Days 87 – 89

Norman Jean and the “triplets” left their slip at first light on Monday morning, 12/07/20, bound for Panama City Beach, FL, so we’d said our goodbyes to them the night before, with promises to hopefully catch back up with Luke and his wife later on, somewhere down in Florida. Wayne and Mitch both offered their services to crew for us aboard Legacy anytime we might need them. All we had to do was give them a call. We got up early ourselves on 12/07/20, and drove our rental car over to Fairhope, AL, for the day.

We had both heard good things about Fairhope from multiple people, so we were glad to have a pretty weather day to drive there for a visit.

We took the back roads from Orange Beach to Fairhope and I continued to be saddened by all the horrific Hurricane Sally damage that was still so prevalent all over the Alabama coast.  One of the things that shocked me the most were the large mountains of debris just piled up along roadways waiting to be hauled away to landfills (I assumed).  Still sitting there… almost three solid months later.  Multitudes of privacy fences were down, along with billboards and commercial signage, hundreds of roofs were covered with blue tarps, and temporary, make-shift building construction still awaited permanent completion.  Steve suggested that perhaps the cleanup delay was due to lack of manpower and equipment available to cover so many miles and miles of damage.  That, coupled with the inevitable delays caused by the Covid-19 restrictions, I’m sure.

After touring the marina in Fairhope and other coastal areas of town, we drove into downtown Fairhope, which could not have been more quaint and welcoming.  The weather was cold but beautiful, so we walked the shops and I exclaimed several times how much fun Fairhope would be for a girls’ weekend.  We settled on The Bone and Barrel for lunch, where the food and service were both great.  While we were eating, I noticed some unusual decorative trim applied to the walls of the restaurant, which upon closer inspection turned out to be old, painted cassette tape cartridges!  This technique was a decorating first for me and I thought it quite clever and resourceful.  (Steve wasn’t nearly as impressed with the trim as I was, but I’m the designer in our marriage, so what did he know?)

I drug Steve around Fairhope so I could visit several shops and take pictures for this blog.  We both mentioned that Fairhope might be a fun place to retire someday, when we move back onto land.  (I have a feeling that we’ll most likely come across many possible retirement towns as we do the loop!)

We drove around some of the historic neighborhoods in Fairhope where many beautiful old live oak trees laden with clumps of Spanish moss were still standing after Hurricane Sally.  (Live oaks are one of my favorite sights in coastal communities.)  After spending most of the day in Fairhope, we drove back to Orange Beach via Gulf Shores, AL.  The cool temperatures and time of year left the beaches almost completely empty, which I found simultaneously beautiful and sad.

On Tuesday, 12/08/20, I took the rental car and drove to Great Clips for a haircut and then to Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby to purchase Christmas crafting supplies for “Crafting with Gram” up in Conway with the grand-kids later in the week.  I had found a You-tube video on how to make gnomes that looked both easy and fun.  I knew our two grandsons, Brayden and Corbin, probably wouldn’t be interested in crafting, so I bought enough supplies for all four grand-daughters, two daughters and myself.  I love a good craft shopping fix! 

On Wednesday, 12/09/20, the weather warmed up and we were back in shorts and t-shirts.  I spent my birthday at the laundromat washing bedding and rugs while Steve ran errands in the rental car.  We packed for our next day drive to central Arkansas for early Christmas with the grand-kids and also to see my brother and my dad.  That evening, Steve and Kelly Brandt (on Spontaneity) rode with us to dinner at Acme Seafood, since we were leaving the following morning, and they would be gone back home to St. Louis for the holidays by the time we returned to Orange Beach. By by the time they returned from their home, we would’ve left The Wharf for the Florida panhandle.

Position: N 30° 17.699, W 87° 37.816

Marina Nights: 74

Days 85 – 86

Several weeks ago, I’d heard from one of our old Seabrook, TX, friends, Wayne Gaudet, that he and another one of our old friends, Mitch Karlson, were planning to crew aboard their friend’s Kadey Krogan 44 on a trip from Kemah, TX, to a marina in Bradenton, FL. Luke (the boat’s owner) would then have his wife fly to Bradenton to join him aboard Norman Jean for Christmas and then travel further south this winter, possibly over to the Bahamas. Wayne had promised to contact me along their journey, in hopes of us all meeting up somewhere. Things worked out so that Luke and his entourage would be stopping at The Wharf on Saturday, 12/05/20. Wayne called the morning of the 5th to let me know they hoped to arrive that afternoon, so we watched for them from our boat, as we had a perfect view of the ICW from where we were tied. That afternoon, Norman Jean and crew arrived at The Wharf, and we helped them slip their boat into their assigned transient space. It was great to see Wayne and Mitch again and to meet Luke. They came over to tour our boat and then Steve carried them around in our rental car so they could do some provisioning. That evening they invited us over to their boat for cocktails where we spent time reminiscing about our sailing days on Galveston Bay, where we’d all owned sailboats. Then we all walked up to Ginny Lane for dinner. Three of us had the Saturday night special, which was a delicious plate of shrimp and grits. After dinner The Wharf was playing their Christmas music and lighting their lasers, by which all three guys (I called them “the triplets”) were most enamored. They were so impressed that they all shot videos on their cell phones to send to their wives. The Wharf is definitely not your average marina! Wayne decided he needed ice cream for dessert, so we walked to the ice cream specialty shop for after dinner treats. Mitch and Wayne are still just as funny together as they’ve always been and kept us entertained with a story they told of an amorous Uber driver the three of them had encountered in New Orleans earlier that week. Wayne really enjoys taking Uber rides, and kept coming up with random reasons for us to call an Uber that night, even though we had a perfectly good rental car at our disposal. 🙂

On Sunday, the 6th, the triplets needed Steve to drive them around some more that morning, then Steve helped them over on their boat to update the operating system on Norman Jean’s chart-plotter. I took advantage of my alone time to take the rental car for a haircut at Great Clips and a shopping fix at Target. I finally found the Zygo Christmas cactus I’d been searching for at Publix and bought a planter for it at Old Time Pottery, which increased my onboard plant collection to five plants.

Position: N 30° 17.699, W 87° 37.816

Marina Nights: 71

Day 77 – 84

Friday, 11/27/20, through Friday, 12/04/20, was a week of boat chores. Steve spent multiple days trying to get our water-maker running again, and was finally successful after speaking with a technician with the manufacturer of the unit. Yea! We wanted to start making water once we’re out of the river systems and into the gulf. This unit purifies so well that the water we get through it will be better filtered than that we fill the tanks with from the marina taps. Plus, it can make up to 25 gallons per hour, so we shouldn’t run out! Since our internet access at The Wharf was so good, I spent a lot of time downloading pictures from my phone to our blog and trying to get caught up on the text.

On Sunday evening, 11/29/20, the already windy and rainy weather turned serious when Steve and I both received emergency weather alerts on our phones that a tornado warning had been issued for the exact county where Orange Beach and our marina was located! We looked at each other, then decided that staying aboard a boat probably wasn’t the safest place to be during severe weather. I grabbed my purse and we headed up to the boater’s lounge which is on the ground floor of a multi-story building. We turned the TV in the lounge to a local weather station and learned that rotation had been detected in Miflin, AL, which was about 15 miles northeast of our marina and was moving to the northeast, which was a good thing. About that time, another couple and their two large dogs joined us in the boater’s lounge, with the same intention that inside a building would be safer than aboard their boat. Kelly and Steve Brandt, aboard their trawler, Spontaneity, have a home in the St. Louis, MO, area but bring their boat south and stay on it for the winters. Steve has scaled back to just part-time work, but Kelly is still working full-time, so they always stay at marinas with dependable wifi access for that reason. They usually stay in the Sarasota, FL, area, but chose The Wharf for this year. Both of their dogs come with them on the boat, though Kelly admits they are not the most comfortable aboard, fearing the sound of the engine when underway, and being uneasy with the instability of the boat. We had seen Steve out early every morning, and multiple times throughout the day, walking the dogs along the maze of dock fingers in the marina to grassy areas so they could exercise and do their business. After about 45 minutes, the weather seemed to calm down outside and the cloud rotation had reportedly moved even further northeast of our area, so we went back to our respective boats with plans to meet up for dinner one evening to get better acquainted.

One day Steve Ubered to Great Clips for a haircut up in Foley, AL, just north of Orange Beach. The next day the weather was nice and relatively warm so I spent several hours walking all around The Wharf, discovering it had much more to offer than just the condos, shopping area, restaurants and marina. Also on the grounds is a large miniature golf course, zip-lining towers, and a giant outdoor amphitheater that looks like a small stadium. As I walked around, I saw even more evidence of Hurricane Sally and the havoc she’d wreaked on the area. Large, mature pine and oak trees had been either snapped completely off, or pushed all the way over with root balls still intact. Most of the grounds had been cleaned up/repaired, but some of the wooded areas still appeared devastated in places. I noticed that the large gates into the amphitheater were closed and chained shut with padlocks. At first I assumed it was closed due to hurricane damage awaiting repair, but then it dawned on me the place had probably been closed and chained up like that ever since last March, when Covid hit. 🙁 Seeing that large venue so completely empty and deserted was upsetting to me, especially when I realize this very thing has happened all over our country, causing so much loss and heartache.

When I arrived back to our boat, I smelled a strong, unpleasant odor before I even boarded Legacy. When I walked into the salon, that same odor almost knocked me down. GAG! I called out for Steve, who was down in the bilge underneath the galley working. Seems he had been making some adjustments to the valves in the forward head. Sadly, a Y-valve got turned the wrong way, which caused the holding tank to open and spill some of its contents right into the bilge! NOT GOOD! Steve had gotten the valve closed off, but was now in the process of cleaning the offending matter out of the bilge. I pushed the salon door completely open and then ran around the boat opening every window and hatch I could to help release the foul air from our boat. The temps were chilly outside, but that did not matter to me! Steve was grossed-out and embarrassed and went to jump in the shower once the mess was cleaned up. Disgusting!! (Incidentally, he now knows for certain how that valve needs to be turned from here on out…)

On 12/04/20, we enjoyed a late lunch at Marker 158, another nice restaurant located in The Wharf. I then called my dad for his 91st birthday and we talked for several hours, while Steve Ubered to pick-up our rental car – a Chevy Malibu this time.

Position: N 30° 17.699, W 87° 37.816

Marina Nights: 69

Day 74 – 76

Tuesday morning, 11/24/20, was clear and sunny with a forecast high of 71 degrees. We threw off the lines and cruised out of Turner Marina at 8 am, to cross Mobile Bay. The further we got into the bay, the more our scenery increased. I kept my eyes peeled for dolphins surfing our bow wake, but they proved to be illusive. Instead, we saw fishing boats, water fowl perched on channel markers, tows with barges, huge container ships, a light house that looked just like a house on stilts, natural gas rigs, not to mention a bazillion sea gulls, cormorants and pelicans.

Finally, at 10:45 am, we spotted our first dolphins playing in the waters ahead of us! Unfortunately, they were too far away for me to get any decent pictures, nor did they surf our bow wake as I’d hoped. I had my camera ready for that, but no such luck. When we started out, the waves were about 1 to 2 feet and the eastern winds were at 5 to 10 knots. That made the ride a bit bumpy since the wind was hitting our port side for a good part of the trip. We had the stabilizers on, so we had no side-to-side rolling, thank goodness. Still, just to be safe, I took a Dramamine tablet that morning. Once we made our turn to the east, we were cruising directly into the wind, which made for a much smoother ride, but also made for strong, chilly gusts coming straight into the flybridge at us. We closed the isinglass windows post-haste. This was our first time to have Legacy in saltwater! Well, brackish water, really, as the bay is where fresh water and ocean water meet. Still, whenever I went below and grabbed the teak railing to steady myself, I could feel the salt accumulating on it. Salt life! 🙂

After entering Bon Secour Bay from Mobile Bay, we arrived at the beginning of our first foray on the ICW (intracoastal waterway) at the mouth of the Bon Secour River, just west of Oyster Bay. This narrow and calm waterway was a welcome sight after bouncing around out in the bay for the past 3 hours.

The farther into the ICW we cruised, we began to see some of our first damage from Hurricane Sally, which pounded this area back in mid-September of 2020. Many riverside homes were still sporting bright blue or white tarps on their roofs, and several homes had dumpsters sitting out in front of them for the repairs underway.

About two hours into the ICW, we reached the LuLu’s location in Gulf Shores, AL, right there on the ICW. (LuLu Buffett is Jimmy Buffett’s sister. She has multiple restaurant locations in the southeastern U.S.) We had heard and read that we should stop at LuLu’s, if at all possible, and since we arrived during the lunch hour, we did just that. Steve checked with the restaurant to make sure it was okay for us to tie-up to the dock pilings right there on the water. As Steve slowly moved the boat toward the dock, I realized the dockside decks of the restaurant were filled with patrons, which meant I had a nice, big audience to watch me attempt to wrap our bow and stern lines around the large, round pilings. I’m used to “lasso-ing” dock cleats with the loop-end of our lines, but had no clue what to do with these giant pilings. Of course, my attempts to get the bow line secured were both comical and futile, as the crowd looked on. Ugh! Fortunately, Steve so excellently piloted the boat right up to the dock, I was eventually able to get my arms (and the line) around the piling without falling overboard or filling the skin on my arms with splinters from the wooden piling. The stern line was much easier to secure, thanks to Steve having the boat pulled up right next to the dock. We jumped down from the boat and walked inside the restaurant from the back. Sunshine and balmy temperatures made me remember how very close to the beach we were, which was exciting. We’d read some less-than-brilliant reviews about this particular Lulu’s location, so steeled ourselves to be ready. Sure enough, there were obviously way too many patrons for the scant number of staff that was trying to serve them. We opted to eat in the bar area, to avoid the 30-minute wait for a restaurant table, but ended up sitting and waiting for quite some time before the poor, bedraggled bartender was able to toss some menus in our direction. She apologized repeatedly for the wait and I felt sorry for her. She was trying to tend bar and serve the entire bar area all by herself. Still, the food and the atmosphere was enjoyable. After almost two hours, we jumped back aboard Legacy, I untied her without too much embarrassment, and we continued eastward on the ICW.

Farther eastward down the ICW from LuLu’s is The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach, AL, where we arrived around 2:45 that afternoon. Steve hailed the marina on the radio to find-out where they wanted us to tie up Legacy for her stay. The Wharf is filled more than usual right now with displaced boats from nearby marinas that were damaged or destroyed in this year’s multiple hurricanes, so not many transient slips are available. We were directed to tie-up inside the marina, but at the end of a T-dock, which was fine with us. After the boat was tied securely and plugged into electricity, we walked up to the office to check-in, and got our first glimpse of the impressive Wharf complex and all it has to offer. Two levels of shops, bars, restaurants line both sides of the palm-tree lined main drive down the center of the complex. Everything is decorated for Christmas and a nightly musical and laser light show entertains guests. We ate dinner that night at Villagio, which was delicious, and I made plans for which shops I was going to visit the following day. We had read and heard many good things about The Wharf and were not disappointed. We were given our own key-card to the Boater’s Lounge next door to the marina office. This lounge is by far the nicest one we’ve seen so far. Very clean, posh and welcoming. Full restroom facilities, along with a coin laundromat are off the lounge’s living area with nautical decor, sofa and club chairs which are complemented by a huge flat-screen TV with cable and internet connectivity. Speaking of internet, we have wonderful wifi access at The Wharf, which is both delightful and uncommon.

Wednesday, 11/25/20, was cloudy but WARM. Steve and I both spent the day in shorts and t-shirts. While Steve worked on the water-maker, I walked around The Wharf visiting the different shops. While we approached The Wharf, KC and Scott Calkin, aboard Jetstream, followed our journey on Nebo. KC invited us to join them for Thanksgiving Dinner at Ginny Lane, which is another great restaurant at The Wharf. KC and Scott are former Loopers who now live aboard their boat at The Wharf. They have been here for the past two years and love it. Their boat name, Jetstream, comes from Scott’s earlier career of piloting for American Airlines.

The Calkins’ invitation to join them for Thanksgiving Dinner was a welcome one, since we had no family or friends with us this year. Over delicious food and drink from Ginny Lane, KC and Scott told us stories of their looping days and all the friends they made during their travels. We are looking forward to meeting up with lots of other Loopers and experiencing the camaraderie we’ve heard so much about.

Position: N 30° 17.699, W 87° 37.816

Distance traveled:  42.2 NM

Total distance traveled: 1450.1 NM

Total marina nights: 61

Total nights at anchor: 15

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 71 – 73

Turner Marina normally has a courtesy vehicle available for its transient boaters, but unfortunately it was flooded in one of the previous hurricanes to roar through the area, so we had to rent a car for our errands and provisioning runs. Steve called Uber for a ride to Mobile Airport, where Hertz is located, then drove our rental (a Chevy Equinox) back to the marina. While Steve worked on getting the water-maker back up and running, I drove the rental to a CVS to pickup our prescriptions. I used Google Maps to get me where I needed to go, which took me through a rather sketchy part of town, but ultimately to the right place. I returned to the boat to work on some crafting projects while Steve continued down underneath the cockpit with the water maker. A fresh water-maker is a wonderful thing to have onboard when its working, but when it’s not it can be rather frustrating and high-maintenance. But Steve soldiered on.

Sunday, 11/22/20, was a great day. The weather was warm and sunny when we drove the rental car to West Marine, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Michael’s, Dollar Tree, and finally to BJ’s Microbrewery for lunch. I couldn’t believe my good luck when I found the perfect-sized container of Mosquito Bits at Home Depot, which are used to control fungus gnats in the soil of potted plants. I’d been wanting this product for weeks and weeks, since I had a problem with gnats in my beloved house (boat) plants. After searching fruitlessly at multiple Walmarts and Home Depots in town after town as we traveled, I’d finally decided to order the Mosquito Bits from Amazon and have it shipped to the boat. But moving around so often proves to be a logistical nightmare when trying to determine where to have online orders shipped, especially when back-orders are concerned. So I felt this was truly my lucky day when I actually happened upon the holy grail of gnat-control! It even inspired me to buy another plant, so that my boat-plant count has now increased to a total of four. 🙂 That night we ate a delicious Mexican dinner at Azteca’s Restaurant and Cantina.

Early on Monday, 11/23/20, Steve drove the rental car into town to find a specific O-ring he needed for the water-maker. When he returned, I drove the rental car to Publix for a grocery restock, while Steve stayed on the boat as Turner’s technicians repaired and centered our port side stabilizer that had broken several weeks back when we were fighting the strong current on the Tennessee River at Volunteer Landing. We’re learning that stabilizers are rather fragile and can be drama queens. In fact, Steve has read that “once you’ve owned a boat with stabilizers, you will never own another one.” Once I’d unloaded my grocery haul, I drove the rental car back to Hertz at the airport and rode back to the marina with a nice, but chatty Uber driver.

Position: N 30° 33.973, W 88° 05.358

Total marina nights: 58

Total nights at anchor: 15

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 70

Apparently our stern anchor did not hold, because when Steve looked outside the next morning, he saw that Legacy had turned 90-degrees from where she was the night before, and was now floating crosswise in the channel! We really lucked-out that we didn’t run aground, thankfully. With Lucky Lucky a few minutes ahead of us, we raised the anchors, started up the engines and got the heck out of that anchorage before we DID run aground.

Farther down the river we passed the mouths of the Alabama and the Tennessaw Rivers, where they joined the Black Warrior/Tombigbee Waterway. The closer we got to the Mobile River, Mobile Harbor, and eventually Mobile Bay, the more industry popped into view.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather coming into Mobile Bay. I ran all around Legacy’s deck, clicking picture after picture of all the sights along the Mobile River and entering Mobile Harbor, while Steve maneuvered through the increasingly crowded waterway that was rapidly filling up with working tow-boats. We cruised Legacy right over the I-10 Mobile Bay tunnel that we’d driven through annually to and from Navarre Beach for decades.

Steve had called ahead to Dog River Marina, advising them we would need service and a transient slip for several nights. The woman he spoke to told him she’d send word to the fuel dock to hold a slip for us and would ask the service department to call him back for details. We never heard back from the service department, but blamed that on the spotty Verizon cell coverage coming down the Tombigbee. We had to travel down the starboard side of Mobile Bay to the entrance into Dog River. When we pulled up to the fuel docks, no one was outside to catch our lines when we arrived, and there were only pilings for me to tie the lines around, rather than dock cleats for me to lasso with the loop-end of the bow and stern lines. Steve brought Legacy right up against the dock, before a very slow-moving man finally approached us from the office. He was far from the friendliest harbor master, who – when I handed him the bow line and asked him how he was – grunted “I’m here.” He then proceeded to move so slowly that Steve and I ended up performing our own pump-out and pumping our own fuel. When Steve asked him for the location of our transient slip, he informed us that “no one had told him about our reservation” and that the only slip he had left had no power on it. Having never heard back from Dog River’s service department, Steve promptly called Turner Marina next door to Dog River to see if they had a transient slip available with power and if their service department could possibly repair our port stabilizer while we were there. We had read some less than stellar reviews posted on Facebook about Dog River Marina, but found out in person that they are not all that interested in attracting new clients or even providing marginal customer service. Our experience prompted Steve to post his own review on The Great Loop FB page, which quickly received concurring comments. It’s really a shame that Dog River Marina has gone so far down hill, especially since they are longtime AGLCA sponsors. Turner provided us with a place, which Steve expertly reversed into. We got our first experience tying up to fixed docks at Turner, which meant even though I’d hung our fenders out on the port side of the boat, their height had been previously adjusted for the floating docks we’d encountered along the river systems, so they dangled uselessly (and ridiculously) far beneath the fixed docks that are common on the bay. Once the engines were off, Steve jumped onto the dock and readjusted the fender heights so that they weren’t so worthless at this tie-up, then he wrapped our lines securely around the pilings.

That night we walked over to the nearby Mobile Yacht Club for dinner, then came back to the boat early. This had been one long and busy day. But we had accomplished another milestone – we’d made it to Mobile Bay!

Position tonight: N 30° 33.973, W 88° 05.358

Distance traveled:  69.8 NM

Total distance traveled: 1407.9 NM

Day 69

Thursday morning, 11/19/20, dawned foggy. We had planned with Lucky Lucky, the night before, to leave at first light (6 AM) to proceed together for the Coffeeville lock, but fog kept us right where we were for another hour or so. The Coffeeville Lock was the last lock on the TennTombigbee/Black Warrior Tombigbee waterways, which was just fine with Gilligan! (Steve edit: the Coffeeville lock is the last lock we will traverse until late spring, early summer, when we head up the Hudson River in New York). This was another long travel day, following Lucky Lucky again to the next anchorage, which was Three Rivers.

That evening, when we reached the entrance to the Three Rivers anchorage, Legacy somehow ended up in front of Lucky Lucky, so that we were the “guinea pig boat”, going in first to check out water depths to make sure both of our boats could get in without running aground. We slowly followed the narrow and winding, tree-shrouded entrance and found plenty of depth (7-feet or so), until we reached the point where the anchorage opened back up and fanned-out widely. But just as we reached that point, the water depth suddenly and sharply rose to between 2 and 1 feet beneath our keel! Steve put Legacy into reverse and we came back into the channel a ways to regain depth where we dropped anchor. Because he knew the Three Rivers anchorage would be narrower than our previous anchorages, Steve had already assembled our stern anchor, which (together with the bow anchor) helped the boat to remain floating in one linear direction once he dropped it into the water from the stern, rather than allowing the boat to swing around in a circle overnight, if pushed by wind or current. Assured that they had enough depth, Lucky Lucky anchored about 50 yards back from us in the same narrow channel. We settled in for the night, ate dinner, and were watching another episode of Fortitude on Amazon Prime, when Steve noticed the depth under our keel (which he monitored by watching the depth gauge over the salon helm) was noticeably lessening. Three Rivers anchorage was the first place we encountered the affects of tidal waters, since we were now floating between the last Tombigbee lock and the ocean! The tide was supposed to be coming up about a foot through the evening, which should’ve increased the amount of depth between us and the bottom, rather than reduce it. This didn’t sit well with Steve, so he decided to pull the stern anchor, move the boat slightly, and then re-drop the stern anchor in deeper water. We put on our headsets and I went up to the flybridge helm to run the engines per Steve’s direction to get the boat where he wanted it to be. The only downside to this plan was that it was after 8:30 pm and pitch-dark outside! D’OH! While Steve worked from the stern of the boat, we turned on the spotlight at the front of the boat for my visibility, but it had fogged-up outside, which meant the spotlight was of no use to see the bank across the river to help keep the boat straight. Being in the back, away from the bright light, Steve was able to see the bank, so while he moved the stern anchor he had to tell me which direction to move the bow and stern-thrusters to keep us off of the bank. I watched the depth gauge as we inched along, and called out the depth over the headset to Steve. Finally, after what seemed like several tense and dark hours, we had gained about 5 feet of depth and now showed 6-feet on the gauge, rather than the earlier 1-foot. Steve felt more comfortable with this new depth, so he re-dropped the stern anchor, I shut off the engines, and we went back inside for the night.

Position: N 31° 17.332, W 87° 58.060

Distance traveled:  54.7 NM

Total distance traveled: 1338.1 NM

Total marina nights: 54

Total nights at anchor: 15

Locks today: 1

Locks Total:  27

Day 68

After leaving the Kingfisher Marina, five boats went through the Demopolis Lock together, as planned the evening before: Honalee, Lucky Lucky, Legacy, Shift and Cool Change. It was early and COLD outside, so I wore my gigantic, navy blue puffy coat (which reminds me very much, when I’m wearing it, of the poor younger brother on The Christmas Story after his mother bundles him up so much for the winter weather, that he can barely move) while we traversed the lock and on later into the morning, when the sun finally heated things up. When we exited the lock, several boats that traveled much faster than Legacy took off first, but Lucky Lucky and Legacy ran together at pretty much the same pace all of that day.

One of the participants in the captain’s meeting that Steve attended the evening before mentioned he had seen an alligator on the river bank coming down river earlier that day. Steve and I kept our eyes peeled for gators all day long, but never saw a single one. The river banks had even started to flatten out and extend out into the river, creating what I referred to as perfect little “Gator Beaches”. With the cool crispness of the fall air and the bright sunshine beaming down, they appeared the optimum places for alligators to crawl out of the water and sun themselves.

We cruised a total of 92 miles on the 18th! With our early morning start, and little to no delays going through the lock, we made great time. In fact, when we arrived at our planned anchorage for that night, Bashi Creek, it was still way too early in the day to stop. Lucky Lucky was going on farther before stopping for the night, so we decided to follow their lead and cruise farther to the Okatuppa Anchorage, near Okatuppa, AL. Lucky Lucky had originally planned to tie-up further south at Bobby’s Fish Camp, but soon returned to Okatuppa with us, as Bobby’s was already full of smaller boats. Even though Bobby’s was once an icon on the Great Loop, terrible flooding over the past few years, along with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 restrictions, wound up closing down the restaurant at Bobby’s (the most famous part) forever. Loopers can still tie-up to their small dock, but there is no 50-amp power (what Legacy requires), plus it costs $1.50/foot/night to tie-up. If the first boaters agreed, it was possible for additional boats to raft-up along side the boats already tied-up, but the rafting-up boats would be charged the same $1.50/foot/night, which didn’t sound like the best deal to us, and is why we opted for the Okatuppa anchorage as an alternative. Obviously, Lucky Lucky agreed, because they dropped anchor about 100 yards north of us at Okatuppa for the night. Another boat named Filthy, that had traveled with us earlier that day, also decided to anchor in Okatuppa that night.

Position: N 31° 49.503, W 88° 10.329

Distance traveled:  79.9 NM

Total distance traveled: 1283.4 NM

Total marina nights: 54

Total nights at anchor: 14

Locks today: 1

Locks Total:  26

Day 66 – 67

Early on Monday morning, 11/16/20, it was a nippy 34 degrees in our anchorage, and Steve warned me to tread carefully on the deck, in case some frost had formed on it. NOT what we signed up for! Given those temps, I also took extra care not to soak myself again that morning while pulling anchor.

The sun was out big time, which warmed up the flybridge quickly. I shed some layers and Steve changed out of his jeans into shorts and t-shirt. As we continued our winding route south toward Demopolis, AL, we passed the well-known White Cliffs of Epes near mile marker 248, formed completely from limestone deposits. They were really pretty and an abrupt, but welcome change of scenery.

Further along in the day, Steve was watching his AIS receiver and spied a tow and barge coming in our direction, downriver from us. He also noticed that the river between us and the oncoming barge was extremely winding, with several hairpin curves. We’d learned enough to know that a hairpin curve is not the best place to meet a barge, as the barge has to swing wide around corners, which tends to eat up the entire channel, leaving no room for a small pleasure craft, trying to share space on the river., Since the barge was still several miles ahead of us, Steve slowed Legacy’s speed in hopes that the barge would clear the hairpins before we met it. This greatly reduced our progress, but that was fine, considering the alternative. About 30 minutes into our slower speed, we heard from the towboat captain of that barge on Channel 16. He was watching us on his AIS, too, and realized we had slowed our speed because of him. With AIS, the oncoming vessel is also able to see our boat’s name and specifics we are transmitting out, long before we are physically visible on the water. He hailed us to let us know his rig was a smaller barge, so there was no need for us to slow down, as the river was plenty wide enough for both of our vessels to pass each other, hairpin curves or not. So we sped back up and met the barge a few turns later. We’d heard that towboat captains (and lock masters) could sometimes be a bit impatient with – or not readily speak to – pleasure crafts, but our experience along the entire Tennessee River and the TennTombigbee has been quite the opposite. The lock masters and tug captains have been very patient and helpful, and our interaction with them could not have been more pleasant.

Before we reached Demopolis, we passed the point where the Black Warrior River meets the Tombigbee River, which officially changes the river’s name from the TennTombigbee Waterway to the Black Warrior Tombigbee Waterway all the rest of the way to where it meets the Mobile River and then Mobile Bay, though we’ve noticed that it’s common for Loopers to refer to both stretches as the “TennTom”. We arrived at Demopolis Basin, where we fueled-up. The waters were quite shallow approaching the fuel docks, since this marina is silting up, too. They directed us next door to the Kingfisher Marina for pump-out and transient slip rental, where Steve had already made us reservations.

When we pulled into our slip at Kingfisher, we discovered three familiar boats were already there. Pearl, who we’d met back at Goose Pond Colony Resort on the Tennessee River, Cavu, which was the boat we shared an anchorage with up at the TennTom Oxbow, and Lucky Lucky, who we’d met way back at Green Turtle Bay Marina this past summer. We’ve heard and read that boaters will meet up with each other again and again doing the loop, and this was our second experience with that. Monday evening, 11/16/20, the Conways invited us to join them up in their flybridge for docktails, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The four of us told embarrassing boating stories on ourselves and laughed and laughed. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time – it felt wonderful!

On Tuesday, 11/17/20, we cleaned the boat and then used the Kingfisher courtesy van to drive into Demopolis for provisioning and errands. We ate lunch in town and that afternoon, back at the marina office, Steve attended his first Captain’s Meeting at 4:00 pm in the marina office. This is a meeting of the various transient captains that are planning to leave the following morning. Boats try to coordinate and leave at the same time, so they can all go through the upcoming locks at the same time, which speeds up everyone’s trip. Apparently, Captain’s Meetings are common all along the loop and Steve agreed that they are helpful. I didn’t attend this meeting, and wasn’t overly-thrilled with the fact that Steve attending it moved up our planned leave-out time by an hour from 7 am to 6 am, so we could run with the group. Ugh!

Position: N 32° 31.863, W 87° 50.485

Distance traveled:  42.7 NM

Total distance traveled: 1203.5 NM

Total marina nights: 54

Total nights at anchor: 13

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  25

Day 65

A cold front was forecasted to come through our current location on Sunday morning, 11/15/20, which we’d hoped would blow through early so we could get in a long day of travel. Unfortunately, that wasn’t Mother Nature’s plan. We sat at Pickensville and watched a line of storms approaching slowly via radar. After more than an hour of waiting, the skies to the northwest darkened and looked threatening. But while the air definitely turned cooler and the wind picked up, the “storms” turned out to be almost non-existent. We inadvertently made our trip line too short, which meant the weight of the anchor pulled the plastic milk bottle underneath the surface of the water, which pretty much defeated its entire purpose, but we learn as we go. D’OH! Even though I’d again dressed in layers, the strong, biting wind made my anchor wash-down duty even less enticing. And even though we had replaced the unruly hose nozzle since the last time it drenched me, the bow of the boat was pointing straight into the brisk northwest wind, which meant the cold river water I was spraying immediately blew back all over me. AGAIN I got doused. Ugh! On top of that, even though the anchor did not get hung on the bottom, it did come up encased in a gigantic ball of hard clay that was impossible to wash off with the hose, which meant I’d gotten soaked for no reason! We lowered the filthy anchor back down to just below the surface of the water while we motored out of the anchorage, in hopes the inertia from the moving boat would wash the anchor clean, but that clay was like cement and just would not budge. The windlass yanked the anchor back up into place, which meant any loose clods of clay came slinging back into my face. (Have I mentioned I am NOT fond of the anchor raising/wash-down process?) Because we were already so close to the Tom Bevill Lock, I didn’t have time to go below and change, so I got to traverse that lock wet. Sheer Heaven!

The weather all morning was cloudy, cold and gloomy. On top of that, the scenery in this part of the Tombigbee was less than spectacular, with little more to see than water and trees, or trees and water. But by the afternoon, the sun came out and the air was clear and crisp. We started noticing the fronds of Palmetto palms growing along both sides of the river. Palmettos are another sure sign we were nearing the southern coastline.

We reached the Tombigbee Oxbow anchorage right after we successfully traversed the Heflin Lock, at 2 pm. After we wound around into the wider part of the anchorage, we saw another boat, Cavu, had already anchored there. I felt bad about intruding on their privacy, but Steve insisted the anchorage was easily large enough to accommodate two boats. I still lobbied hard for separation between our two boats before Steve dropped the anchor.

Position: N 32° 49.871, W 88° 08.672

Distance traveled:  37.2 NM

Total distance traveled: 1160.8 NM

Total marina nights: 52

Total nights at anchor: 13

Locks today: 2

Locks Total:  25