Friday November 19: Happy Thanksgiving!

Our bags are packed, we're checked in for our flight and will be on our way back to Ohio then on to California. It will seem strange not being on the boat as it has been our home for the last 6 months. Anyway, no blogging until we return in late December! Enjoy the holidays!!

Thursday November 18: Dog River

Finally, back to a real city! Steve scouted out a place for breakfast so we walked around the old area of Mobile (lost the pics somehow) and through the original square It was really nice - very reminiscent of New Orleans with the two story buildings and balconies on the second floor. Like Bourbon St. Docking at the convention center gave us a mostly calm night even though Mobile River doesn't sleep - as was evidenced by the number of tows going by in the dark. They threw out quit the wave but Steve has become the master of the bumper arranging and we rode through the night quite well! Leaving Mobile shipping area was a real trip. Freighters leaving in front of us, coming toward us and mixed in on the edges were shrimp boats and some other small fishing boats. Waves were about a foot and a half. The bay is very shallow (lots of it less than 5 feet) so it can become very rough very fast. So if you have a 4 foot draft boat, a 5 foot bay and 3 foot waves - guess what happens!

It was nice to be at a marina again after 5 nights out and Steve was again up early taking pictures of the sunrise near the marina. We're on Dog River - about 12 miles south of Mobile and about 20 miles from the start of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (GICW). It's really a pretty area - and no evidence of any oil - at least not this far up the bay.

The generator lives to run another day!!! The goal for today was to take the generator apart to see what we needed to fix it. It was a long process as we had no idea what we were doing - as is often the case! So we took lots of pictures, labeled all the parts and then tried to figure out what to do. It's amazing how much you can learn about how something operates when you take it apart! After talking about it, we decided to put it back together, use sealant on all of the fittings and cross our fingers. Oddly enough, it started, ran - and still leaked although not nearly as much. Next thing we know, the guy on the boat a couple of docks down came over because he recognized the sound of an old Onan MJDE generator! Turns out he worked on and repaired them! He actually crawled down and showed us how to gently tighten the fitting that was still leaking. What a nice guy!! Anyway, he assured us the Onan is a just plain noisy thing - always was even from day 1. So it was comforting to know that it's not just ours. A few things to tie up tomorrow and then it'll be off to Ohio and California for the Thanksgiving holidays.

Tuesday November 16: Mobile, AL !!!!

It was a long few days but we arrived at Mobile late this afternoon.

The dam at Demopolis (a few days ago) was pretty neat as it seemed to just be a wall of concrete with no gates and the water spilled over rocks at the bottom. We are still encountering tows but the two boats ahead of us have an AIS (Automatic Identification System) so the tows can see them and they can see the tows) so with us following, it's a no brainer, no stress day - unlike when we just peer around the next bend to see if we can spot the front any tow boat barges! The river continues to have many twists and turns as is evidenced by the pic of the gps: note the scale of 800 feet and the miles it took to go essentially 800 ft (if they had only dug a trench!) These turns and bends are everywhere so when we are on our own, we call on the radio that "a southbound pleasure craft is entering the turn at Mile xx" so the tows will know we are coming. Seems to work well!

Friday's anchorage was a welcome sight - a short 'creek' that allowed us to be off of the river and tucked safely away from tows and winds. It was nearly dark by the time we were settled. And then up early the next morning to another beautiful day (once the fog cleared) with a flat river to enjoy. Even more clear reflections than ever!

Steve continued working on the porthole as we traveled - as well as putting another coat on the walkaround deck where I had patched it. Good thing too as it was forecast to rain in a day or two. We made it through the LAST LOCK!!! and were now in saltwater. We spotted lots of sand as soon as we were through the lock so we knew we must be south :-) The anchorage Sat night was at the old lock #1 - very quiet and peaceful.

Steve started looking for alligators (his theory is since we are now at sea level we should see some - right!) and hard as it was for me to believe - there was a 5 ft alligator on shore! No more spotted the rest of the trip to Mobile. Sun night's anchorage was again very secluded - although the other two boats caught up with and shared our small river. We always use a trip line on the anchor which allows us to pull it up backwards if it should get stuck on a tree or something - which is what Steve is trying to fish out of the water with the boat hook. And then the rain started - as scheduled. So it rained most of Sunday night, most of Monday and Monday night. Finally it stopped this morning so off we headed after spending two nights at this anchorage.

A really early start today (no fog so we left at 7:30 boat time) and continuing landscape changes made the 65 mile day seems short. The shore is now marshland and we are nearly at the mouth of the Mobile River with downtown Mobile finally visible!

This is a HUGE port - with lots of ocean going vessels, tugboats and big loading/unloading equipment. We're docked right downtown at the convention center and just watch the huge ships pass within 200 yards of us.

Steve made a great dinner tonight - on the aft deck on the coleman stove. Seems we have a diesel fuel leak in the generator so this will be a good place to repair it. In the meantime, we have figured out that we were very used to just having electricity whenever we wanted it! Personally I think it was the 3 1/2 hours we ran the generator at the last anchorage that did it in. But we were able to see the Browns game - great game even though we ended up loosing. Frustrating though.

Tomorrow: on to our marina on Dog River!

Saturday November 13: Mile 100 - near the Old 1st Lock

Strange as it may be we actually have internet tonight - thanks to Steve taping the wireless card to 2 boathooks and the mast again! Not fast enough for pictures but I'll add them later. Last night we anchored at mile 145 (that's how everything is identified on the river) - a long day of 70 miles. We arrived just as it was getting dark. Up early this morning and once the fog cleared we were on our way again. We got hung up at the last lock so ended up not going as far as we would have liked but anchorages are very difficult to find on the last 100 miles to Mobile. We are now at sea level and will begin to encounter tides as we continue down the river. Steve has been looking for alligators ever since the lock but I think he's a bit premature :-) Anway, we'll anchor again tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday night with our arrival to Mobile set for Tuesday sometime. That gives us our buffer in case the wind/waves are bad on the Bay as we aren't set to fly to Cleveland until Saturday. More with pics ....... sometime?

Thursday November 11: Veteran's Day in Dempolis, AL

On this Veteran's Day, thanks to all of the men and women serving in our armed forces - but a special thanks to our son-in-law Matt! He will be coming home in March - we missed him our last couple of months in Encinitas last spring. As a side note: the Marine Corps celebrated their 235th anniversary yesterday!

The strangest things are spotted along the river but I believe the phone booth takes the prize so far! Lots of blue heron along the waterway and we are beginning to see turtles occasionally but other wildlife are difficult to spot. When we spent the night at Pirate's Cove, we used the car to visit the Bevill Visitor Center. A very nice place that gave the history of the Tenn-Tom. The map below shows what they call the "missing link" to connect the Tennessee River with the Tom Bigbee river - hence the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

The visitor center was a replica of a southern home from the 1850's - complete with 5 floors. Look closely and you'll see Steve several floors down on the left of the picture. We toured the last steam powered snagboat that was used to keep the waterways clear of fallen trees and other 'snags' that caused the tow boats problems navigating the river. Very interesting and gave an appreciation for the dedicated individuals who worked to keep several rivers in Alabama and Tennessee navigable.

Steve found a new way to get the dew off of the plastic in the morning - chamois on a boat scrub brush (it's getting warmer as the lows are in the 40's now). The river was again calm to the point of it being difficult to determine the shoreline from the water!

Our anchorage last night was very quiet and since Steve had taken the time to reinstall the recently fixed windlass (nice of Lemar to foot the bill under warranty) it was more enjoyable to anchor out. It was an out of the way place so Steve had to go to extremes in order to pick up a very weak but usable internet signal - the wireless card is at the top of the boat hook taped to a second boat hook taped to the mast! All was quiet when we left this morning.

Sights along the way today: nice views everywhere but in particular the white cliffs of Epes. Not sure what the stone is but it appears to be soft - maybe limestone?? Very impressive approaching and motoring alongside the cliffs.

We are still encountering tow boats - only passed 2 today and neither was at a curve so that's a good thing:-) We are now in Demapolis - 250 miles from Mobile. A HUGE boat came in at dusk - the guy on the front is circled in yellow. Looks like all of 160 foot to us - the largest we have seen on this trip. We plan on being to Mobile by the 17th but some not so good weather is being forecast. Hopefully it will not delay us too long! We'll leave tomorrow at 9 am boat time with 2 other boats that will be traveling south also. Probably we'll anchor with them as well as we all travel about 8 mph. One is a boat from Ohio that we first met on the Tennessee River. I'm pretty certain there will be no internet tomorrow so until the next day or so ....

Tuesday November 9: Pickensville, AL

NO PICTURES :-( SLOW INTERNET!!

We are another 30 miles down the river at Pirate's Cove Marina. It's a very 'tired' marina and is not unlike many of the small marinas at which we have stayed on the trip down the Tenn-Tom. This is the end of the marinas for then next 100 miles so we'll anchor out tomorrow and then will be in Demopolis on Thursday. I should be able to post something then!

Monday November 8: Columbus, MS

Yesterday was again a very cool day but sunny. The river travel is very quiet - very few barges. The plastic stayed in most of the day (we only traveled about 25 miles - 3 hours) so we could get into port by the time the Browns game came on. We managed to dock and get connected just after the start of the 2nd quarter - what a game!!! No wasted 3 hours today as they beat the 6-1 Patriots. I was afraid to even think that we might win until 2 minutes left :-) Super Bowl here we come!!

We're in Columbus, MS and have decided to stay again today. There are a few projects that need to be done in preparation for the rain which I'm sure is coming one of these days. Steve needs to fix one of the portholes in the front cabin and I will redo a few places on the walkaround deck that have cracked a bit and are likely leaking. Overall, a lazy day - although Steve has been in town twice already in the courtesy car! He also spotted some coots by the marina and was up before sunrise again.

I spent the time looking at the charts and recommended anchorages for the remainder of the trip to Mobile (still 300 miles downriver). This is one crazy river! This is a page from the chart book so you can see how the Tombigbee wove it's way all over the place. The Corp of Army Engineers just dug a straight channel which cut through the center of where the original river flowed. In a couple of days we'll be on the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River and the curves in the river are still there. We just kind of weave our way all over the place in Alabama as we head south.

The waterways really are well marked - even the bridges have marks to let you know the clearance under the bridges. Wonder if the water ever gets that high??!! Weather is warming up to the low 70's today but it's really nice just to sit a day :-)

Saturday: Aberdeen, MS

Thurs : 39 miles, no locks

Fri : 37 miles, 4 locks, total wait time for these locks: 15 minutes!!!

Today : 19 miles, 2 locks, total wait time for these locks: 0 minutes!!!

It has been two great days for the locks. The lockmasters seem much more pleasure boat friendly in trying to make it easy to get through. This part of the waterway is very similar to the Trent as it makes it way to Lake Simcoe: locks within 5 miles of each other and coordinated flow of traffic.

Steve said his goodbyes to Chip - the ultimate guide to the Tenn-Tom with whom he spent several hours going over charts and do's and don'ts for the waterway from here to Mobile. Chip has made over 150 trips up and down the waterway so he is very familiar with the system - he's really a wonderful person! We also had a final breakfast at the barbecue place in Counce, TN. And off we went.

The waterway at this point is mostly a dug canal 280 feet wide and 12 feet deep. Although the sun was shining much of the day the air was still very cool. Steve was dressed for the cold weather as we locked through the 4 locks on the second day of travel. The waterway is filled with birds - especially coots - that are here for the winter. Personally, this isn't nearly far enough south for me but I guess for the thousands of these duck-like waterfowl, it won't freeze their water and that is good enough.

Ok - now this is just a bit much! We woke this morning to a temperature of 28 degrees and frozen dew all over the boat. Any idea how slippery wood and fiberglass is when coated with a thin layer of ice? Could have been a disaster but fortunately we were warned by Skipper Bob to be careful (he writes the 'have to have' guides for completing the great loop). Since the boat was totally frozen over, we thought by the time we went to breakfast and the Piggly Wiggly (I had to have a picture of this because of the Driving Miss Daisy movie), that all would be thawed and ready by the time we returned. And the timing was actually pretty good! The frozen plastic (which Steve TOTALLY gets credit for - first I would never have even started them and secondly I didn't want to put the necessary snaps on them so he did) thawed and was once again WONDERFUL to have. Otherwise I would have to drive from inside as the wind was just really cold.

The waterway is lined in places with dead and not so dead trees as a result of the flooding when the waterway was completed. They call the stumps 'cypress knees' so I'm assuming these are a bunch of cypress trees. The path into our marina for today was really fun - winding in among the many trees and stumps. Very nice place (Aberdeen Marina) with the cheapest diesel so far: $2.79 a gallon. We used the courtesy car to go to the hardware store today and to scope out a place for breakfast in the morning. It's too cold and foggy to move much before 10 am anyway.

Watched college ball today: sorry for Illinois - they totally deserved to win the game with Michigan - what an exciting game though. Hopefully the Browns will do well tomorrow - we hope to be in Columbus, MS in time to see most of the game. GO BROWNS!!!!