MAP AND LOCATION UPDATE

Quick post - I know I've been delinquent in posting a map of our progress so here it is.  

As of this morning, October 27th we were in Demopolis, Alabama.

We have gone through 25 locks and have only one more to go.  Our plan is to be in Mobile, AL no later than Friday for Halloween!

More to come later...and if you did not read our last post please go back and do that.  It was the most excitement we've encountered during the whole trip so far!

OUR BIGGEST DAY YET - BIG CLIFFS, BIG BOAT & YES, A BIG GATOR!!!!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25

This turned out to be our BIGGEST day yet.  We woke up to a foggy mist.  Looks so cool on the water.  

We are at a really interesting part of the river.  It wound around north, west, south, east - it was crazy.  The first BIG highlight of the day were the white cliffs of Eppes.  So nice to see something different for a change.

Then we were cruising along all by ourselves when we saw a BIG ship coming up behind us.  I thought it might be that BULLISH boat we saw at Grand Harbor.  As she approached the captain called on the radio and told us she was MIMI and that she was built by Burger Boat (Manitowoc, WI) in 1978.  She was a beauty!    

Enjoyed getting a little bio on her from her owner.  He said he is a sailor at heart and complimented us on Free Bird as well.

But the BIGGEST news of the day was our GATOR experience!  We dropped the hook at Rattlesnake Bend about 4:30.  We decided we should get into Marley and check out a few of the small creek areas off the channel that we were in.  We hadn't seen any new wildlife in so long and we almost got more than we bargained for.  We went into this little lagoon area and I saw it first.  John thought it was a tree but I knew it was a gator.

He had been sunning on the shore and I swear he was sleeping when we got there.

I would say he was 10 to 12 feet long.  We drove all the way by him taking pictures and even some video.  We had just turned around to make another pass and head towards the entrance to this lagoon and boom - he was in the water!!  I didn't even see him get in he was so fast, YIKES!!  I was ready to get the heck out of there!!!  I did point out to John that we were in a rubber boat and he kind of laughed.  I wasn't laughing!!  It was certainly thrilling to see one in the wild like that.  We wanted wildlife and boy did we get it!  We were probably just 30 feet from the animal. Check out the video. John thinks I sound like Steve Irwin, that "late" Australian naturalist guy.

Back to Free Bird we go.  Took a picture of our beautiful anchorage.  What a BIG day it has been!  It's going to be hard to top this one...

 

IF YOU'D LIKE TO MAKE A CALL...

Left in the morning with 2 other sailboats and headed for the lock.  It was thick with water hyacinth, really bad.  This picture is after we got tied up, we came through all this stuff!

We got tied up and heard a call on the radio that 3 power boats were coming to join us too.  You can see them in the picture above.  One came in and was a catamaran-style and I snapped this one of him with some of the green stuff sticking to his bow.  

One of the power boats was off the wall and moving before the lockmaster even sounded the horn that is the OK signal to proceed out of the lock.  John had to tell them to slow down as they were leaving wake.  You do not want any waves in the lock as they just bounce off one wall and go back to the other repeatedly and make maneuvering in there even more challenging.  I think the folks had good intentions as they have a huge bow and were trying to push the green stuff out of the way.  They ended up getting some caught in their prop and stopped in front of us.  Needless to say my captain was not happy with them!  They passed us by and shortly were off in to the distance.

This goes into the category of "you never know what you are to see".  Here we are floating down the river and everything has been pretty uniform so far today...a few herons, egrets and eagles but really nothing new for some time.  And then all of a sudden we see this.  

Got love people with a sense of humor!!  Cell service was bad, we almost pulled over to make a call!

Got down to the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam.  They have an old snag catcher boat, the USS Montgomery on display.  

We considered anchoring nearby and going in to check it out but it was only noon and we felt we needed to make more headway.  Rodalee anchored here and the Wendy, the other sailboat from Alaska was breaking in a new transmission so they were going very slow so into the lock we go, solo.  Hard to believe this is the first lock we have been in by ourselves.  

Found another little anchorage at Cook's Bend in an oxbow.  An oxbow is the original part of the river flowage before the Army Corps of Engineers realigned it to make it a navigable waterway thereby creating the Tenn-Tom.  

COLUMBUS, MS TIMES

OCTOBER 21, 22 & 23

In an effort to catch up and since we spent the majority of all 3 of these days in Columbus, MS I thought I would combine blogs.  Besides that we have some really exciting news I can't wait to post for yesterday's blog and I am anxious to move on so I can get to that.

After 5 nights of anchoring out it was once again time for shore leave.  Our liquor, wine and beer supply was dwindling and we were out of milk!  While heading down the river we were treated to constant fly overs by the pilots from Columbus Air Force base.  About 1 mile out from the marina we started to see all this green stuff on the water.  They got bigger and bigger and John got on the radio and called the marina from advice on how to approach.  We were told it was water hyacinth and it's just floating on the surface.  

You still don't want to hit too much of it though as it looked like it could strangle a propeller.  The stuff is invasive and wrecking havoc on the boaters in the area.  We were tied up to the dock by 1PM.  It is so great to get in early as then we still have the day to clean and make a provision run and have the evening left for fun.

Al & Terri from Terri Ann needed to go shopping too.  The courtesy van was spoken for but the marina manager T gave us his personal pickup truck and so the 4 of us headed for Walmart.  Good thing we had a truck as we filled the bed of that baby right up.  When we got back to the marina several other Looper boats had come in.  We decided to host a docktail party underneath the marina office.  They had 3 picnic tables and the area was shaded.  

I got to work making 3 appetizers and John went out to spread the word.  After 5 days out, it was nice to do some socializing.  Met some old friends and made some new ones.  We even met some folks from Cedar Falls, IA - our first Iowans!

Next morning we had the courtesy van reserved from 11 to 1 so went back into town to pick up a fuel filter and tour the town a bit.  Some beautiful old antebellum homes.  This is the hometown of Tennessee Williams.  We went to an out-of-the-way place called Profitt's Porch for lunch and had an absolutely awesome crab and shrimp cajun sandwich.  Friends Karen & John from Sundowner finally caught up to us and were in a slip in the marina when we got back.  It had been so long since we have seen them so we invited them for dinner and I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs.  Felt good to cook for someone besides my captain!

The following morning Karen & John had the van reserved so we went along. Karen and I got some "girl" shopping in and the boys walked the streets of Columbus.  7 boats left the marina today and 13 more are expected in.  We went for an afternoon bike ride and the Looper exchange began.  We made reservations for dinner at Huck's and the crews of Free Bird, El Nido, Sundowner and Rodalee went out for a nice dinner and a quick tour of town.  

Thoroughly enjoyed the city of Columbus and the wonderful staff at the Columbus Marina. T and Jimmy made us feel right at home! Highly recommend this laid back place if one is ever looking for a great place to stay.

REFLECTIONS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20

We grouped up with 3 new (new to us that is…) boats and Terri Ann to traverse through the next 2 locks.  We were going to leave at 8AM but the lock informed us that a tow was going through.  We thought it best to wait until he got down to the next lock before going through this one so we wouldn’t end up waiting downstream.  Good logic but did not anticipate an upstream tow as well so ended up waiting anyhow.  We’ve learned the story with the locks is often times “hurry up and wait”!  Each lock here is a carbon copy of the one before.  They all drop 30’ and are 600’ X 110’ in size.  We are getting pretty good at tying up now.

All the other boats were power boats and they pressed on to points further South leaving us the opportunity to find yet another little out of the way anchorage.  Once we were anchored at Cane Creek Cutoff, we just sat and enjoyed the reflections on the water. 

Love the quiet and listening to the birds and bugs.  We hear a lot of birds but it was difficult to see them.  This was a tight anchorage and we ended up tying a line from the stern to a root of a tree to keep us from swinging. 

Molly is getting more comfortable every day.  She still much prefers being anchored than being in a marina.  We will continue to work on that since that is where she will end up living for 4 months this Winter.  

I know we need to update and show the map but can’t find it right now.  Will try to get that done next post.

Thanks to those of you who are still reading and keeping up with our progress.  I know it is probably starting to seem like more of the same with each post lately.  Once we get closer to the Gulf I expect that will change!

 

DOWN WE GO - THE BIG DROP!!!

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19

We locked down 174’ today!!  Not all at one time, 84’ the first lock and 3 – 30’ locks thereafter.  We are on the other side of the divide and are truly on a downhill run for the Gulf of Mexico now.  We had made a plan with the other some of the boats to hit the Lock together at 7:30.  We were joined by our Canadian friends from Perfect Balance as well as the crew on Average Looper, Terri Ann and Navigator so we had 7 of us locking through together.  Going through the 84’ drop was something.  This will be the big drop or rise we have during the course of our whole trip.  Once we were down it felt like we were in a vault. 

You look up at the doors and think “I am really glad those are still closed!”  The other amazing thing about this lock is how FAST it went down. 

I have video but will have to post later when I have more bandwidth to get it uploaded.  Here was the view looking forward as we left the lock.  You can see how they carved out the canal by looking at the rocks here.  We have been seeing evidence of that all the way down the Tenn-Tom.

Besides being a big drop, the locks were only about 5 miles apart.   Lock, lock, lock…by the time we reached the 5^th lock it was after 3PM and there was a towboat coming up that we had to wait for.    Terri Ann decided to go into the Smithville Marina and we decided to just drop an anchor while the other boats continued on.   If we did not stop, there was still one more lock after this one to get through before there were any other opportunities to anchor.

We have decided that locking after 3 is a bad idea as if you get stuck at one, it could be dark before you get into a marina or anchorage.   (Talked to the other boats later and they didn’t get anchored until almost 6.  Glad we stopped when we did.)

Went into the marina by dinghy to meet the crew of Terri Ann as we had been right behind them in the locks all day but hadn’t had a chance to meet.  Al and Terri who hail from NY invited us aboard for a beer.  They are moving their boat to their 2^nd home in FL.  They were even flying a “courtesy” confederate flag – HAH!   Al’s got more guts than we do.  Not sure that would always be taken in the spirit it was intended.  A couple more Looper boats arrived and we took off to go back “home” to spend some time with Molly and get her out on deck for a while.  Before we took off Al pointed out a bumper sticker that we loved…

It was on this old disheveled houseboat.  Met the gentleman who owned (and lived on) that boat for 17 years, quite a character he was.  Life seems to be full of characters, some we meet and some we don’t!

HERE THEY COME, ONE BY ONE!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18

The Loopers that is.  The rendezvous is over and we are starting to see boats trickle down the Tenn-Tom.  We took the dingy into the Piney Grove campground and had a nice hike.  Also took our shower gear with us and had a nice shower while we were there. 

We knew we wanted to change venues and find a different anchorage when we saw 4 Looper boats on the horizon.  Decided we better pull up the anchor and move before they got there.  Went into the Natchez Trace Recreation area which encompassed 5 “fingers” of water any which of we anchorable.  We chose the middle finger (no significance there) and plopped our hook down.  Within an hour there were 4 more boats anchored nearby.  Come to find out that 2 of the boats were from our neck of the woods in Lake Michigan, Blue Willow from Petoskey, MI and Patriot from Ludington.  Those 2 boats had rafted together and invited us on board for a drink. 

Had an enjoyable time getting to know some fellow Great Lakers and took in a spectacular sunset!  We anticipate that from this point forward we will be running into many Loopers all the way to the Gulf now.  We are leaving with a group in the morning and hope to do as many as 6 locks...we'll see!

WE’RE NOT MOVING!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

I don't mean that in a bad way like the boat won't move.  We decided that this anchorage was too great to give up so thought we’d stay put for another night.  I did yoga on the front deck and John got in Marley and went to see the trawlers in the bay.  He came back and announced we were all going to do a dinghy run to the Visitor’s Center and take a little hike with the crews of Priorities, Annie’s Song and Odyssea.  4 dinghies, 8 people and off we zoom .  Marley has a 6 HP engine and the other boats had 15 HP’s but we kept up with them pretty well.  The visitor’s center was actually for the whole Tombigbee Waterway as well as the James Whitten Lock.  We walked out to the lock and got to see things from a different perspective, from the top down for a change.

After a quick stop for some gas we zipped back to the boat and bid our new friends goodbye.  Time for a swim.  We have been waiting for this. 

This is the first swimming we have done and we enjoyed the clear, warm water!

Embraced the serenity of the anchorage, threw some food on the grill and got out our books.  Tomorrow we will move to another anchorage here in Bay Springs Lake.  

PEACE AND TRANQUILITY

Pulled out of Grand Harbor and bid farewell to BULLISH, our 108-foot dock neighbor these last few days.  Never did see the owner, just some ill-mannered crew. 

Got onto the Tenn-Tom Waterway in earnest.  We navigated through what they call Divide Cut.  It is the northern portion of the waterway where they cut through the backbone of land and stone dividing the watershed between the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.  

Very pretty initially and then it turned into miles and miles of levee.  There were these baffles, pictured here, they are intended to slow the velocity of the water coming into the river.  It all empties into Bay Springs Lake and there we found anchorages galore!  

We chose a spot they dubbed the “oasis” which was only big enough for 1 boat.  We dropped the hook and were stunned at how beautiful it was.  Calm and smooth as glass. This is the best anchorage yet (I know, we keep saying that!).  

On the way in we saw 3 trawlers anchored in a neighboring bay.  Thinking one of them may be Priorities who we hung out with on the Ohio.  Will go and try to hook with them tomorrow.  Tonight we just want to enjoy the peace and quiet and stars!

WE ARE ALIVE AND WELL!

Today’s date is 10/21 and please know that we are indeed alive and well.  Yesterday a few texts started to roll in from concerned readers as there has not been a post from us in some time.  We simply have had no internet service for the past week, limited cell and only some text capabilities.  We are in the middle of Mississippi now at a marina and will be able to catch up.  I will try to backtrack and bring things back to the present day.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15

JUST ANOTHER DAY - We took a day for reprovisioning and to so some maintenance.  I took the ice cream van (I forgot to take a picture of it) and headed for Corinth, MI and John hung back to start the process of changing oil filters.  After 4 auto parts stores and a trip to Kroger’s for groceries, 2-1/2 hours later I was back to unload and play engineer’s assistant to the captain.  Finished the fuel filter job - yay!  We have enjoyed the Marina here at Grand Harbor and accomplished a lot since we have been here.  

The condos associated with the marina even had a nice workout room and there was no one there so I took my yoga mat up and had the place all to myself.  Had a wonderful practice so enjoyed the opportunity to spread out! 

We both had a nice loooong hot shower (a great treat) and off to dinner out!  We were excited to not cook and not do dishes, it has been a while.  To Freddy T’s we go.  Their car service picked us up and it turned out to be a great place.  Spent some time at the bar and then had an awesome dinner, grilled prime rib and shrimp n’grits – both very yummy!  

The weather is improving dramatically and the forecast for the next 7 days is sun and 70’s.  Works for us!!

A VERY MOVING DAY…

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14

Woke to yet more rain.  We had such good weather early on that I know we should not complain but the rain can go.  Donned our rain jackets and got the courtesy van.  Being able to have wheels for nothing has been so great!  This one was very nice but it looks like an ice cream truck!  Will have to get a pic of it tomorrow.  We headed out for Shiloh National Military Park which we had passed on the way here. 

While I knew there was a storied battle there, I did not remember the details and the massive amount of casualties both sides suffered.  The date was April 6, 1862.  Of the 84,000 men that fought 23,746 lost their lives.  There was a movie shown depicting the events that was extremely well done.  Needless to say I was crying by the end of it and I think John was too.  We walked over to the National Cemetery to begin the tour.  

Then we headed off into the fields to see where the action occurred and take in all the many monuments that have been erected in memory of the battles and honoring those lives lost.

 

We did get a little wildlife fix too while in the park with this guy.  Don’t know my turtles but he was really pretty.  We moved him off the road so he wouldn’t get hit by a car as he had colors similar to a leaf.  So glad we didn’t do him in!

It took more time than the 4 hours we had reserved the van so we called and they said take as long as you need.  We finished the tour and then went and got some Mexican for lunch.  It was so much food it ended up being dinner too!

Tomorrow we will be staying put taking the day to resupply, do boat maintenance and get some exercise!