Boat Ramblings 8 

18th October, 2014...on the Tombigbee River, Alabama/Mississippi (keep crossing back and forth over the State Line). On a trivial note, did you know that Alabama boasts the most extensive of all navigational waterways in the United States....I just learned that!  By the way, I told an untruth in the last Ramblings.  I had been led to believe (note the way I subverted my error to outside influences!) that we were 450 miles from home when in the southern reaches of Tennessee...wrong, we were more like 450 miles from arriving at the Gulf of Mexico (in Alabama) and 450 miles as the crow flies from home. Now that we are almost to Pensacola and back in Florida, we do have 400 miles to run to Tarpon Springs and home. Sorry for that error in judgment, I just don't know what overcame me!

Now back to the Tombigbee River. Richard's bro, Philip, arrived on board for 12 days. He has slipped in well to life aboard, although he is a bad influence for I find I am enjoying way too many happy hours. Philip relishes his self appointed role as an over zealous bar tender. Me thinks it is just as well he leaves to return to Australia in 3 days or I would have to exert some will power over myself.

     
You may recall the strong line of dramatic weather that moved across the entire central and southern portions of the USA last week (mid Oct.) We prudently were tied up in a marina. It proved to be more of a rain maker for us than the high winds and tornados that others experienced. However, when we set off the next day, it was deja vu of the Mississippi River. The usually benign Tombigbee River came alive. Again we found ourselves moving at an unnerving pace down the river, driven by the strong current as the rain soaked countryside divested itself of its wetness into the river. Once more we were dodging the logs and trees rushing along with us that had been caught up in the mini drama. Philip became quite adept at using the boat hook to push some of the offending debris out of our path. After two days of excitement, the Tombigbee settled back into respectability with most of her debris being snagged out of harms way along the banks or hung up in the bayous. It has, however, made for some interesting river bed changes which made for even more interesting anchorages the last few nights. We found that the normally reported water depths in the bayous and channels off the river were now hopelessly wrong due to the shifting and relocating of mud on the riverbed. Needless to say we ran aground on no less than 6 occasions in three days, fortunately it was only soft mud which we were able to reverse ourselves off. On one particular day we tried three reportedly acceptable anchorages but found each now too shallow (yup, ran aground) so we had no choice but to continue on. The total darkness one finds on the river at night had engulfed us by the time we finally found an anchorage that we felt offered some measure of safety and comfort for the evening, with enough water flowing under our keel. It all added up to some breath holding moments, even for Philip, a seasoned deep ocean sailboat racer.

The last few locks we have passed through have been very large drops in water level, (we are moving back down to sea level). One of them was an 85ft drop, right up there with the big guns. With mixed feelings I realized today we only have 3 more locks left to negotiate. I will not miss them, but somehow they really do contribute a uniqueness to life on the rivers and certainly make the waters navigable while reducing the extremes of floods for those living along the banks.

  
In these bigger locks we became absorbed with the Egrets and Herons as they flew onto the ledges of the lock gates while the water in the locks receded. Apparently all sorts of juicy morsels are left stranded on the ledges making easy pickings for the birds. What is more fascinating though is that we learned these birds recognize the significance of the lock's siren which sounds as a general warning just prior to closing and opening of the lock gates. The birds arrive as soon as the horn sounds and wait expectantly for each of the ledges to be exposed, take their feast and leave. Smart birds.

Walker had an acute onset of what transpired to be a bacterial gut infection which not only had his full attention but ours also and necessitated an urgent visit to a vet. Fortunately we were in a marina at the time and there was a veterinary office nearby. We have no idea what the etiology was, but it is now a week later and he seems to have turned the corner. He certainly had us very worried for a few days there and he was a very unhappy dog.

29th Oct. Philip has since departed and we continue on southward. Our last lock was negotiated with great style today....but apart from the lockmaster, we were the only ones there to appreciate our class!!! We have not counted the number of locks we have had to negotiate for the entire trip but the figure is around the 160 mark. We are just thankful we have survived all of them physically and emotionally unscathed, Halcyon too. Others were not so fortunate for we heard of a number of unpleasant, sometimes expensive, encounters with locking through some of the other Loopers experienced.

We seem to have had the river to ourselves the last few day and are enjoying long leisurely days meandering along with easy visions of Huckleberry Finn slipping into mind. Our location currently puts us in the back woods of Alabama as demonstrated by our riverside accommodation last night......"Bobby's Fish Camp"...the name says it all. It was the only game on the river, no where else to anchor and it was no surprise we had the small, shaky dock to ourselves. Awoke this morning to gun shots ashore. When I took Walker for a quick "do your business" walk, my path crossed with the shooter, complete with dead squirrels. He explained "them v'rmin get theeemselves inta our buildin's" (mmmm... the buildings were more like run down shacks and trailers that had long seen better days), but he was a dam good shot...right through the head of each squirrel, which no doubt was headed for the evening stew pot. In conversation, as he spat his tobacco and patted Walker, he said, a touch ruefully, that his wife had a habit of collecting stray dogs in need of a home... they now had 7 of them, and he grinned and said "but them dawgs are good dawgs"...that made him alright in my books, but no doubt the squirrels did not share this opinion. As we backed Halcyon off the dock a short time later, he came by to give us a cheery farewell wave.

We have now reached the Gulf Coast and have officially said farewell to the rivers and hello again Intracoastal Waterway and salt water. Such a change of scenery from the enclosed feeling created by the heavily wooded banks of the rivers to the vast open horizon of the Gulf. Richard is smiling in contentment. Must admit, it is quite lovely to have the dolphins riding our bow wave again. We had seen very little wild life while on the rivers, apart from the multitude of bird life, tortoises (or are they turtles) and jumping fish. Therefore it was most surprising to us (and somewhat disappointing too) listening to the river reports by other Loopers who claimed sightings of wild hog, deer, alligator and even a bear with her cub swimming across the river.

13th Nov.....almost home and it has been good to catch up along the way with more friends here in the South. Had a girlfriend drive two hours to come spend the day aboard in Demopolis Al. and another do the same while we were in Pensacola. Our son Trav also lives in Pensacola, so he joined us aboard for our 4 day stay there which was perfect.
Spent last night at anchor off the ICW, but really we were just sitting in the mud, yup ran aground again or I should say the current pushed us aground, but no problems getting off this morning and on our way. We now sit at anchor off Carrabelle Fl. in the Panhandle, awaiting some favorable weather to come our way. The hope is that good weather will offer a better possibility of a calm crossing for the 24 hr non stop run from here across the Gulf of Mexico to Tarpon Springs. If we were in a sailboat, no problem, we would just go, but powerboats are not so sea friendly, so here we sit and wait on the vagaries of the weather.

HOME – crossed our wake at 12 noon today, 16^{t h} Nov, 2015 after a rough Gulf crossing, but now safely secured in our old slip in Tarpon Springs -  the journey is complete.  The total time of the trip was 8 months and 8 days.