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Published: November 23rd 2010
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Sara on her birthday
with freshly cut and dyed hair 19 November, 2010
We spent a productive day working on the boat and ourselves. Sara and I gave each other haircuts and then Sara re-dyed her hair blue. Kerry and Sara got the new transducer installed and we now have a depth finder. Wonderful!
Yesterday afternoon we got the marina courtesy car and went to Walmart to reprovision. We were down to canned goods and not great ones at that. On the way we stopped for hamburgers and French fries. Mmmm good.
Trevor and I went back to town this afternoon, looking for a hose for our boat and a belt for theirs. We struck out on both counts. I had to go back to Walmart, too, because I forgot I needed a prescription refilled. I also bought a carrot cake for Sara’s birthday. I finally got our laundry done (Trevor had done theirs yesterday.) We visited with some of the other boaters for a few hours before ordering a celebratory pizza to have with Sara’s cake.
I must say that the people at Demopolis Yacht Basin were very friendly and helpful. It was nice to radio in upon arrival and be greeted by name as though
Demopolis Dam
and diverter waterfalls by an old friend. They gave us a list of anchorages recommended by other boaters, too.
Saturday, 20 November
Happy Birthday, David!
We got underway this morning at our usual crack of dawn time of 9:00. At the Demopolis Lock we had a short wait while a tow exited the lock, then entered for our 40’ ride down. It seemed to be really slow. Upon leaving the lock we were surprised to see waterfalls, which turned out to be man-made as a means of diverting the water coming over the dam. The dam and the falls made an interesting sight.
Today’s portion of the river was very winding, with not many boats out. We passed a couple of tows, but only a few fishing boats. We were warned that there are not many good anchorages for the next few days; tonight we’re anchored on the side of the river, out of the channel in 5-6 feet of water. We’ve not seen a tow since we anchored, but we feel pretty secure that we’re in a good spot.
Sunday, 21 November
I was uneasy all night, worried about barge waves while anchored in
Moon Rising
at mile 185 anchorage such shallow water. As it turned out, no tows at all passed us last night, only a large pleasure boat which, Sara and Trevor said, ran into the channel marker even though he had enough lights on to play baseball.
Our intention this morning was to get out early, but heavy fog kept us on the hook until after 9. We still managed to go 40 miles to Bashi Creek at mile 145. The creek looked too narrow to us, so we anchored across the river along the side in 10’ of water between two sharp turns in the river.
Monday, 22 November
Overnight we had 5 tows go past us. We heard the first one radio to another tow that we were on the side, but out of the way. Several of them really rocked us.
This morning we were underway at 7:30. No fog today! About 4 miles downriver we noticed a vee in the water, and Kerry made the comment “that bird sure is putting out a big wake.” I got out the binoculars and discovered that it was a deer swimming across the river in 30 feet of water. We watched as
Early morning fog
keeping us on the hook until after 9 he swam to shore then calmly climbed out and walked off. That’s the second deer we’ve seen swimming in the last month.
We reached the final lock on the Tombigbee at Coffeeville and locked down 33’ putting us at 4’ above sea level and 116 miles from Mobile. The lockmaster asked us for our boat names and registration numbers. It seemed funny that none of the other locks asked for that info.
We are anchored for the night at mile 100 in the old Lock 1 cutoff in 12’ of water. No barge waves tonight as we’re well off the river. We did 45 miles today with a lock, a very good day.
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Barbara
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Great picture of Sara!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also loved the moon pic. BTW, who's cooking the turkey for "turkey day"????????????????????