Selma, Alabama

Days on cruise:  229

This post is not about the Great Loop. Unless you know us personally and are interested, this one would be good to skip.

Cathryn’s 4 grandparents lived most of their lives in Selma, Alabama, situated on the Alabama River (above), and both her parents were born and raised there. Cathryn made dozens of trips to Selma (from Texas where she grew up) to visit grandparents and has many fond memories of time with them.

When we drove our truck from Seattle to Florida last January to close on the purchase of Next To Me, we planned to stop in Selma on the way. The schedule didn’t work out. When we were in Demopolis two weeks ago, only 50 miles from Selma, we planned to rent a car and spend a day there. We learned there aren’t any car rental agencies in Demopolis; the closest one is in Selma!

Finally we rented a car yesterday in Fairhope, drove 3 hours to Selma, and spent the night in a motel (watching election returns late into the night).

We drove to the sites of both of Cathryn’s grandparent’s homes, though her father’s home has been torn down and turned into a church playground and parking lot (above). But the top of the retaining wall along the sidewalk, on which Cathryn used to walk as a child while holding her grandmother’s hand, is just the same.

Her mother’s family home remains little changed from the last time Cathryn saw it 30+ years ago. The current owner has been there 20 years and invited us to walk the property.

Cathryn’s grandfather had a machine shop out back, and a life-long dream of building a river paddleboat, and actually constructed the paddlewheel, helm and pontoons. The paddlewheel still sits in the yard, though the grandfather who built it died almost 40 years ago.

We went to Live Oak Cemetery where many of Cathryn’s ancestors are buried and found a couple dozen plots of her extended family. The cemetery is full of gigantic live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.

Finally we took in a little Civil Rights history by walking across the Edmund Pettus bridge and visiting the Voting Rights Act Museum. It was an interesting coincidence, visiting here on the day after our first black President was re-elected.

 

The visit evoked lots of feelings and memories from another time, especially of feeling much loved by four grandparents! Tonight we’re back on the boat in Fairhope.

Fairhope, Alabama

Days on cruise:  227

This town could accurately be labeled “The City of Flowers”. Along with crew from Toucan (Rick and Diane) and Alacrity (Craig and Barbara), we took a courtesy van into town for the afternoon. It’s a small town, and we walked the six-by-four block downtown area. There are flowers everywhere!

Even the trash cans on every block are topped with flowers.

As are all four corners at every intersection.

We’re told the flowers are changed out seasonally. We found a combination bookstore and coffee shop and spent some time browsing and even buying a couple of books.

This town is a real artist’s haven, and there are lots of galleries and shops selling local offerings.

We’re enjoying our stay at Eastern Shore Marina, a “nice but nothing fancy” place with very friendly staff. Our only real complaint is there seems to be no protection from the weather on Mobile Bay, and our boat rocks and rolls non-stop, especially at night. One dock line suffered last night, chafing more than we’ve ever experienced anywhere.

Rick and Diane on Toucan invited us, along with Craig and Barbara from Alacrity, to have cocktails and dinner on their pretty DeFever, as it was raining outside. The men barbecued outside anyway, we ate inside, and had a nice evening. For the first time on this trip, an interesting, completely civil, and lively political discussion ensued. The D’s and the R’s were all cogent in making their points, and listened respectfully to each other.  We’d like to think our country could move forward in such an intelligent and respectful manner, no matter the outcome tonight.

End of the Tenn-Tom

Days on cruise:  226

Distance:  68.4 miles

Travel time:  6 hrs, 33 mins

Total trip odometer:  5,145 statute miles

Exactly two months after leaving Chicago to begin the “western rivers” part of the Great Loop, we’ve covered 1,900 miles on the rivers, and today we finished that stretch. In addition, 450 miles since leaving the Tennessee River, we completed the Tenn-Tom Waterway this afternoon. We found it interesting, but also felt compelled to keep moving as there were few towns or destinations to cause us to slow down, and for the most part, the weather was cold, urging us southward.

Today we saw lots of Spanish moss (which isn’t really moss, but is related to the pineapple family), many brown pelicans, marshlands, and we detected the smell of salt water for the first time since we made our way up the Hudson River in New York in June. We expected to see alligators (as Looper friends who are ahead of us did), but didn’t see any today. Or dolphins, which we were also told to expect.

Locals refer to this as the Dolly Parton Bridge. Hmmm.

Turning the clocks back an hour Saturday night threw us off, so we were up before the crack of dawn Sunday, despite not planning to be. The other two boats sharing our anchorage, Rienzi and Branchin’ Out, were also up early. We pulled our anchor shortly after sunrise and headed south.

The river was placid but filled with lots of sticks, floating logs, and fixed deadheads sticking above the water.

We’d planned to anchor out somewhere north of the Mobile River, but given our early start and the forecast for some “weather” to arrive late Sunday, we decided to keep moving and make it across Mobile Bay if the conditions looked good when we got there. And they did.

Most Loopers encounter more boat, freighter and cruise ship traffic than we did, presumably because things are quieter on a Sunday.

There were some odd-looking boats too. We assume these two warships serve some specialized purpose. Does anyone know what that would be?

It was a bit of a shock to enter a larger city after so long in remote territory.  Check out the red triangles on the chartplotter below: these are boats equipped with AIS transmitters (we have “receive” only). We got so annoyed with the constant beeping and “a dangerous target has been detected” messages that Bob finally turned off the AIS altogether as it was too distracting for the 12 miles while we traveled the Mobile River.

The waters of Mobile Bay are shallow, meaning our depth sounder often showed only 2-3 feet of water beneath the hull as we made our way across to Fairhope on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.

We also discovered we didn’t have paper charts for Mobile Bay, so made up the gap with verbal directions from two other boaters via VHF radio, though our electronic chartplotter also had everything we needed. We just hate to be without paper charts in case of some failure of electronics.

Early afternoon we arrived at Eastern Shore Marina in Fairhope and settled into a slip adjacent to Looper friends Craig and Barbara on Blue Heron, and Joe and Edie on Seaquel. It was a treat to have such great friends catch our lines yet again!

At 4:30, early because of turning back the clocks an hour, the six of us took our folding camp chairs to the adjacent beach to watch the sunset, and it sure put on a good show! Some weather arrived during the afternoon, so clouds, whitecaps and sailboats conspired to contribute nice scenery.

We’re busy reminding ourselves how to tie the boat to the dock to accommodate rising and dropping tides and other knowledge we haven’t needed since New York last May.

Milestone: The Last Lock!

Days on cruise:  225

Distance traveled:  68.5 miles

Travel time:  7 hrs, 47 mins

Total trip odometer:  5,076 statute miles

The dock at Bobby’s Fish Camp was alive and hoppin’ before daylight. Calls to Coffeeville Lock yielded the fact it was clear at the top, but foggy at the bottom. So we all waited an hour before heading south. Six boats (two Loopers including us) traveled in lock-step until we’d dropped 37 feet and the lock gates opened. 

WE’RE DONE! With locks, that is. We’ve done 112 locks (we think; we’ll check our math) and now find transiting locks to be “no big deal”, a long way from where we started!

The “parade” heading to the Coffeeville Lock.

Rienzi (left) and The Thomas B (right) would travel near us  all day, along with Branchin’ Out, as all of us travel about 9.5 mph.

Do you think birds are stupid? If so, think again! In the locks that take you down (not up), birds sit nearby as the water begins to drop and watch for fish that get caught in the lock doors. Easy feeding for those birds, no dummies!

We passed many more tows pushing barges today, and the parade of 4 boats all followed instructions to pass on the 1 or 2 whistle together.

After many, many miles of remote land with nothing much to see, we spotted a few houses occasionally. This must be the definition of “upwardly mobile”.

We first thought this was a golf cart, but on closer inspection using binoculars, saw it was more like a beach buggy.

The route continued in serpentine fashion, explaining why it takes 450 river miles to travel from the north border of Alabama to Mobile at the south end. The river current pushed us along about 1/2 to 3/4 mile per hour faster, which was nice.

Like so many other barges we’ve seen on the inland rivers, this one was being loaded with coal. Most of the news we’ve read about coal over the years has been about the environmental hazards of burning coal to produce electricity, or else about the fate of miners trapped when tunnels collapse. This provides a different view of how ubiquitous the use of coal is to heat or air condition our American homes.

Yet another long-abandoned barge on the shore with surprisingly large trees growing on board.

Early afternoon our entourage of 4 boats was contacted on the VHF radio to warn of work being done just down river.

High voltage electric wires cross the river overhead, and the boat below informed us they were stringing a rope to pull more wire across, so we should stay far to the right where the water was hopefully deep enough, and hopefully the rope wouldn’t fall on us and we’d be okay. Say what?

Rienzi with her 5-foot draft led the way, so we knew if she made it through ok, we wouldn’t have shallow water problems. Branchin’ Out just behind us draws even less so was in great position third in line. All went well.

Late in the afternoon we noticed black smoke coming from the stern of Rienzi so called them on the radio to notify them. They checked it out, said their engine was over-heating, and did a U-turn to an anchorage we’d just passed so they could change out an engine impeller and hopefully solve the problem.

Later still, Branchin’ Out and Next To Me pulled into an anchorage at Alabama River Cut-off. We went 1/4 mile in and dropped anchor in 15 feet of water, deeper than we prefer for such a narrow anchorage, but there’s a slight current that should hold us in place. 10 minutes before dark Rienzi arrived and pulled in behind Branchin’ Out to drop anchor, informing us they’ve solved their over-heating engine problem. We sincerely hope so!

Now it’s pitch dark, and all we see is anchor lights from the other two boats. All we hear is owls, cicadas and an occasional coyote.  Beautiful!

Alligators, Pelicans, Deer and Turtles

Days on cruise:  224

Distance traveled:  97.5 miles

Travel time: 8 hrs, 37 mins

Total trip odometer:  5,007 statute miles

What a day! A number of boats, Loopers and non-Loopers, were at Demopolis Thursday night, and most agreed getting away at 7am this morning was a good idea, as the next marina is 97 miles south. So we were all awake at “oh dark:30” and some of us agreed to turn on VHF radios at 6:30am after calling Demopolis Lock to inquire as to status. The lock would drop us 50 feet, so if fog is present, the conditions are often worse at the lower elevations below the lock, something we can’t evaluate from looking out our windows. Bad news at 6:30: “FOG! Delays, tows with barges backed up, stand by on channel 16 and wait to hear updates.”  Ugh:  hurry up and wait!

And then, less than an hour later, the Lockmaster called to tell us to come ahead! Boats scrambled to leave, and 30 minutes later 7 boats, including 2 Loopers and 5 others, pulled into the lock, secured our lines, and went down 48 feet. Whew!

And what a day it was! There’s one anchorage midway, but it’s described as shallow and narrow, and requiring a stern anchor in addition to the usual bow anchor, so we weren’t keen on it. The other Looper boat, Branchin’ Out, with whom we had cocktails on board a couple days ago, wanted to go all the way to Bobby’s Fish Camp, and so did we.

So after leaving Demopolis Lock, all 7 boats sorted themselves out according to speed (faster boats passing slower boats), and off we went. For the first time ever, we bumped our engines up to 1800 rpms for the whole day (usual is 1200 rpms) thinking we wanted to be prepared for the possibility of problems, and wanted to plan to arrive well before dark in case of unexpected delays. So we traveled at 12.5 – 13 mph instead of the usual 9.5mph. Endeavor Trawlercat “Branchin’ Out”, Lori and Jay, stayed with us all day, and occasionally we communicated with each other about hazards (deadheads in the water) or cool sightings.

Two deer crossed the river in front of us. For the first time in a LONG while, we saw brown pelicans (instead of white) and loons. And lots of turtles warming themselves on logs. And a campsite on the beach.

And GATORS! No, not as in “football fans” but a real six-foot alligator sunning itself on the beach. Wow! We’re told we’ll see lots of large ones south of here to Mobile. Too bad we didn’t get a photo of the alligator before he disappeared into the water, disturbed by our wake.

We passed more tows pushing barges than expected and found the faster pace to be a bit stressful, as you can’t enjoy the scenery as much and have to remain on heightened alert for deadheads or other hazards in the water.

At 4:00 we pulled into Bobby’s Fish Camp, an iconic place for Loopers. This is one of those places where you know you’ll get to see true Americana: unvarnished and real. There’s a 100-foot dock here, so typical Looper boats fill it up quickly, thus any more than 3 boats have to raft up to those already tied to the dock. When we arrived, a 65-foot power boat and a 32-foot sailboat were already tied up, so we secured to the dock with our bow extending beyond the end, and Branchin’ Out rafted up with us. There’s electricity and water here, but we had to connect three electrical cords together to reach the electric pedestal.

At 6:00 we wandered up to the Fish Camp for dinner: lightly breaded catfish filet with hush puppies, cole slaw and fries. It was very good, and we had Lori and Jay from Branchin’ Out with us, so we had good conversation and story-telling.

We’re not yet sure what the plan is for tomorrow. We’re sort of “fried” from so many long days on the Waterway since leaving Aqua Yacht Harbor a week ago and covering more than 300 miles. But there isn’t anything more to see here, and no cities or towns to stop and see the sights, so moving on seems to be the way to go. We’ll figure it out in the morning. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our evening during which we spent the night with RVers, Bodine and Donna, and other locals full of character and color. It’s been a fun stop!

Family Visitors

Days on cruise:  223

Cathryn’s cute l’il sis Susan and her husband Bob (yes, they both married Bobs) are huge Texas A&M football fans. They have season tickets and wanted to attend 3 away games against Auburn, Mississippi State and U of Alabama, three consecutive weekends in a row and in close geographic proximity to one another. And guess what? We’re close to all those places!

Today Susan and Bob drove 2.5 hours to Demopolis to spend the day with us on our boat.

Sisters!

They hadn’t seen Next To Me before so we gave them a tour, ate lunch on the sundeck . . . .

. . . and wandered around the marina looking at other boats (during which time Cathryn and Susan both got text messages from third sister Anne in Houston telling us her daughter Kate was accepted by Teach for America to a position in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. See Susan and Cathryn below both texting back to Anne simultaneously LOL!)

Note a couple photos above that Susan and Bob brought their 8-year-old yellow lab Tanner aboard too, and he spent the day acting mellow but not quite “at home” on the boat.

We had a great visit, lots of laughs, and it was wonderful to catch up with each other again. They left shortly before dark to return to the house on a lake they’ve rented for time between the games.

Kingfisher Marina: Demopolis, Alabama

Days on cruise:  222

Do you think doing the Great Loop is all play and no work? If so, we’ve not done a good job of blogging the realities of Looping. Undertaking this adventure, is, in fact, HUGE fun! But it’s also a lot of work. Most days you have to check things on the boat before running it , prepare meals in small spaces, manage energy (batteries), deal with limited  garbage capacity (no backyard or garage to store it, very small space under the kitchen sink, and no disposal at anchorages), food (shopping opportunities are further between and harder than at home where you have a car), and arrive at new towns daily where you don’t know anyone or where to find anything. And then there are boat break-downs at places where you don’t know the local mechanic or how to get things fixed. EVERY day you have to figure out where you’re going, if you have enough fuel to get there, and whether you can arrive before dark with a margin for error. Oh, and there’s that pesky weather thing! Go? No go?

So, based on the above, today was an easy day. All we had to do was four loads of laundry, grocery shopping (sign up in advance for the marina’s courtesy car, find the grocery store and hope it had everything we wanted) and begin to clean the boat, inside and out. Just another day in the life of Loopers. Ok, now that’s off our chest.

We got an email from blog reader Rob (we don’t use last names except for people in various marine businesses), someone we’ve never met. We learned he’s a regular blog reader who knew the answer to a question posed in yesterday’s blog post. Those sort of pretty, but actually pesky, floating rafts of vegetation in the waterway? Rob tells us they’re Water Hyacinth, an invasive species causing all kinds of trouble here. We stopped seeing Kudzu a while ago, so shouldn’t be surprised there’s a new pest down the river. Rob and his wife plan to begin the Loop in a couple years, and we’re glad to make his acquaintance (sort of, inasmuch as email allows that).

At 6:00 there was a knock on our hull, and Jay and Lori said hello, reminding us they met us briefly in North Carolina last April. They came aboard to visit and share Loop stories. They’re still working at their business, so are doing the Loop two months at a time, over a five year period! We heard the story of their rescue of four people in the water nearby in 2011 when another boat capsized after getting caught in the prop wash of a tow. Yikes!