Thursday, November 16, Mobile to New Orleans

We locked up our boat and left it for the rest of the year. It will be in good hands at Turner Marine, but was hard to leave it knowing we’ll be gone for so long (until after the Christmas holidays).

We drove right to the French Quarter in New Orleans,  parked and walked around the area for about 4 hours. The Market area was full of enticing goodies – especially attractive after doing very little gift-type shopping this year.  I also realized that this was the first time I’ve walked around New Orleans during  daytime – my trips here were always for conferences and we only had the evenings off so it was it was great to walk down so many streets and enjoy the French architecture. Dirk’s priority was to have a beignet and latte at Cafe du Monde and we enjoyed that treat.

We fly home tomorrow, so no more boat blog for a while – until January 5th or so. Thanks for following along with us. Happy Holidays!

November 12, 13,14 Mobile Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

We spent a few days cleaning up, doing some laundry, walking around the marina area (it was rainy at the time) and borrowing the courtesy car at the marina to get a few supplies we needed.

There aren’t any stores, restaurants or shopping sites nearby, and since we are renting a car to leave Thursday morning to go to New Orleans, we decided to pick it up a few days early so we can visit some Mobile area museums and sites.

Today’s destination was the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. Dirk is very interested in older military boats and planes, and I usually enjoy stories of people who have worked with them. The museum on the Mobile harbor includes the massive USS Alabama Battleship, an airplane museum and the oldest American submarine on public display, the USS Drum, as well as a number of other planes, boats, helicopters and tanks on the lawns.  The airplane museum also had a few exhibits on WWI and WWII planes and was running films on the Tuskegee Airman of WWII and the battles Pacific campaign so we spent about an hour there before going into the submarine.

The USS Drum was very active in the Pacific in WWII and was decommissioned after the war, and later donated to the museum (without funds for maintenance as I understand it). Walking through the submarine was interesting but then we found two notebooks to look through in a small mess hall. One contained trip reports with maps of their paths. The other was by a former sub mariner, Tom Bowser, who began volunteering to help restore the sub starting in 2000 and has practically devoted his life to it since then. He and the one employee responsible for the sub museum (Lesley…) along with other volunteers and donations they have raised,  have practically rebuilt it from inside out and the notebook shows before and after photos of rooms, huge metal sidings rusted out and repaired, and so much more. To put that much very hard work (sandblasting, bending metal – themselves !) and dedication and fund raising effort into a project – well, amazing.

Example of before and after work…

After a quick lunch in the museum we started our tour of the USS Alabama. Fortunately a self guided tour guide is provided to help us find our way around and up and down the ship. We went up about 7 levels and down 3 and still didn’t see all we could have before it was time to leave.

We found a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and are back on the boat now.

November 11, Saturday Alabama River Cut-off mm 52.8 to Mobile, AL

Well, here we are, a few days earlier than expected, and there are so many Great Loopers here it is amazing. By “here” I mean at the Turner Marina where we are tied up and at the Dog River Marina next door where most of the people we have recently been traveling with are staying.

We slept in a bit and didn’t leave our anchorage today until 8am (which used to be an early time) and had wonderful weather for today’s trip. The day was sunny and it warmed up nicely – what a treat.

The landscape began looking more southern and more industrial as well, and finally we were in the Mobile Alabama harbor.

We passed all sorts of commercial and military ships, and dry docks for ships as well.

After about 5 miles on the Mobile River we were out in the Mobile Bay, and then found the channel that would lead to our marina.

Once we were all set in the Turner marina we met new (to us) loopers and then walked to the marina next door to find the people we’d been traveling with;  Bev, Bruce, Tammi and Mike at Dog River. We  all dingy’ed to dinner across the small river and had at great time also with new friends Steve and Betsy.

One postscript –  As we were leaving the ‘other’ marina after dinner to cross over to ours, we found locked gates that blocked the way. As crazy as it seemed, we couldn’t find an opening, but Dirk found a ladder! He leaned it again a large container next to building where we climbed up the ladder, over to a ledge, through a railing, down some steps and then walked back to our marina. I wonder if anyone will take notice of the ladder’s strange position in the morning. See ladder below…

November 9 and 10, Thursday and Friday, from Demopolis to Bobby’s Camp to mm 5.28 anchorage

Since there is a lock a few miles south of the Demopolis marina, the marina recommends that people traveling south the next day meet at 4:00 pm to coordinate a time to leave together in the morning. This planning helps the lockmaster get more boats through at the same time, and gives us travelers a better chance at getting through the lock early in the day. It was agreed that we would leave at 6am and a designated caller checked in with the lockmaster at 5:45 am. He said to come along and we did! There were 5 of us in the lock I believe.

Dirk and I had planned to stop in an anchorage about 60 miles south (a long enough day), but it was only 1:30 pm when we got there so we kept going. The river current was helping our speed, and we weren’t tired (yet). As a result, we arrived at a well-known, unusual “marina” named Bobby’s Camp before dusk, which was the target for the next day! So we gained a day in our effort of getting south to warmer weather. It was our longest day on the loop we think (87 miles).

Bobby’s Camp offers fuel, docks for about four 40′ boats, and has a Alabama catfish style restaurant that is a favorite stop along the way down to Mobile Alabama. When we arrived there were already about 9 boats tied up – 4 to the docks and then the rest are the rafted to each other! It’s the only game in the area and that’s how it’s done. Everyone still pays the same going rate, whether or not you are lucky enough to be one of the boats that gets electricity that night, or have to climb over 2 or 3 boats to get back and forth to shore.

While eating fried catfish and other fried goodies at dinner, another 6am departure for the group was planned for Friday to get us through to next lock without delay. As it turns out, the boat we were rafted to needed to leave at 6am to go north, so we were motivated in the morning to get away quickly. Since we were at the front of the group of 8 loopers we got some interesting photos in the morning mist when leaving the lock. Before we spaced apart due to differences in preferred speeds I got this photo of most of the boats in a row.

The river scenery has been fairly similar from mile to mile, but here are a few favorites shots of our travels these days.

November 7 & 8; Tuesday and Wednesday, Demopolis, AL

We had a good long day of travel yesterday and made it to our destination easily by about 3pm.  I had thought we’d anchor out again but we weren’t held up by the locks and had some help from the river current as well. The morning light was beautiful, and later we encountered a lot of weeds along the way, but were able to dodge them.

As we headed to the marina in Demopolis we saw the White Cliffs of Epps and the White Cliffs of Demopolis. Both of these are from the same time period as the White Cliffs of Dover and also composed mainly of chalk! Quite a site.

Once we were settled at our slip we caught up with a number of loopers from previous stays, and later joined a group going out to dinner – 18 of us! Why are there so many loopers in one place? First because we are bringing up the tail end of northern cruising, since the northern Michigan boaters don’t want to leave home during their summer. But we are all in this one marina because it is the only one around!  There just aren’t any other large marinas for 216 miles. A van shuttled us back and forth to the restaurant for $5/person – we all went to the local Red Barn – excellent! The inside was definitely old barn too.

Today is about laundry and picking up provisions for the next 5 days or so on the river as well as getting some local info on the good anchorages along the way. We also picked some cotton from the nearby cotton field. Note the covered slips and Dirk doing the dishes in our little galley.

November 6, Monday Somewhere on the Tenn-Tom

Our travel days were suddenly shortened on Sunday – no more day light savings so we now have to be done with our travels by 5pm if we want to see where we are going. We are already missing that extra hour.

Yesterday we would have stayed at a well-regarded marina in historical Columbus, MS, but anchored out instead since we just couldn’t make it before dark. Today we stopped to visit friends Jim and Andrea on State of Bliss as we moved along the river and as a result cut it close making it to a recommended (deep enough) anchorage. So early to bed…etc, is the new goal.

Our travels yesterday took us through 4 locks and we met sailor Dan on the way to the third one (Amory). We are always happy to see him again after initially meeting him in Joliette IL and seeing him again in a number of other stops. He travels slowly, but keeps on going, whereas we stop now and then for a few days and eventually catch up to him again. He rafted to us in the lock which gave me the opportunity to make him a sandwich as we were having lunch.

The scenery was again lovely, particularly when the sun came out. We saw a family in a small bay with a shallow center – looked like they were walking on water. The boat ahead of us is Sweet Liberty – we are traveling about the same path lately.

We anchored at McKinley Creek Cut-off, mile 348. We decide where to anchor based on recommendations from a few written guides, plus comments from previous visitors found in the Active Captain app most of the loopers use. Very helpful!  The anchorage was beautiful and I saw the milky way around 8pm and the full moon around 10!

Today we went through a couple of locks as well as visiting friends as mentioned earlier. Wish I had thought to take some photos of them! So, more here sights along the way.

Tonight we are anchored at the Windham Landing Cut-off mm 286, making our day’s travels a little longer than normal.

November 4, Saturday  – 55 miles and 3 locks to Fulton Mississippi

We started early, prepared for a long day, particularly due to the three locks that we needed to pass through on the way. Fortunately there is less barge traffic and we were able to move in and out of the locks fairly easily. The first lock lowered the boat about 90 feet from the level of the Tennessee River! Now we are joining the Tom Bigbee waterway that heads toward Mobile Al.

It was sunny during part of the morning and so we could appreciate some fall colors as well as other scenery as we traveled in rivers, lakes and canals to today’s marina.

This very nice Midway Marina had a courtesy car so we treated ourselves to an excellent Mexican meal. Then we returned so I could use their marina lounge and wifi to catch up on this blog.:)

November 3, Friday Grand Harbor Marina, Luka, MS

While staying at the large Grand Harbor Marina, Dirk and I and our boating friend Todd were able use a courtesy car to travel to Shiloh National Park where significant Civil War Battles took place over 3 days in 1862 and thousands of young men from both sides died. The national park was started by veterans from both sides of the war later in the 1800s and highlights the battles sites with explanations of the action that took place. At the visitor center we first watched an excellent 45 minute film that explained the significance of the battles in terms of impact on the eventual outcome of the Civil War and included re-enactments of many of the battles. It was a very moving experience. Then we toured the expansive grounds in the car, stopping to read markers and take pictures.

In the evening we said hello to three more looper couples traveling together, and it turned out that one couple, Paul and Tammy, were with us when we were stuck in Whitehall NY for 3 extra days due to flooding on the Champlain Canal! Amazing how we can meet up with people after so long. And then there was a nice sunset…

November 1 & 2, Wednesday and Thursday; From Cuba Marina (Waverly TN) to Clifton Marina (Clifton, TN) and then Grand Harbor Marina (Luka, Miss)

We are now just over the border into Mississippi from Tennessee and very close to Alabama as well. The Grand Harbor Marina is on Yellow Creek off of the Tennessee River just below Pickwick Lake which is also the Tennessee River. Trying to find all these names on maps is a challenge, even for us. Here’s an overview, where the red dots are Green Turtle Bay and the Green Dots are the beginning of Pickwick Lake and the Tenn-Tom waterway. The other map show the Tennessee Tom Bigbee waterway through to Mobile AL.

As we left Cuba Harbor on Wednesday there was what we think is a beautiful cypress – we saw a few more during the day.

We traveled along Kentucky Lake to Clifton Harbor and we are seeing more homes now, built far back from the river some with nice landscaping that reminds me of what we haven’t done with our house and our lakeside wall.

Again cloudy but slightly warmer day. Colorful cliffs, a hill! (It’s been fairly flat for a while.)

Clifton Harbor Marina is tucked into a small bay on the river and easy to miss, but we are glad we stopped there, along with 7 other transients heading south. There were loopers to chat with and a nice covered patio with a TV, which came in handy because it was World Series night and some friends from Houston were very happy they could see their victory.  We took a ride to see the historic town, but although buildings are nice it was pretty empty. Seven of us ate at a diner near the marina as there weren’t any open restaurants in town.

Here’s the Clifton marina with our friends’ boats, Sangri-la and Miss Lily, as we left this morning.

Thursday is a cloudy day but definitely getting warmer as we head south. More interesting scenery with houses and striated rocks and caves. Dirk pointed out a deer swimming on the river – and the deer couldn’t find a way out due to the rock walls! I hope he finally succeeded.

Also I am struck by homes that seem to sit on land above the river with nothing apparent behind it. Is there another river or lake? Farmland? Sometimes we can’t see trees or anything else beyond the houses. The erratic height of the river and erosion was apparent in this area.

We went through the Pickwick Dam which is the official end of Kentucky Lake. Shangri-la and two other boaters in the lock are behind us and a barge was in front of us, but we got around it!

Once in Pickwick Lake we immediately saw the difference in living styles with large, more elegant homes along the water and up on the hills.

We saw a number of homes on the cliffs with docks far down below. Do you wonder how they climb the 200-300 feet of stairs? No problem – these homes have funiculars! I saw a half dozen or them in the 4 miles between the lock and our marina! You can’t see much of the tracks behind the white decks but they are there in this last photo.

October 31, Tuesday and Happy Halloween

We traveled about 50 miles to Cuba Marina, in Waverly TN, on Kentucky Lakes, which is a facility of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The marina seems to be set up to only accommodate a few transient boaters like us but they do have 6 long docks with covered slips on both sides for local boaters. Shangra La from our last stop is also here and Ron came by for a trick or treat! We traded Dirk’s delicious Canadian maple cookies for some nice chocolate candies.

The day started cold but warmed up to about 55 (!) and we were dressed for it.

The lake continues to be beautiful, long and large. What a great summer recreational area! Most of the lake seems to be uninhabited but we saw some homes and even a little industry along the way today.

We docked around 4pm and we have already done a load of laundry, cooked and eaten dinner, washed dishes and it is 7:15! Maybe Cribbage? And we’ve got lots of books and even some movies, so no problema.