Slightly delayed…
After spending the night at Grand Harbor and waking with a slight headache after the previous night’s beverages, it was time for my dad and I to say farewell to my mom and start heading down the river, with an emphasis on the down part. After my time on the river, I’ve decided that river life isn’t for me, unless I’m doing it with a full enclosure and 500 horsepower, but that is another story.
We departed Grand Harbor around 10am and made our way past our new friends at Lee Spry’s Boat Yard before continuing through the narrow cut that connects Pickwick lake and Bay Springs lake. I really enjoy Bay Springs, and if I had to choose a place to spend more time anchoring, it would be there. Both sides of the lake offer protected anchorages with beautiful sunsets and a plethora of wildlife. We pulled into an anchorage about 1 mile from the lock on the eastern shore. We were greeted by many birds in the trees nearby and a beautiful sunset over the calm water. It was chilly that night, and fortunately the heater that we had worked on the day before was still deciding to keep us warm. Thank goodness; I don’t do well with the cold. We woke to a frost covered deck and I skated to the bow to raise the anchor. We had hailed the lock on the marine radio before leaving our anchorage and we arrived to an open lock—all to ourselves. Our plan was to anchor outside of Smithville Marina that evening. I had stayed at the marina before, and, given our short stay, decided on just hooking it for the night. I spoke with new friends I met who stayed there and said that many improvements have been made which is great to hear. We had to travel through a total of 4 locks, but the day was uneventful other than quite a bit of debris in the water which we would find to be the norm for the remainder of the trip down the river, and making a corn row through the mud shoal in the middle of the channel. The ironic thing about it was I just turned the screen off on my tablet to save the battery. When I started it back up, I noticed multiple alerts for shoaling on that side of the channel. Can you say facepalm? No big deal, just back out of the mud and keep going.
We arrived at our anchorage with not much time before sunset. Despite the forecast, it was quite breezy. The anchor stuck well and we weren’t going anywhere. We slept well before awaking to start our travels to Columbus Marina. The lock was open for us when we arrived, and we waited for our friends on Saltie to join us locking through. Columbus is a nice marina and in a good location to restock on any items using the courtesy car. We were on a race to get to Demopolis before bad storms came through the area and, unfortunately, could only stay one evening.
The next day we departed and, unlike the last time I came through, didn’t run aground. If you have a deeper draft like me, hug the fuel dock as you come in and out of the marina. The lock master had the lock ready for us and we were joined by our friends aboard the tug Jack Robert. By this point, we were wondering if we would have debris in the water the entire way to Mobile as we coasted through a debris island in front of the lock. We found a beautiful anchorage that evening tucked far off the main channel and in front of a few nice houses. A bass boat approached as we set the anchor and informed us that they lived in the house directly behind us and that if we needed anything to come on over. We almost ended up taking them up on the offer when we started cooking and ran out of propane. We went to change the tank with our spare and noticed the crimped connector was leaking. Nothing a knife and hose clamps can’t fix and we were on our way to enjoying a platter of enchiladas. It was a beautiful evening and we ended up having a fabulous view of the sky that night.
The next day we made the 50 mile run to Demopolis. Demopolis is a nice place with nice amenities. We ended up spending 2 nights to allow the wicked thunderstorms rolling through the region the next day to pass. I’m glad we did this as we ended up getting pelted with dime-sized hail. We also needed a few more groceries and to refill our empty propane tank. After the torrential rain and storms, we were delighted when the rain stopped as we made the Demopolis lock. We entered with Jack Robert and another large power cruiser that quickly disappeared into the distance. I figured we would get a small speed bump from the rain but I wasn’t expecting the 2-2.5 knots that we were seeing. While we appreciated the extra push, we were not happy with the large amount of hazardous debris.
Between Demopolis and Mobile, there is little to choose from as far as good anchorages go. And the only “marina” along the way is Bobby’s Fish Camp. They do have fuel, but that’s about it. We decided to aim for a place called Bashi Creek, and it was probably one of the more memorable anchorages of the trip, and not necessarily for good reasons. There are two places to anchor here: either inside the narrow creek protected from the tows, or outside as close to the shore as possible directly across the river from the creek. Having dodged the flotsam and jetsam, we arrived at our anchorage. When we looked into the creek, we saw our friends Dee and Lee anchored and appearing comfortably set for the night. Once we made a closer pass, I noticed they were using a tree off their stern to help keep them positioned, or at least so I thought. Upon making a closer pass, we noticed that wasn’t the case; they’d been pushed up against the tree. Once we carefully got the Rocna set and stern anchor deployed to prevent us getting sucked into the passing tows, I radioed our friends to see how it was going. Apparently, they didn’t have as much luck finding good holding as we did. While their anchor initially set well, a few minutes later, mother nature had other plans and unearthed their massive anchor. The current in the creek wedged them against the tree off their stern making it impossible to point their bow around and motor away from the tree safely. I took the dinghy over to see if I could be of any help. After running a line to shore and taking some tension off the tree, Dee and Lee were able to cut off the worst part of the tree and decided to wait till morning for the current to hopefully decrease. As I was ready to power up to motor the dinghy back to the boat, I saw a yellow flashing light ahead in the pitch darkness. Darn, a tow beat me. I waited for the 600 ft tow to slowly pass and then waited a few minutes for the wicked turbulence from its massive propellors to subside before making my way through the darkness.
Once aboard, we started dinner when I noticed a down-bound tow on the AIS. When he was about 1 mile above the curve in the river, I hailed him on the radio; and he was glad I did. It was really reassuring when he told us, ” don’t worry I won’t hit you, but I’m probably going to get real close to get a bite in this corner”. The strong current was pushing him down the river at a good speed, and it takes skill to spin those behemoths around a corner that sharp. He said we should be good for the night at that location since there were not any other down bound tows scheduled for the night. The up- bound tows would see us a mile away on radar and by our 10 solar lights scattered around the boat at deck level.
After a surprisingly decent sleep we woke in a light layer of fog and the distant glow of our friends anchor light on the other side of the river. The current had subsided some and after some vhf radio talk we watched as they were able to safely free themselves from the tree. The fog was thick, but yet light enough to see our friends slowly put distance between us as we both barreled down the river thanks to a 2.5 knot current. We only had one more lock to travel through before arriving in Mobile. This also involved passing Bobby’s fish camp which i would have loved to have stopped in, but we were in a hurry to get to the bay before they started dumping more water than they already were at Coffeeville Dam. After locking through and verifying the water elevation with the lockmaster, the 2.5 knot current we were riding was much more apparent when we found ourselves powering our way through the turbulent waters rushing out of the flood gates and propelling us downstream at an impressive rate of speed.
Our initial plan was to anchor on the side of the river about halfway between the lock and mobile. After the previous night I would do just about anything to get out of the main channel. Right at the last second of losing contact with our friends on Jack Robert, they said they were going to continue on to the Alabama river cutoff. After running the numbers, I calculated that if the current kept up, we would arrive right at sunset. We decided if our original anchorage didn’t look appealing we would make the mad dash to the much more comfortable anchorage before darkness overtook the river. When we finally made it to anchorage number 1, there was no question that we needed to continue on. The current was howling and it appeared that there was considerably shoaling as a tree was semi-submerged where we would have planned on anchoring. Once we were about 1.5 hours out, we opened the throttle up a bit more to give us just a bit more time to anchor once we arrived with the setting sun. The Alabama cutoff is a nice little river (creek really) with a slight current to keep us pointed upriver: a nice change compared to the past 2 days. Just to be on the safe side, we set our stern anchor to avoid any chance of drifting into the trees only about 30 feet away. Once the darkness took over, I heard a whine coming from upstream. A minute later, two fishing boats came roaring by in the darkness passing rather closely in the narrow creek. After our fly-by, the evening was quiet, with an ominous fog floating above the water surface. We toasted to our accomplishment of making it the extra distance and ultimately putting us only one day away from arriving in Mobile Bay. With the heater doing its job of keeping us warm at night we fell asleep with the anticipation of being in civilization the next day.
Once again, we awoke to a thick fog covering the fast moving river just outside of our protected cutoff. Our friends on Jack Robert were only noticeable because of their running lights shining through the mist. We both hauled anchor at the same time. Their extra speed allowed them to have enough daylight to make Dog River before sunset. I figured it would be a little risky to try and make it that distance if we lost our current or ran into issues, and I always wanted to spend more time in downtown Mobile, Al so we decided to fork up the extra cash and spend the night at the convention center dock. The remaining portion of the river was uneventful, other than dodging the occasional submerged navigational buoy. The water level and current was driving these massive, steel buoys underwater which could make for a bad day on the water if you were to find one against your hull.
The lower section of the river has always been my favorite, maybe because it is close to the ocean? The swamp-like feeling and smell of the brackish water makes you feel like you are in the bayou; and then boom, just like that, you are in the middle of a busy shipping port with barges and ocean-going ships surrounding you. It makes you feel really small, especially after having spent weeks on the river. After eyeing up the AIS, I was glad to see the cruise ship in port was pulling away which would make our life easier getting to the convention center dock. It was quite comical tying up at the convention center. The cleats are designed for ships and large vessels and made my decent sized dock lines look like threads of twine. Once we were checked in with the security guard, we took a shower onboard (much needed) before going on a walk around town. While we were hoping to find a drinking establishment, we found that everything is pretty much closed until 5 pm. Problem was it was only 3 and we were thirsty from our travels. I happened to find a place that was open according to google maps; however, once we arrived at the location, we began to wonder if they would let us in. One of the reviews said it had a great view. Well, I guess so since it was on the 34th floor! We were a little hesitant when an individual walked in behind us and asked if we were going to Dauphin’s. He assured while the main restaurant was pricey, the bar had great happy hour deals, good drinks and friendly staff. Now that was starting to sound our style! I’m glad we took his advice and ended up spending a few hours celebrating and watching the changing colors of sunset over the bay. So, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend Dauphin’s for a great evening and amazing view of the bay. Afterwards, we made our way back to the boat to become the evening entertainment for the multiple duck boats passing by.
Leaving the last lock 
The view from Dauphin’s 
Our good friends aboard Jack Roberts
The next morning we slept in for the first day in a few weeks since we had no reason to rush getting to Dog River. We spent the morning sipping coffee as the warm sun heated the deck and watched the ships and tugs go in and out of the port just feet from us. Finally it was time to shove off and make our way through the busy port and to our next destination Dog River Marina. If you are in the Mobile bay area and looking for a place to keep your boat, this is the place. While the docks aren’t new, they are stable and have withstood the test of time. Plus the staff has always been helpful to me over the years. A warning though: If you draw more than 5.5 feet of draft, you may want to wait for high tide. The channel going in gets a little thin. After a pumpout and a traditional buying of a case of beer, we motored to our new home for the next few weeks as I would be leaving the boat here while I went back north for the holidays. We finally got to meet our friends again on Jack Robert for a final evening of wine and dinner. I had a bottle of wine onboard I was saving for when we hit saltwater again, and who better to share it with than the Bashi Creek Beavers.
We first planned to rent a car and drive back home. We then planned to use the courtesy car to pick up our car from the airport, but found it had sprung a coolant leak on the way. No big deal; one Uber later and we had our Nissan Frontier rental. After loading up our bags, we were heading back to the cold. What took us less than 12 hours to drive took almost 12 days traveling down the river by boat. While you may be able to get to places faster by car, some of life’s greatest memories are those not lived in fast forward but rather living every moment of life around you.
What a great adventure to share.
What about your next one? Where will that take you?
That’s really nice post. I appreciate your skills, Thanks for sharing.