Demopolis to Mobile

We left Demopolis yacht basin on a Wednesday morning.  We were now traveling on the Black Warrior river.  The Tenn-Tom waterway actually ends at Demopolis.  Betty L had sent us a text about an anchorage at an abandoned mill about 35 miles from Demopolis.  We arrived along with Gemini Dream at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  We both anchored separately in the small area.  After  settling in for a while, both boats started swinging with the change in the wind.  We were coming very close to the edge of the bank.  Gemini Dream suggested that we anchor in different directions and tie together.  That seemed to stabilize us, and we stayed safely in deep water all night.

When we woke in the morning the fog surrounded us as it has quite a few mornings. We left in a light fog with us following Gemini Dream since my Radar doesn't work so well.

We arrived at the infamous Bobby's Fish Camp at around 1:30 in the afternoon.  Everybody that has done the Great Loop has been by Bobby's Fish Camp and almost every one has stopped and spent the night.  It was important to arrive early, because there is only room for 3 or 4 boats on the dock.  The late arrivals need to raft up to those already there.  There have been times where 3 or 4 boats were tied together side to side.  We planned to get there early and raft up with people we  knew, instead of strangers.  So once again Gemini Dream docked and we tied up alongside.  We have this maneuver down pretty good because we have done it so much.  Our boats are about the same length and height so we match up really well. 

Cindy's Observations:  Just when we were ready to relax, we were told we had to move our boats for an incoming boat.  So this meant taking the boat for a walk.  We have had to do this on a few occasions , but not rafted.  Matt put their boat in gear and gently pulled us along his side for about 7-10 feet. 

While we were there, the Yacht "Freedom" stopped by.  We had seen it at Demopolis the day before.  It belongs to the owner of a chain of southern book stores "Books a Million".  It is 150 ft long and 33 feet wide.  They stopped to replace a sick captain.  They backed it up to the edge of the dock and the captains switched places and they went on their way.

Cindy's Observations:  While talking with the captain of Freedom after he was dropped off at the dock, he informed us there were 5 state rooms for the owner and guests plus 6 rooms for crew quarters.  There was a light crew of 6 on duty while repositioning the boat.  The owners were not on board.  We later learned from a fellow looper who had gotten a tour,  it was what you would expect it to be.  The crews quarters were nicer than any big cruiser cabin.  They have 2 crew on hand just to polish glass and steel when owners are on board to keep the boat fingerprint free.  A chef of course and a very expensive dinghy in the bow of the boat.  The yacht is registered out of the US, so as not to pay taxes.

Gemini Dream, Bucket List and Freedom

 

 

 

Matt and I agree "We could handle that!!"

 Cindy's Observation:  This picture says it all.  Like 2 kids in a candy store.  Matt is saying, "yup, I could ride that for 8 seconds."  Larry just grins and agrees.  Inside the fish camp are memorabilia of days gone by of family and friends.  The biggest alligator gar mount hanging over the fireplace I've seen.  And several alligator heads stacked on the counter.  A local resident named Bodine keeps the camp stocked with those heads from Miss Elizabeth of Swamp People.  We had the catfish and hush puppies with slaw and sweet tater fries.  The best part is the hugs one gets from the cook!  They do believe in being hospitable in these southern parts.  We had been warned by the locals not to let your dog swim in the water here for the gators will get it. We hadn't had any sightings but were assured they are present.  The spanish moss hangs long in the trees here.  It is a little hard to get a clear shot of it though.

 

At the end of each day I review the days mileage, fuel burned, average speed and etc.  I have been questioning why when I plot the course for the day and compare the actual miles traveled that they are significantly different.  I had changed all of the parameters in the plotter to read out in statute miles vs nautical miles.  It seems that the distance is still being displayed in nautical miles.  I have traced the problem to the GPS receiver.  It seems that when I use the receiver in the AIS as the source for the plotter, even though I have statute miles selected, it is still displaying nautical.  When I use the internal GPS,  It displays statute miles correctly.  The good news is that we have been getting better mileage that I thought.  Since I have logged 1200 miles we have actually gone 1380 which increases our MPG from 1.9 to 2.1. Now I have to go back and recompute every days figures and change them from nautical to statute.  Oh, and I am leaving the internal GPS connected and NOT the AIS receiver.

We left Bobby's the next morning and it was very foggy.  We didn't get started until around 9:00.  Everyone was ready at 7:00 but we waited until we could see the next bend in the river until we started.  We had a long day and traveled about 53 miles ( that would have been about 44 KM).  We went into an anchorage at Three Rivers Lake.  It was a considerable distance off of the river and the channel was very narrow and tree lined.  If we didn't know that there was an anchorage there we would not have ventured in.  Once through the narrow channel, it opened up into a nice wide area.  We again anchored in opposite directions and rafted together for the night.

Entrance to three rivers anchorage

Shortly after dark, we could see a spotlight shining in the narrow channel coming into the anchorage.  It came toward us for a while, then stopped and started going back.  Matt jumped on  the radio and called them and told them to continue on in and raft up to us.  It turned out that they were delivering a Trawler somewhere on the Gulf and were looking for a place to spend the night.  Down here they are few and far between so they were happy that we invited them in.

Cindy's Observations:  The dog on board their boat had not been able to do his business for a day so Matt offered up to dinghy him ashore.  The dogs master thanked Matt and the dog was very "relieved."  Even if we did not have fog on the water, we always had condensation on the glass.  Our routine every morning is to wipe and wipe and wipe the condensation off the inside glass and outside.  I keep wondering how much farther south we need to be to rid ourselves of this situation.

Surprisingly enough, there was not a lot of fog the next morning.  We could probably make it all of the way to Mobile in one day, but with my prop vibration I really didn't want to push it too fast.  We decided to do one more anchorage.  Big Bayou Canot was about 42 mile away which would leave us only about 30 miles to do the next day arriving on Sunday.

Big Bayou Canot was a beautiful quiet anchorage, at least until close to the end of the bass fishing tournament whose finish was further up in the bayou.  Bass boats came screaming by wide open and slid around the corner into a narrow channel that merged with the bayou.  I noticed the number "55" on a card on one of the boats, so I know there were at least that many.

Cindy's Observations:  In this Picture you can see a little of the spanish moss hanging on the trees.  The fan shaped palms on the middle right are palmetto palms.  The water is turning from brown to more green.  It is clearing as well.

Shack at entrance to Big Bayou Canot

 

Our anchorage

 

Cindy with Coleen from Gemini Dream Pat and Marley the cat.

 Cindy's Observations:  The girls were relaxing and listening to some tunes. YMCA came on so I had to do the dance. 

 

We left early the next morning for Mobile!!!  Finally we get to see saltwater and maybe Dolphin!!  Going through Mobile Bay started out pretty easy.  Kind of like going through the barge staging areas in St Louis except the traffic was bigger.   At one time I had 50 or so targets giving me "Dangerous Traffic" alerts.  I was constantly silencing the alarms so I shut off the AIS.  Finally, I can concentrate on driving.

 

Coming into Mobile

 

Navy ship in shipyard

Faaaast Navy ship in shipyard

 

 Cruising through Mobile was no problem.  But, when we got to Mobile Bay, we had a stiff breeze blowing across the Bay.  Matt on Gemini Dream said "no problem, light chop".   There was no problem as long as you didn't try to stand up.  Either sit or crawl, your only safe choices.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Light chop my a...  Pictures can not show what you feel in these waves.  All I could think was, is this what we will get in the great lakes?  Ok then, this is practice.  Taking pictures was not a safe thing to do.  Our boat does not have enough grab handles to be secure standing.  Larry and I had had our first experience with the gulf.  Another challenge was reading channel markers threw all the bird doo.  Half the cans were covered up with white matter.  So imagine this: 3 ft waves, binoculars, no hand rails trying to see. This is called an adventure.

 

Fishing boat in "light chop"

Well, it beat us up pretty good.  I had the autopilot on for a while and the little hydraulic pump was pumping it's heart out trying to keep us going in the right direction.  I finally turned it off and steered myself.  At least I could dodge some of the big waves, and ride along with others.  I found out later it should have been classified as "medium chop". We finally pulled into Turner Marine in the afternoon.  We were all glad to be off of the water.

 

Cindy's Observations: Well lets just say we had not been conditioned for this type of water.  Another first!  Shortly after docking we took our usual dinghy ride around the harbor.  Fellow loopers were at the marina next door, Dog River, and Turner.  For dinner we dinghyed over to the fish shack for fresh caught seafood.  There was a couple renewing their vows and a band.  This was the restaurants last nite open for the season.  Before leaving dinner, there was a shrimp boat returning to harbor.  We watched which slip he was headed into.  After dinner we went to the boat and asked if they would sell us some fresh caught shrimp.  Gemini Dream made the deal and left with 6 pounds of fresh off the boat shrimp for $15.  The next night we indulged ourselves with the succulent little delights of the sea.  Coleen had served a meal fit for a king.  For a starter we had home made pumpkin soup followed by the old bay boiled peel n eat shrimp.  It was marvelous.  She even made the cocktail sauce from scratch. 

 

Entrance to Turner Marine

 

We arranged to have Bucket List pulled as soon as possible to have the Port Prop looked at.  We know it was damaged but did not know how bad or how long it was going to take to get it repaired.  It was Sunday and we would have to wait until Monday to get it looked at.

 

Matt and Coleen on Gemini Dream were also nursing a small vibration.  They had a spare prop, so they pulled them first.  Boy, did they get lucky!  They found about 10 feet of rope wrapped around the prop and shaft.  A little quick work with a sharp knife and they were back in the water.  Cheap and easy.

 

Next came our turn.  It could have been worse.  The Port prop had wrinkles in two of the four blades.  Nothing was torn or broken so the repair should be pretty easy and completed a lot faster because nothing would need to be welded.  Just a little "ironing out" would do it.

 

We had the prop back and installed in 4 days!  The price wasn't too bad either.  While we were waiting, I managed to fix my coolant leak with some new hoses and a new radiator cap (the one on it was the wrong type),  I also installed a 12" pedestal for the Radar radome to raise it up so it could see over the Bimini top, and installed a remote control for the autopilot so I can walk around a bit while we are underway.  All in all a very productive week.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Turner Marine is a family owned and operated business.  The house in picture is the founders home.  The grandson Rodger and his wife Christie now manage the marina.  We also took this time to have our small nylon coil single pull tab zippers  replaced with heavy duty vinyl teeth double pull tab ones.  This should end our battles and the war on zipper snafoos. While the boat was pulled we used starbrite hull cleaner to remove most of the stains from hard to reach areas.  When the prop was put back on, it was slathered with grease.  They said it would help prevent barnacles from growing on it.

 

 

Out of the water for inspection.

 

Only 2 out of 4 were wrinkled!!

We decided to stay at Turner until Thanksgiving. We actually celebrated it a day early so the employees could have their own on Thanksgiving day.  They provided deep fried turkeys (4) and a roasted one also. Everyone brought a dish, so there was plenty to eat. There were around 60 people that attended.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Christie and Rodger Turner made us feel like extended family not just that day but the entire time we were there.  Picnic tables were draped with festive coverings and their kids made the center pieces on the tables.  Our Thanksgiving pot luck had all the fixings of home.  Wine, desserts, salads, vegetables, dressings and sweet potato casseroles.  Including green bean casserole.  Grandaddy Turner said the blessing.  After dinner the tables were cleared and the charts came out for the next leg.  Chuck form Kalex was briefing Larry and John from Satisfaction who is also from Grafton Harbor.  We would be leaving in the morning for Ingram bayou, 44 miles east.

Since we were waiting for Thanksgiving to arrive, we rented a car, made some hotel reservations, and took off for New Orleans for the weekend.