10/9 - 19/2022 - Pickwick to Demopolis (Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway)
Sun, Oct. 9 - Aqua Yacht to Five Finger Anchorage (mm414) (31.3nm). With our tiny crockpot stuffed with beef stew fixins', we departed Aqua Yacht at kickoff of the Bears/Vikings game. Smelling dinner slow cooking, listening to the Bears game and taking in the fall colors - we have to pause and be grateful for the life we're living.
Five Finger anchorage is aptly named, as it has 5 distinct lobes of untouched shoreline. About 200 yards off the channel, we saw the crew of FJAKA tucked into a pocket on our port side. Eddie radioed some instructions, and we found a great spot to drop our anchor behind them. The Vikings bested the Bears and the crock was beckoning our olfactory receptors! We had a lovely dinner while taking in the gorgeous view.
Mon, Oct. 10 - Five Fingers Anchorage - Eddie and Eileen dinghied to shore for their pup to "do his Biznez" and then pulled anchor to find a new view for the evening. Brian and I spent the afternoon in the dinghy checking out the full "hand" of our host anchorage. We couldn't ask or a more perfect day but were a little disappointed by the lack of critters. If I were a critter, this is where I'd be!
Some boat names are obvious, and some are not - we often are asked about the origin of ours - those that know, laugh, and others wonder if they should! Portagee is kind of an American slur for people of Portuguese descent, such as Brian on his mother's side. Of course, we wear it as a badge of honor. FJAKA is another unusual name. Eddie explained that it is a sublime state in which a human aspires for nothing. FJAKA is something that can't be learned - it is considered a gift from God and must be experienced to awaken its meaning. Eddie and Eileen have sailed around the world, so they know something about this philosophy. Anyhow, cool boat name!
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| FJAKA |
- (#1) Whitten Lock (mm411.9), it was a quick 3-mile trip, but then an hour-wait for the lock to take us down. Seems our good "lock" fortune has abandoned us. We finally tied up on the port side in front of Never Land (50' Fleming Pilothouse) and Bad-Lad (73' Outer Reef) on the starboard side. At about the 30'-mark, water started pouring down on us from the water jacket bulkheads. It was like sitting in a rainstorm for the remaining 50+ feet! After a deep 84' descent, our 3-boat flotilla continued 5 miles, and;
- Got right into (#2) Montgomery Lock (mm406.7) to go down another 30' YAY; then
- 8 miles to (#3) Rankin Lock (mm398.4). About 2 miles out, one of the boats radioed the lockmaster to check status. We were told there would be a "little wait" due to maintenance - 2 hours went by before the lock doors finally opened. Joined by 2 more Loopers: Forever Young (Sea Ray Sundancer 44) and a crew of 4 France-nationals aboard a really cool pilothouse sailboat (we didn't catch up with them for an introduction), we dropped 30 more feet.
- With the exception of Bad-Lad, we all turned into Midway Marina (mm394) for the night.
- Last Item and FJAKA were already on the dock, along with about 1/2 dozen other loopers.
- Carmine greeted us immediately. He was tied up on the opposite side of us in his 34' Mainship Pilot, Calm Seas. It was the first Port-A-Gee sister ship that we've encountered.
- Our stay at Midway in 2020 didn't leave a good impression, but it seems there has been an effort to spruce the place up. I was relieved to see the shower room was available and clean! I didn't do any laundry, but the facility looked nice.
- We walked up to the restaurant, Guy's Place, with Sidonia and Fred (Last Item), and we had a remarkably good dinner. The restaurant definitely raises the star rating of this marina.
Wed, Oct 12 - Midway Marina to Canal Section Cutoff (mm366.3), (24.3nm) 7.14 hours, 3.43 "underway" - Not a very productive day! - Never Land, Forever Young, and the Frenchmen departed around 7:30 a.m. Although we had discussed leaving with them the night before, we knew it was a long shot! Our procrastination put us behind tows in both directions, so we weren't able to lock through until 11:00 a.m.
- Fred (Last Item) called ahead to confirm it was a good time to start the 4-mile trip to (#4) Fulton Lock (mm391). It was a quick 25' descent;
- 15 miles later, we arrived at (#5) Wilkins Lock (mm376.3), right behind a tow going downstream. The Tow Captain s l o w l y steered his load into the lock for its 25' descent; then they had to bring the chamber back up 25' to get us and go back down again, this resulted in about 1 1/2-hour delay.
- 5 more miles brought us to (#6) Amory Lock (mm371) - 30' down - I mean, couldn't they have just combined some of these locks?!! AND, we kept pace with the darn tow! Another 2-hour delay. We were joined by the crew of Pura Vida (Sea Ray flybridge).
- Last Item, Pura Vida and Port-A-Gee raced daylight to get to our anchorage 5-miles away. The sky was filled with thunderheads as we made our way into the spillway for Wilkins Lock. We were concerned about heavy rains causing a strong current in the anchorage, but it was good protection for the night; being deep off the channel and having plenty of room for 3 or more boats. While dropping the hook and heating up some leftovers, our weather alerts were getting louder. It was pretty soupy out there . . .
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| Pura Vida |
- Just after sunset, the rain and lightning were coming at us hard. Luckily, we were pretty protected from the winds, so at least we weren't swinging on the anchor. One bolt of lightning hit the ground very near to us - it was blinding! The spillway did not to appear to be affected, despite the heavy rainfall. After a couple of hours, it let up, and we got some sleep - or at least I did, Cap remained vigilant through the night.
Thurs/Sat, Oct. 13 - 15 - Canal Section Cutoff Anchorage to Columbus Marina (mm335) (28nm)
- Last Item, Pura Vida & Port-A-Gee pulled their anchors, and cruised 8 miles, arriving at (#7) Aberdeen Lock (mm358.2), only about a 20-minute before locking down 27'.
- by 1:00 the 3 of us were secured in our slips at Columbus Marina and reunited with Never Land.
- Friday (14th) we used the courtesy car to get provisions followed by a good run near the Stennis lock.
- Saturday (15th) was laundry day ($1.00/load, on the honor system), and taking in the scenery of this wonderful marina. It's nothing fancy, but the entrance at port side exhibits a bird sanctuary featuring a rookery of White Pelicans. The staff is top notch - can't say enough about Steve and his crew!
- We took advantage of the courtesy car's availability to go into town for dinner. Jackson Square Grill lived up to its reviews of have good food and drink. We caught the end of the Vols / Bama game - WOW, it was a big deal, we got wrapped up in the excitement pretty quickly!
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| Columbus @ Sunrise |
- The crew of Priorities (Californian) called the lock at 6:30 a.m., together with Bella Rumore (450 Carver), the 3 of us tied up in (#8) Columbus/Stennis Lock (mm334.7) at 7: 00 a.m. for a 27' descent.
- By 8:30 a.m. the crockpot was full of chicken and rice.
- 28 miles downstream (#9) Bevill Lock (mm307) was waiting to take us down another 27'. We started to notice the Fall colors were reverting back to green as we continue south, but the sea birds are plentiful, and the scenery is gorgeous - fair tradeoff. This leg also featured some Looper landmarks: phonebooth, Deer Trophy Cabin and cliffs of Epes.
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| White Cliffs of Epes |
- On the downside, the pesky invasive Salvinia plants are floating around, we expect to see this increase into large islands as we continue south.
- The Bears played on Thursday, so we listened to the Jets beat up on the Packers - YAY!
- Our targeted anchorage at mm287 was on our starboard at 1:00 p.m., so we decided to keep going. Bella Rumore went about another 10 miles before going to anchor. Priorities radioed that they were going to try to make the next lock and then anchor below. That sounded like a good plan, so we kept following them.
- 41 miles brought us to (#10 Heflin Lock) for a quick 36' descent. Tombigbee Oxbow was immediately to our starboard after exiting the lock. We followed Priorities in about a 1/4 mile off the channel. By 3:30 we dropped the anchor and dug into the chicken & rice that was cooking all afternoon.
Mon, Oct. 17 - Tombigbee Oxbow to Rattlesnake Bend (mm223) (38nm) - Priorities left the anchorage at first light with the intention of getting to Demopolis. We held back until around 9:30 for our 40-mile cruise.
- MM243 was our first gator sighting! I wasn't able to get a pic, have to take my word for it.
- MM225 showed glimpses of tropical palm foliage! Ironically, this also marked the half-way point of the TenTom! 225 miles until Mobile Bay.
Tues/Wed, Oct. 18-19 - Rattlesnake to Kingfisher Bay Marina, Demopolis, AL (mm216) (7nm). We woke to a frigid 40 degrees - YIKES. Brian got the genny going to get us some heat, because I wasn't crawling from under the blanket!
- At noon we arrived at Kingfisher Yacht Basin (mm216) to find Last Item on the fuel dock. We made a healthy fuel purchase and found our slip for the next 2 nights, while we wait for the temps to go up. We were reunited with FJAKA, Riverbend, Bella Rumore, KARL, and Navigator too!
- Brian had some maintenance - let's be honest, it's an ongoing task, but today he's changing oil filters and working on the windless because it's reluctant to pull the anchor without human intervention - kind of defeating its purpose.
- On Wednesday, I took advantage of the first-class laundry facilities at Kingfisher. The property's sprawl allowed a nice 3-mile run on flat but gravely terrain. The cool temps really helped too.
- Wednesday night we used the courtesy car to go to "town" and have a delicious dinner at SVH Bistro.
- There's a long list of things I didn't anticipate on this trip, and when we returned from dinner, I discovered a BIG one. There was a HUGE cockroach on the counter - AHHHHHH! Brian
was out filling the water tank, so I tried to run the rascal down. I managed to chase it into the stateroom before it vanished. Next task - hunt for every exterminating product out there. - Next Leg: Tombigbee River 225 miles (and 2 more locks) to Mobile Bay.
Another Chartbook Completed!!
Miles: (208.6) 31.3, 19.8, 24.3, 28, 60.2, 38, 7
Locks: (10) Whitten, Montgomery, Rankin, Fulton, Wilkins, Amory, Aberdeen, Stennis, Bevill, Heflin,
Marinas: (3) Midway Marina, Columbus Marina (2 nights), Kingfisher (2 nights)
Anchorages: (4) Five Finger (2 nights), Canal Section Cutoff, Tombigbee Oxbow, Rattlesnake Bend
Loral, checking out your route down to Mobile, trying to make plans for our trip! Thanks for the details, so helpful!
ReplyDeleteGlad it's of some help. We enjoyed the anchorages along the way
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