We departed that Sunday as the morning fog lifted and the day got warm. The divide cut was pleasant and we motored through it and anchored in beautiful Bay Springs Lake along with three other boats. To start the second day, we gathered above the first lock along with boats from nearby marinas as we waited for an up bound tow to clear the lock. Out of the 15 boats locking down together, we were the only "sailboat"! We went through four locks that day including one with an 84-foot drop; the others were about 30-foot each. We anchored alone in a wide spot on the river near a launch ramp. Tuesday was a three-lock (82 foot total drop) day with a stay at the marina in Columbus, MS. We crossed into Alabama on the 4th day after having only one lock; we stayed at a small marina. Here we were able to take a good long walk to the Tom Bevill Resource Management & Visitor Center near Pickensville. On the way again on Thursday we had one lock and anchored in a cove with 10 other boats. The 52- foot bridges kept letting us go under without us going "clunk", but we did kind of hold our breath for each one. One more lock and 46 miles later we arrived at Demopolis on Friday afternoon, October 29. We stayed over an extra day while we did laundry, walked to the Library to use the Internet, and borrowed the courtesy car to go food shopping. The Alabama state highway map shows it to be 162 miles from Demopolis to Mobile while the River charts show two locks and 216 miles of winding waterway! We left the marina just before dawn on Halloween morning with 10 other boats and were able to lock down without having to wait for barge traffic. We anchored two nights averaging 46.5 miles per day. Very early Tuesday morning we joined seven other boats at the twelfth and final lock and were able to get through it without waiting. We motored 70.4 miles that day before finding a place to anchor. It got warmer and more humid as we went south, and we began to see Spanish moss in the trees. Wednesday was our last night out at anchor and we were just 12 miles from the end of the Waterway. On Tuesday and Wednesday the rain had finally caught us and we had periods of warm rain mixed with sunny patches as we traveled. As we got nearer to Mobile, we began to see Palmetto which is a low growing plant that looks like a palm tree. Mobile is a busy commercial port and we passed a great deal of shipping as we came another twelve miles down the shipping channel. We arrived at the marina on the Dog River below Mobile before noon on Thursday, November 4 with a north wind and much cooler and dryer air. In less than fifteen minutes they were lifting us out of the water; we still had the depth sounder on! We now sit out of the water with a fresh coat of bottom paint. They gave us a ladder so we could remain aboard, and we've been able to get lots of cleaning done, inside and out. They will put us back in the water on Monday and we'll be ready to start the Gulf Coast section of our trip. Our son and his wife from San Francisco will be joining us for a week at Thanksgiving and beyond that we have no schedule. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Also, if we're on your Christmas card list, please send your "Holiday Greetings" by e-mail (bobbie[at]wooll[dot]com), -- it will be much timelier and save on the mail forwarding, too! Jim and Bobbie
	Back			Home		Photos