Last leg of rivers - Nov 13 to Nov 17

We are getting pretty late in the season so we decided to move quickly down the rest of the rivers to Mobile. We travel 330 miles in 5 days, meaning we will travel about 65 or 70 miles a day with one day of over 100 miles. The river changes looks a little but pretty much looks like a river. It gets boring but we keep busy cleaning, cooking, and reading. We will travel through 7 locks along the way.

Nov 13 Columbus (M331) to Sumpter Landing (M269.9)

We left Columbus behind a big boat towing a 27’ sailboat on its hip. That is something you don't see every day. Kermit talked to the owner when we met them in Mobile. They are docked next to us, coincidentally. He said he sometimes forgot the sailboat was there while traveling.

Emery-El with a sailboat on its hip, leaving Columbus Marina

Two locks today, traveling 65 miles – dawn to almost dusk.

At Mile 307 we passed the snagboat at Tom Bevill Visitor Center. This snagboat is a converted paddlewheeler that used to be known as the Montgomery, operated by the Coast Guard to pick out tree trunks from the rivers. This is another one of those pictures you just have to get - a real landmark for loopers.

The Snagboat Montgomery at M331

We stayed at Sumptner Landing at Mile 269.9 because it was pretty and it had a ramp where Rusty could go to shore easily.

Kermit ran the boat right up the ramp because it was covered with the floating forest. Rusty jumped out, did his business and wandered around a bit. He heard lots of strange noises in the woods – Rusty didn’t want to linger, even though it was the best place to rest at an anchorage he has ever seen.
 

For some reason we did not see this but others in our group saw two hunters with a dead deer in his boat. He strung up the deer and gutted it in his campsite near where we anchored out. It is deer season after all. I was told the hunters were in the camper behind Dick Shephard, standing on his boat in this picture.

Notice the fall colors.

 Especially pretty when the sun sets.

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ov 14 Sumpter Landing (M269.9) to Demopolis (M216.2)

We left Sumpter Landing very early in the morning. It was cold and foggy.

Rusty doesn't like it much either!!

 

 

Only 1 lock today, Howell Heflin Lock. Kind of spooky in the fog! Not much else happened during the drive.

AL. M217 is end of Tenn-Tom Waterway, now entering Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway which goes from Demopolis to Mobile. This is the entrance to the Black Warrior River.

We entered Demopolis Marina one at a time. Sareanna went right to their dock. Jim's Joy and Good Karma went to the gas dock. One September waited out in the river. He noticed a boat coming really fast down the river towards him and hailed him asking him to pass slowly. But the boat did not slow down until coming up directly next to One September, throwing a huge wake. He paced One September then swung around him and took the open spot at the gas dock when Jim's Joy moved to his dock. The nerve!! This was a huge breach of etiquette!! We will talk about Ya-Ting more later. Remember that name.

Kermit schmoozed with the folks at the gas dock, especially commiserating about Ya-Ting's lack of manners. Let's just say the 120 gallons of gas cost us lots less than it might have at another marina on another day!

Demopolis Marina is really beautiful. They are adding an entire new wing to marina – new docks and amenities for dockers – beautiful and designed with boaters in mind. We took pictures as a hint for Dick Henry.

This is the community room. It has laundry and bathrooms on the first floor and a gathering area with microwaves, outlets, counters, and tables and chairs on the second floor. The second floor is covered, as are most of the slips. It is beautiful.

This is the last marina till Mobile so we enjoyed the amenities as much as we could. We borrowed the marina courtesy car and went to what was billed as the best restaurant in town, Red Barn Restaurant – I think it really was a barn in a former life, more than just a name.

This is the interior of the Red Barn. You can see from the specials board that the specials are snapper and grouper. We are moving south through Alabama and wanted to eat fish so most of us ordered snapper. Some of us actually got snapper. Deanna and I got something that did not seem like snapper. It had the texture of chicken. Honest. We needed a knife and fork to cut it. No flaking on our plates! Turns out Kermit's steak was absolutely marvelous. Evidently they are known for their steaks. Only we did not know that. Should have ordered the steak...

Another interesting thing about this restaurant was the high number of cowboys - boots, hats, and all. I guess that was another tip off about the steaks.

We made some new friends: MV Oban, an 65 foot ocean going trawler – no pictures but it is beautiful, and Fandango, a trawler. They came with us the next day.

Nov 15 Demopolis (216.2) to Bobby’s Fish Camp (M118.9)

We left very early in the morning. It was still dark. About 5:30am Kermit called the lockmaster to arrange to go through the lock with 6 boats. We were going to make his morning easy. Lockmaster said there was a tow down river in the fog. If we could get there quickly he would get us through quickly before the tow woke up. We loaded up and left in the dark, very slowly, to the Demopolis lock just around the corner all lined up like ducks behind One September with our new friends Fandango and Oban. We hung around the entrance waiting for the doors to open. It was getting a little lighter, about 6am now.

Suddenly flying up behind us was our other new friend, Ya-Ting, traveling fast, moving up behind Fandango to next to us. Kermit went nuts. Ya-Ting was really close to us and still moving while the rest of us were in neutral. Kermit hit the horn 5 times hailing Ya-Ting but getting no response. "Sir this is the emergency signal indicating imminent danger of collision. Stop your vessel and get in line right now." He went on like this for a while but Ya-Ting did not respond. "We have a certain order entering the lock, three on each side. Oban needs two bollards and must use the port side. You need to go to the starboard side behind Jim's Joy. Do you copy?" No response.

We entered the lock. Ya-Ting didn't go to the starboard side. Of course not. He went to the port side behind us on the fourth bollard out of five, leaving only one bollard for the 65 foot Oban - not enough room. Oban slowly entered the lock to the port side anyway. The lockmaster came down to watch to make sure there was enough room for the doors to close without hitting Oban.

The lockmaster asked each boat for registration information. No response from Ya-Ting. The lockmaster had to come down to his boat and get the information.

When lock doors open, etiquette says boats leave in the order they came in. So we were the third boat on the port side, we would wait until the two boats ahead of us moved out. But not this time. As the big doors opened, we heard Ya-Ting rev their engines. Their bow thrusters reved pushing the boat away from the wall and moving into the center of the lock past us, out of order and causing a disruption in the lock. Our group all moved over to the starboard side. Kermit said on the radio, "Ya-Ting, we are all moving to starboard so you can pass us. We appreciate a slow pass. We want you to go down the river and make some new friends." No response! You find your excitement where you can on the river!

This is a picture of the group letting Ya-Ting move on down the road. Ya-Ting is the boat on the left.

 

There he goes, moving on down the road:

 

White cliffs - A few miles down, about M212 are the white cliffs of Alabama. I am not sure what they are called but they are very pretty.

 

 Critter alert: Vultures. Lots and lots of vultures.

 



Our destination was Bobby's Fish Camp, another landmark for loopers. A fish camp is a camp group with a boat dock. Sometimes there are permanent summer homes.

Bobby's has a little restaurant and gas docks - the only gas between Demopolis and Mobile. It is pretty rugged. The restaurant is colorful, run by two ladies. The food was ok but very expensive. The saltiest fried pickles we had on this trip. Isn't it funny that we have a basis for comparing the quality of fried pickles? I never thought I would say that.

We arrived at about 4pm. This was a very long day. Remember we left Demopolis at 5:30am and traveled about 100 miles, a 10 hour day. As we approached Bobby's we called to confirm our reservations and were told that another boat was already docked there. It is a 100' dock so we would have to raft off. We needed gas so we would enter first. As we came up to Bobby's, guess who was the boat already there? You guessed it. Ya-Ting!

Such fun! Notice another thing about this boat? Protocol or best practice is to dock in a river with the bow up river. But Ya-Ting is facing down river - not the right direction. Also notice that the boat is docked close to the gas dock. This is an issue. We needed gas. We pulled into the dock facing the correct direction bow to bow with Ya-Ting. But we did not have enough room on the back end of the boat to allow Rusty to get off. So Kermit asked Ya-Ting if he would mind moving 3' back so we could all fit. Nope. He said no and went back into his boat, never to be seen for the rest of the evening. Unbelievable. So we turned our boat around to dock in the same direction as Ya-Ting. In the end we couldn't take on gas because of the rafting. We have 100+ miles to go with only half a tank of gas left. It will be close.

Keep in mind the other boats were hanging out in the middle of the river this whole time. And tow boats were passing, causing wakes and disruption among the other boats. Everyone came in after we adjusted the boat. We had two boats rafted off us. One September had three boats rafted off them. Only the boats on the dock had power. No one rafted off Ya-Ting. He wouldn't talk to anyone!

 

 

We had a big party at the restaurant with our group plus Fandango. We had a blast. The food was not too good but the company was great!

The restaurant is stuffed with old family pictures and photos of the community. Fascinating.

Notice the stuffed fish on the wall? This is a gargater. I thought it was a joke but evidently this is a real fish found in the Black Warrior River! Bobby caught this one. It weighed 137 pounds!!

Nov 16 Bobby’s Fish Camp (M118.9) to Tensas River (M39.3)

We left early but not as early as in past days. It was actually light when we left. Foggy but light.

 

Another long day. Not much to see. Same old same old.

Another beautiful anchorage but very muddy. Rusty turned around when he landed on shore and said, "really?" We have mud everywhere!

 

We started to see more tows.

 Nov 17 Tensas River (M39.3) to Mobile (M0)

We are tired, just want to get somewhere we can stop for a while. Unfortunately it is taking a long time because the river winds all over the place.

 

 

We arrived in Mobile around noon. More about Mobile later. We are just glad to get to a place we can stay for a while!!