river there are long periods of quiet, broken by excitement. (There's a log! Here comes a tow!) During some of the quiet, we wrote a song and poems.  Look on the new page, Poems, to see our creative side.  You can sing along with the "Locksology."

The first day we went to Bashi Creek, which was a great spot.  Very narrow but 8 feet of depth all the way in.  We rafted for the first time with Summerland, a boat owned by Gus and Row, our new friends from Florida.  Immediately after we finished tying off our boats, Row invited us to supper, saying she had chili and was making brownies.  She offered George a chili cheese hotdog.  He swooned.

Meet David, Row and Gus's dog.  He likes to be called, "Dave."

Gus and Row are from Titusville, FL.  They have already traveled 4100 miles on the loop.  They're almost home.

This is a Halloween morning picture of Bashi Creek.  We enjoyed watching the fog that day.  It danced on the water.

The water in the river never looked so good to us.  I said to George,"I don't remember this river being beautiful in August."
George:  "It wasn't."  The air, colors, light - it was all lovely.  Even Bobby's Fish Camp looked manicured.  

On Halloween we stopped at mile 100, Lock #1.   It was too shallow to enter, but we needed to get off the river because winds were around 17 mph that night.  We nosed into the anchorage and had about 4 feet of water under our boat, minimum coverage.  George is not a worrier, or we wouldn't be doing this trip.  We spent a quiet, safe night. Gus and Row came over, and I served pot roast and vegetables. When we woke up, the river level had dropped, and we were sitting on mud.  We spent an hour and a half working to get off the bottom:  We pulled ourselves by hand to the anchor, we called the lockmaster upriver 13 miles and asked him to release water, we called boats going by and asked them to come close and give us a push with their wakes.  Finally, we got both boats, Aunt Aggie and Summerland, free.  We were so happy to be out in the river again.  It was chilly that morning, and I was shaking from adrenaline and cold.

Our last night on the Tombigbee, we pulled off into the Tensas River anchorage.  This is a beautiful spot with 20 feet of water and room for many boats.  We rafted again with Summerland and had a lovely night.  We felt grateful that our boats didn't have any damage from the morning's stress.

On Sunday, November 2, we made the last 39 miles to Mobile, entering the harbor.  It was accidentally smart - Is that the definition of lucky?- to enter on Sunday.  Mobile has major shipping lines and many tows and barges lining the channel.  We scooted by.  

We crossed Mobile Bay to Fairhope, using the compass bearings provided by our marina and watching our boat on the Blue Garmin app.  Mobile Bay is shallow, just 8 - 10 feet with spoil areas sprinkled throughout.  We did not want another grounding out in the bay.  Entered Eastern Shore Marine at 2:00 pm with lots of wind and got tied securely to their docks.  Marinas are very good about sending out helpers to the docks.  My brother John and sister-in-law Melanie came from Auburn to see us.  So fun!  It means a lot to us for people to really understand where we live and why this is a worthy experience.  We had fried shrimp for dinner at a restaurant, and we drove in a car to get there.  What a treat! 

Sunset from our boat last night at Fairhope, AL.

As I write this, George is planning next week's travels.  We will head east.