So, hurricane Rafael was forming in the gulf, and we thought it might be wise if we stayed as far away from it as we could get. Given our location, we felt the best way to do this would be to remain where we were for an extra day or so, to give the monster time to go away. But, the marina would not let us extend our visit. The manager told us he had 13 boats coming in over the next few days, and we could not stay. We thought that this was kind of funny on his part, as there were at least 8 open dock spaces in the harbour, and all of the boats were not coming on the same day. But, what ya’ll gonna do? We made plans to leave in the morning, setting up waypoints on the GPS and getting the boat secured.
In the morning, we were up at 4:40 to have breakfast, and start up the electronics. At 5:30 one of the other loopers called the lock and found out that they were locking a tow and we would have to wait for about an hour before leaving. So, we had another cup of coffee and waited.
All the loopers visited on the dock while we waited for news of the lock. It is always best to lock through as a group, and to have only one person call the lock in the morning. The rest of us await the good word.
Once we got news that the lock was almost ready, it was a bit of a fire-drill to get all the boats underway and stage near the lock. As soon as the tug made it out of the chamber, the lockmaster gave us the word and in we all went.
The looper fleet leaving the lock.
There is always some random thing to see on the loop. Coming around a corner, we saw this phone booth on the river bank. The booth was clean and well maintained, but who ya gonna call?
We passed this grounded boat along the way. The style did not fit with the area, and the boat was clearly very new, the sides were shiny and polished. I guess someone had a bad day recently.
Locking was pretty straightforward, and off we set for the second lock of the day. This also was smooth, as was the rest of the trip. Around 15:00 we stopped at an anchorage in a tributary of the main river, and Jewel rafted up on us after we set the anchor. We had also invited a third boat, Thyme Again to raft with us, but they decided to anchor on their own as the anchorage was so large.
Louise and Rich went swimming after we anchored. The next day, we heard from another looper that there were alligators in the area. mmmmmmm
Once everyone was set, Louise and Rich went swimming. It was 30 degrees and high humidity, so we were all pretty sweaty by the time we got to the anchorage. While Rich and Louise were swimming, Mike and Pam from Thyme Again came over in their dingy for a visit. Thyme Again is a Canadian boat based out of Peterborough, and they mentioned that they had Tim Horton's coffee on board. We joked that we were going to stop by their boat in the morning for Timmie's drive through. After a nice meal, we turned in for the night.
The crew of Thyme Away came over in their dingy to visit. We had a lot of laughs talking with them.
Rafted up and swimming. We found out the next day that there were gators in the area, but we did not see any.
The next morning, we were up before the sun as usual and got set up for the day's cruise. Jewel untied from us and headed out of the anchorage, while Louise and I weighed the anchor. As we were passing Thyme Away to leave the creek, Mike and Pam came out on the transom with take-out for us! We did a touch-and-go landing on their boat to pick up our drive-through, and also got Jewel's order at the same time. We were laughing and smiling for the next few hours. It is little moments like that that make the loop special!
Mike and Pam were on duty at the drive-through. We did a touch-and-go to pick up our order. What an awesome way to start the day!
We got banana bread from the aquatic drive-through. We needed to make a double-double to go with it.
On today's itinerary were the cliffs at Epes, AL. This is a chalk formation of bright-white cliffs beside the river. Shortly after passing the cliffs, Louise had to go out on the bow to rescue our looper flag. When I first put the flag on the boat I used some zip-ties to secure it until I could get some proper flag rings. Well, the zip-ties worked so I left the zip-ties alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Well, now it was broke, and we could not fix it underway, so Louise went out and removed the flag pole.
Close up of the chalk cliffs. These formations stretched over several km along the river. They were bright white and pretty much vertical the whole way.
Finally, after a long day's ride, we pulled into Kingfisher Bay marina and got set up. We were booked for two nights here, so we could see some of the surrounding area. We had initially tried to book extra days here to wait out the hurricane, but as it turned out, the hurricane swung south away from Mobile and was no longer a threat to us, so we had no reason to hide from it.
When we set off on this leg, our initial plan was to stop at Kingfisher marina for a few extra days to wait out Hurricane Rafael. But, when we got to the marina, Rafael had changed course and was no longer a threat, so we decided to push south towards Mobile.
Since we were around all the next day, Louise and Melanie booked the curtesy car for us to get some supplies and to go for dinner. During the morning and afternoon, Rich and I both took care of some boat chores. I cleaned corrosion from our bonding wires, and also filled the batteries. Our house batteries are flooded lead-acid type, and need to have distilled water added about once a month. During charging, a small amount of water electrolysis occurs, which slowly "bubbles" off the water in the batteries in the form of hydrogen and oxygen. About once a month I check them and refill them.
Lots of looper boats on the docks here in Columbus, MS. Over the following few days, we all set off down the river towards Mobile.
With my chores done, I spent some time on Thyme Away with Mike. He had had an AIS system installed on his boat, but it was not working correctly. We managed to get the display to show AIS targets, but he was not transmitting. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to work on it, as the curtesy car was waiting for us.
We set off to visit Demopolis and see what was there. Turned out to be not much. We drove by an antebellum house they had set up as an attraction, but they wanted $10 each for us to visit. We then drove by a second old house attraction that was closed before getting some groceries at a local place. We then had to return to the marina so that we could take the car again.
One of the antebellum houses, the Gainswood home. It was pretty rough and in need of some TLC. They were in the process of cleaning and fixing it up when we went by.
Another one of the antebellum homes, Bluff Hall. This one was closed when we went by.
A lot of places set limits on how long you can take their cars, usually 2 hours per boat. At most places, we have been "cheating" by signing it out for 4 hours, 2 hours for Jewel and 2 hours for iFloat. There have been no issues, until Kingfisher. Here, they insisted that you return the keys and that the next boater sign them out. So, we came back and exchanged the keys. With the car properly laundered we then went out again for supper.
We went to this Mexican restaurant where the waiters did not speak very good english. The food was amazing! Super-cheap and super-good. Back at the boat, we chatted with some other loopers to make arrangements for the following morning. The crew of Glorious Dei volunteered to contact the lock for everyone at 5:30 the next morning, so we set our alarm clocks for the usual 4:40 wake up and turned in.
PROBLEM!
Over the past week or two we have been worried about Eevee. She has not been herself. She moved very slow, meowed very softly, didn't move around much, and was not eating or pooping very much. At one point we considered bringing her to the vet, but we were in an area with no vets, so could not do so. This started right after we tried out a new brand of food for her, so our initial thought was there was some kind of issue with her food. But when we switched her back to her usual brand, there was no change. Well, fast forward a week and all of a sudden she is back, like nothing ever happened. We have no idea what was wrong, she cannot tell us, but all of a sudden she is meowing again (at 3 in the freakin morning), eating, pooping and moving around. We could tell she was feeling better as all of a sudden she started wanting to go outside again. Normally we just let her out, she walks around the boat for a bit and then wants back in.
Well, this evening I let her out and then she disappeared. After she was overdue to want to come back in (she usually only goes out for a few minutes) I decided to look for her. Could not see her at the stern, up on the flybridge or on the sides of the boat. Uh oh. I went out onto the dock in the pitch black and slowly walked to the front of the boat. All of a sudden she meows at me, and I could see this dark fluffy object on the gunnel. The picture above looks like there is light, but this is pitch black night and I used low-light mode on my iPhone to get the shot you see above. Louise and I had to carefully herd her back inside, as neither of us wanted to go swimming to rescue her if she went over. The gunnel she is sitting on is fibreglass, and she could easily slip off into the water. She has never done that before, she always just walks down the deck and does not jump on things. Of course, being a cat, she decided to try jumping on things in the pitch black.
Great, now every time she wants out one of us has to escort her. We did this when we first moved her on the boat, but she was so good at staying away from the sides of the boat we got complacent and let her out on her own. Now we have to provide security for her, but at least she is back to acting like herself.
The next morning, right after having coffee, I fired up the AIS to see if any tows were around. As luck would have it, one was leaving the lock! Unfortunately I could see another approaching. Mmmmmm
At 5:30 we got word from Glorious Dei that the lock was ready for us. It turned out that the incoming tow had stopped for fuel, giving us a window to lock through. Unfortunately, we did not leave the dock right then as it was still dark, rather we waited 30 minutes for the sun to come up. At 6:00 a fleet of 8 boats started their engines and left the dock. On the way out of the harbour, we passed through a bass tournament that was starting out. They were all hovering outside the boat launch, and at 30 second intervals they put the hammer down and raced away. So, we had a fleet of looper boats going one way at impulse speed, while a fleet of fast-mover bass boats headed the other way at warp speed. Switch all power to FRONT deflector screens. It was still dark, so mostly all you could see were navigation lights. It was awesome!
Bass boats taking off for their tournament. Lots of lights and engine noise, kind of like NASCAR. Shake 'n bake!
Passed a tow on the way to the lock, it looked like they were refueling.
When we got to the lock, the first boat called the lock several times, but got no answer. Finally the lock came on the radio to tell us that they were doing a shift change and would get to us in a few minutes. We think we pissed them off, because they took their time opening the doors.
With the doors open, we passed inside and got set to lock down. We were a group of 8, but only 7 tie-ups were available, so we invited another boat, Irish Mist to raft on us.
Rafted up with Iris Mist in the lock.
When you lock through, there is an etiquette to the order in which you enter and leave. Generally, you leave in order, boats at the front first, followed by boats further back. This way there are no collisions. As it turned out, we were at the front tie-up with Irish Mist rafted to us. Jewel was beside us, while another boat, let's call them "gift", was tied behind Jewel. When the doors opened, Irish Mist went first, followed by Jewel. Since we were tied beside Jewel, we should have been next, but gift untied and steamed past us. We saw them coming, so there was no issue, but it was a bit of a faux-pas. Turned out that gift wanted to go fast and so pass other boats quickly. No problem, but they should have got on the radio about it. Anyways, not the end of the world, and off we went.
Along the way, we had to overtake a tow. This is always a white-knuckle experience. The overtake speed is slow, the tow is big, and we always seem to get squeezed next to the bank. This one was not as bad as the last one, as we had plenty of depth all the way, but passing these monsters is not fun.
Here we are passing the tow. It looks like we are almost done,
But then you look forward and realize we are only half-way past this thing.
We passed lots of pipelines that run under the river. We have never seen the actual pipe, just warning signs, indications on the chart, and sometimes markers in the water. This pipe was fully visible on the bank. We suspect that bank erosion has exposed the pipe. Looks a bit sketchy to see that length of pipeline unsupported.
We arrived at our anchorage for the night, Bashi (pronounced Bash-eye) creek, around mid-afternoon. This anchorage was in a vary narrow creek that fed into the main river. The water was deep, but we were brushing trees as we went inside. We went as far as we could before we had to stop because of a tree that had fallen across the creek. We set our anchor using a short rode, then used our spare chain as a stern anchor. There was no wind or current, so we did not need much to hold us in place, and did not want to make things complicated in the morning. Rich had some long lines, and so tied the stern of Jewel to each bank. Once set in, Rich and Melanie came over by dingy to visit. As it got dark, they retired back to Jewel for the evening, and we turned in early for the night.
Heading in to Bashi creek. The creek is about 45 feet wide, and our beam is 14 feet, so not a lot of room on either side. Luckily the banks are steep, so there is deep water almost right up to the bank.
Objects in this photo are closer than they appear. The bank was about 10 or 12 feet from the side of the boat.
There was not enough space to raft, so Jewel anchored behind us. This place offers excellent protection if you can get in and out. In the morning we were planning to pivot around using only the trusters. I did not want to use the main engine to try to turn us as we were waaaay to close to shore.
Another view of Bashi. The red float is our anchor trip line. We have been using this every time we anchor, as there are so many sunken logs and other junk at the bottom, we could easily snag our anchor. The trip line on the float gives us a way to recover the anchor should this happen.
Since the creek was so narrow, we used a stern anchor to hold us parallel to the shore. Because there was no wind here, I just used the chain from our spare anchor. It weighs about 60 pounds, and just the weight was enough to keep the boat from swinging.
iFloat is up the creek!
Rich used some lines to spider-web Jewel in place in the creek. He used some floats to mark the lines so that nobody in a passing fishing boat would over-run them.
We only had a short distance to go that morning, but we got started early anyways. It was pitch black in the anchorage when we got up. Just after we got out of bed, we heard an owl hooting out in the forest. Our anchors came up clean, and I used the bow thruster to pivot us around. I did not want to use the main engines to turn us, as the bow and stern came too close to the shore when we pivoted. We got turned around and slowly made our way out of the anchorage. The anchorage was not pretty, in fact it was kind of spooky getting into it, but we were well protected from weather and from tows.
The cruise was pretty easy, and we pulled into Bobby's fish camp around 11 in the morning. There was not much here, just a linear dock. We tied up to the dock beside the fuel dock and got set up. Louise and Melanie went up to the office to pay, but found nobody there. It was Sunday morning, and everyone was at church.
Welcome to Bobby's fish camp. This place has been around since the 1950's. They used to have a restaurant here, but it closed during COVID and hasn't re-opened.
They had a bunch of cats running around Bobby's. They were all friendly and used to boaters.
Pretty soon looper boats started to arrive. Turned out there was a big squadron of motor yachts going fast towards Mobile. First, a large motor yacht came in for fuel. The boat came in pretty fast and waked us really bad. I got on the radio to tell him to slow down, and Rich called him out when he docked. Shortly afterward, another motor yacht came in and took the last place on the dock. We went out to help both boats dock, and of course it started to rain. Rich and I got soaked, but it was really warm out so no biggie.
The owners of the marina eventually returned and both yachts got fuel, then one rafted to the other at the end of the dock. Right after this, a 55 foot motor yacht arrived to get fuel. The staff told him he could stay on the fuel dock for the night, but would have to move if someone wanted fuel. Rich offered to let him raft on Jewel. Since he was such a long boat, it turned out he rafted to both Jewel and iFloat. Took a bit of time to sort out all the ropes and fenders, but eventually we got him set in.
We have rafted with lots of other boats over the years, but this was the first time we rafted one really big boat onto two smaller ones. Took a bit of back-and-forth, but we got them secured. Note the square fender protecting iFloat from the dingy motor propeller.
We were not expecting to see roses growing at Bobby's. Like a lot of other things on this trip, you just keep running into random things like this.
Shortly after, another big motor yacht arrived and tried to get into the gas dock. On his first approach, the wind blew him in, and we had to push him off. Close call for hitting the dock, grounding on shore, and getting a line in his props. He went out and got set up again and managed to dock without incident. Turned out that one more boat was coming, so after filling up they moved off the gas dock and rafted onto the two boats that were stacked at the front of the dock.
Just before dark, the last boat arrived and tied up at the gas dock. There were now 7 boats docked on a small dock, four on the dock and 3 rafted on. Full house for the night.
Seven boats on a dock that was less than 200 feet long. Louise photobombed while she was catching Pikachu.
The boats at the end of the dock were rafted triple-wide. The owner told us they have rafted boats up to 5 deep on the docks here. The place was completely empty after 5, the owners left, and there was nobody but us loopers remaining.
Boat name of the day: Practice Safety
