& the days go on

Wow where do we start; so much has happened since our last post. We left off last time in Florence, Alabama. A few “loopers” trickled into the harbor & asked if we would be interested in staying a day longer than we had planned. Florence has so much to offer and everyone wanted to take the marina courtesy van and site see. We were all having such a great time & could easily work another day in so stay we did. So glad we did, we toured Helen Keller’s childhood home, a Frank Lloyd Wright home, enjoyed some pretty darn good BBQ & the musical entertainment here is second to none not to mention the friends we ran into yet again.

The following morning we were hoping to head out at first light; however a thick blanket of fog changed our mind. Once we felt comfortable with the visibility we shoved off. About 4 or 5 miles down river we came across another trawler heading south as well, as we drew closer to them the fog closed in once again. Visibility was real bad, so I donned my life jacket and did a bow watch. Ed gave me the distance the next marker was at and I pointed to it once I had it in sight. This lasted for about an hour.

Once the fog lifted the rest of our travel went smooth, and the day turned out to be beautiful. We traveled the Tennessee River south into the Tom Big-bee Waterway, where we anchored for the night. We set the hook in a sweet little cove (bluebird cove) just before the Bay Springs Lock. What a nice restful spot (Emily Ann that’s where we were when you called : )…

After a fun morning of running Rolo on shore & shooting pictures of the sunrise we called the lockmaster to see if we could lock through. He gave us the green light so we got things ready & headed his way.

As we worked our way into the lock a few other boats came from a marina that was near by. We were pleasantly surprised to see Dickie & Dixie pull into the lock too. Folks we had met a few times here and there this summer. We made contact with them and worked out a plan to spend the night in the same location. We had a great time catching up & the four of us reminisced on our travels as they head home to Louisiana and we head home to Florida, we promised to stay in touch.

The stretch of river (s) that lye ahead of us are remote & winding; being that we are slow goers we need to plan out anchorages. This also means the next few days would be longer travel days, with chances of fog in the mornings due to the cooler nights. Our first anchorage was in the spillway at the bottom of (mile 266) Howell Heflin Lock; a great, safe, peaceful anchorage. The fishin’ wasn’t too bad either. From here we traveled to Demopolis, AL where we tied up at the marina. A live aboard retired gentleman offered me a ride to the grocery store & I accepted. Demopolis was a fun & informative stop. We knew we needed to lock through at 7 am so we could comfortably arrive at our next anchorage in the daylight. (71 miles down river)

We pulled into the lock at 7 sharp we locked through with four other boats. The run today went real smooth and we made it to our anchorage with plenty of daylight to spare. The anchorage was in Bashi creek that empties into the Black Warrior River. Being we weren’t familiar with this spot and little information was available we decided to head in with the dingy and scope out the depths and entrance. Once we knew where the deepest part of the entrance was we squeaked in and got turned around and anchored up (2 Stern anchors).   Four other boats that were traveling with us didn’t want to tuck in with us and opted to anchor on the inside of the curve on the river. Happy hour that night was spent on Dockers Inn (boat). The next morning lots of fog covered the area, with tow traffic the four boats anchored across from us made radio contact with the tow captain to be sure he knew just where they all were. It made for some tense moments until after the tow and barges were passed.

We pulled up anchor and enjoyed a short day today to Bobby’s Fish Camp where we will tie up for the night. This post was sent from Bobby’s Fish Camp on the Black Warrior River ALWAYS  a great time. We will spend the night here and as I type this boats are arriving that we have crossed paths with on this journey.