Today started out with a 15 boat flotilla leaving Demopolis at 7 a.m. and locking through the Demopolis Lock. You have to feel for those lockmasters when there are so many boats...he got us all arranged and rafting off each other so that we could all go down on the first lock. A big thank you to Rick from Rascal's Retreat for organizing the effort. During the river ride I saw a branch ahead and made sure the captain saw it too. As he was maneuvering the boat the branch was moving with us and that's when we realized it was a snake! Well, I had just learned that if the snake carries his body on top of the water it is probably poisonous, if just its head is above then its not. This guy was definitely on top of the water, all 4 feet of him. OK, definitely not swimming in the river anymore! I did look it up online and found out that poisonous snakes fill there lungs with air while swimming and that is why they are on top of the water.
Today was a busy tow day, every time you turned around they were coming at you or you were going by them and we made it to Bashi Creek around 3:30 pm. We are anchored in 9 feet and the creek is about 80 feet wide. The depth is important as each boat drafts a different amount, for us we need 4 1/2 feet of water so that we do not hit bottom. By the end of the night we have 7 boats in this anchorage. There is a 3 boat raft, 2 boat raft (us and Porte Bonheur) and 2 singles. After chatting with our rafting neighbors its time for dinner. The rest of the flotilla continued on and went to Bobby's Fish Camp which will be our destination Thursday.
We left the anchorage early as we all pull away around 7 a.m.. This will be a short day to Bobby's Fish Camp, 26 miles. Normally we would like to go a little longer but the anchorages are few and far between in this section because of the severe draught (it hasn't rained in over 6 weeks). The river is exceptionally low not leaving enough water in most of the anchorages. Some opt to pull over on the side of the river but we like to duck into coves and bays. Bobby's has 150 feet of dock space, which will fit 3 or 4 boats depending on size and then you start rafting. We were lucky as we had 6 boats total, only 2 had to raft but everyone had power and with the heat that was a good thing. When we registered they told us there had been 12 boats the night before.
We enjoyed Bobby's, it's one of those places loopers like to stop as they have a restaurant on site that is one of the oldest restaurants in southwest Alabama. Known for their catfish, Mark and several other loopers tried it and said it was very good. I opted for shrimp.
When traveling with a group the consensus is usually to start out at first light and Friday morning was no different. The activity usually starts on the dock just after 6 a.m. as everyone starts getting the boats ready for travel. It helps if you are a morning person and it's really beneficial if you have a "good morning" disposition. Coffeeville Lock confirmed they would lock us down at 7 a.m., so off we were at 6:45 to go through the last lock on the river system. Coffeeville Lock is the last lock before Mobile and the waters below Coffeeville are tidal and brackish (mix of salt water and fresh water, not as salty as sea water but has some salty content). It's pretty exciting to know we are almost to the gulf!
"I saw a gator!" I felt like Elmer Fudd looking for wabbits except I have been on the look out for gators! On Friday I said to Mark as I was scanning the shore, sometimes I really can't tell if it's a gator or a log but look over there. He said "that's a gator" and with that the 5+ foot gator started moving. We were able to make a radio call to Porte Bonheur as they were right behind us before the gator went into the water. It was sooo cool!
After about 50+ miles today we decided to stop and anchor at 3 Rivers Lake along with Oceanus and Porte Bonheur, Sanctuary came in a few hours later. We settled in at the anchorage at what we thought was low tide. We had plenty of water, 12 feet but it did drop a little more. Great, great anchorage! With the low tide the egrets were hunting for fish just a few hundred yards away and the mullet fish were jumping. It was so entertaining and I just laughed and laughed at the fish. The anchorage was about a 1/2 mile down a narrow creek that opened up into a small lake. Really serene and peaceful!
We had already decided we would anchor just short of Mobile on Saturday to give us a short day Sunday to get into the marina. We were following Sanctuary, when he reminded us that he was docked behind us at the DuSable Marina in Chicago (beginning of rivers) and now some 1,425 miles later we are traveling together close to the end of the river system. Funny how you keep meeting up with the same people along the way. We stopped first at Big Bayou Canot and really liked the anchorage, but it was very narrow and there was a lot of fishing boat traffic so we decided to go to the Mobile/Tensas Cutoff. This is a nice wide area and the mullet fish are jumping again.
Sunday morning it will be the end of the rivers and on to Mobile Bay and then the Gulf.
October Stats Total Loop to date
Days looping 31 171
Travel days 16 100
Miles traveled 570 4,053
The flotilla headed to the lock
Locking down in Demopolis
Captain's Choice at Bashi Creek
Our view at Bashi Creek
The view a few hours later when more looper
friends showed up
The narrow channel at Bashi, this is Jo-Ella
This buoy has lost its way!
Enlarge the picture to see the alligator
My rendition of Bobby's Fish Camp
Dinner at Bobby's with Jo-Ella, Porte Bonheur
and Karine
Captain's Choice going down the river
What a great World Series that was! We were very happy for the cubs, too. Stay away from those gators!
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