Demopolis, Alabama

Day 189 … Thurs, Oct 26, 2017 … 55.5 miles; 7 hours; 1 Lock

Sumpter Rec Area to Foscue Creek, Demopolis, AL

The setting of the anchorage last night, Sumpter, was pretty!

Coffee, breakfast, walk Cally and call the lockmaster for their status to lock us & Soulstice down. We are about 30 mins from the lock. Another hurry up & get here or wait for a tow to lock through first.

Both boats scrambled quick & easily.

The lock was almost ready for us when we arrived. We only waited about 10 mins. We were locked down and out of the lock by 9am!

This is how Cally spends her time when we are in a lock! Ha, she has the easy part!

Lock doors open for us …

Leaving the last lock (10) of the Tenn-Tom River.

Sights along the way today …

Here, Soulstice takes the lead and heads on faster to a different anchorage than us. I am sure we will see them again further south.

These white cliffs are located on the Tombigbee River at Epes, AL. They are part of the Selma Chalk formations which were deposited at about the same time as England’s famous White Cliffs of Dover. According to:

http://www.ruralswalabama.org/attraction/the-white-cliffs-of-epes-al/

Twice we saw a pair of Eagles … once in flight and out of sight; the other I noticed just as they were getting ready to land in a tree top.

I have heard alot about the beautiful fall foliage along the inland rivers … well, not so much this year. Or, at least not, yet?

Below is one of the few examples of fall color. I can count on one hand the pops of red I have seen as we have traveled. Mostly it is lots of green with dying, yellow, brown leafed trees.

We only passed one tow today. He (the Captain of MV Miss Lillie) never answered the VHF to confirm passing instructions. We hate when they don’t answer; luckily it is rare.

Our anchorage tonight is at Foscue Creek, just a half mile from the next lock. We are now on the Black Warrior/Tombigbee River; there are 2 locks between here and Mobile Bay. After the 2nd lock … NO MORE LOCKS, until we cross Florida. And, that won’t be until after New Years – so NEXT YEAR!!

This creek has a Coast Guard Station and a USACE facility; we anchored passed them … just in case they had to make a run out tonight. There is a park (with trash cans!!) and a boat ramp. We took Cally to shore at the park twice today. Tomorrow we will try the boat ramp beside the coast guard station. It looks like it has much nicer grass for Cally to play.

Sumpter Recreation Area Anchorage, Alabama

Day 188 … Wed, Oct 25, 2017 … 28.44 miles, 1 lock & 3:40 hours
Pickensville Anchorage, AL to Sumpter Recreation Area Anchorage, AL
After coffee, breakfast for us and a trip to shore for Cally, it was time to call the lock master. He recommended getting there sooner rather than later as he knew 2 tows were headed his way. We needed either go NOW, or potentially wait a couple hours for those 2 to lock down and then us. So? Off the 3 boats, Longer Days (a young couple with 2 small kids) & fellow Loopers on Soulstice, went.

I CANNOT image cruising, much less locking, with little ones onboard. They even had baked cinnamon rolls this morning and offered one (some?) to the lockmaster. Boy, was he happy.

No problem, the lock was ready (green light & open doors) for us. That is the nice thing about anchoring by the lock you will transit the next morning … timing is much easier.
Sights along the way …

Looks nice out, right? Well, it was a great day to travel. Sun was out, no clouds, calm water and COOL. We woke to 40 degrees out; Rip turned on the diesel heat to take the chill out of the boat.

Soulstice came into the same anchorage as us tonight. Longer Days kept going. After shore dooty & showers, it was time for docktails on Soulstice, a Canadian flagged PDQ Catamaran. Don & Lesli are a fun couple. Rip & Don knew alot of the same sailing guys from Annapolis; Don spent many a night at Rip’s Dad’s bar, Marmadukes, in Annapolis when racing in Annapolis. Lesli is very talented. Among other things she whittles  (while they travel down the river) small pieces of wood into figures. I wish I had taken a picture. And, the cheese puffs she baked were amazing!

We are right off the river … see the red & green buoys marking the entrance where the Tug & Barge are passing!!!

Tonight’s anchorage is a small bay with a park and boat ramp. Trash cans, too!

Tomorrow is the last lock of the Tenn-Tom. Then, we will be on the Black Warrior/Tombigbee River to Mobile. 2 more locks on that river, then we will be back in tidal water. We have not been in tidal water since we left the Hudson at the Erie Canal back in early June.

Pickensville Anchorage

Day 187 … Tues, Oct 24, 2017 … 28.4 miles; 3:40 hours; 1 Lock

It was great fun seeing Firestorm, Gypsies Palace, One Eye Dog, Shell Belle, Thisle and Unruly again last night. They, plus a couple Loopers new to us, came into the marina yesterday mid afternoon. Most are leaving this morning; but a good chance to catch up with everyone. All the dogs got a chance to play together too, it’s been a while.

Once underway, GP, OED & Firestorm will travel faster and further than us … we will lose touch with them again until we get to Orange Beach, AL. 7 more days and we should be there … weather dependent of course.

One group of boat left the marina for the first lock early, about 7 am. Our group of OED, GP & Firestorm entered the lock about 8:30am.

Once out of the lock, OED, GP & Firestorm headed off into the sun.

Our anchorage tonight is only 2 miles above the next lock. Our 3 buddy boats went on through that lock and anchored south of us. Soulstice, a PDQ power catamaran that had anchored (below our first lock) in an oxbow that winds along downtown Columbus (this route is not used by tugs), caught up to us not far out of the first lock this morning and followed our slow cruise to the anchorage.

There are actually 5 or 6 docks that access the park. Lots of space for Cally to walk and play. There is a beach at one end, but too chilly for us to let her swim … we’d have to wait outside with her for hours to dry enough to come inside.

On our way back from the first shore dooty run, we stopped by to chat with Don & Lesli. We also coordinated heading out to the lock together in the am.

The more boats, the faster you get locked through. Lock masters like to have as many pleasure boats as possible go through at the same time. They will wait for boats that are a couple miles out so they don’t have to raise and lower the water twice. We should be the only two in the area tomorrow morning. So, if no commercial traffic, we will be good to go. If commercial tows are up or down bound and near … we will be held to wait for them to pass through first.

 Rip picked another great anchorage for us … wonder what tomorrow’s anchorage will be like??

On to Columbus Marina (Columbus, MS) for a week to relax

Day 180 … Tues, Oct 17, 2017 … 24 miles; 3:20 hours

Blue Bluff Anchorage to Columbus Marina

It’s been 180 days or 6 months on the boat full time. WOW, not sure where the time has gone. Doesn’t seem like that long.

Today is a relatively short day, only 1 lock and it is right by the anchorage. the 3 boats plan to pull anchor around 8:30 if the lock is ready for us. One quick call and the lock says come on over. HOWEVER, we get there and wait & wait & wait. The doors are open, but the RED light is lit. Lock doesn’t answer calls to them on VHF. Finally they call us in. I guess it wasn’t a long wait, maybe 15 mins, but when the doors are open and no one answers … it seems like forever.

Sights along the way today …

Days 181-186 … Wed-Mon, Oct 18-23, 2017

A Week at Columbus Marina / 00 miles

Traveling every day and anchoring out is fun, but tiring and leaves no time for chores. It’s travel, anchor & get the boat set, get Cally to shore, dinner, get Cally to shore again, sleep. SO … we are staying a week to get chores done without rushing and going to enjoy a little down time in-between chores.

My phone was not keeping a signal (cell or data) when Rip’s phone was (both Android, Samsung; but, Rip’s is newer model). One of the first priorities was to get a new phone for me and have time to get it set up and running correctly before we moved on the water again. This time, I stepped to the dark side and got an iPhone!!! I love my iPad; time for an iPhone.

Otherwise, we will do the normal marina stuff again – laundry, groceries, Rip cleaning and fine tuning our route (with plan A, B & C, etc.) for our next travel segment.