Category: Racine to Parts South

(10/20-22/2016)

With fine weather we left Midway Marina in Fulton, MS and pushed on south.  We were starting to feel some urgency. In our minds, Mobile, AL was our river destination. In Mobile we would start a new trip… with masts… as a sailboat… in saltwater!

It was an uneventful day and we spent the night anchored off the Blue Bluff Campground near Aberdeen, MS. We were able to take a nice walk through the campground and chatted with other boaters as well as campers.

We had another beautiful sunset, and slept to the sounds of owls and coyotes in the distance.

In the morning we were eager to move along and got an early start.

We had a nice view of the Tom Bevill dam from inside the lock. Otherwise it was another peaceful day of churning our way down the Tombigbee.

We spent the night anchored in an ox bow off the Tombigbee.

The next morning we were met with very low river fog. It was interesting to watch the tiny vortexes form and break apart as we headed out for the day.

Of course the sun quickly took over and the wisps of fog were gone. It was a beautiful day to see the white cliffs near Epes, AL. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we weren’t disappointed.

If you click to see this picture enlarged, you can see a couple fishermen to give you a sense of the scale of these majestic white cliffs.

The cliffs have some mysterious features, and we’d love to learn the full history. They continue for five miles or so. What a beautiful area to cruise through in a slow boat!

You can see the fall colors just starting to pop out. This far south I don’t know if they get much more, but it seemed about perfect to us.

We kept humming along, making miles before nightfall. We had a very tricky refueling stop due to a large tug blocking most of a narrow entrance, but we made a plan and the plan worked. We docked for the night at Demopolis Yacht Basin where cruising boaters have a nightly meeting to discuss the state of the river ahead. This is the last marina before Mobile, AL 200+ miles away.

Previous: Tupelo, MS

Next: Mobile, AL

 

(10/23-25/2016)

That sense of urgency we were feeling after Fulton, MS was kicking into high gear now.  After Demopolis we were leaving the Tombigbee to join the Black Warrior River, the final river on our trip.

Leaving Demopolis Yacht Basin we started seeing alligators. Lots of alligators! They seemed to be everywhere, just enjoying the warm sunshine. This is pretty exciting stuff for a couple of yankees on a mastless sailboat!

We passed the remains of the US 80 (Rooster) bridge, where the tugboat Cahaba was caught by the current and capsized while being swept under the bridge in 1979. Miraculously there were no major injuries, but I suspect everyone needed clean underwear.

Thanks to advice we received from locals in Demopolis we spent a peaceful night anchored in the mouth of Bashi Creek.

Pressing on the next morning, the excitement of the day was going through our LAST lock, Coffeeville. After all the locks we’d been through, or in some cases over, this was a big milestone. From this point forward tides would begin to effect the water, and it would get increasingly salty as we moved south.

We anchored for the night in the Alabama River Cutoff, just over 50 miles from the Black Warrior River’s mouth.

Our destination for the day is Mobile, AL! In fact we were both focused on being at Turner Marine by nightfall. As we approached Mobile Bay we encountered a lot of tugs and ships.

This is a very busy port, with international shipping, Naval yards, tugs going in every direction, and that’s before you get to the bay! We had definitely become the small fish in a big pond.

Once we got into Mobile Bay things settled down a bit. Not due to fewer ships, but much more room. We were off the channel the big guys use, so it was pretty peaceful. Dolphins welcomed us to the saltwater as we chugged along to our destination. What could be better?

We wound our way through a long narrow channel that was deep enough for us and finally reached Turner Marine. At first they were putting us on a dock with no finger pier, but with our dinghy on the back of the boat, and a tall bow pulpit at the front, this just wasn’t going to work for us. After a bit of “negotiating” they directed us to a side tie area.

Although we somehow beat our masts there by a few days, we eventually became a sailboat again. We stayed here a bit to rest,  see the sights, take a trip to New Orleans by car and watch the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.

Previous: Demopolis, AL