Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

 

Friday  October 28, 2022, Dog River Marina, Mobile, Alabama: We traveled down the Mobile River on Monday afternoon and what an amazing waterfront. We have never experienced such a working harbor with such large ships, freighters, container ships, cruise ship, tows, and tugs. I will certainly post a few pictures but what a hoot, talking on the radio with these Captains on the big ships, “What side would you like me to pass you on Captain” I’d say,” One came back, “any side you want Capt. I am not moving from the center of this channel,” Another came back you better take me on the two because I am turning into that pier that is on my port… me “yes captain, taking you on the two!”

The ride down the Mobile Shipping Channel was almost ten miles and took us over an hour. It was a fascinating ride one we will never forget. After spending the last three days in the middle of nowhere on the Black Warrior Waterway and to suddenly be in the 12^th busiest port in the USA was unreal. Baptism by fire! We passed so many large ships of all diverse kinds, it was “head on a swivel” trying to take it all in. Oh yes and we are also traveling through downtown Mobile with all the city has to offer, very cool and unexpected. As my friend Gary Merrill said when he and Tina first saw Her Idea he said” I did not know what to expect, but it was not this! We felt the same way about The Mobile Shipping Channel.

Ten miles down the Mobile Shipping Channel is the Dog River and so we turned West into the Dog River Channel and five miles later pulled into the Dog River Marina where Her Idea will be for the next 3 weeks. This was a long few days traveling in a very remote part of the country and a section that I am glad to have behind us, so, let us go back and review our week and how we got here.

 

 

 

 

Saturday October 21, 2022, Travel Day # 80 Kingfisher Marina Demopolis AL to Bobby’s Fish Camp, Silas AL. Total Distance 99 Miles, Total Time 11.5 Hours, Locks 1. I had mentioned in the past post that the last section of River from Demopolis to the Mobile River was on the “The Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway.” This is the last stretch of waterway, 240 miles to Mobile is extremely remote with no towns or marinas to be found. It is normally a four-day journey doing 50-60 miles a day. I had decided to try and get it done on three long days. We only had two Locks left, one was right in Demopolis 4 miles from the marina, the second lock we would go through on the second day.

We had become friendly with Marco and Karen from Navigator who were gold loopers, which means they are on their second loop, (once you do three loops you become Platinum). Marco and Karen have sold all their possession and just do the loop, no home, no car, no family (Karen has a sister here in Mobile) the only possessions they have are on their Pilothouse 37. We have met a dozen folks in this category, they just continue to live on their boat traveling around the waterway no dirt home as they refer to houses. We will not be doing that; Kennebunk is home to us.

So, I had explained to Marco that we wanted to try to do this next section in three versus four days, which meant travel days of a one hundred, eighty miles and then a 60-mile day. This would allow us to get too Mobile in 3 days. Marco and Karen were all in, they said they wanted to get to the anchorage on the Tensaw River in two days which worked great for us. So, they agreed to travel with us for the first two days, but they had to stay on Anchor in the Tensaw River until November 1^st because of his insurance policy. There were over fifteen other loopers who were staying in Demopolis for that very reason. I checked on our insurance policy and they said no problem we  can be anywhere in the USA and Canada. (I think we must have a crummy policy!).

At any rate, the plan was to try and get to Bobby’s Fish Camp (one hundred miles from Demopolis). Bobby’s is a closed restaurant that has one hundred feet of dock, available first come, first serve so it is a complete gamble, which is not like me, but I figured we would try it. So, the plan was to leave at 6:00 AM (sunrise is 7:15) so leaving in the dark….. OH MY! Navigator has done this several times, they like to lock through before the majority of loopers do. Our regular practice has been to leave at sunrise in the light say 7 AM and get to the lock at the same time so they process us all together. Marco and Karen normally try and get there an hour before to stay ahead of the pack. With a hundred-mile day we needed to get a jump start so we were all over it.

Marko and I agreed to meet at 5:30 AM and he would call the lock. When we called the lockmaster, he told us “We have a tow in the lock now so leave at 6:15 and be here for 6:45 and I’ll lock you through” which is what we did. We headed out just after six in the pitch dark and a bit of fog coming off the river. The pucker factor was high! Karen sits on the bow of Navigator with an unbelievable strong flashlight, and she scans the water and the shore checking for floating debris. I was following Navigator with my spotlight on. Three miles down the river we came upon the tow that was leaving the lock and it was all lit up. He looked huge, impossible to miss. The lockmaster had told him to expect us, so he reached out to us and said, “two southbound PC’s, (pleasure craft) pass me on the one, and you be safe now traveling southbound.”

We got to the lock and slipped right in. There was a bass fishing tournament going on down river so the lockmaster held us up until he could get the anglers through with us. It worked out because we were the only loopers in that lock and the bass boats took off when the gates opened, and we never saw them again. It also was about sunrise when the gates opened so we had much better visibility.

Her Idea cruises a little faster than Navigator, so we took the lead and did 10 MPH, Navigator did 9 MPH, which would allow us to get to Bobby’s an hour earlier than Navigator. This was a hundred-mile day, and if we could get there earlier it would improve our chances of getting some of that dock space. That was a good call as when we arrived, I was able to get half our boat on the dock, so we had twenty feet of the boat on the dock and bow hung off the dock. (I will show a picture). I was also able to secure a space for Navigator to raft off Escape another boat we have been traveling with the past two weeks. We were the last two boats to get a space at Bobby’s so our strategy had worked out great. Long day but very satisfying. Bobby’s was a very odd spot but a welcome stop. Once Navigator got to the dock and tied up, we had a celebratory cocktail and started dinner as it was getting dark. We had dinner, a few games of cribbage and early to bed as tomorrow was another long day.

 

 

I mentioned this in our last post, and I know it has been on the national news that the Mississippi River is extremely low. Several barges ran aground last week so the tow companies are moving the traffic to the Ten-Tom, and we really saw the increase in traffic. We normally pass five or six tows a day and on this day we passed thirteen. so it is about double, but in the next week (it takes 5 days for the tows to go from New Orleans to Mobile,) things are really going to get busy, and will add to extensive delays in the locks. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get off the rivers.

Track

Leaving the Lock a bit chilly 

“The Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway.”

Tow coming around the corner, Cap't what side do you want me on?

Sure better decide, no questions who's going to win this battle!!

Only weather buoy we saw in the past 500 miles

 Sweet set up

Houses along the way, very few of them less than 30 on this 240 mile stretch 

Bald Eagle having lunch 

Few Buoys off-station

Bobby's 

Her Idea has 1/2 a dock, but extremely grateful for it.

Sunday October 22, 2022, Travel Day #81, Silas AL
to Tensaw River Total Distance Traveled: 79 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 10.0 Hours: 1 Lock. Like the day before we had a lock three miles from Bobby’s, so we had one of the boats check with the lockmaster and we got all clear to lock through at 7:30 so we departed at 7 AM. Navigator was the first boat off and we followed behind him to the lock. The eight boats all slipped into the lock and down we went, the last thirty feet. This would be the last lock of The Rivers and we are now in salt water. We started the day with some fog on the river and hopefully I can post a video that Navigator took of us that morning. The sun was out, and the fog lifted by 10 AM and it was a very pleasant cruise.

We continued to see an increase in tow traffic and very thin water, we did see a few alligators on the banks and lots of buoys that were off station. The channel was not very well marked so you had to stay on the channel and concentrate. Several folks bumped the bottom we were one of two boats that did not bump bottom of the eight traveling that day. No damage reported from the bumps thank goodness.

 

During the day four boats dropped out of line and found their anchorage of choice and four of us continued onto Tensaw River, which was amazing. Very peaceful and great sandy bottom that the anchor set very well on the first attempt. Once we all got settled in and knew our anchors were set, Marco and Karen came buy to pick us up and we went to Escape who was also at anchor with us. WE had one drink with the gang and Marco brought us back to the boat had dinner more cribbage and a great night sleep.

One thing that I cannot do justice to is The Stars. When you are at anchor in the middle of nowhere and there is no artificial light, it is absolutely amazing to look up and see millions of stars. I know you have all done this camping and boating, but it is just a spectacular sight.

 

 

Track

Leaving Bobby's headed to the lock following Navigator

“The Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway.”

Logs in the river, looking all day for theses 

This would not be good!

Taking him on the two

 Alligators 

Monday October 23, 2022, Travel Day # 82 Tensaw River to Dog River Marina Mobile Alabama. Total Distance 58 Miles, Total Time 7.5 Hours, Locks 0.: We only had fifty-eight miles to travel today and so we waited until 8 AM to start our last leg of the trip to Mobile. It was a beautiful sunrise, and we were able to enjoy a second cup of coffee and take our time departing the Tensaw River. Escape who had traveled with us the past two days asked to buddy boat which is always a good thing, and we enjoy their company. They do not have AIS (which identifies all traffic and broadcast our presence) and we do have AIS, so it makes it much easier and safer when getting around a commercial traffic. We pulled up the anchor and we said our goodbyes to Navigator as we departed the Tensaw, with Escape on our stern.

 

It was another wonderful day to be on the river and for the first forty miles we saw extraordinarily little on the river, few house, no towns and only one power plant. The river takes on more of a swamp feel as the riverbanks do not have hard banks as it did the past two days. The channel continued to be very shallow, and we had to concentrate on staying in the center of the channel as best we could. We did not spot any more alligators, but folks claim there are plenty of them in that lower section of river, but without the riverbanks they hide in the undergrowth, and we could not spot them.

I mentioned above coming into the City of Mobile was really a special few hours. The shipping channel is wide, plenty of room to maneuver, you just did not know what was coming out of the many piers and when someone would just start backing out. All the captains communicated when they were moving but they might say coming out of the Bosson Terminal, and I am like where is the Bosson Terminal! Local knowledge would have been helpful, but we did fine. Once we got through the busy part of the port where the loading and unloading happens it is still eighteen miles to the open Gulf. We are staying on the Dog River, so it took us another hour to get to our marina. We arrived around 2:30 and stopped to get fuel and a pump out so we will be good for the next few weeks. We docked the boat and then had a cold beer to celebrate our arrival. Normally we do not have one until everything is stowed but this was a happy moment and a bit of a milestone for us. There were four other loopers at the Marina and three of us are staying here for a while. Two have already gone home for two months, both coming back and re-starting their loop in January.

 

 Getting back into civilization 

 

Start of the Mobile River is the Cochrane Bridge 

Mobile Shipping Channel

The Big Boys 

Downtown Mobile

Container section

Tuesday & Wednesday October 25 & 26, 2022, Mobile Alabama, Lay Day. On Tuesday we took the marina courtesy car downtown to check it out and have fresh oysters for lunch. The seafood in this town is amazing, and its oyster season so we had a great lunch and got our bearings around Mobile and developed a strategy for Wednesday. You can borrow the courtesy car for two hours and town was 15 minutes away, so we had an hour and a half to enjoy lunch and walk around.

Wednesday, we took an Uber to Mobile in the morning and took a city tour on a trolley to see all the sights. It was an excellent way to see the highlights and the neighborhoods. The tour guide gave a great overview and told the history of this fun city. Mardi Gras started here in Mobile not New Orleans, and it is a meaningful community event, and they are enormously proud of this history.

Mobile is also a major ship building town, in fact due to the talented and skilled workforce, Airbus has built a factory here and they produce one plane per week. They have a major expansion underway and by spring will be producing two planes a week. It is a huge facility and by far the largest employee in the area. They have over 10,000 employees.

 In the past twenty years the downtown has flourished due to the number of so many high paying jobs and the neighborhoods reflect that. In the eighty’s downtown was not safe and run down. Today the small neighborhoods and downtown look amazing. There is no question that it would be a fun city to live in, they have an Opera, a Symphony and Ballet, and two major Playhouses. A highly active cultural area. The cost of living here is extremely low and with great paying jobs it is great to see the community flourishing.

Downtown Mobile

Had Lunch at Delphine 34th floor view of the Mobile Shipping Channel  

Looking North

Looking South

Looking West

Feels and looks a lot like New Orleans but clean!

Mardi Gras Square 

 

Neighborhoods 

A Shotgun House

This house was built by a man from Bath Maine that came down and started was a famous Boat Builder!  

We had lunch and just walked around, then got a return Uber back to the boat and now just chilling, well I am doing this, and Meredith is packing.

 The sunset from Her Idea last night at Dog River Marina 

Thursday was boat project day, cleaning and getting everything set for a two-week break. Today, Friday, we fly to Colorado and will be there until November 12^th. We have our slip here for a month, so I do not think we will start to Florida until the 19^th, where we have a reservation in Sandesdien from Thanksgiving until January 2^nd. It is only a 4–5-day trip to Sandesdien from Mobile so we have extra time for our next leg. Also, we want to pick a good day to cross the Gulf, another large body of water that we will totally respect.

We are looking forward to having the month of December off and just relax. We are staying at Sandesdien Baytowne Marina. This is also where Jeff Bonney & Myra Thivierge as well as Tom and Annie McNamara have places and both will be around for a few weeks when we arrive. I am sure they can point us in the right direction, and it will be great to catch up with good friends.

 

Therefore, I will post once we begin moving again and we have something to report.

 

I am also going to post a spreadsheet this week, which is probable way too much for most. Hopefully, several of you might enjoy looking at it. It shows our eighty-two travel days, (we departed Kennebunkport on 6-11-22, 140 days ago), starting and ending location, engine hours, travel time, locks, and fuel consumption. I have comments on the states, rivers, and waterways as we entered and departed. We have traveled 3350 miles and I think Sandesdien will be halfway, so we are close to that milestone.

 

Fair Winds