11/1/15
Flooded timber on the Tombigbee Waterway
Holiday VII
Eagle
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| Aberdeen Lock
After getting filled up with fuel, we departed Midway Marina
at 8:30 a.m. with “Holiday VII” in the lead, and were also accompanied by two
“Looper” boats, “Nuclear Fishin”, and “3rd Degree”. The weather continued to be damp and dreary,
and our 59 mile trip took us 8 ½ hours to complete, since we had four locks to
transit, and lock-tenders like to lock through as many boats at one time as
possible. Though “Reflection” and
“Holiday VII” operate at a faster cruising speed, we often had to wait for
these slower-moving boats even though we had been in the lock and ready to
descend for a considerable period of time.
This process cost us a lot of time, but there was no way around it. We also heard today from “Ivory lady” and
“The Next Chapter”, and learned that they were at Columbus Marina, which was
our destination, and when we arrived at 5 p.m., they were there to catch our
lines. We had earlier accepted and
invitation to have cocktails aboard “Holiday VII”, so we agreed to meet up with
the other two boats tomorrow night, since we were all going to Pirate’s Marina
Cove the next day.
11/2/2015
    
Gone
Our four boats left at 10 a.m. from Columbus Marina, and
since we had only one lock to transit on our 28 mile journey, we arrived at Pirate’s
Cove Marina in Pickensville , Alabama at 1 p.m.
We had great memories of this stop from our first “Great Loop’ trip, but
a lot had changed here since that time, and not necessarily for the better. In
2009 we had taken the marina courtesy car to the “Down Yonder” restaurant for
local Southern cuisine including delicious fried chicken, but now we learned
that the establishment had closed. Also,
at that time the marina seemed “quaint’, but now it was really run-down with
docks that were crooked and broken in spots, and some of the vessels of the
clientele included those that were in various stages of sinking, and the marina
store housed a dog with mange, and was over-run with cats! To put it bluntly, this place was going
down-hill fast, even though they had received government funding for new
docks. In fact, the boat across from us
on our dock, DID SINK right in front of our eyes that afternoon!!! We were just glad that it did not pull the
entire dock down with it! After the
afternoon’s events, we joined Bill and Jan and Willy and Caryn aboard “The Next
Chapter” for cocktails and appetizers.
They are friends of ours from the Marathon Yacht Club, and we were there
when they started their “Great Loop” from the Yacht Club in April, 2014. The appetizers were delicious, and we had a
great time catching up on our recent adventures since seeing each other at the
AGLCA Rendezvous a few weeks ago.
11/3/2015
We traveled today for
38 miles on the Tenn-Tombigbee Waterway, which was like being in another
world. Homes were few and far between,
and now anchorages and marinas would become very scarce. This man-made waterway is very remote, and outside
of towboats and barges, the scenery was made up of trees and water. We and “Ivory lady” decided to head to Sumter
Landing Anchorage which was quite sheltered, and we were able to anchor
stern-to-stern. However, “The Next
Chapter”, who draws 5’ of water, did not feel comfortable entering this area,
so they decided to anchor along the waterway a few miles down. Eventually we wound up with 8 boats in this
anchorage, which is actually located in a state park complete with a boat
launch ramp. After we were settled in,
a large Carver motoryacht, “Stylist”, from New Hampshire drove by us and yelled
over to us: “Are you “Reflection”?”, and when we responded: “Yes!”, they yelled
over: “We have your book!” Once they were anchored, they then launched their
dinghy and motored over to us with our first book in hand, and asked us to autograph
it. We were delighted to do so, and we
invited them aboard, and spent at least an hour with them discussing their
“Loop” trip, which they claimed was inspired by our first adventure. They were absolutely charming, and we totally
enjoyed being with them. Of course,
later on, we had to listen to the good-natured kidding of Jann and Bill about
our being “celebrities”!
11/4/15
    
After releasing our boats’ sterns from each other and then
pulling up our anchors, we and “Ivory Lady” met up with “The Next Chapter” a
few miles south of Sumter and made our way through the Howell Heflin Lock and
then down the Tenn-Tom waterway on a 55 mile trip to Demopolis, Alabama, one of
the largest towns in the area. We docked
at Demopolis Yacht Basin’s new transient facility, Kingfisher Bay Marina, and
that evening we, the Mellmans, and the Bains, all squeezed into the Mellmans’
rental vehicle, and had dinner at “The Red Barn”, a true southern restaurant
with great fried chicken.
11/5/2015
Early the next morning, Pat headed to the large laundry
facilities at Kingfisher Bay, and later, she Jann, and Caryn, headed to town,
so that Jann could have some charts printed at the stationery store, and then
they headed to the large WalMart to purchase tons of groceries. Unfortunately, the town itself, had seen
better days, and many of its lovely buildings with their antebellum
architecture were in sad shape and/or boarded up. Later that evening we all got together aboard
“Ivory Lady” for cocktails and appetizers, steaks on the grill, and
dessert. It was a wonderful evening with
terrific food, and great camaraderie!
 
Waterfalls after the lock
 
A number of “Loopers” left the marina earlier this morning,
and after a call to the Demopolis Lock ahead of time, we were told to wait at
the marina, because a tug and a barge were coming through, headed up-stream, so
instead of waiting for an hour and a half outside of the lock doors, it would
be better to sit in our marina slip. Our trip today would again take us though
some remote areas where good anchorages were few and far-between, so we chose
instead to pull off to the side of the waterway after 67 miles and anchor in an
area recommended as a good spot by a fellow “Looper’ who had passed this way a
few weeks ago. “The Next Chapter” and
“Ivory Lady” went ahead and anchored to each other stern-to-stern, and we attempted to anchor near the shore-lin
by ourselves into the current, but once we dropped the anchor, we knew that
something was wrong. The unfortunate
possibility was that we had picked up a “snag”,
usually an underwater tree branch, etc., but it can sometimes be
something much bigger. We continued to
struggle with the anchor but managed to get away from the shoreline and into
the center of the waterway, while dragging the unseen “snag” with us. If we didn’t get rid of it, we might have to
cut our very expensive anchor loose!
However, Willy and Bill quickly came to our aid! Bill launched his dinghy and outboard
engine, and he and Willy climbed aboard with bolt-cutters in hand, and between
pat at the helm, George at the anchor windlass, and Willy and Bill trying to
grab at the anchor chain, we managed to finally drag up the culprit – a large
water-soaked tree! The pictures tell the
story! When we were finally able to
release it, were we relieved, and greatly indebted to our friends for their
efforts on our behalf, and we plan on treating them to a celebratory dinner when
we all arrive in Marathon. Willy knew he brought those bolt cutters for some
reason! After things calmed down, we did
successfully anchor and spent a quiet night aboard out of the way of any tugs
and barges.
11/7/2015
   
The Next Chapter
Today we journeyed through our last lock on this “Loop”
adventure – our 108th lock – the Coffeeville Lock. Our destination was 49 miles away, the Old
Lock I anchorage, where we had anchored in the flood of 2009 with “Holiday VII”
and “Freedom”. Though the entrance can
be rather shallow, we knew that once inside we would be very protected during
the heavy rains that were expected later today and tonight. We and “Ivory Lady” went ahead as scouts to
sound the entrance depths, but “The Next
Chapter” was not confident that the soundings would stay deep enough for them
over-night, so they continued on further and anchored a few miles
downstream. Shortly after anchoring,
with “Ivory Lady” tied up to our starboard side, it started to pour, and it did
so for a number of hours. Only one other
boat joined us in the anchorage, and Jann and Bill came over for cocktails and
appetizers early in the evening.
11/8/2015
Deer swimming across the Waterway
This morning again dawned dark and dreary, and we and “Ivory
Lady” eventually caught up with “The Next Chapter” after a few miles. We had decided that the Tensas River, some 62
miles away would be our anchoring spot for the evening, but the other two boats
wanted to continue farther on down the waterway. By mid afternoon we pulled into the river,
and safely anchored by ourselves in this lovely spot which was not only
protected, but also had very little boat traffic. As the day wore on we were eventually joined
by seven other “Looper” boats at anchor, and we enjoyed a quiet evening aboard.
The Port of Mobile
       
Dinner at Gambino's in Fairhope, AL with the Walkers and the Newtons
We lifted anchor at 7 a.m. with today’s 55 mile trip which
would take us from the primeval scenery of the Tenn- Tom/Black Warrior
Waterways to the big-city civilization of Mobile, Alabama. This happened quickly as we noticed that the
foliage alongside the waterway became more tropical in nature, and then
suddenly we began to observe the sky-line of Mobile with its sky-scrapers,
major ship-yards, and huge vessels of all sorts coming into view through the
haze. We also heard “Ivory Lady” and
“the next Chapter’ conversing on the radio , and discovered that because of our
early start, we were now ahead of them on the waterway. Our destination was Dog River Marina, which
was also Jann and Bill’s, but Willy and Caryn had opted instead to go straight
to Fairhope on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.
When we arrived at the marina, we went straight to the fuel dock to fill
up with diesel. The marina was jammed
with “Looper” boats, and we were told that we would have to stay at this dock
for a while until they could find space for us.
A little while later, “Ivory Lady” also pulled into the fuel dock, which
was where they stayed, since they were only staying for one night, while we
planned to stay for several days, while we had our alternator sent out for
service. Eventually we were move to a
spot where we were blocking several boats that were having lots of work done
near their service area. This was quite
the boat-yard, with boats being moved in and out of the water with a
travel-lift almost non-stop. While we
were ther we had our engines’ starting batteries checked, and “Surprise!”,
“Surprise!”, we found out that they both needed to be replaced, which we
did. On our last day there, we signed up
for the marina’s courtesy car, and in a period of two hours we managed to go to
a Laundromat, food shop, pick up parts at Advance auto, and have a Chinese food
lunch! This was also a nostalgic time
for us because “Holiday VII” with Richard and Carol aboard was docked here, and
we were also able to connect with Andrew and Sallyann Newton from “Freedom”,
who now lived in Foley, Alabama.
“Freedom” was our “buddy boat” in 2009, when we both had the good
fortune of meeting Richard, and then followed him from Demopolis to Mobile
during the flooding of the waterways caused by a tropical storm on our first
“Loop” trip. Richard picked us up in his
car, and then we all met for dinner at “Gambino’s” restaurant in Fairhope,
Alabama on Friday evening, our last night in Mobile. We shared lots of stories, had lots of
laughs, and the food at this restaurant was exceptional! It was truly a wonderful evening!
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