Day 29 and part of Day 30
Monday, November 13, 2006 at 11:43AM Sunday: 8:45 am
Mile 195, Warrior Tombigbee Waterway
We left Demopolis at 6:00 am in company with four other pleasure craft or “PC’s”, as we are called by the lockmasters and tug captains, all heading south to get through the Coffeeville Lock today or tomorrow. The three faster boats took off after Demopolis lock leaving us and one sailboat behind doing about the same speed. We’re doing around 10.5 mph so we should be close to Coffeeville Lock this afternoon. There is a little dock called “Bobby’s Fish Camp” about two miles above the lock and it looks like we can get there by around 4 pm, tie up for the night, and get through the lock tomorrow morning early. This would put us just above Mobile by Monday afternoon and we should reach Dog River Marina Tuesday.
Sunday 5:45 pm
Location: Bobby’s Fish Camp, Mile119 Warrior Tombigbee Waterway
Distance Travelled Today: 84 Nautical Miles
Total Trip Distance: 1,260 Nautical Miles
We made it to Bobby’s around 4 pm. This is a collection of trailers and shacks surrounding a fried-food restaurant (catfish, hushpuppies, french fries…leftovers are all fed to the resident hound dog “slewfoot”) with a floating dock out front which is about 150 feet long. We are right on the river tied up with two other boats heading for the Coffeeville Lock early tomorrow. Bobby himself was nowhere in sight but we’re told he only works weekdays and will be here at 6 am tomorrow.
We had an incredibly beautiful day on the river. The sky was perfectly clear, the colors were perfect, and the temperature was somewhere in the mid-sixties. We travelled for 10 hours from 6 am to 4 pm and covered just over 100 statute miles. We have 119 miles to go to Mobile and then about 12 miles across Mobile Bay to Dog River Marina. We should cover 80 miles tomorrow and the remaining 50 Tuesday morning.
Monday: 10:40 am
We awoke to a dense fog on the river this morning which delayed our departure until 6:45, at which time it looked like it was lifting enough to proceed. The photo above shows the river fog this morning, and if you look closely, you can see Early Uncle Randy on the aft deck of Steel Magnolia. In company with three other boats, we idled down the river about a mile but the fog got slightly worse. Stupidly, we didn’t call the lock before departing and when we did, he said a northbound tug with barges was still in the lock waiting for the fog to lift before proceeding. So we turned around and went back to Bobby’s to wait it out. Randy cooked another of his fabulous breakfasts and finally we saw the barge go by and left again at 8:45. By 9:15 we had cleared the lock southbound and right now we are at Mile 100 on the waterway. With about six more hours of daylight, we should anchor tonight around 40 miles north of Mobile giving us about 50 miles or five hours to Dog River Marina tomorrow.
We suddenly have internet and phone service right now so I’ll post this one and get back to you at the end of of the day.
Reader Comments (1)
Even though I've been busy since leaving the boat in Chicago, it's impressive to watch the progress in your daily blogs. Steel Magnolia is a good boat, and I'm sure you'll have fun this winter "tweaking" her systems.
peter